One of these days we'll be all caught up, and I'll be better about getting posts done on time. One day...
So instead of promising that that day will come soon, I will just overwhelm you with pictures in this post so that by the end of it, you'll have totally forgotten that it is oh-so-late.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours. 
We have 2 dogs and a child who crawls/pulls up/gets into everything. 'No problem' I thought, we'll just use this fancy gate thing to protect the tree and all of our ornaments. While it DID protect the tree from the baby and the dogs, I can't say that it helped protect the tree from ME. Oh well, what is one broken ornament thanks to a rogue jacket sleeve...
See... we have pretty ornaments. (This is NOT the one that got broken.)
Christmas morning: "look a bow"
"Dad, you aren't opening it fast enough. Here, I'll help"
"A present for ME?"
I love that serious face. Forget the presents, she just wanted the bows. Yeah, we figured that would be the case.
While Sydney may have been too little to wake up early all excited for Christmas morning, Dan and I were NOT. Yeah, we ate breakfast and exchanged our presents before Little Miss woke up. No pictures of that though, because kiddo here is way more exciting than Dan and I. :)
Standing up and trying to open the box all by herself. We have a very independent child on our hands. (Please note the tongue. She's concentrating.)
Again, forget what is in the box. She'll just eat it. 
Daddy got Sydney a bracelet. She REALLY wanted to hold it.
After opening presents, we took a break to play with the curtain and mommy's crocs...
...and read Christmas stories with Daddy.After her morning nap, we headed over to Dan's parent's house in Marietta. We were able to hang out and eat some lunch with his parents, Ben, Angela and Joshua. Then the little ones took a nap and the 'big kids' opened presents.
Sydney helped by holding the bow.And yes, it is Christmas and freezing cold outside and she is not wearing socks. She hates socks.
Playing with her new toys.
Checking out Joshua's new toys.
This is Dan's parent's dog, Jessie. I think she still may be adjusting to having little ones around these days. She's a sweetie and puts up with a lot, as is evidenced below. As such, she deserves a little blog-love.
See, I told you. 
Dan in the wintry mix. This was early in the day before it turned to snow and we got 2+ inches. I can't believe Sydney's first Christmas was a white Christmas. Maybe she'll get another one when she is big enough to enjoy it :)
After a nap at MAEMAE's and Grampie's, we headed over to my parent's for the evening.
Yup - 2 video cameras. Funny what having a little one will do.
Sydney liked her new toy so much that she wouldn't put it down to eat. Shortly after this, Sydney melted down. Poor thing was a bit overstimulated. And teething. Turns out our little one must have been singing "all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" because we now have both middle bottom teeth. One broke through just before Christmas and the other, right after. Wooo-hooo, those were a long time coming!
No picture of the teeth. We can't seem to sit still long enough for that. I'll keep trying.
Sometimes we get stuck underneath our toys (and sometimes we manage to bust out of our pjs and crawl around with only 1 leg still in our pajamas). 
"Helping" mommy find a CD of Christmas Music.
