Baby Gallory

Mom is a serious Christmas fanatic, so we get and decorate our tree as soon as at all decent - during the Thanksgiving weekend. Julian participated this year - first he helped dump on the floor... I mean unpack the ornaments from our Gallo Christmas Box and then he put up the first ornament, a Tigger - in his own honor.

I'll just follow him, he seems to know where he is going... ...I don't know about this thing, it looks kinda lame... ... Umm, Uncle Dave? I think we can do better... ....Told ya!!!... ...Now that's what I'm talking about!!!... ....OK, OK, OK, OK, here we go!!!!!.... ... Whaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!!! Uncle Dave flew in, and Aaron, Sydney and Anne Marie joined us as well. We cooked, we ate, we talked, and a great time was had by all...

There is a surprising shortage of Tomato costumes these days. We had to do Pumpkin instead, but what a Pumpkin it was! According to Nona, all kids in the family were Pumpkins for their second Halloween...

It is amazing how much activity one can pack into one day when one has attention span of 3 minutes!!! We celebrated Jules' big day on October 21, as babcia Hania and dziadek Andrzej had to leave midday on the 22nd. Activities included taking all of the toys out of the toybox, and presenting them to the crowd one by one, reading ALL of the books, some upside down, but no matter, trip to the Farm, and an all-inclusive trip to the playground. It was all crowned by a feast of gargantuan proportions. Happy Birthday, Baby Jules!

Julian's First Birthday celebrations lasted an entire weekend. Nona flew in on Thursday night, just in time to go with us to one of the nearby cider mills to get some apples, cider, pumpkin, and a mandatory hay ride for Jules on Friday. Weigh the Pumpkin... ...and the Baby... ...get ready for the hay ride... ....and whooo-weee we go!!!

Thanks to our pals Paul and Amber, we were able to rent a cottage in Glen Arbor, MI for not too awfully much money. We went there during the week, and as soon as the official tourist season ended, thus we had great weather, but no crowds. Glen Arbor is one of the small towns on Lake Michigan, filled with unique places to eat, a bookstore, a bakery, a pharmacy, a grocery store, few b&b's, a tea shop, a coffee house, and a few crazy art/souvenir shops. I actually think I didn't miss anything. We slept, cooked, took walks, watched movies, and, of course, watched Julian, who on a bad day beats the best movie. His favorite activity was hanging out in the pot cabinet in the (fully equipped) kitchen. Eating sand came as close second. Getting a first haircut did NOT make the "fun" list at all, though Jules managed to be civil for a whole 5 minutes...