Grandma Haag

A cute picture I found of Reese and Grandma Haag on Thanksgiving. Reese just loves her grandma!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend. Reese and I took a mini vacation to Austin, and spent 4 days at Grandma & Grandpa Cipra's house. Reese loved playing with all their toys! Daddy, Uncle Brian, Jack, Becky, and Lauren joined us for a feast on Thanksgiving day.

Then on Sunday, we celebrated with the Haags at the lake. Here's a cute picture of the adorable Haag grandchildren. What a bunch of sweeties!

Charlie Awards

I had a very busy day because General Mills was a presenting sponsor at the Charlie Awards. This was the first Charlie Awards to recognize exceptional contributions to the Twin Cities food and restaurant industry. My role was:
- At the pre-party, host a banana bread contest with culinary students
- At the award ceremony, present the award for Best Innovation to Reduce Food Waste in front of 700 people. As award presenter, I kept very good company with the likes of Andrew Zimmern, Mayor RT Rybak and Robyn Robinson
- At the post-party, promote the Betty Crocker Red Hot Holiday Trends campaign

It was a fun experience and a great event, but I'm glad it's over!

First Snow

It snowed for the first time this year, and Reese was very excited. She put on her new coat (I just love her coat because it reminds me of a bell) and boots, and went outside to make tracks and catch snowflakes. Cutie!

Reese and Belly

Some cute pictures of Reese loving up her little sister.

Poser

Just a cute picture of Reese posing. She looks like such a big girl!

Christmas Pictures

Thanks to our friend Erika for taking Reese's picture today. Here's a sample of a photo that did not make the Christmas card. I know, this picture is adorable -- just wait until you see the pictures that did make it onto the card! Thanks, Erika!

Girl Lovey

Reese decided this morning that her Lovey is a girl. We have always referred to it as "him" (not sure why we decided that), but today she made up her mind that Lovey is a girl. So, we put a pink ribbon in Lovey's ear and Reese squeeled with delight.

Jackie

Reese has been taking a Music Together class for over a year now. She goes with Grandma Cipra every Tuesday, and just loves her music teacher Jackie. Whenever she sees a musical instrument in a book, Reese comments that "Jackie would like that." Whenever we start a new class like swimming lessons or gym class, she asks if Jackie is going to be her teacher, then is a disappointed when Jackie does not walk in the door.

Sophisticated Conversation

Reese's conversations are starting to be more and more sophisticated. Today she was playing with Daddy, got frustrated with him, and said, "You must not have heard about the legend." No idea where that came from. Perhaps a Scooby Doo show she watched recently, but I don't remember that line. She then continued the conversation saying that she was "bewildered." Where does she hear these things? She seems to be using these words/phrases correctly. Crazy girl.

Giving

Tis the season for giving (although we should strive to give back all year), and I decided it's time to start teaching Reese about the act of giving to others. We are participating in Operation Christmas Child where you fill a shoe box full of gifts for a child less fortunate. We headed to Target and explainedt the concept to Reese. She seemed to grasp it and had a great time running around the store picking up items for "the little girl." She would tell me in each aisle "I think the little girl would like this!" then throw it in the cart. We ended up with quite a collection of things - toothbrush, toothpaste, hat & mittens, books, and toys from the dollar section. I wanted to include one higher priced item, so we headed to the toy aisle where Reese picked out a Fur Real puppy.

I thought Reese would have a hard time with not being able to keep the items (especially the puppy), but she did just fine. She had fun packing up the box and completing a little note about herself. When Daddy got home, she was excited to tell him, "Look at all the stuff we got for the little girl!" Although I must admit, Reese was a little excited that two of the items did not fit into the box, so she got to keep the bubble bath and foam soap.

Altogether a great first experience with giving!