Happy New Year!

New Year's is always an appropriate time to reflect on the past year while looking forward to the new one and this year is no exception.  As 2011, which was Mia's first full year, came to a close, we remembered all of the milestones she accomplished - sitting up, eating, crawling, talking, walking, and so many others - she grew into a little girl who is full of personality last year!  We are so grateful for everything 2011 has given us and are excited to see what 2012 will bring!

Since Mia goes to bed at 7 (another big change from last New Year's Eve, which still included a midnight and 2am feeding!), we had a little daytime New Year's celebration at our house with her friends from playgroup - of course they had no idea what we were celebrating, but they loved the party horns and food anyways!

We wish everyone a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2012!

Merry Christmas!

As anticipated by her excitement leading up to the holiday, Christmas was such a special day for Mia this year!  We started celebrating the holiday on Christmas Eve with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Sean, where Mia had fun visiting with everyone and opening presents.  When we drove back to our house, Mia loved looking at the luminaries lining our streets in preparation for Santa's arrival! 

When she woke up Christmas morning and went into the living room, she froze for a moment when she saw her new play kitchen and toy piano under the tree and then exclaimed "Wow!"  In fact, Mia walked around all morning saying "Wow!" as she opened new presents and as snowflakes started falling outside, too (it was perfect!)  Grammy, Poppy, Auntie Theresa, Uncle Joseph, Auntie Tanya and Uncle Frank also stopped by that morning to share Christmas breakfast and celebrate together, and then the three of us headed over to Nana's house for Christmas dinner.  Mia enjoyed Nana's escarole soup, raviolis and Italian cookies and loved visiting with everyone (and of course opening fun new presents!)  It was a truly magical holiday this year - Merry Christmas!