We took two unplanned trips to Hermann, Mo. this week in search of Springerle cookie molds. Hermann is a wonderful old city on the banks of the Missouri River founded by German immigrants.
March madness
Jadzia loved doing the advent calendar in December, so after Christmas we bought a magnetic calendar that we change every month. EDIT: So my mom and dad got Jadzia a cool magnetic calendar for Christmas. Every month we change the days and set up the holidays and appointments.
As you can see, Jadzia has set herself an extremely busy schedule in March.
Christmas tree farm
I’ve been a little off-kilter the last couple weeks with a new work schedule and the big Thanksgiving holiday. I’m now try to play a little catch-up. Here are some photos from my family’s trip to pick out a Christmas tree, the day after Thanksgiving.
Donkey Kong and goats
A few photos for your enjoyment. This is Jadzia at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo.
Christmastime in review
As I mentioned in my previous post, this was an interesting Christmas season. It was nice to have Justin and Becca in town for several days before the actual holiday so we could spend some time together.
Among the activities was a game of disc golf at muddy White Birch in Hazelwood. It was quite fun, even though I didn’t fare too well. The highlight for me was making a birdie on hole 17, which is not easy, and making par on 18.
On my side of the family, we often make Christmas lists to give relatives an idea of what kinds of things we need or would be a blessing to us. This can be a good thing. This year, Yoli and I kept our lists very simple. I wanted donations toward an iPod and she wanted donations toward a video camera.
This can be tacky, and I hope I don’t do it again for a good while. But I had been patiently waiting to get an iPod for several years now, and it was so good to finally get it. After Christmas I found a nice used one here in town (similar to one my brother Jon has already) with some accessories at a great price. Yoli did her research on digital video cameras and we are buying a refurbished Consumer Reports best-buy which we’ll take to Bolivia in January. It will be good to tape Jadzia with her Bolivian family so she can see them again and again when we are in the U.S. Likewise, we can make tapes of her and send them to Bolivia.
I am enjoying my iPod, but as is usually the case, the most memorable gift is the unexpected one. My mom got me a nice pair of gloves to replace the ancient tattered ski gloves I’ve been wearing since junior high or high school (I forget). Later in the morning she pulled out a fancy dress coat they had been saving for years for one of my brothers. Turns out it was too small for them, so she asked me to try it on. And it fit me fine. So now I have new gloves, a new dress coat, and my old English caps. When I go to work now, I look like a new man.
This past Wednesday we had our annual movie night with some friends from Hazelwood West, McCluer North, and UMSL. We watched “Million-Dollar Baby” which I had not seen before. The story takes a somewhat-surprising twist in the last portion, which made for lots of interesting discussion afterwards. Lots of thanks to Matt for hosting the night and for the great chili! Unfortunately, Jadzia was a “Million Cries Baby” through about the last 1/3 of the movie and the discussion.
That’s the challenge of the baby… Finding ways to adapt our lives to accomodate her. With movie night it wasn’t so successful, but we’ll get more creative next year.
Even babies need passports
Some family members were surprised at Christmastime when Yoli whipped out Jadzia’s brand new passport to show them.
Christmas went well. Jadzia slept through much of it, but she had nice long visits with her grandparents and got to meet her aunt and uncle and baby cousin. She got a few Christmas presents, and undoubtedly her favorites will turn out to be the San Antonio Spurs clothing from our relatives in Texas.
She also got to meet my dad’s maternal extended family on Christmas evening. I wasn’t able to stay long because of work (hope you enjoyed your Christmas weekend sports sections!) but it sounds like it was a great night.