Excitement of the season

Posting pictures of Christmas almost seems too late at this point... but we were so busy doing things here that I haven't had much time for blogging. A few pics from Christmas day should suffice...

Scupper awaits the possibility of three loaves of freshly baked French bread. Seriously. He sat in the kitchen for at least an hour, hoping one would fall... or we'd be suckers enough to cut some and give it to him.
 
 Mommy seems surprisingly happy in this shot. Not sure why. It was 7am.

 The hit of the morning? Goldfish crackers in Stella's stocking.

 A new puppet becomes a fast friend

 Pensive reindeer.

With Steve home almost the whole time between Christmas and New Year's, we tried to get out of the house and explore. Since that usually means anywhere we can take the WHOLE family, we went on a few hikes. These are from the Mesa very near our house on Christmas Eve day. Stella was a little too excited about the mud puddles.

We also took a hike the day before New Year's Eve up through an area north of snooty Montecito called the Cold Springs Canyon trail. After the six straight days of rain, the "Cold Springs" were full and rushing, and waterfalls abounded.

 

Scupper got to try out his new Christmas present - a doggie day pack. We have wanted to get him one for awhile - and thanks to website clearance outlets, here it is. This time, we didn't fill it with much except for poo bags (just to get him used to it) but after a minute of wondering what the hey was on his back, he ignored it the rest of the hike. Next time, he's carrying water - but maybe not our snacks. ;)

 At the top of a VERY STEEP climb, where Mommy temporarily freaked out that she was going to dump herself and her daughter down the hill.

 But the view was worth it.

 Someone, however, did not make it back to the van awake.

I don't know if i have the energy right now to recap yet another camping fail.... or partial fail, but I'll get to that story soon.

And for those of you that read this blog and wonder, wow, those Germonskis slighted me this year and never sent me a holiday card. And theoretically, I guess you'd be right. This year's holiday postcard was a bit of a printing failure as well as a "get it in the mail in time" failure... but I do have a stack of postcards sitting here next to my desk with a cute picture of Stella on them... so at some point you'll get them... some evening when I actually have energy to address and stamp them... and at the rate we're going in 2011, I might as well save them for 2012.