We are incredibly thankful for all of our blessings this year. Of course, Alexandra is the best gift we could ever have and her health and happiness is wonderful. We’re thankful for each other and the partnership we’ve built. We’re grateful for our wonderful families … both those of blood and those who are connected to us by friendship. As we enter the holiday season, we look forward to sharing all of the “first Festivus” moments.

With love and thanks for you in our lives,

Ian, Lara, Alexandra, Bo, Bugsy, Emma and Sam

Also, enjoy a video of the First Thanksgiving, courtesy of Grams:

From swim class on October 28th (took some time to post due to technical issues). Many thanks to Grams for the video editing!

Btw, for those of you who are curious, “Sasha” is the traditional Russian nickname for Alexander/Alexandra. Given her Russian heritage on my side, it’s one of the many nicknames we have for her.

As promised, pictures from the “Pacheco Babies” playdate on November 10th. Big thanks to our friend Niall for the fabulous shots!

Alex’s amazing baby blues.

Entranced by Jayana’s chair and mobile.

Babies! (Suspicious Mila, laid-back Jayana and propped-up Alexandra.)

Mommies!

Daddies!

Alex’s serious face.

Mmmm. Hand.

It’s official … I’m not going back to work at Fisher Investments. I had asked for a part-time (30 hours per week instead of the standard 50 hours). My VP tried, but it’s a no-go. Direct quote: “A 30 hour work week is not a possibility.  I hope that someday we will broadly have more flexible schedules, but right now we simply are not there.” I may go back for a few days when my leave is up in early December, just to close things out. I’ve also offered to consult, but all of that is still TBD.

So, I’m going to be home full-time with Miss Alexandra and I’m really (guiltily) happy about it. I’m so thankful that I get to stay home with her, though I do feel a bit weird not working (well, I’ll be working, but you know what I mean). The current thinking is that I’ll hang out my shingle as part of McCullough Productions & Consulting and see what sort of part-time consulting gigs I can get. In the short-term (i.e., through the holidays), though, I’m just enjoying the time with the munchkin.

As such, I’ve decided to get “calling cards” for when I meet other moms (this is apparently a tradition that’s come back into play), in addition to having my own set of fancy McCullough P&C cards. My current thinking is that I’ll use this on the ‘personal’ cards, though I’m open to suggestions for other titles:

Lara Dorjath McCullough
Alexandra’s Mom
Household COO & Co-President
Domestic Goddess

Finally, in other news, my Mac has been raised from the dead. Adorableness will be coming back soon.

Some fun pics of Alexander and her Sophie the Giraffe–excuse me, Sophie le Giraffe (taken on October 26th). (For the uninitiated  Sophie is VERY BIG these days. It’s French–if you ever have the chance, read the packaging. It’s genius. That said, even if it is trendy, kids seem to LOVE it–thanks again to Christine for ours!)

What’s this, Mommy?

OOOOH, this looks fun!

Alexandra focuses intently on Sophie.

Huh? What’s that you say?

The look on her face is just priceless.

You can almost hear her giggle in this picture. (Metaphorically speaking.)

And, some pics of her parents with an actual giraffe. These were taken at our friends Dave and Kat’s wedding back on September 15th. (They got married at the SF Zoo and during cocktail hour, we went to the giraffe house.) How cool is it that we got to pet a giraffe?!?

First, a pic of the bride and groom.

If I had known you could do this, we may have gotten married at the Zoo. That said, Los Gatos was definitely warmer.

The only shot of Ian with the giraffes.

How cool is this?!? (And, sidenote, got to re-wear the bridesmaid dress. Just had the front re-hemmed. Bonus!)