On Christmas morning, we gathered with our family to open gifts together with family, but Dan wanted to do something a little special for Mio since this is the first year she really understands the idea of Santa Claus and how he comes to deliver presents to each house. He found out about an app called SantApp, which uses the light and sound features on your phone to create the illusion that Santa Claus is right in your living room delivering presents. He set it up and woke Mio up early Christmas morning. We thought that it’d be hard to wake her up (because it usually is), but as soon as Dan said, “Mio, I think I hear Santa. He’s here!” she jumped out of bed and ran down to the foot of the stairs, from which Dan told her to wait and listen. It was really dark, so I mostly caught just the audio in the video below, but you can hear and see what went on below:
Afterwards, we let her open just one present before the rest of the family gathered later that morning to open gifts. It was her much-anticipated pink octopus that she’s been asking for from “Santa” (actually thoughtfully sent by Uncle Ted and Auntie Jackie) — you can see her happy (and a little bit sleepy) reaction in the following video:
We’re so happy that we could share with Mio some of the magic of Christmas, and bring Santa Claus to our home! We then went back to bed and slept in a little more, before Ted & Elisa came over and it was time for us to exchange gifts…
The gifts under the Christmas tree
This was Mirei’s first Christmas!
Ted & Elisa brought their dog Asher over! It was his first Christmas, too!
Mirei was happiest about the puffs she got from Grandma and Grandpa!
Mio hugging the Zoku Character Kit for our Zoku popsicles that we love to make!
Mio with her Christmas haul. I think she got the most presents out of anyone!
Dan handled cooking most of Christmas dinner, and it was delicious!
Christmas honey ham. So good!
Green beans with mushroom and bacon, made by me. I usually dislike green beans, but ever since my friend Mimi awakened me to this recipe, I can’t get enough of them!
Fresh salad prepared by my mom
Crisp potato roast! This was also delicious, and we made two pans of it!
Dan carving the ham
The family gathered for Christmas dinner
Christmas Day also happens to be my birthday, and this year I turned 32! Growing up, I used to be saddened by the fact that I often couldn’t spend my birthday with friends, or that a lot of them would be out of town when I had a birthday party close to Christmas, but recently I’ve grown to appreciate the fact that I’ve never had to go to school nor work on my birthday, and that my family is usually gathered anyway for Christmas, so I can always spend it with them. In a way, it’s the perfect day to celebrate a birthday!
Celebrating with a birthday cake after dinner
Blowing out the candles… Mio is very serious about helping me out here.
A happy Mio! She loves birthdays.
My first birthday with this sweet chubster! She has made this past year all the sweeter.
Mirei also turned 11 months old on Christmas Day! Her birthday is exactly a month after mine.
Love Mio’s ecstatic expression here!
We hope everyone’s Christmas was just as warm and sweet! There’s so little left of 2014, and we wish everyone the best as we close this year and ring in the new one!
Mio had such a great time going to Trunk-or-Treat around town last year, so we definitely wanted to take her and Mirei again this year. Mio has been looking forward to Halloween for a while now, and had been carrying her pumpkin bucket around practicing shouting “trick-or-treat!” I’m pretty certain that Halloween is her favorite time of year. 😉 We went to both Vienna Baptist Church and Emmanuel Lutheran Church again this year. Here are some photos of all the trick-or-treating fun!
Mio and her friend Junna at Vienna Baptist Church.
Mio ready to trick or treat as a salmon nigiri!
Playing games at the Fall Festival at VBC.
Playing with an owl finger puppet toy she won.
Playing the fishing game again. (We remember this from last year!)
Mio getting her face painted.
Showing off Mirei’s shrimp costume!
Mio was a salmon, and Mirei was a shrimp!
Let the Trunk-or-Treat begin!
Some of the trunk decorations were very well done! Here’s one with a huge spider.
We loved this Lion King-themed trunk!
Mio carefully depositing her candy.
Sorry you can’t have any yet, Mirei!
Our little shrimp in Daddy’s arms.
Mio playing the playground of Emmanuel Lutheran, where she goes to preschool.
Mio had such a great time at Trunk-or-Treat, and she’s been admiring her candy loot in the days since! She likes to dump all of it out on the floor, carefully examine, comment, and count each one, and then put it all back and select a couple to eat every day. She’s surprisingly been pretty good about not trying to eat all of them at once, and has been exercising admirable restraint for a 3-year-old in listening to us when we tell her she can only have one or two treats a day. And the best part of it is that she’s willing to share, much to our delight! 😉
We went to the first annual Tysons Harvest Festival earlier this month, and got to enjoy some fall family fun! There were lots of activities, great food, and cool vendors to check out.
Mio with her unicorn face paint
She is very into unicorns lately!
We met up with Pat’s family at the festival! Here’s Pat and her adorable mini-Pat! 🙂
Mio checking out the petting zoo at the festival.
Sleepy Mirei watching from her stroller.
At the craft table.
Mio coloring a Halloween crown.
Making our way around the festival, checking out various vendors.
We had some delicious banh mi and pho from this What the Pho? food truck!
Dan carrying Mio while in line for the bounce house.
Unstoppable Mio:
Mio came alive in the bounce house! She loves inflatable houses and was in her element climbing, sliding, and bouncing around in them.
Climbing up!
Sliding down! She was supposed to only go up and down three turns and then exit for other kids, but she refused to leave and went for about 5 turns instead…
Mio at the Yelp booth, making a lollipop spider out of tissue paper, pipecleaners, and googly eyes.
With her completed lollipop spider! She immediately wanted to disassemble it and eat it.
Mio and I. If my face looks strained, it’s because I’m lifting her up and trying to fit my face in at the same time…
Mio is a beer girl here.
With an Olaf pumpkin carving! According to Mio, she is Princess Anna (occasionally switching to Elsa) and Mirei is Olaf. lol… I suppose Mirei’s lack of hair does make her resemble the snowman!
We checked out the Lee District RECenter the other weekend, which includes Chessie’s Big Backyard and Our Special Harbor Spray Park in Alexandria. Admission is free and Mio had a blast splashing around at the spray park and then running around at the adjacent playground afterwards. Although it is a bit of a drive for us, we’ll definitely be back!
Mio at Our Special Harbor Spray Park in Alexandria.
Having fun splashing around
Mirei and I didn’t go into the spray area, but we had fun watching from the tented areas on the sidelines.
Mio on the pirate ship at Chessie’s Big Backyard
Mirei doing her signature expression, tucking her lips in.
An extra shot from the weekend, when we went to lunch at Pazzo Pomodoro the day before. Mio and Mirei are in matching shirts!
Here are some photos from Fourth of July weekend! We spent it quietly at home, but Dan’s sister came down to visit from New York, and Ted & Elisa also came over so we had a lot of great family time together.
The girls in their red, white, and blue!
Here is Mirei on all fours, bouncing and rocking back and forth. She’s definitely getting ready to crawl!
Mio with a sparkler for the first time (with some help and supervision from Daddy, of course).
Holding a big firework with Mama
Mirei making more attempts to crawl.
She can sit up pretty well unassisted too, although we still spot her from behind…
I made sidewalk ice chalk for the first time.
It was great for showing how colors mix to make new colors, and I mixed baking soda into the ice and sprayed them with vinegar on the sidewalk to cause a reaction. Art + Science lesson in one!
Dan’s sister Hyo took some great photos of the girls too, so I’ll go ahead and share them here as well.
Painting with Mama on the porch.
Mirei hanging out with Auntie Miwa on the porch.
Twinkly-eyed… while grabbing Auntie’s face.
Hope everyone had a great Independence Day and holiday weekend! 😀
