Well, Christmas has passed. We struggled through the orange alert and got ourselves, our gifts, our car seat, and everything else to Atlanta to celebrate Reid's first Christmas. As you can see in this preview of a larger selection of Christmas pictures yet to come, young master Reid was in fine form, mugging for the camera and digging into a cute little toy that made strange noises and appeared to be a ladybug with a set of oversized keys dangling from her mouth.

Travelling with the baby is exactly what everyone imagines it must be like. When we boarded in Washington, we were lined up by the Airtran people at the front of the waiting area by the gate entrance, and our presence there along with about a half-dozen other kids and families, served as a chilling warning to those awaiting to join us in the place. Mercifully, Reid slept most of the way and the other children were surprisingly accomodating, largely allowing the trip to pass in peace.

Reid's gift bounty was granted him largely without comprehension, but he did help tear into packages and had a nice time testing the boundaries of our willingness to let him eat on paper and whatnot. (Note to pediatricians, etc: No actual paper was ingested. Just drooled on, gummed and then removed.) In this picture, he is helping me remove the wrapping from a snappy quartet of sleepers his mom bought him. Later, he wore one of the sleepers, having no idea that Santa brought it, or that it was different from anything else he has ever worn. He's 6 months old.

Okay, like I said, more pictures of Christmas in Atlanta, and then a followup batch of pictures from the pending arrival of my family to celebrate our week-deferred Christmas, are all forthcoming. Enjoy.