Anja and Emma Exchange Gifts

The McClellans, Matt, Laura and Ema came over last weekend and the girls exchanged gifts!! Emma was wearing this very pretty red dress that she look great in. Of course they each jumped right into dress-up princess clothes...

 

 

 

Exchanging Gifts with Mike & lindsay

We kicked the gift giving season off last Friday. This was Lindsay's last day for 2007 and we exchanged gifts with them before they left. Since I liked it so much, I got Ruby the Daddy's Girl book that I got for my birthday. I think the customized monopoly game that we gave to Mike and Lindsay was a hit. It was in the theme of the Indianapolis Colts, they are very big fans. Mike and Lindsay, if you're reading this, hope you are all enjoying the holidays!!

 

 

 

Yippee.....A Wedding!!

We received great news on Christmas Morning, my brother Clive and Tracey are finally going to get married!! Have not heard any details yet but the wedding will be in 2009.

Congratulations to you both, wishing you a great engagement.

 

Merry Christmas Everybody

Merry Christmas Everybody. We are rather poor at sending out season greetings via mail, using either a card, annual review or using a family portrait with greetings. We have received well wishes from friends and family from Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland, the US and elsewhere. Many thanks to all of you and Merry Christmas.

Life is finally starting to wind down here in West Lafayette. Work for both myself and Lynne has been extremely hectic over the past few weeks. Isabel's sleeping, together with her seemingly continuous cold, has yet to settle down so life on the home front has also been very busy. We both need a break and intend to relax a little over the coming days.

We're actually going to spend the three days of Christmas at a state park in a small cabin together with Brad and Lisa and Family. Potato Creek about 2 hours drive north of where we live. It should be very nice and we are looking forward to it.

We are really looking forward to Christmas morning this year. Anja is very excited about Santa Claus. Anytime we speak to her about it or others ask her what she's getting, she gets this mystic look of amazement that this person is going to deliver presents after coming down the chimney. We will try capturing some of this on video and post it in the new year.

Lindsay took this great photo of the girls other day. We think it's possibly the best shot yet of them together.

 

Winter has Arrived

As we get ready for Christmas, winter has arrived in earnest here. Lots going on at home in preparation for the holidays. Just thought I'd share these recent photos.

 

 

 

Future Runner?

I have been doing a reasonable amount of running recently (more on that over the Christmas) and as such have been reading various items on the topic. Anyhow, I'm currently reading this excellent book called The Barefoot Runner which features the life of Abebe Bikila, the first person from Africa to win a medal at the Olympics. He was also the first to win back to back marathons. Incredible given where the African runners are today.

Anyhow, thought this picture was cute....Anja looked like she was interested, although she was probably looking for the pictures.

 

Freezing Rain

Today we have had the seasons first freezing rain. I had never encountered this phenomenon before moving to West Lafayette. It leaves for very pretty scenes but alas has also has a very dangerous element to it.

In short, it is precipitation that starts as snow in the upper atmosphere but melts on the way down. If the temperatures are below freezing at ground this rain freezes upon impact. The pictures below of branches covered in ice are from our garden this evening. The danger is that everything becomes weighed down and power lines and trees are normally the first victims. You may recall that we had damage last year so we are keeping our fingers crossed tonight..

Have a great week everybody.

 

 

 

Christmas Themed Weekend

The preparations for Christmas were in full swing here in West Lafayette this weekend. With the snow still lingering outside and the fire being lit each night, it felt natural to start the preparations in earnest. Yesterday we put up our decorations. We don't do much, a tree and a few token efforts, but it now certainly feels a little more festive. We may purchase a few more lights over the coming weeks.

Today we wrote our very first letter to Santa Claus. Anja was quite excited to be able to let Santa know that she has been, and will continue to be, a very good girl. Her requests were very modest indeed, I guess it will be too much to expect a continuation of that over the years!! We too think that Santa is excellent, we have used the threat of a direct call to him twice already today, to perfect effect I must add. We may have a very compliant girl for the coming weeks!!

 

 

First Snow of the Season

We awoke this morning to a pleasant view. It was white everywhere with the seasons first snow. We had about 3-4 inches which was enough to feel like it had snowed but not enough to grind everything to a halt.

It was fun this afternoon getting out there with Anja and Daisy to jump around in it a little. I felt like a kid again, it was a lot of fun. A lot more fun than clearing the drive this morning at 7am.

 

 

 

This Old Man Turned 35!!

Today, what's left of it, is my birthday. Yip, turned over another leaf today, the 35th leaf!!

Had a great day...I awoke first thing this morning, too early I might add, to Anja presenting my gift and wanting me to get up!! She, together with Isabel of course, had bought me a great book entitled "Daddy's Girl" by Garrison Keillor. It's very good, well recommended.

Lynne and Anja baked a super cake yesterday, my favourite, a fruit cake. We blew out candles this morning at Randy & Lorraine's. For my birthday I got another gadget to add to my collection. A pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones. They are very cool indeed.

All in all, I have enjoyed the day. Many thanks to you all who called and sent cards :)

 

Weekend Update

Here I am again, Sunday evening typing in some brief details from the weekend and wondering as normal; Why do these weekends go so quickly? The answer I guess is obvious, because one is enjoying oneself....

We had Reina over most of Saturday. It was nice having her since she and Anja simply play and look after each other. We sat around and chatted for a while when Brad and Lisa returned, Brad and myself even got a 4 mile run in. First real cold one of the year...it was a very windy cold day...30F and in the twenties with the wind chill.

Last night our neighbour Matt came over to watch some football. A late but enjoyable night was had. We also had a few beers :))

Today we spent most of the day at Randy and Lorraine's. Brunch. We did our normal when visiting. High jacked their day by sitting around, chatting, drinking coffee and tea and generally catching up. It was fun.

Now we have to start the week all over again...hope you all have a good one!

 

Our New Lives

I saw this the other day and thought it was a pretty good visual of how our lives have changed over the last few years.

This very distinguished looking glass, designed to hold the famous Belgian white wheat ale from The Hoegaarden Brewery in Belgium, was "acquired" by Lynne and myself one late night about eight years ago from a bar in Sweden (we paid for them of course). We had a lot of fun that night and when we awoke the next morning and eventually realized why our heads hurt, the glasses sitting in our hotel room served to jog the many memories from the night before. They were fun times indeed.

So you can see why the image of this glass being used as an excellent receptacle for warming Isabel's bottle may provide an excellent metaphor for how our lives have changed. I cannot remember the last time Lynne and I last awoke in a hotel bedroom with sore heads with a couple of empty "acquired' glasses sitting on the sideboard.

I miss those days but we have moved on and neither of us would even consider going back given what we have now. We love our girls to much. Back then we had a few fun days and nights but now every day, evening and night with the girls is packed with fun.

Cheers!!
(Lindsay - thanks for taking the picture!)

 

Who is Stealing from the Fridge?

Anja's new trick is to walk around everywhere with her stool to gain greater access. The fridge is now prime territory since there is normally interesting stuff there!!

We are having a relatively normal week. Busy of course but normal. We are on a drive right now to try getting the girls to sleep a little earlier in the evening. To get more sleep since we think they are not getting enough but also so that we get some time together in the evening. As it was we were getting the girls to bed and then simply crashing in bed ourselves!! I think it may be working a little. It's now 8.05pm and both girls are down for the night - we think or rather we hope!

Hope you are all doing well.

 

Getting Through the Weekend!

It's so nice to be able to log on to ones computer without knowing that it's going to crash several times before you have any chance of actually doing anything. Lovely!! Anyhow, I digress!!

Hope you are all enjoying this long Thanksgiving weekend? We are pretty chilled out here in West Lafayette. Taking it easy during the day, long evening dinners followed by marathon bedtime reading sessions in front of our open fire crackling away.

I have been able to get a few runs in over the weekend, 11 miles which helped to counter the good food and calorie laden beverages that have been consumed!

We had Kaisa and Kevin, together with their girls over for dinner last night!! It was fun.

Shown below are a few more photos from Thanksgiving dinner the other day!! No comments please on the placement of my head relative to the two red candles on the sideboard behind. I'm sure some of you "Devils" out there will find this amusing!

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Today the day presented itself in two parts. The quiet first half saw the four of us, with Daisy of course, taking it easy all day. The girls slept a lot which helped us relax. Lynne was able to take a few moments to herself and escaped into some book or other whilst I spent a few frustrating hours trying to get our new computer fully loaded with all our software. Got there in the end but only after a few frayed nerves!!

The second half, this evening was a little more hectic. We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with our neighbours Phil and Liz and the Krause family. They had 20 family members to share their turkey and ham so us joining did not add much stress. It was a great evening. Liz and Phil, many thanks for the invitation, we truly enjoyed it. We sampled some true American family indulgence and interaction, even had a birthday to celebrate. Got home to get the girls to bed at approximately their usual bedtime. It's 11.20pm and I have just now stopped fussing with the computer.

I like this holiday thing...we still have three free days ahead of us!! Yipeee!

During our visit to the Krause's I took a few family pictures, shown below is their family!

 

There goes Daddy with the Camera Again!

Lynne was reading to the girls the other evening and it jogged memories from two years back when Lynne first started reading to Anja! She has not stopped since!!

Anyhow, I grabbed the camera to capture the scene (as you do) and hit this perfect shot on just the second attempt. I'm sure it's not perfect from a photographic sense, but right now perfection for me is everybody looking at the camera, and wow are those girls looking at what Daddy is up to!

I like this picture a lot...the girls in my life!

 

We Are Back!!

New computer arrived this evening so I have a new toy to play with over this long four day Thanksgiving Holiday here in the States. Expect lots of updates. I'm already having trouble with a network drive (aarrgh!!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who will celebrate it!!

This is a recent picture of Isabel - boy is she getting big, alert and an attitude!!

 

Weekend Update

Well after a long struggle, I have been able to get our computer stable enough to write a few posts. This should not continue for much longer and normal service should resume shortly.

We are taking it easy this weekend. No scheduled activities other than dinner at Lorraine and Randy's tonight. I did however manage to get my usual Saturday morning 5 mile run in which I was pleased about. I was travelling to Europe this week for work and it took it's toll.

Pat is still here helping out which is great, although we will now enter our last week without parental (or grand parental help). Yes, Isabel will reach her 14th week next Saturday and from then on there will not be a grandparent here. Wonder if she will notice? We certainly will. From next week, just Lynne, myself and the girls. Incredible really. The miles from West Lafayette to both Ireland and England have not provided much of a barrier to the love and care that the grand mothers were able to provide.

We thank you both again.

So, hoping that you are all doing well. Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching and Christmas soon thereafter of course. Lots of posts before then however.

Later.

 

Anja the Wicked Witch

This year, Anja's first real year enjoying Halloween, chose to be a wicked witch. My mother bought this costume weeks ago when her and Anja were out on a shopping trip.

Lynne, myself and Anja all went on our first ever Trick or Treat trip to our neighbours houses. It was a great experience. She was very shy at first but soon loosened up when she realized there were goodies to be had at each house.

 

Posting via Email

Hi All,

I'm posting now via email since it's so hard to get on our home computer - it continually dies midway though start-up. A new computer has been ordered. The pictures may be few and far between over the next week or so.
 
Anyhow we are all still doing OK. I just got back from a whistle stop tour  to Edinburgh. I left Monday and got back Thursday evening. Very tired but that was partly due to the fact that we stayed over one night in Ireland and caught up with Clive and Mum for a night out in Dublin. It was a lot of fun.

I'll post a weekend update tomorrow.

Hope you are all doing well.