This is my niece, Caleb's cousin: Natalia Kylie.
She is my sister Kornelia and her husband Eric's firstborn, who arrived on December 16th, an early Christmas present. She is a beautiful little girl and we were so happy we got to see her this Christmas. We look forward to watching her grow and I know Caleb will be thrilled to have a little friend.
We took a ton of pictures during our visit, here are a few.
I'll be home for Christmas - with a bow
Mr. Grinch - conducted by Caleb
Trumpet and recorder duet
St. Nicholas spotted on the neighbor's front porch!
St. Nicholas came to our house on the morning of the 6th once again, bringing lots of goodies (and for some, coal) in each of our boots. He also brought the first snow later that day, surprising us, since we don't normally get snow until late January or February in these parts.
Caleb was most surprised though at the sight that awaited him in the morning. We normally wake up at 6 am, come downstairs in the dark, run to the potty, then start our day with hot tea (which he calls Coca - go figure). I gave away nothing and let him discover the goodies on his own. The first thing he saw were the "Coca!" (little glass bottles of Coke), which he proceeded to take out of the box one by one and line up on the floor. St. Nick was sneaky again, coming back a second time and filling additional shoes with more goodies in the early morning hours. Here are some pictures of the morning of St. Nicholas Day.
This morning, we woke up to the first day of December and proceeded to enjoy our morning with the coffee and the Nutella-smeared cinnamon raisin bread and the wonderful togetherness of family. Also, with a hail shower that came down for a few minutes, but what the heck, we're inside, the hail is outside - LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL LITTLE BALLS OF ICE!
A few hours later, I made my way down to the basement to take care of some laundry, and I noticed a smell. A smell of some type of noxious gas, to be exact.
The gas company came, but not before Caleb and I hurriedly escaped from our home, just in case... leaving Daddy behind. It turned out, the smell was not natural gas after all, but CARBON MONOXIDE (which, I don't understand how I could smell, since it's supposed to be odorless, but maybe EXTRA SENSITIVE PREGNANCY NOSE?)
Our water heater needs a new motor. A motor that is going to take until Wednesday or Thursday to arrive and be installed. Until then, the water heater is turned off, as to not allow any more carbon monoxide to vent into our basement. Until then, there is no hot water, no heat in the house.
It is now about 64 degrees Fahrenheit in the house and falling. A little on the chilly side, I'd say.
Tomorrow, we're going to check into a local hotel. Luckily we have a Gift Certificate for one night's stay that we are supposed to use until the end of this month (and which we've had for a year now, not knowing what to do with it). As a matter of fact, just this morning, before we knew our predicament, I was asking when we should have our stay in our free hotel. It turns out, very soon.
I am glad that I was able to finish my big projects tonight and can spare a day of no work, but really, no more than a day.
Tomorrow is also our first ultrasound appointment, so there will be much boiling of water in the morning for the preparation of some kind of a bath. So we're some kind of decent when we go out into the world. It should be interesting.
