Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a wonderful visit with the families in Colorado this Christmas and wanted to share some photos with you.

Here's Kate with her great Gramie and Great Papa.


The Minnery fam and one of Riley's new Christmas presents.

The Luminati fam

Visiting Great Papa and Great Gramie at their place and look at Papa! 89 years old and he can still get down and boogie.

The Best!

I would like to take this time to brag about my wonderful husband. Jon has been traveling quite a bit lately. It's rough on everyone--especially him--as he has work piling up while he's gone, and lots to prepare for before he leaves. He went on his last trip this past Tuesday, and when I came down into the kitchen (where our computer is) I found this waiting for me. (Sorry, the color is a little strange.) Each time I saw it during his trip, it made me smile. You're the best, hubs!

Look at me grow!

We wanted to share more pictures of our sweet, growing girl.

She's done this ever since she was born. We always ask, "Do you have a question?"

Looking out at the first snow of the season:

Now she can find herself in the mirror.

And our recently acquired, most fun toy (yes, it does fill our kitchen):

Daddy's New Toy

For some time now, Jon has wanted a digital SLR camera. Did you know he almost went to college to major in photography? So, with the birth of Kate, Jon realized the advent of a great reason to purchase a new camera. He did some research, looked at some books, checked out online camera forums, gathered all his saved money from under the mattress and Volia! The new Pentax camera and lens arrived. Let me tell you he's in heaven. Seriously. The other day, we were at a coffee shop just reading while Kate snoozed in her car seat. Jon brought his new camera to the coffee shop to take pictures of our wee one and while doing so, he turned to me and said "I really like my new camera." It's wonderful for all...he gets to have fun fiddling with light stops, film speed (yes, even on a digital camera), raw data, depth of field, jpegs, histograms, red filters, etc. and we all get to enjoy the fabulous result of his anal creativity. Great job, honey!

Thanksgiving

The Luminatis spent thanksgiving at home for the first time, well ... ever. It was lots of fun for everyone. Jon started a new tradition of making Thai spring rolls w/ peanut butter Satay sauce for an appetizer during the older tradition of watching the Detroit Lions lose their Thanksgiving Day game. Jen whipped up a full size dinner for the fam, serving a tasty collection of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, and (of course) a few pies ... and yes there were just two adults at the table. From the picture above, however, you can already tell that Kate is eyeing Mom's turkey.
Here's a picture of Jen's gorgeous (and very tasty) cherry pie, a tradition since that first fateful Thanksgiving dinner in Colorado before Jen and Jon were even dating. Jen was determined to show Jon what he was missing (he was dating someone else at the time), and just happened to bring Jon's favorite dessert. Here's Kate happily showing off her Thanksgiving bib. She's such a careful eater she didn't even get any stains on it. That's more than we can say for her pants. They're all turning subtle shaded of brown due to the growing ferocity of Kate's digestive tract.