Miriam's first Holiday Season

Miriam at 7 months

In all our holiday travels and the hustle and bustle that accompanied them, I fell behind on Miriam's monthly update. Also, part of me felt like six months was such a big milestone that it should stick around for a while, but nope, she just keeps growing at the speed of light.

We traveled to Colorado at the end of November for Thanksgiving. My parents' family of six now numbers nine plus their exchange student, and how sweet it was for us all to converge at their home for a weekend together. We also got to see much of our extended family and introduce some of them to Miriam for the first time.

The Bostrom clan at Thanksgiving

Returning to Boston, we set out to enjoy our first Christmastime in the city.  It was our first Christmas back in the States in two years. While we missed the lights and markets of France, we had plenty of festive fun including the Boston Pops children's concert and a cocktail party at the Harvard Faculty Club. We also decked our apartment with a charming little tree whose lights dazzled Miriam to no end.

We celebrated our own family Christmas the weekend before leaving for Portland so as not to haul all our presents across the country. Miriam was so wildly ecstatic over all the ribbons and wrappings that she wore herself out and had to open her presents in shifts. Really, she would have been completely satisfied had she just received wrapping paper and boxes, but we couldn't resist giving her her own tiny piano so her music genius can be performed on something her own size.



Our holiday saga continued as we flew all the way to the west coast to spend Christmas and New Year's with Zach's family in Portland, Oregon. It was good to be back in the mild and misty Northwest, and we spent a full two weeks relaxing and sharing good food and memories with lots of family.

Our little maestro's first recorded performance.

(Sorry, I don't know how to rotate the image)

Sharing Christmas secrets with Great-Grandpa

Christmas morning

Learning about African adventures with daddy

And now we breathe after the wonderful craziness of the last month and a half. We're slowly settling back into routine and hoping that 2012 is perhaps just a wee bit less crazy than 2011, wonderful as it was.