Moreira Christmas in Cincinnati 2011

After our Christmas with the Alexandria and Burke Moreiras, we left town and headed West to Cincinnati for Christmas 2011 Part Deuce. The trip was quite eventful, and rain and WV roads delayed the Moreiras one night in a hotel. The trip was worth the wait, however, because when Cristy, Nathaniel, and Troy finally arrived little Hallie had a very fun present for Cristy: an early sonogram at a Pregnancy Spa! Cristy and Nathaniel were able to find out a whole month early that they are having a little boy and were happy to receive the best Christmas gift ever.

Little Hallie and Troy didn't waste any time patching up their old relationship.

Cheese :)

Hallie says, "Uncle Nathaniel, why are you standing on the bed?"

Troy showed Hallie his favorite bed game, which involves flinging yourself face-first onto the bed, then pointing to your friend and having him or her do it next. It's a winner. Look how happy he is!

Christmas morning couldn't come soon enough and the adults probably had more fun stocking the tree than the kids had opening the presents.

Hallie got a new bag as her stocking and lots of cool stuff inside from Santa.

Troy says, "Matthew McConaughey doesn't wear shirts, why should I? Also...school buses are cool. That's how I roll."

It took Mama Bear a year and a half to finish the Moreira stockings, but we love them! Good work Cristy! Now if they were only a little deeper...

Kodak moment!

Kodak moment!

Lego Truck! Awesome.

Bag o' Legos. Also awesome.

Grant got some baby clothes for his to-be son and also lots and lots of rounds of golf.

In her mind, Liz is thinking, "This Kindle Fire is mine, not yours Grant."

Enough said.

Hallie got several pairs of Princess shoes, which were adorable on her little feet. But the best parts of the morning were seeing the looks on Hallie's face as she opened up the gifts.

M. For mysterious.

Yay for learning DVDs and getting smart!

Thanks Liz for Grant getting these psycho gloves. He will put them to good use.

That boy sure does love him some books.

On the outside, this face says, "socks? really?" But on the inside, Nathaniel was thinking, "man I sure did need some new black socks :)"

Pop up tents! Yeah.

Troy says, "this dog is not real. Or maybe he swallowed a slinky or something."

Troy discovered Elmo on this trip. And our lives will never be the same again.

Christmas dinner was very yummy. It was made even better by the expert trimming of the Master Chef, Uncle Gunk.

And we had more fixins' than man could eat!

Liz literally made a new dessert every day, so that by the end there was more than any of us could eat. Oh the shame.

Enjoy our video of Christmas morning!

Christmas with the Alexandria and Burke Moreiras 2011

As I think is true with most parents, Cristy and Nathaniel are fascinated with their children -- Troy and B-2000. (Note: B-2000 is short for Boy Model 2000, which will be his name until we can come up with something better. And no Polly Scott, we will not be calling him "Ed." Sorry.) Almost all of our pictures have Troy in them, and he is an amazing little boy. Following are some of his fun new quirks.

Looking at someone upside down is a perspective that Troy finds very humorous. Also humorous: sitting on Dad's head as he gets a close-up.

It can't be said enough -- Troy loves crackers. Salty, sweet, bitter -- it doesn't matter. He loves them all. Sadly, we decided as long as he was going to be eating crackers all of the time, we were going to remove this one from his diet. (Yes, we do realize that an Oreo is technically a cookie, but Troy doesn't so shut your cookie hole.)

Cristy is very frugal. I imagine she takes after her mother in this way. Part of being frugal means keeping certain items for an obscene amount of time after their usefulness has expired (please note the date of this map). Solution? Take a picture and scrapbook it. Who discovered this solution? Frugal Cristy :)

One day at work Nathaniel noticed one of his co-workers had done a photoshoot with her daughter that involved tangled Christmas lights. Inspired, Nathaniel set to work!

BAM! Eat your heart out fat-cheeked Gerber baby. You ain't got nothing on Troy-Boy Who.

This year we were more conservative with our Christmas lights and only set-up about half. Sadly, this is the only surviving picture :( But we did have the honor of entertaining the local Decorations Expert, Sue-Mom Extraordinaire. Thanks for the help Sue!

Troy loves to wear his parents clothes. Nathaniel prefers when it is Dad's clothes, but does not always win this battle. (Sun Tzu says: "he who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."

Old Virginia Baby. That's how we roll.

This year for Christmas we decided to visit Grant, Liz, and Hallie Campbell is Cincinnati, Ohio. Because of this we decided to have Christmas locally beforehand, and that involved opening presents in Virginia early! Woot woot!

We celebrated with a yummy lasagna dinner at Sue's house, lots of music and good desserts, and of course good family.

As the only grandchild on all sides of this family, Troy was quite the center of attention. He wasn't real sure about this present thing at first...

...but then he got the hang of it and wanted to open up everyone's presents.

Full disclosure: Nathaniel cannot remember who gave Troy what gift because toys and books were flying everywhere. So...we are going to start throwing out a bunch of "thank yous" indiscriminately and hope we don't upset anyone too much. With that said...

Thanks for this book Abuela :)

Abuelo ran out of wrapping paper (or so we were led to believe) and so decided to wrap one of Troy's gifts in the traditional way. Troy didn't seem to mind though and all of the adults got a good laugh out of it.

Thank you Abuelo for my Mr. Potato Head!

Thank you Grammy for my sweater! Don't I look like a Beltway Baby.

What did Cristy get from Vanessa? A baby ice cream maker?!? Who knew? What will they come up with next.

Like almost every toddler, Troy loves Bubbles. Vanessa loves blowing bubbles at Troy. Like many talking toddlers, Troy associates people by his favorite things, words, animals, etc. So Vanessa is now "Bubbles." Thank you Bubbles!


Was our description off? Well here is a little clip to let you know what Christmas 2011 Part 1 was like for the Moreiras.

Next up: Christmas in Ohio 2011