Recaps and Resolutions

Wow, I cannot believe it's been a year since I've posted on Ceci's blog.  First New Year resolution is to post more. Let's start with a recap of Christmas.  

Ceci and I decided last minute to drive to New York to surprise Gia, Papa and Big Gia before Christmas. We no sooner wrapped up a playdate when I turned to Ceci and asked, "what do you think about driving to New York to see Gia and Papa?" Two hours later we were in our car on our way to surprise the grandparents and boy were they surprised! It was a short two day visit, but well worth the drive. The picture to the left is of our "waitress" we had for breakfast one morning.

Ceci was hard at work trying to get her second front tooth to come out on our Christmas Eve drive back to Michigan.
The tooth fairy pays a bonus for kids who lose their two front teeth for Christmas so Ceci made a last ditch effort

to get the second tooth out. Only a couple hours from the home I hear a triumphant shout from the back seat, "Mommy, I got it!"  She made it just under the wire. 

Christmas morning was beautiful. Ceci, for the past few years, has taken her time opening presents. Every few presents she would stop to play with the toy or look through a book. It made for a relaxing morning. Ceci's favorite presents were her Squinkies and Flutterbye Fairy from Santa and the new fancy shoes from Mommy.  

Can I start?

Christmas wouldn't be complete without staying in our pajamas all day and playing with

Ceci's photo book

all of our new toys. One of us played, one of us read directions and assembled. Gia Mayville came to hang out with us for a while, while we played with our toys. We always love playing with our Gia Mayville and getting in a cuddle.

We love and miss all our family and friends and will be making plans to visit everyone soon!

December in Chi town

Ceci and I spent a long weekend in Chicago during the early part of December.  We had some great food and three great plays. All three plays were put on by our favorite theater group, Emerald City Theater.  Our first

play was Llama, Llama.  If you've read the books, you know the llama we're  talking about. This was Mommy's favorite show. The acting and costumes were fantastic.
This is Ceci's face when she realized we were having French crepes for dinner the first night. We had savory and sweet crepes. The sweet crepes were, of course, our favorites.
Our second show was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  This musical was based on the movie we all know and love, complete with Yukon Cornelius. The recreation was incredible. I would bet this was Ceci's favorite show for the weekend.  
As you can see from Ceci's smile, only three weeks before Christmas and she still had a smile full
of teeth.
Our last show was Rapunzel. This play was a reinterpretation of the classic story. It was funny and got a lot of laughs from us.

Ceci and I walked past this nail salon near our hostel a few times before stopping in. The gimmicky teddy bear chairs worked on this little girl's mommy.  This was Ceci's first time in a nail salon. While Mommy broke down and let Ceci get a pedicure, she wasn't ready for regular nail polish just yet.  It was a fun mother-daughter time to relax and get a foot massage after a long day of walking.
Our last night in Chicago, Ceci and I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo to see their Christmas lights.  It was more like a light spectacular.  It was super freezing cold, so we did the extra short, abbreviated tour of the lights before heading home but not before visiting Santa. Lucky for us it was the real Santa, not one of his elves dress up like Santa to help out. (Note to Lincoln Park Zoo: please don't put Santa in the cat house next year.  Waiting for Santa with the strong smell of male cats kind of kills the magical moment.)

    

Christmas Joy

As we were opening presents Christmas morning, Ceci was frantically finding her next present and the latest new gift was leaving her fingers and without missing a beat, "I love Jesus' birthday!"

Hmmm, don't know if I really drove home the point properly.....

Going to Paris

6 o'clock in the morning this is how far I am on Cecilia's Christmas present. I am redoing her room in Paris as requested. Not sure if you can tell the projected parts from the painted parts.

Ceci set up the nativity this year. Looks like everyone is trying to get a peek at the miracle.

Santa.... Michigan style

One of the joys of living in Michigan..... Santa comes to breakfast on a paddle board!

Wonder Woman!

When I arrived at school for the Halloween party last Wednesday and saw every boy on her class dressed up like a super hero I understood Ceci's conviction on being a girl super hero!

Bob Villa's got nothing on me!

I came out of the shower this morning to find this...... Ceci making a "flu-to".

Perfect position!

Well......  kind of. We had visiting day at ballet class yesterday and the parents watched everything the girls had learned.

Fresh Beat Band!

Future chellist?

We visited our cousins Kadin and Sandro and had a try at Kadin's chello. Their mommy, Tracy, showed Ceci how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Pinkerific day!

Ceci spent her day with her cousin Sarah and Pinkalicious!

Flower girl extraordinaire

Ceci and Kadin did an awesome job in Kayli and Joe's wedding! And they've been inseparable since the rehearsal.

Beautiful girls! Ceci was an awesome flower girl.

First day of dance class

Ceci had her first dance class at dance art studio with her friend Keira. So cute!