Christmas Cough

I brought home a nasty bug. Everyone is sick but I got the worst of it - turned into a mild bit of pneumonia. We have spent most of the vacation on the couch. At least we have a comfortable couch with a fireplace in front of it. I have been managing to write something in the Novel every day so at least there is a slight feeling of accomplishment.

Naomi has been making more progress upstairs. It would be great if it is pretty much cleaned out by the end of the holiday, but I suppose that depends mostly on how we are feeling.

We had a nice Christmas dinner with our friend Susan and her family. Amélie tried applesauce at the big table - this was her first food other than milk. She didn't like it. Yesterday I shared my popsicle with Abigail which was her first 'food'. She loved it and started crying when we cut her off. Probably would have eaten the whole thing if is was up to her.

In the last couple days Abigail has also started talking a lot. For Amélie this is normal, and she has a crystal-clear voice like a champaign glass. Abigail's is more like a frosted tumbler. They are both peacefully asleep in front of the fire after their first journey into temperatures below freezing. We took them on a bit of a walk this morning.

Merry Christmas!!

The Shortest Day

That would be today. The time is almost noon and even though I am upstairs the faint light coming through the clouds that must be the sun just barely clears the rooftop of the house across the street.

It has already dipped below freezing a few times this year (this would equal the grand total of frosts during last year's winter) but the weather is mostly cloudy and depressing. Plenty of rain. When the sun comes I imagine that it must be a Christmas Angel or something because everyone has forgotten what the sun is; or at least I have. On the upside, today is the shortest day of the year...nothing but more daylight (even if it is filtered through low hanging clouds) from here on out.

School wrapped up nicely. Students didn't need to come on Friday, we had meetings instead followed by a nice lunch. Unfortunately I was starting to get a cold, which has turned into a nasty bug sentencing me to a weekend on the couch. Finished a book yesterday...maybe I can get a bit of writing in today. Here is a snippet from a few days ago:

The monkey had swum toward him surprisingly quickly and climbed out of the water, first onto his shoulders, then wrapping its arms, legs, and body securely around his head. Tiny fists clutched Caleb’s scruffy sideburns while toes curled their way into the dripping hair that began to hide the deeply tanned backside of Caleb’s neck. The straddled creature looked like a terrified horse jockey frozen in position, every muscle tensed, just waiting for the gates to crash open.

Back to Work

Naomi finished off her pregnancy leave and has started teaching on Wednesday mornings. After Christmas she will also teach on Fridays as well. She is happy to go back to work, and we have arranged for someone to come watch the girls on Fridays. I am home on Wednesdays, so the schedule should work out well.

We are at the Cottage this weekend and had a nice steak dinner last night. This morning did not involve much sleeping in for me though. Naomi was feeding Abigail (Amélie can sleep through the night now!) and she had an explosive poop which I had to help clean up and now Abigail is not happy. No point in going back to bed I suppose.

Today is the celebration of Naomi's Grandma's 94th birthday, so we will dress the girls in something nice (hopefully Abigail doesn't still smell like poop) and head over just before lunch. For the Christmas break we will be here as well, so yesterday I set up the tree. I don't understand fake trees. They are a lot of work to put together, they make almost as much of a mess as a real tree, they need to be stored somewhere for the rest of the year, and they don't look or smell good. I gave it a try, but I think we will be getting rid of ours...

Playtime.

Happy in the chair.

Bathtime.

The Consulate

We had a busy week. Lots of visitors and no shortage of things to do. This was the last week of Naomi's pregnancy leave; the last chance to jump through some bureaucratic hoops in Amsterdam. Going into the Consulate is like entering a maximum security prism located next to the most popular tourist destinations in the country.

The Consulate building fits in perfectly with its beautiful surroundings (as opposed to the bunker in The Hague that we call our embassy) save the twelve foot tall fence and the glassed in security station. This is the place where assume that any electronics you bring in are some type of terrorist device and everything else is scanned and probed.

Once we got past the bullet-proof door, the people behind the windows who talked through a microphone were quite friendly and helpful. I made some mistakes with the passport applications for the girls, but they arranged to have me fix the problems through the mail so we don't need to return.

Play time in the box. Abigail is fits into one of my old outfits...