First Christmas!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE DOWNINGS! We celebrated Elizabeth's first Christmas in Wisconsin with the whole Wawiorka clan - all 23 of us were together and there was good news in abundance! AnnCatherine's cousin Adrien proposed to his girlfriend, Toni, on Dec 20th and cousin Carmaine announced her engagement to Troy during the sign of peace at mass on Christmas Eve! What blessings - a new baby and two new engagements in the same year. The family comes from literally coast-to-coast (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Minnesota, Indiana, California and Wisconsin) which makes these few days a year so precious. As always, we have an overabundance of good food (which has made losing baby weight a bit of an impossibility!) and plenty of laughs. Elizabeth also had the chance to meet Santa Claus for the first time - and they got along very well! I have a feeling he will make many return visits...

Elizabeth's Baptism Day!

December 7th was a truly special day for our family - Elizabeth was baptized! We had a private baptism at our parish, Christ the King, and a luncheon at our home after church to celebrate. Godmother Lisa and Godfather Matt made the day extra special - we are so blessed that they have taken on this special role for our little girl! Elizabeth was truly an angel throughout - but her eyes did get quite wide when Father Tony poured the water on her forehead. Elizabeth also became the 7th person to wear the Wawiorka family baptismal gown handtatted by AnnCatherine's Great Aunt Bessie. It was wonderful to have her there with us in spirit and in handiwork. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this such a special day!

Hangin' with the Van Lones

We were so excited to see many of the Van Lone clan at a little get together at Grandpa Dave and Grandma Ruth's house. We all ate chili and had time to visit and introduce Elizabeth to her cousins and Great Aunt. Her cousin Hanna even had a chance to hold her... By the time the Van Lone reunion comes around this summer, Elizabeth might even be crawling!

New Pics of Elizabeth Posted

We have updated our online photos of Elizabeth. You can check them out by clicking on the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jdowning782/ElizabethMaryDowning?authkey=VDS6wu9cqxA#

Since Google's Picasa online doesn't seem to permit subfolders, I moved the older photos to an archive folder, so the link above should always contain current photos.

Hope the Christmas season is going well for you and yours.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit...

HAPPY ST. NICHOLAS DAY!! We are slowly getting our Christmas decorations out - which takes a bit longer with an infant in the house. However, Elizabeth was able to help with putting the ornaments on the tree last night. While this whole Christmas thing doesn't quite register with her yet, she does enjoy staring at the lights from the tree... We hope all of you are getting in the holiday spirit and enjoying the season like we are!