Well, I had a really just amazing Christmas holiday.

It started out a little shaky - Penny was sick the week before, and the doctor put her on antibiotics for a sinus infections - but then Saturday morning (one week before Christmas) she started to break out in a rash, and by mid-afternoon, she was miserably clawing at her face and ears, and generally being the Very Angry And Sad Baby.

The doctor had us take her off the antibiotic, and give her Benadryl for the rash and itching, but Penny was still kind of irritable for the whole weekend. By the time she went to bed Sunday, I was about ready to throw her in the ditch, but she woke up Monday in reasonable spirits. Just to be sure, since the rash was still faintly visible, I hauled her to the doctor.

That wound up being very late in the morning, because it had snowed the previous night, and the doctor's office was opening two hours late. But the doctor confirmed that the rash seemed to have been a reaction to the antibiotic, made a note on her chart not to give her that one again for a while, and then gave me the okay to take her to daycare.

So I didn't get much done during my first day off. But after I got back to the house, I made a batch of caramel-oatmeal cookies, and watched Spirited Away, which we've had for ages but not seen. That was very, very adorable, and a lovely relaxing afternoon.

Tuesday, I rolled up my sleeves and made cookies. I found this recipe for a sort of oatmeal/coconut/sugar cookie - it's hard to describe, but it turned out very tasty. I originally just made half a recipe, and it's a good thing, because I don't think all the dry ingredients for a full recipe would have fit in my mixer, much less been able to mix without winding up all over my floor.

So after I made the first bunch, I made another half-batch. I did, after all, have half a stick of Crisco sitting in my fridge that I'd never use for anything else, anyway. (Spot the rationalization in the previous sentence...)

After I made cookies, I had a couple of hours left before Matt and Penny were due home, so I settled in to watch Chocolat, another movie I've had for ages and ages but never gotten around to watching. That turned out to be really good, too, though it required a few kleenex.

By Wednesday, Penny was back to her usual cheerful self, so we took her down to Chesapeake to visit with K.T. and Jess. We exchanged cookies, and the girls seemed to have a lovely time playing.

K.T.'s Christmas cookies this year was in the Noah's Ark theme - a gingerbread ark, and a whole lot of variously-flavored animals. (There were more than are shown in the picture. Some animals were eaten before I got around to taking it.)

When Kevin got home from work, we all went out to eat, though that turned into a bit of a hiccup. Penny was obviously getting pretty tired - and the crankiness that goes along with it. I tried to distract her with the balloons - Applebee's gives balloons to young kids - but she coveted both hers and Jess's. She and Jess got into a wailing grabfest until we finally managed to pry one of the balloons out of Penny's hand and give it to Jess. And then Penny spent the rest of the meal pointing at Jess's balloon in silent demand. Matt wound up having to take her out of the restaurant while I finished my meal, and we escaped as fast as possible.

(Penny fell asleep on the way home, of course... Her balloon was still tightly clenched in her little fist.)

Thursday, we went over to my parents' house to visit with gathering family. My grandmother was of course thrilled to see Penny. She couldn't pick her up, but she played with her as much as she could.

My parents already had Penny's Christmas toys out for her to play with - a couple of bouncy balls, a Tonka dump truck, and a scooter. Penny seemed to thoroughly enjoy all of them. We also managed to get her to show off her burgeoning vocabulary for everyone. "Ball! Buh-bul!"

Of all my cousins, it was the youngest, David, who seemed the most taken with Penny. He asked Matt and I questions about raising her and how we handled various things, and generally seemed quite charmed by her. The older two mostly tiptoed around her like she might suddenly explode. I was given to understand that they'd had a bad experience at Thanksgiving with little kids, but honestly, I just don't think that either Craig or Meghan have much parental instinct. Maybe later they will, but not now.

I might add that Penny was not remotely explosive. She was, in fact, really, really fantastic for the whole holiday. She was generally in a great mood, full of mischief and fun and energy. She did occasionally fuss - what kid doesn't? - but it was easily-understood fussing, traceable to boredom (being left strapped into her chair at dinner so Matt and I could eat, even though she was done) or simple exhaustion.

Friday, Christmas Eve, we tried to mitigate the exhaustion by not going over to my parents' until after Penny'd had two decent naps. That worked much better - though a better-rested baby meant that she had even more energy. Thank goodness for grandparents!

But all that energy worked in our favor eventually - Penny slept until nearly seven Christmas morning. I'd woken up shortly after six, and though I was unable to get back to sleep, it felt nice to just snuggle under warm covers for half an hour or so, until my stiff back made me get up.

I put our presents around our little wooden tree, and set up Penny's easel from Matt's mom, and made a plate of cookies for us to have for breakfast, and just about when I'd finished that, Penny woke up.

We'd have let Matt sleep in a little more, but because my cousin Meghan and her boyfriend were planning to leave by noon, in order to get to his family in time for dinner, Mom wanted us at their house by nine. So he got up with Penny, and we had a few pre-present cookies while he checked his e-mail. (It should be noted that Penny was not excluded from the cookie-fest.)

Then we got down to the business of opening presents!

Then we headed over to my parents' again, for breakfast and then more presents! And here, I'd thought Penny had already gotten most of her presents, but no! There were more! (No one can resist buying presents for the baby!)

We took Penny home for a nap after that - my parents have a crib for her use, but their room is both slightly chilly and adjacent to the room where all the relatives were chatting.

(And honestly, it was good for my mood to be able to go someplace quiet for a while.)

Penny tricked us - despite being worn right down to the nub, she resisted going down for her nap until 4, which nearly made us late getting back to my folks' for dinner. Of course, nothing ever goes according to schedule there, either, so although we'd called to tell them not to wait for us, we walked through the door a good ten minutes before the meal was served.

Sunday, we'd planned to have my parents, brother and sister-in-law, and grandmother over for brunch, and to open presents that were just between the little group of us. It was a little after nine, and I was doing prep work in the kitchen and trying not to trip over Penny, when an unexpected movement caught my eye - snow falling outside the kitchen window.

Not quite a white Christmas, but pretty close! I was charmed, and continued to watch it as I worked.

By 10, there was a thin accumulation on the deck. The doorbell rang, and I thought perhaps my parents had arrived early - but no! It was the post office, delivering packages! (Working Sunday to catch up with the backlog, I guess...) At 10:15, my parents called to ask if the brunch was still on. I was confused - apparently my grandmother had heard from one of her friends that they were predicting up to eight inches!

It certainly didn't look like eight-inch snow to me, so I told my parents that the brunch was still on. My grandmother (who lives in Texas and is more nervous than most about weather) opted to stay home. Sam had come down with a cold, and decided to skip the brunch as well.

John arrived at about 10:45, and told us that it was in fact snowing much harder just south of us - it had taken him over an hour to make the drive to our place, a drive that usually takes 20-30 minutes. My parents arrived a little later, though, so we settled in for the festivities.

That was almost better than Christmas had been. Penny was, once again, charming and adorable. My brunch turned out to be very tasty, and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. (Much to Matt's disappointment, even Penny liked my eggs.)

Then we opened presents, and everyone seemed very satisfied with their hauls - I know I certainly was!

John and my folks decided not to linger. The snow had stopped around noon for us, but since it was so much worse down by them, we weren't about to argue. It was really about time for Penny to have a nap, anyway.

While Penny napped, Matt and I opened our boxes from Karen - more cool stuff! - and then sat around and relaxed. We had a pretty good afternoon, too, and Penny even spent unprecedented amounts of time playing by herself, with her blocks and new toys. That was really nice - curled up on the couch with a book, just looking up once in a while to check on her, instead of having to chase her all over the house.

Alas, we're back to work this week, but it's a short week - Friday is a holiday - and we're having dinner with K.T. and Kevin to celebrate the New Year (and exchange presents with them).

I don't usually like to list all my "loot" - it feels greedy, or childish, or both - but there are a couple of things that were wonderful enough I want to brag on them.

Matt got me (among other things) this ring - a möbius strip in silver, and I adore it.

And my aunt and uncle had made, for every adult in the family, a Chinese chop seal. The carving on the soapstone is my Chinese zodiac animal - the boar - and the name they chose for me is "Xi Mai", which translates to Beautiful Brook. (Brook -> Brooks. I'm not sure why they chose Mai for my personal name; everyone else got something more or less phonetically similar to their real name.)

--Liz