Happy Holidays from the Shapiros

 
As the Shapiro family tries to recover from the holidays, I thought it would be a good time to give you an extra long update. This Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving that John and I (and Katy) hosted at our house! We had a pretty good turnout and a *lot* of food. We ended up roasting two turkeys to make sure everyone got to take home leftovers for turkey sandwiches and what not.

The end of the year brought with it a lot of new projects to work on, both in illustration and sewing/crafting. Getting started as a freelance artist has been difficult, but the last couple of months were met with a good bit of success. As we continue to set new traditions and grow our family, I made Christmas place settings.

John finished out his semester and is now getting to spend more time at home during his winter break. He's narrowed down his future specialties to either ENT or Ob/Gyn. He really loves doing both, so I think he'll be happy wherever he ends up. I don't really have a lot of pictures to post of him, but we all know you're really just here for the Katy pictures anyway.

Katy's personality, motor skills, and communication skills have been developing in leaps and bounds over the last few months. It's been exciting to see her go, and exhausting to try to keep up. She is growing into quite the little explorer. We think she has a very inquisitive, spirited, and gracious personality. She also hams it up when she finds herself an audience, and excitedly points out any dog she sees. She can now climb up and down stairs without assistance, climb onto toddler chairs and the couch, walk really fast (very nearly true running!), and also get distracted while doing each of those things.

Our Christmas was busy, but really wonderful. The long awaited meeting of the cousins took place on Christmas Eve when Katy and Claire faced off in an epic battle for cutest toddler (it was a draw). Then Christmas Day, they worked their way slowly through a mountain of presents. If I tried to list all the awesome presents Katy got from her amazing family, this post would never be finished. Suffice it to say that every day since has been a roller coaster of excited overstimulation and long recovery naps. Katy likes the toys too.

New Years celebration is going to be spent at home at a much slower pace (phew). We have a tradition of making hot wings for New Years, so we'll be continuing that. The rest of the time, we'll just be relaxing and enjoying time as a family.

As we take stock of the year, we want to thank our families and friends for all the love and support over the year! We love you all, and hope 2016 is just as much fun!