Christmas came to Cleveland this year. Which is different than most years as we have primarily been in Muskegon or Manistee, Michigan every year. With the new baby, we knew that we’d be unable to travel this year. Both of our families we’re kind enough to make the long trip from Michigan to Cleveland so that we would not have to spend Christmas alone.

Erika’s sister was here for 3 weeks and her parents were here for about a week. My parents made two different day trips down to see us. I could bore you to tears with all of the shenanigans that went on whilst they were visiting, but I’m pretty tired and I’ve got a lot of pictures to show. So, I’ll try to keep the babbling to a minimum.

We had the tree filled and cookies ready for Santa (eaten) before midnight. I didn’t sleep very well the night before. Not sure if it was the new baby, or the first real Christmas for Mira. I’ve gotta say that she really got it this year. She’s seen Santa several times and has watched about a million Christmas movies. So, I was so excited to see how she reacted and what happened when she came downstairs and saw the tree. I recorded the first minute or two of her reaction here:

Yes, Santa got her some pink fish. You may be wondering what our little 6 pound Luna was up to. Here, have a look for yourself. She was really active Christmas morning.

Luna taking it all in!

Back to Mira, she was really all business. Just keep giving her presents and she was just plowing through them. One after another…

Here's another one from Santa

On a whim, I had mentioned to Erika’s mother that Mira would really like an easel for Christmas. Honestly, it’s one the few things that she always seems to want to do at school. Grandma Cheryl (and Grandpa Mark) delivered and the “finger paints” were one of Mira’s first stops that day. Man she loves this thing:

Finger Paint City!

Back to Luna, she was still busy working her tail off in the living room on the couch…

So tired...

Cousin Darcy got some super cool work box thingy that Mira just called “The Zoo” Here they are playing together.

Mira and Darcy at work

And Luna was still hard at work on Grandpa Mark’s lap:

Lot's of work for Luna

Mira got some stuffed animals from her Auntie Margaret. The highlight had to be this pig that she called “Wilbur” and hasn’t stopped carrying around since Christmas. I’m serious, this pig is in her bed right now. And somewhere in the past few weeks, Mira has decided that she would like to exclusively eat/drink smoothies from this red cup. I’ve had to ration her smoothie drinking to one a day, but it’s all smiles when she gets it!

Smoothies and Wilbur

My parents showed up around noon with this massive present. Once we got it open I realized it was one of those amazing play kitchens. What I didn’t realize is that there was probably 200+ pieces that we would have to assemble for this kitchen. I’m not joking about 200+ pieces, that’s a very conservative estimate. I think there was 70+ screws alone. Here’s what I looked like for about 2 hours while I put that thing together:

"Some assembly required"

A final picture was taken of the finished product with our client and the project manager.

Finished product

Mira also got a bunch of play food from our friends in Chicago: Brenda, John, Sydney and Anika. Once Mira had that food in her kitchen, she was gone for the day. However, she did bring me a delicious orange smoothie at one point. This may be my favorite picture of Christmas…

Orange Smoothie?

And of course, by this time. Mark had gotten tired of watching Luna, since it’s such a tough job. Erika had to take over. It’s tough work taking care of maybe the easiest baby ever.

Still sleeping!

We feel so fortunate to have such great families and two amazing girls to watch grow up. It was an amazing Christmas and one I won’t soon forget. Luna is still quiet and super easy. Here’s another pic from just this evening of her and Erika engaged in their favorite pastime, napping!

So beautiful!

We’ve got 2+ inches of fresh snow on the ground and I’ve promised Mira some sledding tomorrow. Maybe I can get some pics tomorrow!