Once again the petting zoo was a huge hit! She loved feeding the goats, llamas and bunnies. And she gave them all a few pats here and there too. So it was worth the trip just for her to be able to visit the petting zoo. Other than that, we walked through a few barns, mostly the steers and cows, and she thought that was pretty. Then we all headed to Great Outdoors for lunch, taking a pass on the greasy Stock Show food. It was a fun hour or so, but that was enough for us!

Afterward we got to have lunch with some of our Dallas friends who we don’t get to see nearly enough, so it was a good day.

Maya loved putting ornaments on the tree, but the month our tree was up, she also loved taking them off. So off and on they would go. Amazingly only one ornament broke this year, and it had nothing to do with Maya. So she was good at being gentle!

We took her to visit Santa in Sundance Square again this year with another family who we’ve gone with the last couple years. And the kiddo was so brave! She was excited to be going to see Santa, and kept excitedly pointing at him while we waited in line. When it was our turn, she walked right up the steps to his sleigh and sat down beside him. She was really stoney faced the entire time she sat there, but she wasn’t scared or sad and was really happy afterward. She gave him a high five as she was leaving. So she’s kept up the tradition of not giving us any of the “typical” Santa photos with the screaming child! All season she would point and yell, “Santa!” every time she saw him somewhere, so that was a lot of fun to see.

Christmas weekend we headed to Shreveport, where we had a nice time relaxing and eating, mostly! The day of Christmas Eve we checked out Shreveport’s science museum, and Maya had fun there. She made her first snowflake and sat in a chair that took her for a ride up high in the sky.

Unfortunately, on Christmas Day she woke up feeling really terrible. She ended up with a pretty bad cold and cough that lasted for several days, and then of course I caught it from her and am still fighting it off today. So neither of us felt great, but we still had a nice time. Luckily she felt well enough to go over to Sandi’s house that night for the celebration with all of Jason’s extended family. She had a good time playing with Caroline and Camryn, so I’m glad she was able to tough it out for a little bit at least!

We took our tree down this last weekend, and Maya was really sad to see it go! It sat on our curb for a few days waiting for the city to come pick it up, and she kept saying “bring Maya’s Christmas tree back inside.” So I felt bad about that! But hopefully I convinced her that Santa needs to take it back to the North Pole until next year.

Here are some photos from our trip to Shreveport. The terrible thing about this year is I managed to erase our memory card, thinking I had downloaded all of the photos from it. But I didn’t. So all of our Santa photos, along with some others are gone. We have the one Santa photo they printed out for us there, so I’ll scan that in eventually. But of course it’s not as good as the ones Jason had taken. So we’ll just have to keep this etched in our memory! And I’m afraid this batch of photos is pretty bad too! I must not have been too into taking pics this week or something!

I was off work on Friday, so we headed to Shreveport because Jason’s cousin Claire was getting married on Saturday. Maya had a fun weekend with Grandad, and we were happy to be able to catch up with some of Jason’s cousins who were in from out of town for the wedding. And Clair’s wedding was gorgeous! Maya had fun in the “crying room” with Nathan during the ceremony. No crying, but they weren’t staying very quiet in the church! But the ceremony was beautiful and the receptions was lots of fun.

Before the wedding, the Wardlaws came over for lunch. Maya had fun catching up with Nathan. They’d both grown up so much since they last saw each other!

Back at the beginning of November, we were able to go to South Carolina and meet our sweet new nephew, Crews! It was a wonderful trip and we’re so glad we got spend some time with the little guy, and we miss being able to cuddle with him since we left!

We flew out there on a Sunday morning. The flight was easy, and it was Maya’s first trip where she had to be in her own seat. She did a pretty good job, although getting her to stay seated with her seat belt on was a little tricky during take-off! She wanted to be hopping all over the place. But she was happy, so no complaints here.

Sunday we overlapped with Jason’s dad, so that was nice because we were all able to have a day together. I think Maya loved having her family all in one place, and she was especially excited to see Ford. She talks about him often and had been so excited to find out she was getting to go to Ford’s house!

Baby Crews was as sweet as can be, of course. And I really think Maya loved meeting him. She was always worried about him having his pacifier and was really sweet giving him hugs and kisses. It was lots of fun to watch her with him. We all had a good time going to the zoo together, the park and just playing around the house.

We can’t wait until we’re able to see them all again!

ESPN was set up in Sundance Square downtown, so we made several trips by to watch them filming their shows, both TV and radio. But the most fun we had was a little star chasing with our friends Karalee and Carla. Karalee was obsessed with trying to see Jennifer Aniston up close, so we headed downtown to try to catch a glimpse of her and Adam Sandler because they were going to be on the ESPN pre-game show on Sunday.

It was fun on its own to just see the ESPN personalities put on their show up close. But then we staked out the area where they would be coming out and walking to the set. Jason and Karalee were in the first row, so they got some of their own photos. (Ours weren’t great, but you can seem them at least.) But mostly we had a fun morning out in the sun with our friends.

Snoop showed up next, but we had to head home for Maya’s nap so we missed him. While Carla and I were strolling around she started chatting with Allen Covert, who was in the movie “Big Daddy” and some others with Adam Sandler. I think he was party of Adam Sandler’s entourage. Maya and I took a photo with him later, after he gave her a little walking advice. He was a very nice guy!

Maya got to open a few presents Christmas Eve, too, including a “Night Before Christmas” book and a fun, new towel and washcloth before she took her bath.

The next morning we all went to church, where we got to see Gramp, Brian and June. Maya and I spent most of the service out in the entryway, but she did pretty well sitting still for the first 15 minutes of the service, at least!

The rest of the day we spent opening gifts together and eating lots of food. Bob came over later in the evening, so we all had a nice evening with him.

Sunday, Gramp and Bob joined us for lunch, and Jeff’s longtime friend Dave stopped by for a visit too. He took some of the wonderful photos of Maya, especially the one of Maya and Gramp, which we really will treasure. Such a great photo of them both, smiling and having a good time together. (I’m going to post Dave’s photos in a separate slide show because there are several great ones!)

We ended the weekend with the big Crane family Christmas over at Sandi’s house. And like always when we get to attend, it was a wonderful time. Lots and lots of great food, family and conversation. There was a huge group, and we’re so happy we got to be a part of it. Maya also had a blast, and stayed out until 9:30! Her latest night out yet! (Jason figured she fared so well, he took her to our friend’s house until 9:00 on New Year’s Eve, so she’s turned into a regular night owl thanks to the Crane Christmas.)

It was so fun to watch her play with Camryn and Caroline and happily be passed from one person to the next. All the excitement definitely kept her happy and awake. (Her fun, new toys helped a little, too!) We almost thought she could make it later, but we wanted to avoid a complete meltdown! We were having so much fun we let everyone else take the photos, so we’ll have to get our hands on some of those one of these days to put up. The late night made for an easy drive home the next day because she was so tired she slept much longer than she usually does in the car.

All in all, a great second Christmas for Maya in Shreveport.

Jason and I especially loved being able to get out without our sweet girl a couple of times. We got to go to the gym on a regular basis, which doesn’t fit into our day very often anymore. And we also got to go out on a date one night and out with a group of friends another. Have to say, it was really, really nice to be out with our friends and around only adults for a few hours. Something we have to make sure we make time for at least every so often!

We had a few days of nice weather, so Nana got Maya outside on a blanket and in her bouncy chair so she could enjoy the weather before heading back to the Minnesota cold. We even took her to the park to give her her first push in a swing. She was so tiny! Not quite ready for the park yet! We also ate well, at home and out, and just did a lot of hanging out. She made my work week extra easy too. I can work much faster with a full-time Nana watching Maya as opposed to working as fast as I can with a few hours with a sitter. (But I do love our sitters too!)