Christmas Prep

Christmas has come and gone. The memories remain. This year was our first Christmas in which both kids got into the fun.

This year, PJ was very aware of Santa Claus and decorations and gifts and cookies. His impatience was sometimes glorious to share, sometimes painful. Although the weeks flew by for the two adults, it really does take such a long time between the start of Christmas prep and the real celebrations.

I discovered the PJ really enjoys making cookies. He gets deep into it; so I tried too. Turns out that it is quite a lot of fun to make cookies if we make only one time, one tray at a time with no worries about decoration or time.

I swear he had a great time making the cookies
but was not thrilled about taking a picture.

He was so very serious about it.

Thankfully we got our tree a little later than usual, so we were able to push back the anticipation a small amount. Both kids got very into decorating and undecorating our tree both on the day we got it and throughout the Christmas season.



 


Thank goodness we have so many cloth and stuffed ornaments. This year we decided to go with electric lights again so that we could turn the tree on each day with no danger. The kids LOVED it.

 

xo

Christmas Tree 2013

Last weekend we finally got our Christmas tree. (my opinion)
Last weekend we already set up our Christmas tree. (the Mr.'s opinion).

Yeah!

Since we now have two kiddos, I insisted we make a bit of thing about it. So we all packed up in our new mini-van, named Frosty, and drove to the largest Christmas tree in the area. There we were greeted by the largest Santa Claus PJ had ever seen.



When we were finally able to entice PJ away from Santa, we started cruising through the already-cut trees. There was a pretty big selection. Thankfully, PJ was willing to help by carefully inspecting all sides of every single tree.



Finally we found our tree: not too tall, slender, and easy to decorate (and un-decorate) for toddler-sized people.



And we all cheered! Okay, Jelly Bean slept, but same thing, right?

Later that same day, the boys put the tree up nice and straight. 

Then PJ and I wrapped the "snow" around the bottom of the tree.

And then the boys cut open the netting of the tree. I'm pretty sure I didn't breathe until the Mr. put those scissors away.

And, finally, right after nap time (and thus PJ was in his adorable monster pjs), we decorated the tree.

Even little Jelly Bean helped out.

And before we knew it, our tree was up and we were all watching a Christmas movie. While Jelly Bean just looked adorable with her papa.

Happy Christmas Decorating!


XO

Granny Traditions 2013

While my mom was here, she built upon her special and new traditions with my kiddos. The links go to earlier blogs from her time with us earlier this year as a comparison.

1. She made awesome cookies with PJ.

Making the batter

Cutting out the cookies

PJ refusing to clean up after all the fun.

2. She decorated Jelly Bean's room. Apologies to my mom and Jelly Bean. I just cannot get good pictures of this room; it is too awesome for my limited camera options. And Jelly Bean is still too young to react and enjoy the artist value here.

3. She acted silly around all over the house with both kids. One strength that my mom has is acting child-like; PJ adored it.

Amazing picture snapped while playing hide-and-seek with Granny.

I have no idea what they are doing here but it was loud and looked like a lot of fun.

4. Getting the entire Steinbach clan in front of the camera at the same time (well, almost).

PJ refused to show his face.

So we tried again, including Granny this time.

xo

Little People Bring Big Changes (Part 1 of Many)

We’re only a few months away from our little worm’s arrival and he’s already causing big changes in our home: furniture changes. First we moved one of the desks from our office and into our living room. Surprising to both of us, the desk fits well into the room and is a comfortable working place for me.

Then we – okay, really the Mr. – put together a set of drawers together for the over 60 pounds of clothing we already have for the little one.

Isn’t it fascinating how little people bring such big changes even before they’re breathing fresh air?



xo

Home Improvement Part II

Last week the Mr. and I finally bowed to extreme, continuous, and universal peer pressure. After 1149 days of living in the apartment we now own we took the leap and hung up a living room ceiling lamp.

We really should have tallied the number of people who asked us when we were "going to hang up a lamp already". The offending before picture:

The during picture (are there other countries where hanging up a lamp is considered a normal skill?):

Since we were into home improvement again, we decided to jump with both feet in and conquer the book chaos which was significantly worse than the already conquered towel chaos of Summer 2010. I read a lot, and I have a lot of books. Without book shelves, that meant we had a significant amount of books in piles all around the apartment. So, the Mr. spared himself more bruised toes and surprised me with book shelves for my 30th birthday!

It has been a treasure hunt to locate all the piles of books. I've discovered that I have quite the skill in creatively misusing space for books. By the time we locate them all - and who knows when that will be - those shelves will be bursting full. Do you think the Mr. will start talking about getting rid of some of them then?

*shudder*

Back to happier thoughts: surprisingly for anything IKEA, not one single argument took place during the ‘building’ of these shelves, there were no missing pieces, and it took less than half our lives to put together.

Thanks again to the Mr for the amazing birthday gift.


xo

Ps. Torsten – this one’s for you. Special requests will always be listened to and sometimes acted upon.

Smile of the Day

It has been so busy recently with excellent guests, home projects, and life in general that we have both been very tired at the end of the day. When I stumbled upon this older picture - with the old couch - I thought it was the perfect representation for how tired, but happy, we both are these days.

xo

Sometimes a little bit of change makes a big difference. The Mr. and I have lucked into a new couch - exactly the type of couch in exactly the color I have been secretly (hear the Mr. chuckle at that) wishing for our home.

Before

After

A cuddle couch!!!



xo

The Power of the PS3

I gave the Mr. a PS3 for Christmas. For those of you from my tribe (the non-geeks) out there a PS3, also called “Playstation 3”, is the top of the top for video game playing these days. Cheap it isn't but the Mr. so rarely joneses after something for so long, that I splurged with our money and surprised him with it on Christmas Eve.

He was thrilled. I was thrilled. Everyone was just thrilled.

Until.

Until the Mr. and his brother began to claim that for the PS3 to work, we can't have one of these

(our TV isn't this old. Its maybe one generation younger)

We need one of these


I was not thrilled, assuming that this verbal exchange was another example of the Mr.'s very charming inability to use the English verbs "need" and "want" correctly. Silly boy, always confusing them. Charming really. The Mr. was not thrilled with my reaction.

However, upon plugging in said PS3 into said TV, I was proven wrong. It is truly need - the Mr. is rapidly going blind while defeating zombies in Resident Evil Whatever-Number; exploring hand-to-hand combat in Tekken; and rescuing some world in that Other Game With The Creepy Name. The Mr. was thrilled I said “need” and I was not thrilled at the sound of our money rushing towards the technology store.

Long story, short: Wish us happy shopping.

Interesting side note: although forced to sit almost on top of the TV to see basically nothing, males are lining up outside and inside our apartment to exert extreme effort on plastic buttons. Exhibit A:


Intriguing.

Lessons learned: Non-geeks out there, go geek shopping with a geek. Never alone. You don't know what to ask and your surprise gift for someone else might just end up surprising you. And buy extra beer for all the good people that will be around and enjoy the ride!



xo

Christmas Celebrations

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope that you had a fabulous holiday season. We spent the 24th and 25th with the German family, continuing with the Steinbach/Hillebrand traditions. This time we took far too many pictures but here is a quick overview!

First we started with the traditional meal on the evening of the 24th at Friedhelm and Christa's house. The food was extra yummy and the present-sharing very sweet. Here is a picture of the clan (missing Gio) in front of the tree.

After dinner, we went over to Oma Else's house for the tradition singing, eating, drinking, story sharing and arm wrestling. I have no idea how or when the arm wrestling started but this year the Mr. was the champ. The Mrs. was, as usual, the worst in the house!

Per tradition, the Mrs. fell fast asleep on the couch in the middle of the party, music blaring and laughter ringing, until it was time to stumble home, half-asleep and with a little too much alcohol in our systems.

On the 25th we ate yummy food again, took two naps, and then chilled into the evening.

More photos are here.



xo

Our Tree

Its okay to be jealous.

More pictures here.



xo

Turkey Turkey Turkey & Some Stuffing

We invited Dominik's family for a full ‘Thanksgiving Dinner’ this afternoon. The prep for the dinner ended up being Project 4 as I kept myself busy with searching, shopping, and preparing the right dishes and stuff on Thursday and Friday.


Yesterday we got the stuffing together as well as prepped as many dishes as possible; today I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to stick the turkey in the oven and drink coffee. Lots of coffee.

Based on the Lambert Lessons, the turkey ended up fab.u.lous and you are all jealous that you weren’t here for it. :)

The stuffing was a great recipe from the Food Network, a favorite website of mine. It has apple, celery, cranberry, and sausage in it. I also added cashews because I like them. It ended up excellent. Unfortunately I couldn’t find quality sausage that wasn’t already in intestine (yes, you read that right), I got to “free” one entire kilo, piece by piece. It looked something like this:

And I was about this happy with the experience:

In the end, although the recipe said it would fill one large pan, I ended up with this amount of stuffing:

We have a ton left over, and I’m looking forward to each bite. All in all it was a great afternoon with the greater Steinbach Family, what a group of good-looking peps.

More pictures here. 



xo

Keeping Busy is the Best Treatment

These days I'm on homestay on doctor's orders and trying to get 'all better'. And since I've been known to be übergut with free, empty time...I'm getting through homestay and trying to get all better through the invention and completion of projects.


Project One:
Get Christmas tree in the house and into its stand. This one was quickly accomplished with the Mr. easily, happily, and in the rain. It took a little bit to bring it into the house, but we finally did it.

Peewee likes the tree too. Ornaments and candles will be put onto it this Saturday.

Project Two:
Two friends came around to join in the adventure of baking cookies together. I’m not a big fan of ‘real’ Christmas cookies, and surprisingly, they weren’t either. So we created chocolate cookies shaped like little pretzels (yummy); cookies with walnuts and chocolate (yummy); chocolate chip cookies with handmade chips (yummy); and licorice rock candy (not so much).

Here are the handmade chips:

Lesson learned: stick with the chocolate recipes cause that’s what we know best.

Project Three:
I'm not a huge fan of white kitchens, but our apartment came with one of the nicest kitchens ever, and it just happens to be a creamy, white color. I've wanted to paint the background ever since we moved in so that the kitchen could POP out and I finally got it done.

It was a very structured, well-prepared project and took a total of, maybe three hours. I knew what I didn’t want, so I did a quick google-search for warm colors, clicked around and 20 minutes later set out to the local hardware store with the color ‘coral’ in mind. There the owner and I talked about light and feeling and agreed on a color. I paid, walked home and threw it on the wall.

Done.

And I love it.

More photos on snapfish.

...and, I'm sure, more projects to come...hopefully more time intensive.




xo.

Decorating the Little Place

We moved into our little place on October 15, 2007. On Thursday, December 3, 2009 we finally hung up a curtain holder and 1/4 of the curtains that we'll end up putting up, with the very selfless help of our neighbor, her skills, her equipment, and her know-how.

Big happy happy to neighbor Jessi!

In the end, we’ll have the same see-through panels on both sides of the window, with a colorful light-blocking fabric in front of the see-through panels. The aim is to add color into our little place, while making it feel a little warmer, and block our neighbor’s view of the festivities (that they really don’t want to be seeing anyways).

I know it isn't a great picture - but you can get an idea.

…oh, and we finally fixed those broken light bulbs…




xo