Season's Greetings

Is it the New Year yet?  C'mon!  We've now been living in Minnesota for 6 months.

'Twas the day after Christmas and work has been chaotic during the holiday season, as it always is, working in the grocery/retail business.  Americans want what they want when they want and as much as they can get and they expect to get it.  It's their right.  Needless to say this has made for some long shifts these last few weeks.  As we head into the new year and then a few quieter months I hope to enjoy the job more.

Big News!  Evie Sue turned 4 years old on this 16th of the month!  I can hardly believe it.  We threw a little shindig for friends and family and everyone had a lovely time.  The kids were running around screaming, the adults were conversing over the screams and I was drinking.  We have a ton more princess items to add to our impressive collection.  The birthday present win of the year goes to Sara, who bought a box/trunk at the local goodwill and gifted it as a dress up box.  Now all of the princess gowns, tutus, and assorted costume pieces have a home.

Christmas Eve was spent in the company of family at the Patsy home in White Bear Lake.  Grandparents, great aunts & great uncles, aunts & uncles, cousins, and kids all gathered in a cozy home to exchange gifts, stories, and Christmas Cheer.  Christmas morning we stayed home with just the four of us and opened presents.  Sara cooked her traditional Christmas Quiche; this year with pepperoni, mozzarella and green peppers.  This is something we started a few years back and we look forward to every Christmas morning.  There have been several variations over the years including Greek inspired with roasted red pepper, feta, & asparagus, and/or also tomato, mozzarella & basil sometimes it varies but it is always Red, White & Green.  Then later I made chili, and Grandma & Grandpa came over to hang out.  All in all it was a good day considering that there's a cold going around, Ronen is the latest victim, and that Evie Sue was so hopped up on Pez, chocolate, and other sugar-based snacks that she was physically incapable of following directions for the entire day.

This was my 1st Christmas away from my family in many years and we definitely missed having them to celebrate with but I was able to Skype with 2/3 of my immediate family and exchanged a few text messages with friends and family wishing them a Merry Christmas.  Christmas presents are in the mail, I promise.  I was just a day too late.  Hope everyone out there had a great holiday.  New Years is right around the corner and 2016 is coming up fast.

In other news, Ronen is still not sleeping through the night.  Sara is on a winter break, of sorts, from work and we are still a single car family after a couple of set backs in our automobile search - both involving the same prospective seller.  It's a long aggravating story, but the long and the short of it is that we are restarting our search after having two sure things all through.  We have a lead through a family member and I'll start actively combing the area for something safe and affordable.  Hopefully the new year will see us with 2 reliable cars.

I am still not even close to finishing the book I am currently reading.  I started Dean Koontz's From The Corner of His Eye during the second week of October but the work schedule, the family duties and the holidays have all conspired to keep my reading to a minimum and I am only about halfway through the 768 page thriller.  Slow and steady...  I also have not been productive with my writing.

The fantasy football season is over and what a disappointing season it was, too.  I failed to make the play offs in both leagues I was involved in this year.  It was ugly.  I picked up several players during the season whom I thought would help me do well but week in and week out I my imaginary squad did not deliver.  There were a few weeks when I, distracted as I am these days, neglected my line up, left empty slots and/or didn't pay attention to injury news.  Oh well, few things matter less and this season I just could get things going my way.  There's always next imaginary season.

A Day Late (I Missed November)

Halloween was a smashing success.  The Sunday before Halloween we took the kids to Como Park Zoo  for Zoo Boo.  Along with Cousins Nikki & Dave and Great Aunties Di & Karen we made our way through the zoo trick or treating and meeting costumed volunteers, and many Disney Princesses.  Sara and I won 1st prize in a costume party during a Friday night pub crawl.  Saturday we went out trick or treating with Sara's best friend and her 3 kids.  We weren't out that long but with 4 kids (Ronen stayed home with Grandma) it was long enough.  White Bear Lake really makes trick or treating fun.  We saw 2 haunted houses, a clown on stilts and multiple driveway bonfires.  After the kids settled down Sara and I had a few beers and watched Hellraiser!

For the 2nd year in a row we made a Dias Del Los Muertos Altar in memory of my Mom.  Teal is the color of Ovarian Awareness, the gin if for her gin & tonics, pictures of family, one of her hats, flowers, some skulls and a candle.  This year we had to go and dig out our artifacts from storage in Sara's parents' garage and we almost missed the celebration.  My girls, so far Sara and Evie Sue, get into it and it's a fun way to remember Grandma Sue.    

Sara and I celebrated another Anniversary.  8 years of marriage brings us to the Bronze or Pottery Anniversary.  Unfortunately, with 2 small children we have not really found the time to celebrate the way we would've liked to.  We cut short an evening of cocktails due to a fever-stricken baby, and took the girls out for breakfast at a local eatery on the morning of the Anniversary but as of yet we have not truly found time to  mark the occasion. 

Thanksgiving this year, our 1st in Minnesota, was spent at Sara's brother's house with the In-Laws.  A few kids, 2 sets of grandparents - both Evie and Ronen's & their cousins' other grandparents -  sat down for a turkey dinner, a few card games and some family time.  I tried to Skype with my family back home but missed both my father and little brother, and then the time I did get with the older brother and his family was hectic and distracting due to the chaos on my side of the video call. 

Ronen is a challenge at times.  This kids got you all fooled.  Whenever we take her places, to visit family, shopping -  what have you  - she shows off.  She's well-behaved and quiet.  People will tell us what an angel she is or how wonderful she's been.  You put this kid in a car, however, or try to get her to sleep through the night and it's a whole different ball game.  This one weekend in November she didn't go to be before 4 AM for a few nights in a row.  She napped and slept earlier in the evening but woke up around midnight as I'm crawling into bed - sneaking, really, with ninja-like stealth - and she wakes up and wants to party.  Of course, then we caught a little cold and it's even more unpredictable, she'd sleep until 3AM but then wake up every 20 minutes until her sister wakes up at 7.  There are some nights when Sara and I deal better with it than others and then there are nights when it seems like we might be losing out minds.  The kids almost 8 months old when will we get to sleep again.  Sleepless nights lead to exhausting days and then before you know it we've grumbled and stumbled our way into another sleepless night.  

I guess that's the way the cookie bounces, however.  I need to slow down and give thanks and appreciate the time I spend at home with the girls.  Too often I get frustrated with the every day dealings, sleepless nights and the absence of silence...  Then I go to work and all I want to do is go home and be with my family.  It is way too easy to get frustrated these days, being tired and frazzled from lack of sleep with the baby, still, and the sass and lack of listening we get from her older sister, but I should remind myself that the family time is the important time.  Work is what I do so I can have that important family time.  I hope the holidays are good to us.

PS.  As it turns out we will not be getting the afore mentioned house that we had been pursuing.  It's just not meant to be.  The plan going forward is to spend the winter in our current apartment, and resume the house hunting in the springtime.  More immediate is finding a reliable 2nd car for the family.