The Bees are Buzzing

...and the ladybugs are appearing. It seems the warm weather we're having is fooling them into thinking that it's spring. There are also some trees in bloom.

We did more house shopping today. We revisited the one we like the most, but it depends where Mom and Dad work whether or not this will be a good location for them. We'll keep looking.

Gabriel made a sign sentence today. He signed "please" and "eat", meaning "Please, may I have some crackers?"

We've added a new permanent link on the right side of the page. It's the 1950-1980 yearbook for the Kapel'a Banduristiw imena Tarac' Shevchenko (not sure about the forms of the last two words), or the Bandurist Choir in the name of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's revered poet. His famous work is Kobzar, which is a sort of wandering minstrel bandurist, I think. A bandura is an instrument that is half double bass, half harp. Anyhow, look for Havrylo Machynia, P's grandpa ("did"). His story is really interesting but for another day.

That's it for today. My boys are in bed and I'd like to join them.

Z Rizdvom Hristovim

Merry (Orthodox) Christmas! We celebrated today by making our first ever homemade Ukrainian dinner (even though it's supposed to be eaten on Sviat Vechir - Christmas Eve), and it was fantastic, if the chef does say so herself. We had stuffed salmon and varenyky, and for dessert we had Pillsbury out-of-the-freezer-at-Super Target cookie dough pie (not so Ukie, but sooo yummy). Yes, we know the pysanky on the table are for Easter, but they make such beautiful decorations!

We stuffed the salmon with a mixture of lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper, onion, celery, and rice and covered it with the remainder after rubbing it with garlic and butter. The rice came out a little undercooked, but overall it tasted and smelled fantastic.

The varenyky (pierogi) were a little more tricky. We made the dough from scratch, and it was super sticky. We went through an enormous amount of flour to keep it from sticking to the wax paper. We made the filling from mashed potatoes (from the box, it was a very late dinner and besides, we're not that anal!), onions, and cottage cheese, with a dash of salt and pepper. After doing only a couple, we got the hang of it and made the rest pretty quickly. Not a single one opened up while cooking, so we're pretty proud of that. After they were drained, we tossed them in butter and P added a good dose of smetana (sour cream) on top of hers. They were perfectly cooked - nice and firm - and they expanded nicely, and the dough, which was pretty tasteless uncooked, developed a really nice flavor. We'll never eat pierogi out of a box again.

We were so proud of how well the dinner turned out, and we're very excited to be keeping Ukrainian cultural tradition in our family. With Chip in bed, we were able to sit in the dining room, have some wine (Ecco Domani pinot grigio) with dinner, and (gasp!) talk for once! Here's a photo of the proud chef:

We also did some house shopping for the future Georgians, Patty's mom and dad, today and found a really great one, but it's too far from everything. We have a couple more to see tomorrow, and hopefully we (along with Mom and Dad) can choose one by Monday. Anyway, Merry Christmas! Here are a couple of links that you might enjoy:

Ukie Christmas Eve

Ukie Christmas and why it's celebrated 13 days "late"

More of the same but with some great pictures

On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas

...Dad and Gail gave to us, presents under the tree. We got to open more presents today, this time under our own tree, and it was really great. Gabriel loved his toys and played with them all night. He especially loved the police helicopter, of course, and we're even big fans of Playmobil toys.

We did a lot of house shopping today for Mom and Dad, and there is one that stands out, but we're going to keep looking just in case. We also took a bunch of photos last night and today, and Gabriel even took a couple. We were amazed at how well his first photo came out - it's rare that the hazel in his mommy's eyes shows up in photos (and by the way, we could all do without whatever that is in her teeth, and oy, that grey hair), so we see National Geographic photography in his future. Here are some of our favorites from last night and today:

Going for a walk last night

"This house is safe enough for me"

Vroom, vroom!

Trying to outrun the camera

Chip gives the train conductor a career change

Cutest pjs ever

GLA's first photo ever

The Blog Is Back

Happy New Year!

Just a quick little blog to get back into the habit. We had a wonderful 2+ week vacation and have lots to look forward to in the next few months.

Back up north, Gabriel got to spend lots of time with all of his family and loved every second of it, except the seconds spent in the car (and there was lots of time in the car), oh, and the visit to Santa Claus at Oakland Mall. He was totally spoiled with presents, which was not really a surprise, but he really has outgrown his old toys and most of his old clothes, so it was all great. Mommy and Daddy will be playing with a lot of the toys, especially the train from Aunt Laura and the H3 from Uncle Jack and the dinosaur book from Aunt Candy and Uncle Jim, but we will be sure to share.

Chip also got to really play in the snow for the first time (and only, so far, since it all melted right after Christmas). At Aunt Laura's house, we took about half an hour to dress him (for a 10-minute outing) in his snowsuit, boots (that light up!), winter coat, mittens, and hat, and he looked just like Randy from A Christmas Story ("I can't put my arms down!" "You can put your arms down when you get to school."). As Mom said, he looked like a tick about to pop. After a little confusion about the white stuff, he ended up having a great time. We just had to make sure he didn't fall face down because he couldn't use his arms to get back up!

The biggest news of the trip was that Gabriel will have a new Grandpa! Nick will become Grampa Nick at an unspecified date, but we are soooooo excited. He already loves his newest Grampa, and we love him too, even though we had to come up with yet another unique grandparent name to go with Gramps, Grammie, Granddad, Grandma Gail, and Gramma, not to mention that Aunt Sophie and Uncle Phil have adopted him as their grandchild as well and skipped right over the great-great-nephew bit. Gabriel is so lucky, and we are so lucky, to have such a huge extended family of people, every one of whom loves us so much and whom we love so much, and it keeps growing! But we digress... Mom is so happy, and Nick is so happy, and they are such a great couple that everyone around them can't help but have a great time. So we will be celebrating for a long time to come!

The other big news is that Mom and Dad sold their house, so they will become Georgians in the next few weeks. We know they must be nervous, but we've been through the big change (well, not that big change) and know that it will end up to be an exciting adventure for them. They are really going to love it here - the people, the climate, everything there is to do - there's so much we can't wait to show them. We're shopping for houses for them to rent for their first year here, and it's going to be fun picking a place. There seem to be some great choices.

We decided to go to Peru for Erica and Raul's wedding and to sightsee and have our own little adventure. We decided that we need to let go of Gabriel for one week and concentrate on us spouses, and we also decided that one of our top priorities is travel and having new experiences in different cultures. Those two things, combined with the chance to support our friends in a unique way and a pretty great deal from Priceline, made the decision evident for us. Plus, the national dish is ceviche. That was a pretty good advertisement in itself. We highly recommend Priceline.com. This is the second time we've used them, and we've gotten great deals and great times both times. We're flying Delta non-stop both ways. Granted, our return flight will be a red-eye, but we don't mind that at all. That will be one less night we have to stay at a hotel, as we'll go to the airport when we'd normally be going to bed. We are planning to stay in Lima for 3 days and Cuzco for 3 days, with a trip there to Machu Picchu. We've already got the guidebook and are studying our Spanish. Raul's friend owns a travel agency and will help us get organized, and maybe he will even find a way for us to camp at a base camp in the Andes or on the Inca trail for a night. That would be a definite highlight. This trip will also be a celebration of our sort-of 10 year anniversary, so that will be a bonus.

Raul left for his final term of study in Peru today, so we wish Erica lots of busy days as she counts the days until their wedding. Gabriel and I couldn't get to the airport to hang out with him during his super-long layover, so we were bummed about that, especially since he decided as an alternative to follow a shady character who was on his flight from Montreal... hope he didn't get into any trouble. Knowing Raul, he probably carried out a covert operation to figure out exactly why the guy was acting strange and took notes. Then he probably had a hot tea and read a book.

We also found out that our friend Judy will be getting married, probably in May, to a magna cum laude doctoral graduate from Duke who is also a minister. Wow. They both sound very happy, and so we are very happy for them! Lots of weddings this year, and what a great start to 2006!

Mommy Who?

Gabriel has forgotten all about his mommy and is having much more fun with his gramma this week. We're really glad that she's here, too. We're having a great time. We've been out to eat a couple of times, walking on the Silver Comet trail:

...cookie-baking, and to a MOMS Club meeting, and she's only been here for two days.

We dressed our little "grease monkey" (as his shirt says) like a greaser, using a Halloween box of Nerds instead of cigarettes, and he looked so cute.

Tomorrow, we are going to the Georgia Aquarium to see what all the hype's about. We're really excited about that, even though they don't have family memberships, which irks us, but that's a soapbox for another time...

XM Radio rules. We just got our Audiovox receiver yesterday, and we are obsessed with it. Our subscription comes with internet access, so Matt can listen at work, and we can also listen on the computer anywhere in the house (or anywhere with internet access, for that matter). The channels are great, the songs they play are interesting and not the same stuff you hear on the radio every day, and it displays the artist and song so you can actually get to know the music. There are all kinds of music (country and western, you say?!), as well as talk, news, local traffic and weather, comedy... plenty to keep even the most easily bored people (us) entertained for a very, very long time. We already have a few favorite channels, among them Fred, Lucy, and Ethel.