Christmas music

Performances by Caleb

Dance and the recorder

I'll be home for Christmas - with a bow

Mr. Grinch - conducted by Caleb

Trumpet and recorder duet

So we went to see Santa Claus...

...and this is about as close as he was willing to get.

Despite the fact, that Santa just left him many-many goodies a few days ago -

oh wait, that was the invisible, non-scary Hungarian Santa - St. Nicholas!

What do you mean I have to go in there and sit on his lap?!?

Okay, I'll go in there, but only for the cat under the table.

And the cookies.

Now, where's that cat?

Stop trying to trick me. I KNOW it's not under Santa.

Seriously folks, this is as close as I will get to the old guy.

First snow on St. Nicholas Day

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.

Two Months

Here's the first photo of our Summer Baby.

We heard the heartbeat, a strong 169 bpm. (I was looking at Caleb's old ultrasound pics and his was even faster at this point: 178 bpm!) Everything looks fine, and it was confirmed that there is only 1 baby. You can see the head, and the little arm and leg stumps. The tail is almost gone.

I've been through this once before, yet it still amazes me that a human life, barely in existence for 6 weeks, looking like a little tadpole the size of a gummy bear, can already have a heartbeat. When a mother first hears that heartbeat, it is the most amazing confirmation that, indeed, new life has begun.

My calculations were right: our due date is July 12th.

December is here... and no heat, no hot water

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.