We left Cleveland on Monday, December 22nd. Our final destination for that day was Muskegon (Erika’s parent’s house). On the way we made a stop in Ann Arbor to see the Grigg family. They have been my 2nd family since high school as I’ve been best friends with Matt Grigg for as long as I’d care to remember. Matt lives in San Francisco and recently got married this summer (yes, I was the best man).

So, as Matt only gets home once or twice a year, we always make it a point to get to wherever Matt is when he’s back visiting family. Monday, it was at his sister Merry’s house. We actually got a late invite from Merry’s husband (Rick) to goto the U of M basketball game. Mira was just about cooked and we knew that we still had a long drive ahead of us (3 hours to get to Muskegon).

It was great to see Matt and Lisa, they are a wonderful couple. Ah, to be newleyweds again. As of my writing this, Erika and I have been together for 13 years (married for 6). It’s amazing how quickly time goes by. We stayed too long in Ann Arbor (but it still wasn’t enough).

The road to Muskegon was crazy. Lots of snow and ice on the road. Once we drove through Grand Rapids (about an hour from Muskegon), we started to notice a lot more snow. And sure enough it got worse as we got closer to the Steinberg house. There must have been close to 2 feet of snow when we arrived. Crazy! We didn’t even have an inch in Cleveland when we left!

2 days in Muskegon allowed us to see a ton more snow (probably another foot). We visited with Jamie and Less Marine on Tuesday night. Jamie is Erika’s version of Matt Grigg. She’s lucky enough to be able to see her much more as Jamie lives in Michigan. But still, one evening is never enough.

We took off for Manistee to stay with Erika’s grandmother on Wednesday. The roads were just insane on the drive up. Erika’s parents, driving separately, were behind us. By the time Erika’s mother got about half way there, they had shut down the highway. It took Cheryl 3 hours to make a 1 1/2 hour drive. You’ve gotta love Michigan winters.

Christmas in Manistee is this crazy firedrill that has us going all over the place. Highlights this year were:

• Christmas eve mass in a new church. Mira spent most of the time in the “kid” room with me. And she mistook one of the kids in the room for a little girl from her daycare in Cleveland, Poppy. She was screaming “Poppy! Poppy! Poppy!” So much so that the poor little girls father started calling her poppy to get Mira to be quiet, that girl of ours has one determined imagination.
• I had a lovely 5 mile run on the snowy streets of Manistee looking for the church. What that really means is that I went out to find the new church, promptly got lost and wound up wandering around in the snowy streets of Manistee for 5 miles looking for a church. Why wasn’t I running on the sidewalks? Apparently you can only move 3 feet of snow so many places. So in Manistee, runners and cars share the road in the winter.
• Manistee’s own polish sausage and homemade chicken noodle soup, a delicacy in Erika’s grandmother’s house.
• Whilst visiting the Fauble family (Erikas mothers side), Santa always visits. After the “Santa episode” from about a week ago, we didn’t really know how Mira would react. I must say that she was great though. Here’s a great shot of Erika, Mira and Santa in the lower level of the house Erika’s mom Cheryl grew up in:

Erika, Mira and Santa Christmas morning

Here’s another pic of Mira and her 2nd cousin Jayden with Santa. Yeah, she’s not particularly impressed. But at least she wasn’t screaming:

Mira, Santa and Jayden

Christmas evening Mira and I loaded up the car and heading back to Muskegon. Most of the women in Erika’s family go out shopping the day after Christmas as a tradition. We figured it would be better for Mira and I to get back to our home base where we had our own rooms and plenty of toys and places for Mira to play in. Of course, they shut down the highway on our way back and I was forced to navigate through back roads, where I may or may not have actually known where I was going. We eventually made it back to Muskegon 2 hours later (not too bad).

Mira got a ton of great presents. I think we’ll be traveling back to Cleveland with a lot more stuff than we left with.

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well! We’ve got more pics and stories that I’ll try to put another one up tomorrow also!