It's coming on Christmas . . . *

I Love December. 

L-o-v-e December.

My birthday is Dec. 19---same week as Christmas.  While this sometimes brings birthday sympathy ("Did you feel like you got shortchanged because everyone's busy with Christmas-y stuff?"), I love it!  I love that my birthday falls right during the time when everyone is decorating, listening to carols, wrapping presents, drinking hot chocolate . . . it's like everyone (everyone who wants to, anyway) has stars in their eyes.  And snow!  There's always the possibility of snow, too!  I'll leave my feelings about snow for some other time, because I could fill a few pages with them.

Anyway, in honor of our entry into December (and Hanukkah, too!  Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!) I bring to you Maya's First Holiday Card.  This was Dec. 2008, she was 6 months old :

Yes, I really put her in a pot.  Yes, it was really on the stove.  She couldn't move, the burners weren't on, and she was (clearly) having fun.  So don't hate mail me.

We have a bit of a holiday card obsession.  This is the one from 2008 . . . in a few days I'll put up the one from 2009, and then this year's card (it's a good one---some folks will have them arriving in mailboxes this week!)

In other EXTREMELY EXCITING news . . . guess what arrived today?!?!?!?

Did you guess?

That, my friends, is our handicap parking permit  (and the champagne that we are currently celebrating with)!

If you're not a New Yorker, you might not fully understand the wonder of this thing . . . it's not like "I can get a closer spot at the grocery store". 

Instead, it means that I don't have to carry Maya out to the car to move it for street cleaning.  It means that instead of leaving for feeding therapy 1 hour and 15 minutes early to allow for parking time, we can leave 25 minutes early and just grab a "no parking" spot close to the building.  It means that as Maya starts walking more, I'll be able to park close enough to places to actually allow her the chance to practice walking, rather than tossing her in a stroller all the time.  It means that (hopefully) my arm, neck, hip, and back won't hurt as much from having to carry her everywhere.

It's a game changer. 

It was a pain in the butt to get (an 8 month process, which included having to get Maya a license, and resubmitting forms because they couldn't read the doctor's signature---really?) but in the end, we were victorious :)