Woo hoo... 1st Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone is having a happy holiday season like we are. Sara is enjoying her first Christmas and has even grasped the concept of presents (read: fun paper to rip and put in my mouth!). The week before Christmas was quite hectic and busy with work for both Danette and I and the weekend and holiday are a very welcome respite... very welcome indeed.

Baking this year wasn't as extensive as usual, but not a real surprise given it has to be balanced with so many things... Made a batch of chocolate chip cookies a week ago, then the all important (to me at least) Sachertorte cookies on Saturday, followed by a raspberry-rhubarb pie and the coffee cake for x-mas morning on Sunday.


Saturday morning saw the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa D. from ND. Sara woke up from a well needed nap to visitors in the house. This welcome surprise in-turn confirmed another suspicion about Sara, stranger anxiety is starting... but she still warmed up relatively quickly and is super happy with her grandparents now. We had seen hints of separation anxiety earlier this month but that's been manageable thus far.

Anywho... we all needed some lunch, so we went and tried First Watch, a new breakfast/lunch only cafe nearby. We haven't done a lot of eating out lately, so it was fun, and Sara can now sit in a restaurant high-chair for a while and chew. (yes, she is chewing like no tomorrow... teeth must be getting close). There were lots of people to look at for Sara too... and watching people come and go from the kitchen was fun too. Then the baking and some chilling out.

(Other Sara updates: she is getting increasingly mobile... lots of scooting backwards on her knees as she tries to push up onto them so she can crawl... she is getting much better at this, in addition to the spinning and rolling and other creeping around)

Sunday (Christmas Eve Day) was a big one, especially for little Sara. Danette decided an the usual Sunday morning service would work better than x-mas eve later, so we sat in a church for an hour, and she did pretty well, and even helped with some of the singing!... She was pretty tired during all of this, but would not sleep due to all the interesting things to check out. She also had the "children's sermon" literally all to herself...

After a refreshing, though too short nap... We headed out for what has become our little clan's X-mas Eve Day Lunch tradition... SUSHI! So we headed to our place of choice, Shuhei, but closed not for the impending holiday, but because it was Sunday... then we tried not one, but two more sushi places with the same result... and ended up going to a Diner near the last sushi place, instead.... not exactly the same, but lunch nonetheless. Sara was even more tired at this point. But luckily, this place was near one of the coolest local toy stores, so Dad and Sara took a stroll... After lunch it was home for a nap for all but the baker while football played in the background... yeah, those Browns. Not long after the nap, we introduced Sara to how the other half lives... opening presents Christmas Eve (see pics below). We got some dinner in there and some playing too... but it was a long day, and it was soon time to get her in bed before Santa Claus came.

Sara, was just like any other kid on Christmas morning... she must have known it was x-mas morning and Santa had been here because she was up early (despite being so tired from the day before!) at 5:30 am. She ate and then we headed downstairs to see what was in the stockings. Sara is a pro at tearing the tissue paper.... and yes, like everyone else, she got socks from Santa too! Being up so early, she had a nap and we ate breakfast, then later we all opened another gift so that Sara could have a Christmas morning experience too.

Rest of the day was pretty typical... hangin' out, reading the paper, eating, talking on the phone. Danette and I even got to go to a movie, the new James Bond: Casino Royale. Definite a good Bond movie, and possibly the best chase scene I can remember in a Bond movie, possibly any movie... the fact that it was on foot was particularly cool. This was also the first movie that Danette and I had seen since before Sara was born.

Tonight we went to see that uniquely Cleveland lighting display at Nela Park, the headquarters of GE Lighting which is literally (though I didn't know it until a couple months ago). Apparently they also do the lighting for the National Christmas Tree and do a miniature (not that small though) version of it at the facility.

So all in all, a merry x-mas and still more to come. Grandma and Grandpa D. leave tomorrow evening, but the next day we see more grandparents and grand-aunts and have even more x-mas....

Happy Holidays!!!!!