Not-so-white Christmas- 2011

We were back in Minnesota for the holidays again this year. Dave stayed for 5 days and I was there for 3 weeks! We had our traditional German (and this year Mexican too) meal on the 22nd (pre-bug thankfully) with Kobe beef guhuctus, German potato salad, herring, and beef stew and tamales to top off the Mexican side of the meal. We celebrated an early Christmas eve with my immediate family (parents and sister's family).

Christmas Eve is Bob's (Dave's dad) birthday so we enjoyed a meal at the Treibers and were able to stick around for the annual visit from their friends who come and sing "Happy Birthday" and then "We wish you a Merry Christmas" to them every year!

Unfortunately Christmas morning was spent in bed (till almost 3PM)... and that was all 4 of us- we couldn't believe the girls just kept on sleeping, but we let them! We were able to go to my cousin Shawn's house in the evening to see my extended family on my mom's side. None of us were feeling to hot, but we thought the worst was over. And it was, for us anyway. Unfortunately we heard a couple days later that several people at Shawn's that evening caught some sort of Bug. Since it was going around, maybe it wasn't us that passed it on-- but more than likely.

It was sad to see Dave go back to Baltimore, but I was able to spend some time with family and friends for the following weeks that I would otherwise not have been able to do with a full-time office job, so I had to take advantage!

Lucy? Stella? (i think Stella, not 100%)

Grandpa's wearing Stella's hat.. and backwards to boot

Stella

Lucy and Mom on the (day after) Christmas morning

Lucy, Luna, & Stella- and only one guitar?

Hallway at my parents condo... all 4 grandkids

Becky, Nico, Luna

Harajuku Mini

Opa with all his granddaughters

The extent of Christmas day at Shawn's.. with sick kids:(

PS. We only had a dusting of snow my entire 3 week visit... bummer!

The (hum) Bug

I need to catch up on my posts (particularly holiday stuff) but I have to post on The Bug first. 


We are not exactly sure when The Bug was contracted, but we know it hit our family unit beginning Friday December 23, Christmas Eve Eve. 


Twas 2  nights before Christmas and all through (Becky's) house (where we were staying in our garden level suite); 
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse (but I think Wilma, the dog, was snorfeling in her sleep).
The wool stockings were hung in the laundry room with care.
In hopes that some snow would soon be there.
Lucy and Stella were snug in their beds
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads
Me in my sweat pants and Dad in his Tee
Are crossing our fingers for a long night's sleep
When behind the sofa there arose such a sound
I sprang from the (blow-up) bed to see what abound
Away to the pack'n'play I flew like a flash
There was Lucy, who threw up something resembling hash
The twinkling lights on the fake christmas tree
Gave a glistening lustre to the vomit that be
When what to my horrified eyes should appear
But her twin sister, had also vomited quite near
With little midnight oomph, not so lively and quick
I knew in a moment that they must be sick
More rapid than reindeer, the hash flew and it soiled
At least 7 times that night- oh how we recoiled!
Oh Lucy! Oh Stella! What did you eat?
Oh the smells, oh the sounds, couldn't be beat
Day after day and still not well
Even skipped Christmas morning which was not swell
Wasn't much we could do but give kisses and hugs
Finally after 5 days they nixed the (hum) Bug

The bad news, is that it appeared as though this Bug was quite contagious as many family and friends that were within arms reach caught it as well-- we're sorry!

Teddy

Teddy passed away this morning at 8AM. He was just shy of 9 years old.

We brought him to the vet early yesterday morning for surgery to take out a fatty tumor (he had the same surgery 2 years ago). He was doing fine last night, but this morning went into cardiac arrest while still at the animal hospital.

Late this morning, we visited Teddy to say our goodbyes. We will miss him dearly.

Oh Christmas Tree...

 Stella and Lucy getting ready to go to the North Pole on Wednesday!

Even though we are headed back to Minnesota for Christmas- I still wanted to put up a tree!
And as much as we would have loved to get a real Christmas tree, we decided that we should stick with our old artificial one to minimize the watering and needle-cleanup etc.

So last week, we empty out our entire closet to get down into the basement (which is what we have to do any time we need to get down there to get/do anything: storage, check the water heater, change the furnace filter, and oh, I don't know, scoop up water?). Anyway... we go down to retrieve the Christmas stuff and we find everything; everything but the top of the 3-piece tree. For the last several years we have used the artificial tree, but we only use the middle and top portion- since the bottom portion is too big for the typical Baltimore row home. We did have leaking down there this year, so we moved things around a bit; we looked and we looked (and the basement is not that big) with no luck. So we tried other spots in the house in which it may have migrated... no luck.

We did not find the top of the tree. However, I did find my mini Christmas tree that I bought in 6th grade at Walgreens. So... utilizing some wishful thinking and tinkering (along with duct tape and some bamboo skewers)- I attached the mini tree to the top of the middle portion... and then we decorated! Needless to say, it does not look great, but it does keep us laughing!

Guten Tag!

As it turns out, Lucy's first language is German.. just like 'mein Vater' (my father)!

Say Say Oh Playmate...won't you come play with me

Everyone always asks me how I "do it" with twins; they say that they know how it is with one baby... but two???   I hear all about "double trouble" and "you have your hands full" and the "god bless you, I know I couldn't do it!". When I was pregnant people would tell me that it would be hard at first, but over time it would get easier.

So first of all, I disagree with the "hard at first but then gets easier" statement. For the first few months, even though there were challenges no doubt, all the girls really did was eat, sleep, and poop- what's so hard about that? At least not hard compared to later months; especially the months when they became mobile:)

Gone are the days when you could just plop them down and they wouldn't (couldn't) wander; they do tend to run in different directions whenever possible which does make things a bit challenging. Gone are also the days that they were unaware of each other.

Now that they are very aware of each other, we have the fighting over who plays with what toy, who reads what book, who gets carried, who sits in who's lap. We have the hair-pulling and the biting. We have the ear-tugging and the nose-pulling. We have the pushing, shoving, yelling, screaming, pouting, and over-the-head toy bopping.

On the other hand, we have the snack-sharing and back-rubbing; we have the laughter and the mimicking. We  have the shrieks of delight and jabbering. We have the smiling, tickling, giggling, consoling, and forever playmate... we have twins!

So while people are constantly reminding me of how hard it must be or is 'supposed ' to be. I just say: First, I don't know anything different, and second, now, I think we may actually have it easier than those folks with just one... because they have a consistent playmate and friend to keep them occupied!, The one exception of course is that they also have a partner in crime:)

Beauties and the Beasts

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in sunny Baltimore. We had quite the feast for our little family unit. Tonight was actually the first night that we did not have leftovers! I already miss the wild rice casserole that has been a staple in our family thanksgivings for as long as I can remember.

The first beast: This was the first time I have attempted to make an entire Turkey and it was exciting, nerve-racking , and a bit gross.

The whopping 9.9 pounder fit nicely in our mini fridge.

 So I made the glaze and officially bought the Turkey... 

but I just couldn't take out the innards myself- so Dave came in very handy.

After only 2 hours-It came out perfect!

The other beasts:
We went to the Maryland zoo for the first time (and the first time our little beauties have been to any zoo) on Saturday.

Checking out the giraffes and the cheetah

After taking a close look at the leopard we realized that our "Cheetah Lounge" 

should actually be the "Leopard Lounge"!

The lion came right up to the window to take a closer look.

The Maryland Zoo is really a city zoo and was only a few minutes away from our house. You would never have guessed we were in Baltimore proper once we got in however- it was really spacious and the habitats were quite nice. Next stop- the National Zoo in DC!