The children had a wonderful Christmas!!! Of course mom and dad are now broke but it's worth it. Gianna asked me if Santa was coming again when she woke up the day after Christmas(lol). Gianna loves to open up things, especially with small pieces, and dump them all over. Plus she is not the best at cleaning up. So right now it looks like Toys R Us exploded in our living room. Her favorite toys she received was her Wiggles video and a tea set

that changes color when you put liquids in the little cups. We had many tea parties yesterday. I am trying to encourage pretend play and I think the tea set was a big hit! Now we are just chilling out at home, enjoying spending time together, and eating,eating, eating. Tom has been off all week also so it has been nice to just be together. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Happy New Year to all!!!!!!!!!!

On Sunday we went to the annual holiday party sponsored by Variety. The party was held at The Crystal Tea Room downtown(fancy shmancy) .I cannot say enough wonderful things about the experience. Everyone was so kind and treated all of the children like little kings and queens. Gianna had a blast. There was a DJ,Elmo,Cookie Monster,clowns(Gianna was afraid of them), and a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus. There was a wonderful lady there who made knit caps for children who lost their hair while going through chemotherapy. She made hats for all of the children there. It was truly a magical and memorable day for my little princess. We also walked through Macy's,which was beautifully decorated for the holidays, and saw the Holiday Light Show. Kudos to Variety Philadelphia!! Here Gianna is with some new friends she met after getting their new knit caps. Each child also was assigned two escorts. Monique and Jade were Gianna's and they were so wonderful.

Gianna was in love with Santa. She was batting her eyelashes, talking very low, and kept smiling at him and looking away. It was so darn cute! She did manage to tell him she would like some toys. He gave her a taffy and she was so happy. I rarely see her act that way. She is usually not shy-except around her buddy Erik (my niece's husband) Gianna absolutely adores Erik and talks about him constantly.

Tommy would not even come along with us. He said, "Mom, everybody knows that's not the real Santa". So I just took Gigi. We shopped, rode the merry-go-round, and ate lunch. We had a nice mommy-daughter day out. These are the days I wish I was a stay at home mom!

Happy Holidays to all!!!!!!!!!!