Christmas Holiday Update

It was all excitement here Christmas morning, albeit much later than we had thought. Anja didn't actually emerge from her bed until 8am, the last one of the house. She wasted no time however in ripping into the plethora of presents that Santa had left together those that were already under the tree.

We had Kasia, Kevin and family over for Christmas dinner which went perfectly. The turkey was cooked to perfection (4 hours), I made a bread sauce from scratch, we had soup, lots of vegetables, gravy, brussels sprouts and roast potatoes of course, fresh baked bread, three types of deserts, homemade truffles and toffees, wine, sparkling wine, port, lots of coffee and lots lots more. We ate all day and were fully laden down by the time the Webb family left in the evening. We had a great day.

We have been taking it very easy since with open fire going since Christmas Eve, lots of movies, leftover food, a little shopping and it seems like we are reading books all the time. Isabel is feeling much better from her ear infection (I had her to the doctor on Christmas Eve) but now Anja has some virus since her temperature is spiking every few hours.

I hope your holiday is going as well as ours :)

 

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody. To our family scattered across, Indonesia, Australia, Ireland, The Netherlands and England, we hope you have a very relaxing holiday and a peaceful New Year. Don't eat to little or drink to much, we are thinking of you all. Speak to you all soon.

Shown below are the two Christmas stockings that Santa will be filling in our house tonight. Lynne has been making these over the last few nights. I need to document for the purpose of all future reading that today, Anja is excited beyond belief. This is her first Christmas to fully realize that Santa will actually be visiting our house tonight (only if she continues to be good of course). She can hardly speak with excitement. She is all ready to go to bed early, leave out some cookies and milk and assures us that she will have no problems sleeping. We are not that convinced so we purposefully avoided any nap this afternoon. She came up to me earlier (1pm) and sighed, "Daddy, this is a really long day, when will it be night time?" You have to love that!

Last night we visited Randy and Lorraine for Delia's birthday, it was a fun evening!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Saturday Before Christmas

We've been taking it easy thus far today, this the last Saturday before Christmas. We spent a short time wrapping presents this morning before we headed down to the Purdue University Memorial Union. Each year they erect quite a large Christmas Tree and this year they also had a gingerbread house, made entirely from real biscuits, icing and sweets. The girls had a great time running around and into this house, continuously trying to pick pieces off for tasting.

 

 

 

 

Christmas Party at Lilly

One of the joys of Christmas as a parent (there are of course many) is watching your child or children get all excited and work themselves into a frenzy over Santa Claus. Anja is at that stage for the first time this year and is very excited. Last weekend when we visited New York, Randy and Lorraine took the girls to a Christmas party at Lilly. Santa Claus, together with his wife, Mrs Claus were actually there. They also had many other activities including face painting. Randy took lots of pictures, a few of which I have pasted into our web album.

 

 

First Snow

Winter has truly arrived in West Lafayette, indeed it arrived a couple of weeks ago. It's currently hovering around 20F and snow is on the way. The girls were all excited to see our first snow two weekends ago, Daddy was marshalled into building the first snowman of the year.

 

 

 

New York, New York

We returned last weekend from an exhilarating trip to New York city where we both had a great time. We stayed at the Millennium Hotel right next to the UN on 42nd street, literally 5 minutes walk from Times Square, Broadway and Central Park. The location was perfect. On Friday evening we walked a couple of miles around midtown Manhattan taking in all the sites, all the way down to Greenwich Village where we had a really tasty oven baked pizza in a local pizzeria where everybody spoke only Italian. It was really tasty.

On Saturday we walked for miles. We headed south to the financial district, Wall St, the NYSE, site of the World Trade Center and Battery park where we saw the Statue of Liberty. We then walked back toward all the city Government buildings toward Chinatown where we had lunch. We also visited Central Park for a stroll and spent a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum. Later that night we went to the theatre, the first time for us in a long time. We saw Boeing Boeing which was funny.

We took it a little easier Sunday before returning home. The girls were safe and sound after having spent a fun packed weekend with Randy and Lorraine. Many thanks to you both once again for allowing us this time away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Year

Many thanks to everybody who sent cards, emails, text messages, blog posts, facebook messages and general best wishes today. I turned 36 (I think). I had a nice day. We celebrated in style on Sunday evening with a nice dinner and some friendly company. A cake was made and candles extinguished which was a hit with the girls, although I still got to make a wish.

The celebrations will continue through the coming weekend. Lynne has booked travel tickets, a hotel and a baby sitter. Lynne and I are off to New York City for the weekend! She has just booked theatre tickets and found some other interesting entertainment!! Yippee. I have never been so I'm rather excited.

Prior to this weekend trip I will be off to North Carolina in the morning with work so there may be limited posts until we return on Sunday.

Have a good week!

 

Thanksgiving at Kaisa and Kevin's

As I noted earlier, on Thanksginving Day we had dinner with Kaisa and Kevin and their family. Kaisa's mother was visiting from Sweden and her cousin, Karolina (apologies if I have mispelled), who studies in Miami was also visiting. The girls played dress up (of course), Kaisa and her mother did most of the cooking, I helped carve the turkey and everybody read books along the way.

We ate way to much food which made plying chase with the girls after dinner rather uncomfortable. We all had fun. Kaisa sent a few photos through which are posted here and a few below.

 

 

 

A Birthday and an Engagement

Well it has taken the news I received by email last night just before I went to bed to get me back in the blogging seat. My brother Davey popped the big question to his wonderful girlfriend of nine years, Sam. Luckily for us all she accepted his proposal and now we all look forward to a wedding.

It was actually Sam's birthday and Davey proposed to her on this wonderful looking beach in Thailand. An account of the proposal can be found on their blog.

Congratulations to you both, we are all so excited for you!!

 

Thanksgiving Holiday

It has been a pretty festive here in West Lafayette over the last week. It was Thanksgiving week and of course in this country that means no work and lots of food. On Thanksgiving Day we had dinner with Kaisa and Kevin and their family. It was a fun packed day/evening and when I get photos from Kaisa I will post more specifically on that.

Then on Saturday we had Thanksgiving dinner at Randy and Lorraine's house with their family and friends (all 22 of us). It was a great day, very enjoyable and positively relaxing. The photos below are from that event but I have posted a wider selection here.

Finally then on Sunday, Lynne cooked a meal for my birthday (we generally celebrate on the closest weekend). She invited some friends over and we had cake. It was a fun day overall, the highlight of which was the wrapped up a present the girls gave me which they proceeded to open as soon as I thanked them. I now need to hit the gym.

 

 

 

Atlanta, GA

We returned a few weeks back from a very successful trip to Atlanta, Georgia. The girls had a great time and I think overall it went well. This was largely due to the help we had from Kristina who was excellent at keeping them both fully amused each day. They were fully exhausted each evening when we returned from our conference. The highlight for the girls was clearly the hotel swimming pool. They also hit the tourist spots, the Aquariam and the Childrens Museum but in the end the pool was a hands down winner.

Many thanks Kristina for all your work during the trip.