Playing hot potato, I mean, baby

Yesterday was the first day of the Ann Arbor Art Fairs and, as in years past, we braved the teeming masses for an afternoon of art and heat.  This has long been a tradition for Jon's family and is one that we have come to enjoy.  Yes, count us among the population of locals who really enjoy the Art Fair, in spite of the traffic and crowding it unleashes on the city.  Of course, this year the visit provided a different kind of art for the extended family to enjoy - the newest member of the family.  In fact, the party game during lunch, and again during the after Fair party, was Hot Potato, with Calvin playing the part of the potato, of course (for evidence of said game see all the new pictures in his week five photo album).  Ultimately, we enjoyed the Art Fair as usual, avoided buying any art as usual, and really savored the food at the after party as usual, all with Calvin (who mostly slept) in tow.  Don't worry, Calvin, you will get to enjoy all the tasty food indirectly.

By the way - can you find Calvin in these pictures?  We'll give you a hint - he's ensconced in high tech sun protection and baby wearing gear.

Easter enrichment at home

We decided to prepare ourselves for our future role as parents with some practice Easter egg decorating tonight.  At least, that's our excuse and we're sticking with it.  And it sure was fun.  We have eggs with the names of each of our family members (including an egg for the pets and one for Raspberry), we have eggs with flowers, we have eggs with dinosaurs and eggs with toothy lizards (watch out!), and we have eggs with random designs.  We used all the colors in the rainbow and then some, and we managed to keep our clothes clean and all the eggs whole.  It was a successful practice run then, or unsuccessful depending on how you look at it - maybe we aren't being as realistic as we could be about the mess a little one might introduce to the same activity, but we'll enjoy it while we can.

Happy Easter to all! 

Tradition!

Christmas Eve found us at our traditional holiday haunt - Kerrytown in Ann Arbor - buying food for the evening's dinner and snacking on breakfast, lunch, and seafood at the Korean lunch counter there. Possibly an odd tradition, but a solid one just the same. Then, after finishing our wrapping, we carted presents and ourselves over to the Hiller's for good company and great food.  Traditionally, dinner included cabbage rolls, oyster stew, and whipped cream (zebra) cake. After singing in the beautiful candlelight communion service at eleven at our church, we went home to bed - for a few hours.

Since we're still children at heart, Christmas still starts at the crack of dawn in our world. This year that had us driving, dogs and all, to Cortney's parents' house before seven in the morning in a fog so thick we could not see the bridges we were driving under on the expressway. What we won't do for Santa Clause. After stockings (complete with oranges and our ages in loose change), and following a great breakfast casserole, we opened gifts and listened to Christmas music. And who wouldn't look forward to the Christmas afternoon nap, curled up on the floor, surrounded by wrapping paper, bows, and empty boxes and draped over your new all metal fire engine. Oh wait, that's out of "A Christmas Story." But we did nap before the traditional dinner of tenderloin and yorkshire pudding.  Traditions, traditions. At home again, we lit a fire and watched Rudolph and Frosty while the dogs collapsed in exhaustion.

And, since we could never have too much Christmas, we continued the next day with gifts and dinner with the other half of the family. We had a wonderful dinner and relaxed around the table, opening gifts and sharing stories and opinions about movies.

So what next?  We're going to Disney World! Or Harbor Springs, whichever is colder, and we know the answer to that one!  We look forward to being there by tomorrow evening for much needed rest and relaxation.

Yes, it really is almost 4am...

Why are we up and alert at four in the morning?  We blame it on Steve (and we mean that in the nicest way possible).  We were all prepared to pick Steve up at the airport at 11:30 on Friday (today, yesterday, whatever...), and were very excited to see him, but then he called Cortney at work this afternoon to let her know that his plane has been inexplicably delayed by over an hour.  So poor Steve was stuck in his layover in the Denver airport while we were stuck trying to figure out what woud keep us up and running until we could pick him up at 12:45 am.  So we went out for dinner with Kristin and Matt, as had been originally planned, and then had them over so that Matt could beat us all at Mario Party 7.  Curtis joined the party at 11:30, which was when Cortney checked the flight information online, only to find out that the flight had been delayed again for mechanical difficulties and would arrive at 1:58am.  So at 1:40 off we went to the airport but, after getting Steve and waiting for luggage, we were all on our second (or third?) winds and we were all hungry (Cortney is eating for two...), so we hit an all-night Koney Island and then a Denny's, both of which were too full and too smokey.  Instead we hit the local Kroger and stocked up on eggs, bacon, cheese, hashbrowns and OJ and made our own breakfast at home (Jon is a fantastic cook).  So yes, it really is almost four in the morning and, yes, we are all still awake, but we are, finally, on our way to bed, including the safely arrived Steve.

Tree shopping

We visited a new tree farm with Cortney's parents, Curtis, and Patty for this year's Christmas tree hunt. It turns out that our traditional spot closed forever! The new place didn't have the quality of Scotch pines that we were used to, but it did have the perks of free hot chocolate, cider, and popcorn! Cortney's parents found a good tree to cut themselves, but for our house we decided to wait to see the pre-cut selection of a nursery in town. Our gamble paid off, as we found just the right shape for us. We've been enjoying that Christmas pine scent ever since!