Merry Christmas!

We had a great day today. It was so fun to see Christmas through Emma's eyes. Emma woke up this morning to find that Santa had come to our house last night. She must have been a very good girl because there were a lot of presents under the tree!

Emma's first big surprise was a rocking horse from Grandpa and Grandma

She also got a kitchen set from Mommy and Daddy

She then checked out what was in her stocking

a train!

After stockings, Emma had a breakfast treat; Donuts!

We had a little time for some "Reindeer Games"

and then it was time to open presents. Emma loved all the gifts she opened. She liked some of the ones daddy got too!

A new purse from nana and g-pa

Funny toys from Japan from Uncle Scott

What is that?

Daddy, is that you?

Emma is curious about the light on Daddy's head

Emma checks out a puzzle from Aunt Connie and Uncle Brad

Emma liked Daddy's present from Uncle Scott
After presents, we had a relaxing afternoon of naps and walks and then we had a big Christmas Dinner! Emma is now sleeping with visions of Sugarplums dancing in her head!

Christmas Eve

We had a relaxing Christmas eve with Grandpa and Grandma McCloskey Here. Emma and daddy did some early morning last minute shopping and we got dressed up and attended out church's Christmas eve service. With everyone dressed up, we had to take some pictures!

From Christmas 2007

Emma and Daddy say cheese!

Hangin' out with Grandma

Emma got her own Nativity this year

Out family

With Grandpa and Grandma

All of us

Cookies and milk

Emma and I made cookies for Christmas. Yesterday we went to Daddy's work and share some with his coworkers.

Later, Emma decided to taste test her creations with some milk!


Yum Yum!

Cookies and milk

Our Gingerbread house

Emma and I had a good time decorating our Gingerbread house. She Was especially good at putting the candy on the roof! Unfortunately, the roof is the most decorated part because "Earthquake Emma" hit and the walls came tumbling down! Daddy fixed everything, but the rest of the house did not get many decorations!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Last Saturday we made our way into the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Christmas Tree farm to choose our tree. We have gone and Chopped down our tree for the last three years, but in Virginia the Christmas tree farms are a little more tame. In California, the tree farm was pretty much on the side of a mountain and the tree weren't really "planted" they just grow wild.

Virginia tree farm:

From Christmas tre...

California Tree Farm:

We had a good time looking for our tree. Here are a few pictures of our adventure:

We found our tree!

Daddy pulls it up the hill

On the car ready to go
Emma has also changed a lot in a year!
Emma last year:

Emma this year:

We got our tree home and Emma had a great time decorating after Daddy made a few adjustments:

A little too tall

Emma Decorates


The tree is done! Time for some "Hanging Around"!

We have been Elfed!

Has everybody tried to elf themselves this year? Here is out final product of the McCloskey Elf Family! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1403627266 . To elf yourself, go to http://www.elfyourself.com. Merry Christmas!

Our Long Weekend in Southern California

Daddy had some time off because he has been working so much, so we took a quick trip to Southern California to see some of the sights. On Saturday we drove down to Los Angeles and walked around Hollywood.
We went to the famous Chinese Theatre

From San Diego Trip

Walked down the street to see the Stars on the walk of Fame

Saw the Hollywood Sign in the Distance

And visited Universal Studios

Emma even got to visit with Santa

We stayed right next to the Santa Monica Pier

The next day, we drove down to San Diego and spent some time at the beach in La Jolla



Emma loved chasing the Sea Gulls




On Monday, We made our way to Sea World. Emma loved seeing all the animals, but some of her favorites were:
The otters,

The dolphins (we got to feed them!)


The Ducks and flamingos

And Shamu the whale

On Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo and saw even more animals
Emma and the Goats

The Pandas

The Monkeys

And the Elephants

That night we took some holiday pictures at our resort



We had a long drive back today. Emma did a great job in the car and only got upset the last 20 minutes of the trip. I think Daddy and I can recite the entire Raffi CD by heart now though! We had a great time on our quick get away! (If you would like to see more of the pictures from our trip, click on the first picture of the post)