Christmas was very exciting this year. Avery loved all the decorations and Mom made an awesome advent calendar so we could have a treat for dessert every night. By the time the big day came, Avery couldn’t stand to wait any longer. We got up early and checked the tree to see if Santa came, then we had Skype calls with Nana and Papa and Amma and Papa as we opened presents.

Avery spent the rest of the day playing with her new toys, just as fast as Mom and I could put them together. Later in the day, I got my holiday wish… Mom was kind enough to take some photos of Avery and I in our makeshift photo studio.

We’re already looking forward to Christmas 2013.

Test driving her new potty

Opening presents

New “Big Girl” panties, worn on the outside of her pajamas. Apparently all the kids are doing this now.

New pajamas. Fortunately, the panties fit over these too.

Soloing on the drums.

Lucky Dad.

No one is more excited about this than Mom. The entire top floor of our house is covered in wreathes, garland, and lights. On Saturday night, we put up the Christmas tree and Avery pitched in with the decorating. Since then, she wakes up excited every day and admires her work, saying “Pretty” and “You like this Christmas tree?”

And of course we do. The next month will be a lot of fun.

Avery was a little put off by the finger paints – she didn’t like having her hands dirty after a minute or so – but she liked painting with brushes and coloring with the crayons and markers. We had a lot of fun. I think we’ll be posting more of these videos in the future.

Art – November 18 from Jeff Rivers on Vimeo.

Here are some photos of the festivities:

Another amazing year in the books. Thank you Avery. I love being your dad.

It was a little rainy, but we managed to visit maybe a half dozen houses on our street. Avery didn’t always remember to say “trick or treat”, but she had a lot of fun. Always the shy one, Avery wanted to go inside every house we visited.

Once the fun started, it was hard to get Avery to stand still for photos, but I managed a few before losing Avery’s interest – not that I could blame her.

To see how Avery’s grown and changed in the past year, check out this post from Halloween 2011.

Here’s a quick photo recap of the trip. You can click here for even more photos.

Playing in a bucket

The annual portrait with Nolan. What a difference a year makes.

Beach fun with Amma and Emily.

Covered in sand.

Papa catching Avery after she climbed up on the second story roof and jumped off. (Just kidding, Papa was tossing her in the air. She’ll probably jump off the roof next year.)

Playing music with Marc

Roaming the beach

Playing in the sand

Up to no good

Heading out into the water

Dad and Avery

Modeling her most patriotic outfit

Hanging out with Amma and Papa

The park has hiking trails, a pond full of geese and seagulls, picnic areas, playgrounds, and Keller Beach – a small patch of beach on San Francisco Bay. The water is warm and the waves are pretty mellow – just right for Avery.

On Sunday, we took Avery down to Point Richmond for lunch before heading to the beach and the park for a couple hours. For a while now, Avery’s had this love-hate thing going with lemons and limes. When our drinks arrived, Avery had to have our fruit, so I turned on the video camera and let her do her thing:

Then, off to the beach and the park:

Strolling the beach with Mom

Sitting in the surf

Peeing? Maybe. OK, probably.

Running

And running…

And sorta running…

Gathering rocks

The look you get when you say, “You can’t carry all those rocks.”