Christmas

Our first Christmas with Hannah was wonderful (quite different from last Christmas spent skiing/snowboarding in the Austrian Alps in Innsbruck, Austria). We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in New Hampshire with Joe's family. Joe's Aunt Polly treated us to a wonderful German dinner (schnitzel, semmelknoedel, and red cabbage) that took us back to last Christmas! So good!!! We realized on Christmas Eve that stairs and a tissue box were all Hannah needed to have a greand time!

Christmas morning started with our "family" stocking! It was about as big as Hannah!

And then on to presents...


Hannah was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing but enjoyed ripping through the wrapping paper and as we expected, enjoyed the boxes very much! But of course, back to the stairs....

After breakfast, we went to Aunt Connie's house for a wonderful Christmas dinner and more playing.....Hannah especially loved the pumpkin pie!

The after effects of the pumpkin pie were quite entertaining! The very definition of sugar high!

Who's the cute mouse?

This weekend

Trying to get into the Christmas spirit.

Yesterday, we took Grandpa Katkin and Thelma out to lunch for an ealry Christmas celebration. They gave Hannah a dog hand-puppet that barks "Santa Claus is coming to town". Too cute! Hannah loved it! And unfortunately, so does Charlie only he would "love it" until it is in shreds so it remains put away most of the time.

After leaving Grandpa's, we were going to the mall to get Hannah's picture taken with Santa Claus. Well, the mission was quickly aborted when we saw the line of cars also going to the mall. Maybe another day...or year. Instead, we went home and walked to Boston Commons to see the big Christmas tree and walk around. We ended up at a japanese restaurant for dinner and yes, our little eater even eats sushi! So far the only food she doesn't like is scrambled eggs and mac'n'cheese. The walk home was a bit chilly so Joe lent Hannah his hat (as we forgot to bring hers). She didn't seem to mind her limited visibility and I thought she looked so cute!

Our new house!!!

Our offer was finally accepted today!! We are very excited and are moving in January 12th!!!

The details...4bd/2.5ba Craftsman in Belmont (a suburb of Boston), only 15 minutes from Joe's work. While new to us, the house is definitely not new...it was built in 1912. It does need a little work, but mostly just cosmetic remodeling (''updating''). Joe has convinced me of how much fun it could be to design a new kitchen! : )

The pictures...

Interesting facts about Belmont...the whole town is roughly 2 miles wide and 2 miles long and is known as the 'town of homes'. It is a dry town, meaning no alcohol is sold in the town (I didn't know there were towns like this that still existed (outside of Utah); isn't prohibition over?), with the exception of licensed restaurants that sell beer or wine (there is a God). The governor of MA, Mitt Romney, lives in Belmont.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Some people go to Christmas tree farms for their tree, we go to Walgreens. : ) But these days, you can get a pre-lit "hannah size" Christmas tree with pine scent (and a fan to blow it around) and since we're in a hotel....that will have to do! Next year we can visit the Christmas tree farm.

Hannah really wanted nothing to do with the decorating but rather spent the time trying to pull off the mini pine cones that were attached to the tree.

Sinterklaas

We do realize we aren't in Amsterdam anymore, but Joe's old group there was kind enough to give Hannah presents to celebrate Sinterklaas (they gave them to Joe when he was there a few weeks ago). We were looking forward to being in Amsterdam with Hannah for her 1st Sinterklaas, as it is very festive - much more than Christmas there, but....here we are.

Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas, the Dutch Santa Claus, and the patron Saint of Amsterdam) comes to town in November from Spain by boat with his helpers, Zwarte Pieten (literally black petes). The idea is much the same as our elves. He then rides through town on a white horse. The zwarte pieten help Sinterklaas with handing out toys and candy to children who have been good (and as legend goes, children who have been bad are put into their knapsacks and taken back to Spain with them - this seems to be a bit more scary than just receiving coal if you're bad). Children also put out their shoes each night and when they awake, Sinterklaas usually leaves a little trinket inside the shoe. The holiday itself is Dec. 5th, but we are told it is celebrated the weekend before when it falls on a weekday....So that leads us to yesterday....when Sinterklaas visited Hannah all the way from Amsterdam.

She was delighted to open her gifts! She got 2 handpuppets, 1 of Sinterklaas and 1 of zwarte piet, and a stuffed Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street. In turn, she gave each of her new toys a hug and a kiss. She's really likes the Bert and Ernie dolls and can't seem to hold one without the other. It's really funny to watch her try to pick them both up as they are almost as big as she is....Thank you so much to all of the QC lab in Amsterdam for thinking of Hannah! So thoughtful and very much appreciate!!! We plan on continuing the tradition of Sinterklaas in our family.

On a different note, our house hunting is coming to a close. We found a few houses we really like and even put an offer on our favorite one yesterday. Fingers crossed, it will be accepted!!