December 2016

Adrian insisted to eat his breakfast by himself, and Leo concurred. That made our morning a little easier though of course it resulted in more cleanup and a change of pants. Adrian was fishing out the raisins from his muesli but he was hungry enough to eat the oats as well.

Nora and I went to a new playground in the morning, Fort Barnard. It's a 15 minute drive from home. Normally we walk to nearby playgrounds but it's nice to see different ones from time to time. This one was recommended as 'worth the drive' on TBD and I agree with that assessment. It's a little small but fun things to play with and a wonderful tower that Nora spent virtually the entire time in.

For lunch we went to the boterhammenrestaurant. There were brief tears when the sandwich bread were baguette slices but that was easily resolved.

At 3.00 pm Ela came over for a play date, and later we all went to Quincy Park together. On the way to there we saw Ginny, who later informed Baka so Mia arrived shortly later, and in the playground we met Rado and Maria and the kids.

Back home I cooked a chicken broccoli stir-fry.

Christmas morning was around the dining room table this year, because that is where our new tree is. The warmth and coziness was still the same, it was a wonderful celebration.

Nora received a large present: a large cardboard house to draw on. The boys were very pleased with their "bus", a camper that from Rado & Maria.

I used my kitchen aid stand mixer to make fresh bread for lunch. We had a 15 lbs turkey for dinner, with sauerkraut the Bulgarian way.

Christmas was much more relaxed than last year. We scaled down a few things and were pretty diligent about preparing everything ahead of time. The boys are also easier to manage then a year ago.

We had a wonderful and relaxing budni vecher celebration yesterday. Three families together, and a whole bunch of kids.

The Zane family arrived around 5.00 pm, Rado and Maria half an hour later. We started with a glass of wine and home-roasted peanuts, while the kids ran around and had a blast. We made the table together and warmed our dishes, and had a lovely meal.

Busy day today. Brought Nora to her school -- last day of the year, then Sasha to work. From there to Heidelberg to buy German bread.

Then I went to the Optimist Christmas tree sale on Glebe but they weren't open yet so then I went to Home Depot. But first I stopped at Target to have my morning coffee, and there I bought a few small things. Then on to Home Depot where I took a bunch of greens for a project with Nora tomorrow. Checked out Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts for some more gear for said project. Finally I went home, wrapped some presents and then at noon I picked up Nora from school.

Then Nora and I had lunch with Rien at her work at FSI She's a Dutch language teacher and we spoke with her students for 90 minutes, great practice for them and fun for us. Nora enjoyed seeing the school. Afterwards we went to the "blauwe speeltuin" -- Rocky Run Park. A great day.

We decided on a smaller tree this year, for two obvious reasons.

While we were putting the tree up yesterday I took a picture. In the background you can see one of the obvious reasons, unplugging the cable for the lights.

For our year overviews I calculated our diaper usage over the past two years.

We've gone from an average of 400 diapers per month to 280 diapers per month.

We've done virtually all our purchases online so getting the data was easy.