Christmas preview

All my posts to date have discussed with the past, so here's a curveball: a preview of the upcoming Christmas holiday.

Let's begin with the setting. For the first time in my adulthood, we are the hosts. So we need a tree, right? Since Clara has no self control, we planned to wait until Christmas eve to set up a tree. But today we find that no store in our neighborhood has any more real trees. Rather than decorating the evergreen in our front yard, we plan to buy a fake tree. I worry about the commitment to storing and caring for it.

10 people will be in our house for a week (though one is still in the womb). Now that we have multiple bedrooms and baths, our house won't feel overstuffed. Anyone else want to join us? We're out of rooms and beds, but couches are available.

I bought Jill's Christmas present over a month ago. I think it's a nice gift, so I hope she really likes it. Confession: I find the giving of gifts stressful, even to my wife of 10 years. After Thanksgiving, my former professor said that he enjoys Thanksgiving more than Christmas for just this reason. So I'm not alone.

I'm really enjoying singing Christmas carols during this advent season (exception: Angels we have heard on high). I'm quite excited about our church's Christmas eve service for one more chance to sing. I feel a mix of nostalgia (hay ride caroling in CA) and excitement for the upcoming Christmases when Clara and Janny understand what's going on.

On Christmas day, we'll eat Pop Tarts for breakfast (broiled in the over since we haven't replaced our toaster that died in Abq) and a ham for lunch. Stockings are opened during breakfast, and big presents after that. Nothing too big for us this year since we already got the house.

... and the guests are here. I leave the rest to your imagination. Merry Christmas to all!

2 winter treks

Miserable weather came our way this weekend. Despite 5" of snow remaining on the ground and rather cold temps recently, we watched rainfall all day long as the temp hovered around 35 degrees. I kept hoping that it would slow if not stop, but at 3:30pm no end was in sight.

Needing to get some 'fresh air' to avoid stir craziness, I dressed in rain gear and hopped on my just-finished-up blue Trek. Observe the new fenders and front rack from Velo Orange. Very shiny! I worked extra hard to install them with uniform space from the tire.

I was comfortable for the entire 1 1/2 hour ride, except that my feet got soaked and chilly. Somehow, my garage door opener fell from my pocket on Main Street between High Cross Rd and Cottage Grove. I looked for about 5 minutes, but couldn't find it due to nightfall and a very wet road with snowy banks. Let me know if you find it.

Overnight, the temp dropped to low 20s, and we got a few inches of snow. The wind has been howling all day. Why not try another bike ride? This time, I rode the gray Trek with Innova studded tires. The roads were quite sketchy but I stayed upright.
Conclusion: I love Trek's sport touring bikes from the 80's. There is lots of room for fenders or studded tires, and they ride beautifully. However, if it keeps snowing like crazy this winter, I'll put a Surly Puglsey on my Christmas list.
Clara's spirits aren't dampened a bit by the dodgy weather.

A big change this week is that she now drinks milk on her own. We delayed empowering her for this because milk drinking was a rare opportunity to hold her. Nothing else makes her sit still for long.

snow storm

Winter has struck with a vengeance, so we're working to keep our spirits warm. One good way is to bring lots of people over to literally warm the house.

For the first time this semester, we had all of our adopt-a-students over for dinner. Less than 2 weeks before finals start, and then they head home. So sad and happy -- like the end of a Harry Potter book.

Much snow fell on Friday night and Saturday morning. We all bundled up to either play (the gals) or shovel the driveway (me).

Jill's 13 very brave students came to our house despite temps in the teens for a pot-luck dinner on Saturday night. After the 1" storm earlier in the week, one of her middle eastern students concluded that he hated snow upon his first encounter. Maybe now that he's seen so much more he changed his mind?

Finally, some bike content. I shod my gray Trek with studded tires and went in search of ice and snow on Sunday afternoon. The best snow to be found was the arboretum park area of campus. Because of the very cold temps, riding through the powder with 35 mm tires was no problem. So fun!

local events

On the weekend before Thanksgiving, we dropped Clara off at a friend's apartment and went to Jim's birthday party. Jim roasted a glam pig and invited co-workers (Jill is one), friends from church, and neighbors (he went door-to-door inviting them). Some 50 people came and ate and much was left over (12 baskets full?). I played some corn hole and lost to local champ Peter. Clara also had a good time.

On my way to work this morning, I was rudely and abruptly sent flying over the handlebars. Thankfully, I was only going about 10 mph at the time, so no injuries were sustained. As best I as I deduce, this is what happened. Coming out of a sharp turn on a dirt path, my foot pushed my fender onto the tire, which got stuck on the tire and crumpled. Nothing was jammed in the fender.

After gathering my wits, I de-jammed the fender and rode the rest of the way to work. Here's how it looks now.
Since I've been riding this setup for about 3 years, I'm going to assume this was a freak event. On the other hand, I might make a change or 2 (maybe switch from 177.5 to 172.5 cranks). Maybe I'll get a Boulder Bicycle (okay, not soon).

a happy thanksgiving

For thanksgiving, we joined the Smith family at Jill's parent's freshly moved-in-house in Nashville, TN. The 3+ of us drove down there and back without incident. Clara slept large chunks of the ride and managed to entertain herself with either food or toys for most of the remaining time.

Grandpa and grandpa hosted a good time for kids of all ages.

As a bonus, the cousins from MI drove down to join us. Clara loves to play with cousin Josh!

We have decided to name the next baby Janet, or Janny for short, after Jill's Aun Jan, shown managing the mayhem here.

Indeed there was much mayhem when the whole gang was in the house. Clara was in awe of the big kids. We decided to not put her on the top of the people stack.
Most of our time was spent hanging out with the family, but we also managed to watch the new Harry P. movie and visit JPP reservior and the Opreyland hotel.

lull before the storm

Probably our readers don't expect to be overwhelmed by the excitement that is our lives, but I hope to bring more action to the blog soon. Recently, when we've not been organizing the house, we have been forgetting to bring the camera to mini-events (like going to a park, walking to the grocery store (we switched from Schnucks to County Market because it's a handy 6 minute walk away), and Thanksgiving dinner with the adopt-a-students at church).

Clara continues to improve her walking. I expected that we would point to a specific moment when she started walking, but it was quite gradual. She walked behind her push toys. She stood up on her own. She took steps, but was clearly falling. Now she's toddling all over, and it blows my mind.

Wood floors, baby, and a blanket means lots of fun. No one was hurt during this stunt. Or when I pulled her.

Occasionally, Clara can put food into her mouth with a spoon.

A final interesting Clara note. Very, very late last night, Jill sneaked a peak into Clara's room and saw her sitting up and playing with her bunny blanket. Jill was quiet as a mouse, so Clara didn't notice. Both gals went back to sleep without making a peep. We wonder if she does this often.

getting settled

We're starting to feel settled in the new place, now that we've been here for nearly 2 weeks.

We had our first overnight visitors already. Mom and friend Monica were in the state to check out Chicago and took the train south to say hello. During their brief stay, they babysat Clara and unpacked and organized our kitchen. We vote that they come back any time!

On Sunday, we had our first Bible study group meeting in the conservatory. To mark the occasion, Maggie served tea (in the British manner). Yummy!
Clara couldn't be happier about the presence of the dishwasher. We're happy because more than 4 of our large plates fit on the bottom rack.
Today, our latest piece of furniture arrived: a very long used couch.
True, the rug doesn't match, so it will be swapped out soon. On the right side, you can see one of the chairs that we bought through craigslist. The seller turned out to be a fellow ISGS employee that I hadn't met. Next time I visit the big building, I'll say hello.

We've met a handful of our neighbors. The neighbors to our backyard called to fill in all the scoop about everyone else. She also mentioned that she can see inside our house quite easily. Noted! Our westerly neighbor is a toffee maker. I enjoyed many pieces today.

Finally, Clara is walking! I'd guess that she is crawling 2/3 of the time and walking 1/3 for now.