Prince Luke and Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Luke has loved being in Cleveland and had so many people adoring him. He literally has had people following him around feeding him grapes this past week.  (We aren't joking.)

One of Luke's favorite things about being in Cleveland is the snow. It's been pretty warm, but we did have some snow yesterday and the day before. Luke liked going outside and plowing the snow. Just look at how much he's having!

Luke is so excited to go outside he's closing his eyes to hide!

Amit made it snow on Luke. What a perfect picture!

Luke looooooved pretending to be a snow plow.

Luke wanted to be just like his Jejebapa and clean the snow

Luke has been obsessed with Thomas the train this trip. When we went to the library last week Amit got a Thomas book, just in case he liked it. It's now Luke's go-to book this trip. He also has been addicted to this random Thomas video of train going on tracks and having somewhat weird music playing in the background. But he likes it, there's nothing bad in it, so why not?

One day Luke went to the mall with Marinda and Jejema (Amit's mom). They went to a toy store and Luke instinctively found the cars, trucks and trains. He wanted to take everything home, but Jejema "just" bought him a few toys. But afterwards he kept talking about the toys he didn't get - the police car and the tow truck. So the next day we took him to the mall again and he wanted to buy the entire store, but again we "just" bought him a few toys. And of course, two days later, he was tired of them. We really should just stick to cardboard boxes shouldn't we?

Luke on a train!

Jejema seems so happy that Luke is there. Luke seems so happy he has gelato

So Amit has been pretty busy with work stuff this week. Apparently something about defending next Wednesday or something? Anyways, he's been working in the office with the door closed, which sometimes drives Luke (and maybe Marinda) crazy. So a couple days ago Luke came in and grabbed a keyboard to type on and kicked Amit out of the office chair so he could be like daddy. And another time the next day he went in by himself, closed the doors, and sat in the chair typing on the keyboard.

Luke working in the office

Luke has been a lot more...demanding lately. I guess he has heard us say 'stop!' enough that he knows what it means and now uses it for everything when we're doing something he doesn't like. With all these people to play with him, he's not only the center of attention, but he can hand-pick who pays attention to him. He goes around and grabs ours hands (or usually jejebapa's) and says 'come play with me' while leading him to the basement.

And what about that whole holiday thing?  You know, the excuse we had for coming here?  Thanksgiving went really well, with a super traditional Thanksgiving dinner - and you know, what ever sort of crazy Mitchell sugar item Marinda wanted to make.  This year was Aunt Peggy's Salad, and in spite of Amit's warnings that no one would like it, EVERYONE did!  *Evil laugh by Marinda*  "It is tastes like home," Marinda managed to mumble through giant mouthfuls.  "And I never said people wouldn't like it!" Amit responded to the accusations that no one would eat it,  I just said that people might find it 'different'."  At dinner this year was not only the usual Mital family, but we also were joined by the Nayak family.

Wow! She did all this from scatch!

This was the best picture. What's the secret to getting them to look at the camera and smile on cue?

Other than all the amazingly good food we got to eat, we certainly have a lot to be grateful for this year.  Amit is graduating, we have an AMAZING job lined up, Luke is the light of our lives and we have wonderful little girl on the way.  Yeah, Marinda has been having an annoying pregnancy, but we all have our health and are surrounded by good friends.  We have the gospel in our lives and know that we will be together forever as a family.  We live in a country that has so many opportunities and freedoms and even though we've been "poor, starving graduate students" we've never actually known what it means to be truly poor.  And even though we live so far away from our families, thanks to technology and financial prosperity we get to call, FaceTime, and visit them often.  In short, we live a very blessed life.

To finish off our amazing week with Amit's family, we went to a Japanese hibachi restaurant where they make the food right in front of you.  We thought Luke would think it was cool - but either because of his age or the hour or a combination of both, it actually freaked him out.  Oh well, Amit and Marinda thought it was cool!  And Luke did manage to eat some rice - once we moved him between his grandparents... yeah, Mom and Dad aren't just cool enough.

Luke got a little scared. At least he has a preservation instinct, right?

Luke kept wanted to leave. "Go for a little walk with mommy, and daddy, and Jejema, and Jejebapa, and Dady."

To finish off our trip, Marinda, Amit and Anup took Luke to see the lights at the Strongsvile town center.  It was actually really pretty and it is fun how you can walk around between the lights.

Marinda took this psychedelic picture where it looks Anup is photoshopped. 

Luke had fun running around and pointing to each Christmas tree and saying "A blue Christmas tree! A green Christmas tree!"

Luke pointing to lights

Luke in the gazebo being shy

Marinda joked that she wanted Amit to propose to her again in the gazebo...at least he thought she was joking.

We're happy to be going home and seeing our cute little bunny, but it is always SO hard to leave our family.  But like we said above, we do feel so blessed for the time we have gotten to spend with them.

Ok world, remember Amit in your thoughts and prayers this week.  He defends on Wednesday at 10:30am, and though we all know that Amit will be fine because he's a genius, the past five and a half years of our lives have been leading up to those two hours.  Then he just has to turn in that thing, a dissertation or something, and then BAM!  WE'RE DONE!!!!