Christmas 2010

2010 was our year to have Christmas here in DC, and kept up some of our cherished DC Christmas traditions, like visiting the Botanic Gardens to see the trains (though the lines were too long the first time we went, so we held off on the train part of the gardens until after Christmas); hosting Christmas Eve dinner at our house (we even made our mole chicken enchiladas again); and having Christmas dinner at Mom Mom's house with friends and family. Grandpa Don hopefully started a new tradition with his delicious oysters on the half shell (which aunt Katherine had no trouble convincing the kids were disgusting); Aunt Katherine and I took up competitive napkin folding; and Mom Mom brought back an old favorite, prime rib and Yorkshire pudding, for Christmas dinner. Owen was most excited about his Razor scooter from Santa and his very on copy of the Lorax, and Nora was awfully fond of her Bitty Baby and her Mrs. Potato Head, not to mention the her Great Grandma Fawcett's restored wicker rocking chair at Mom Mom's house. Christmas 2010 also brought a few extra reasons to celebrate, as Aunt Katherine and I both received job offers on the day before Christmas Eve. All together it was a wonderful holiday spent with family and friends. As Owen insists we say now, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

(click here for X-Mas Eve pictures)
(click here for X-Mas pictures)

Christmas Caroling

One of the things we love about our house is our wonderful neighbors. There are a lot of kids on our block, and it's so nice for Owen to be able to go knock on the door of a friends house to go play (and Nora is starting to be old enough to join in the fun). In the summer time they get to go play superheroes, and in the winter they play in the snow. On Christmas Eve eve, the neighborhood kids and parents joined in song and went caroling on our block. We sang Jingle Bells, Rudolph, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Joy to the World bringing a little Christmas cheer and a healthy dose of cuteness to the neighbors. Then we all went back to Will and Katy's house for hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving

Owen started school this year, which means our non-summer travel is suddenly constrained by truancy officers who require a conference after five unexcused absences. This is problematic, as Owen's break doesn't technically begin until the day before the holiday and every other year we head to Iowa for Thanksgiving, by car.

So despite being awarded a perfect attendance certificate the Thursday before, we let Owen play hookey Monday-Wednesday and left for Iowa over the weekend. We spent the night at Uncle L and Aunt Katherine's on Saturday and arrived in Iowa Sunday evening.

As we weren't the only offspring that were driving to Grandma & Grandpa Z's (and Steve & Becky are less inclined to encourage delinquency in their children), we spent Monday and Tuesday hanging out with Fawcetts until Dave & Kara arrived Wednesday night and Ellen, John & Caitlin as well as Steve, Becky & the kids showed up Thursday afternoon.

The cousins had an amazing time and we adults enjoyed ourselves. Owen reported that his favorite part of the meal was eating the rolls he helped me make and Nora discovered that she inherited her father's love of pies. Come Friday morning, though, we quickly bid Grandma & Grandpa Z a fond farewell and headed back to DC.

Where three disgruntled messages from DCPS discussing Owen's absences awaited us.

(Click here to see all of the Thanksgiving pictures)

Christmas 2009 in MD

We finally reached the end of our Christmases with our Christmas gathering at Mom Mom and Grandpa Don's house on the 30th. It was Aunt Katherine's dream Christmas, she always wants to delay opening presents as long as possible, and this year the lateness of opening presents was beyond her wildest dreams. Not only did we wait till the 30th to celebrate Christmas on this side of the family, we didn't actually open any presents until after dinner. Despite the delayed presents, it was a lovely Christmas. Katherine and Lee were in town, Jen came with her friend Brian, Jeff made it (although Krysta was feeling sick), and Joe came over (but Holly was back in Texas). Nancy and Danny were out of town, but Christoper was there to represent the Smiths. All and all it was lovely Christmas.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Chistmas 2009 in Iowa

At 8:50 on Christmas morning, Owen awoke, walked past the stockings and tree to his grandparent's kitchen and demanded a bowl of cereal. He promptly ate 2 spoonfuls of Cheerios and then declared he was going back to sleep, which he did, until 11:30. After another trip to the kitchen for some more cereal, he finally declared he was ready to open presents shortly before noon. 

It was actually pretty appropriate given the holiday has largely been a series of fits and starts. The weather meant that Cousin Caitlin (along with Uncle John and Paxton) had to come down Monday rather than Thursday in order to meet her god-daughter but that Auntie Ellen had to work. It meant that Uncle Bernie couldn't come at all. And it meant that Grandma Z's Christmas dinner for 18 was more of a Yuletide lunch for 8. 

But eventually gifts were opened, candy eaten, and visiting done including a playdate with second cousins Ethan, Simon and Grace. Owen and Nora got a lot of extra time with Uncle Dave and Aunt Kara and eventually Uncle Steve and Aunt Becky made it along with cousins Olivia, Maura & Sam.

 

 

(click here to see all the pictures)

Thanksgiving 2009

A little bit of catching up to do in this post. First of all, we had a lovely, traditional Thanksgiving at Nancy & Danny's house this year. Nancy made her famous mole gravy, and Elaine baked her fabulous pumpkin pie. Katherine & Lee were in town, and Adrienne came up as well. Danny built a gigantic dining room table to accommodate the masses, while Owen and Makayla were relegated to their own, private kids table. Some traditions weren't quite the same, for Katherine, Adrienne, and Christopher the drinks weren't flowing quite as freely as in years past. They are getting older after all, or maybe it was just the marathon Katherine and Adrienne had just run in Richmond, or perhaps it was Nancy's twin brother taking up the slack (the less said about this photo the better ;-). Despite the lack of alcohol, Owen was sure to maintain one Thanksgiving tradition, as half way through dinner he took off his shirt and ran around the house shouting, "naked boy!" Yes, a wonderful time was had by all.

The next day, despite a freak hail storm, we ventured out to Eastern Market to pick out our Christmas tree, and then went up to Silver Spring for dinner at Mom mom's house with aunt Katherine & uncle L and aunt Jen. Owen and Makayla had a great time playing together, and we all stuffed ourselves with a lovely dinner for the second night in a row.

To complete our Thanksgiving weekend, on Saturday we took advantage of sunny skies and relatively warm temperatures for a trip to the zoo with the Hyatts. Nabeel and Megan were in town with Kaden and Liam, and it is always wonderful to see such great friends. Owen and Kaden had a blast looking at all the animals (they even learned a thing or two about giant tortoise mating habits), and Kaden even tried to teach Owen how to read a map.

All and all, we had a lot to be thankful for this year, and we celebrated in style.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Hinkel Horn Honker and Bright Red Boots

Aside from his boxes, Owen's favorite presents this year were his bright red boots (just like Gossie's), and his Dr. Seussian Hinkel-Horn-Honker (which is really called a Saxoflute, but it's much cuter to hear Owen say Hinkel-Horn-Honker). We all had a lovely Christmas, as we spent most of the day up at Mom & Don's with friends and family packing our day with fun and our stomachs with delicious food. Grandma and Grandpa Z arrived in town the day after Christmas, and we're looking forward to closing our 2008 with a week of fun and adventure in and around DC.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

There was turkey. There was pie. There was a "naked boy" doing laps in the livingroom. It was a fun-filled Zimmerman Thanksgiving with Grady relations Bernie, Blaine, Caitlin, Ellen & John there for an afternoon of food, family and bird puppets.

The Zimmerman cousins, aunts and uncles all left by Friday afternoon, but the Fawcetts were just starting to gather and so on Friday night Owen had a playdate with his second cousins Ethan and Grace (though Grace slept through most of it). The boys hadn't been together since Owen's baptism and it's amazing how much trouble they can get into now that they're both mobile. Fortunately, there were a lot of us around to intercede when necessary, and the boys had great time together.



(click here to see all the pictures)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Sixth and Seventh Days of Christmas

The Schaumburg Zimmermans brought with them to Iowa presents, tidings of comfort and joy as well as a touch of the flu. While Maura was pretty much in remission on Monday, Sam became horribly ill during Christmas Eve dinner. He improved on Christmas Day (ah, the medicinal power of Santa) but apparently had a relapse after they returned home. Owen, who emulates his older cousin Sam, succumbed in the wee hours of Friday morning and spent the bulk of the day either throwing up (mostly on Mommy) or sleeping. We wisely rescheduled dinner with the Fawcetts until Saturday evening, when Owen was more rested and less nauseous. We're just hoping he doesn't have a recurrence at 10,000 feet.

The Fifth Day of Christmas

It wouldn't be a Christmas in Iowa without a gathering of Gradys, so Wednesday morning we packed ourselves into two minivans and drove 2 1/2 hours to Hampton for Uncle Bernie's curiously named given the absence of both, "Dancing in the Grass" celebration. While not everyone could make it, Owen was finally able to meet Great Aunt Jeannine and cousin Molly as well as Great Uncle Al and cousin Nicho and Elaine got to meet the much lauded boyfriend of cousin Caitlin, Paxton. Owen was in heaven as Great Aunt Ellen was happy to wash his hands upon request, Molly gave him piggy back rides and due to a well stocked coffee table, he was able to help himself to all sorts of treats (until Mommy took them away). We left a bit early in order to avoid the worst of yet another snowstorm, but not before cousin Blaine broke out the "Maura wig."

(You've seen our pictures by now, click here to see Blaine's pictures)

The Third and Fourth Days of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas (i.e. Christmas Eve) we finally had all of the grandkids together under one roof. Owen was in awe of the things his cousins could do, and his cousins were thrilled to have a new playmate, particularly one they could bathe. Olivia and Maura let Owen join in the annual 're-enact Allen & Elaine's wedding with Elaine pretending to be a princess and Allen pretending to be a chicken-watermelon' game and declared Owen a very good chicken-watermelon baby (don't ask). Meanwhile, Sam had caught a little stomach bug from Maura, and was sick most of the night (we'll revisit the ramifications of this in a future blog post).

On the fourth day of Christmas (i.e. Christmas day) we headed over to West Branch for an early morning mass and then (finally) opened presents from Santa after we returned. Dave and Kara arrived that afternoon to finish bringing the family together, and we gorged ourselves on delicious homemade candies and cookies all day, leaving just enough room for a little pie after Christmas dinner.

(click here for all the pictures)

The Second Day of Christmas

Traveling to the Midwest in any month ending in "ember" is always a bit dicey, and when reports surfaced of mass flight cancellations due to menacing weather over the weekend, we grew a bit nervous. That is, until we found out that due to a winter storm front, our friends Joe & Cate and daughter Gigi who'd been scheduled to leave Friday would be able to join us in our three hour (which turned out to be 4 1/2 hour) layover in St. Louis on Sunday. Time passes a lot faster when there are drinks and a new 10 week old to meet. While Gigi was mostly oblivious and Owen was preoccupied with the three foot Santa next door to the bar, all the Moms and Dads were grateful for the serendipitous layover.

Owen was in a less gracious mood when we finally made our way to Iowa. After finally locating our luggage amid the dozens of stranded bags, we flagged down Grandpa & Grandma Z as they circled the airport, unable to park due to snow drifts and ice. Owen immediately crashed in his carseat as we slowly made our way to Iowa City where we finally settled in for the night.

The First Day of Christmas

We reminded friends and family as the holiday season approached that we have a small house with no storage and so, should they feel compelled to give Owen a present, diminutive was the way to go. We then proceeded to get Owen the "monster truck" of wagons. It's not like we intend to do a lot of off-roading with his Radio Flyer, but I suppose it's nice to have the option. And this way, we have a place to store all those diminutive gifts everyone else got him.

After opening presents in the morning at our place, we headed to Mom-mom's & Grandpa Don's for another marathon session of gift giving where Owen received two more alternative modes of transportation. Ten hours and a delicious dinner later, we headed home, stopping only to pick up the Pearsons. After a quick visit with Chris and Elise, we (finally) put Owen down for the night and then packed in anticipation of our trip to Iowa the next morning.

(Click here to see all the pictures)

Thanksgiving

This year we stayed in town for Thanksgiving, and as is our tradition in odd numbered years, we had Thanksgiving dinner with Nancy & Danny at their house in Old Town. Katherine and Adrienne teamed up to make especially potent Thanksgiving cocktails involving rum, cider, several mystery ingredients, and numerous sticks of butter in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to recreate the events that led to this picture the last time we had Thanksgiving at Nancy & Danny's. As a consolation prize, they did manage to get Christopher into his bathrobe before the end of the night.

Owen had a great time playing on the stairs with Grandpa Don, and cautiously admiring all of the antique crystal and other breakable curios throughout the house. This of course was his first real Thanksgiving meal, and while he wasn't entirely sure about the turkey, he absolutely loved the pumpkin pie.

We had a great time the rest of the weekend, visiting the Air & Space museum with Katherine and Adrienne on Friday before meeting up with Mommy for dinner and having Jeremye & Channa over that night; going to the Corcoran to see the Annie Leibovitz & Ansel Adams exhibits with Emilie; and going out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate Grandpa and Claudine's birthdays.

All and all it was a great holiday weekend, and we even found time to put up the Christmas tree.

(click here to see all the pictures)

Owen's First Christmas

Christmas Letter

Greetings,

I begin this holiday season by noting that most biblical scholars believe Christ’s birth actually occurred in the spring. Citing a reference in the Gospel according to Luke to shepherds watching their flock at night, these scholars argue this would only have occurred during the lambing season, as otherwise sheep would be corralled. That we celebrate Jesus’ birth at the end of December is largely due to a Roman interpretation of winter solstice as the earth dying, a fate only avoided via the “Return of the Sun” -- a bacchanalian festival. A pragmatic bishop decided that his flock could avoid religious persecution if they just celebrated the birth of the savior around the same time, and this is how December 25th became Christmas. I mention this because had early Romans lived in the Southern Hemisphere or understood the earth’s orbit, I would have had several more months to prepare for this holiday season. As such, consider the fact that you’re receiving this letter before February as some sort of Christmas miracle.

While I tend to feel overwhelmed by the holidays every year, this year I feel it more acutely, primarily because after Allen and I had a baby in August and this is Owen’s first Christmas. Halls were to be decked. Cookies decorated with sparkly things. Homemade cards with handwritten notes. Gifts thoughtfully picked out months in advance. There was going to be bunting and holly and all things merry and jolly with each evening ending with our singing carols by the fire. And while Owen would have no memory of any of this, it was going to be dutifully recorded in his baby book so that he could read about his amazing first Christmas once he was able to read.

Now having known I was pregnant since before last Christmas, one could argue that we had more than enough time to accomplish such a wish list (plus the light display I wanted that Allen nixed). But I had morning sickness for most of January. We spent February through April searching for a house, May purchasing and moving into said house and June through July preparing it for Owen’s arrival (plus Allen’s had to go to South Africa for work). In August we had Owen and September and October were spent trying to convince Owen that he wanted to sleep for more than three hours in a row (he’s still not fully convinced).

In theory, a perfect Christmas can be accomplished with just November and December. But early in November Allen’s grandfather passed away and so we went to Iowa for a week. We had already planned to spend Thanksgiving at my parents and so there was another week in Texas. Then Allen had to go to Japan for a week in December. All the while, I’ve been trying to work from home.

So we scaled back a bit. There is a tree and stockings but no bunting (Allen felt it was more appropriate for the Fourth of July or opening day of the baseball season anyway). We nixed the cookies as our nod to America’s growing obesity problem. Our fireplace isn’t currently in working order, but I do sing various carols to Owen when I’m changing him and he seems to enjoy it just fine. We’re still working on the gifts. And while Allen did make our Christmas cards, the personal notes got replaced by just this letter.

Anyway, we hope you all have had a wonderful year and that the holidays find you healthy and happy. Thanks for all your well wishes, gifts and advice with regards to our new little one, and to hear more about our adventures (or get a jumpstart on our excuses for why next year’s Christmas didn’t turn out as planned), please check out our blog at:

http://allen-and-elaine.blogspot.com/

And in the immortal words of the Daily Show’s Samatha Bee,

But really let's face it all other days bow down to the 25th: Christmas. It's the only religious holiday that's also a Federal holiday. That way Christians can go to their services and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of Separation of Church and State.

Happy Holidays,

Allen, Elaine & Owen

And an iPod for everyone under the tree...

We finally celebrated Christmas at Mom's house on Friday (five days after Christmas). Katherine, who always wants to wait as long as possible to open her presents, was thrilled about the delay. Katherine, Mom, Don, Elaine and myself all gathered together Friday afternoon to open presents, Squirrel & Garcon played with each other, and later that evening Jeff & Krysta and Nancy & Danny joined us for our belated but delicious Christmas dinner.

This Christmas Elaine and I both received iPods (mine a 60GB iPod from Mom for a joint X-Mas and B-Day present, and Elaine's a 4GB Nano from me). I'd been reluctant to make the move from cd's to digital music mainly because my old computer was down to less than a gigabyte of free space on it's hard drive, but a new laptop lifted that constraint a few months ago, and the new iPods looked too good to pass up. Elaine's biggest thrill this whole thing is that we can finally box up some of our cd's and free up a tremendous amount of shelf space. That of course will have to wait a bit as I'm slogging through the process of ripping 600 cd's.

On Saturday Elaine and I had a little New Year's party at our place with Brandon & Anneke and Shane & Laura, and 67% of us found iPods under our Christmas trees. Then on the way to work to day I noticed quite a few new white earbuds on the metro. Finally my suspicions that Steve Jobbs had stolen the Santa contract away from the elves was confirmed when I went to the EPA gym today and every single one of the five people working had a brand new iPod with them.

(click here to see all the pictures from Christmas in MD, or here for the slideshow)

War Stories

One of the best parts of Thanksgiving dinner was hearing my grandfather (Pop Pop to me, Marvin Atchison to most) tell stories about his experiences during World War II. This video records his story about how he won the Silver Star fighting on the island of Saipan. (Click here to see the full video (4 min 35 sec) on Google Video.) On a more lighthearted note, in this next video Pop Pop tells the story of how he met my grandmother (Mom Mom, aka Janelda Atchison). (Click here to see the full video (5 min 4 sec) on Google Video.) Some other time I'll have to convince Pop Pop to tell the story about being shot through the neck on his 21st birthday and winning the Purple Heart. ------- update --------- Here are the full videos Silver Star Pop Pop Meets Mom Mom

The Days After Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving, Elaine and I had Mom & Don, Katherine, Adrienne, and Pop Pop over to our house to celebrate our Austin connections and watch the Texas vs. Texas A&M football game. Katherine and Adrienne decided to be a bit ornery and root for the Aggies, just because Pop Pop rooted for Miami over Virginia Tech a few weeks earlier. Fortunately their rooting wasn’t enough to prevent Texas to pull out the win and keep their undefeated record in tact. Elaine and I made pork tenderloin with cranberry sauce for dinner after the game, which we somehow managed to find room to eat after gorging ourselves the night before at Nancy & Danny’s.

On Saturday, we all went over to Mom & Don’s to meet Mom's new cat, Squirrel Nutkin; play with Katherine's dog, Tamu; eat bbq pork; and watch the Virginia Tech vs. UNC football game. Katherine, Adrienne and Darius also played the “drink a shot of vodka every time someone scores” game, which led to 10 shots and much hilarity for the rest of us. Pop Pop enjoyed the most highs and lows that resulted from the game. Katherine and Adrienne decided they needed many pictures with Pop Pop, one of which, taken by Darius involved this exchange:

Darius: “Adrienne, you’ll have to move your boob off of Pop Pop’s head for the picture.”

Pop Pop: “Darius, you talk too much.”

If that was one of the highs of the game for Pop Pop, one of the lows would have to be waking up in the middle of the night with what he thought was Katherine’s dog Tamu jumping into bed with him, only to find out that it was Darius stumbling into the wrong bedroom. Ahh … the joys of Virginia Tech drinking games.

On Sunday, the last day of our post-Thanksgiving celebrations, Elaine and I went over to 813 E. Capitol to have lunch and celebrate Dad’s 62nd birthday with Rodney, Claudine, Evelyn, Jimmy Jackson, and Merrily. Katherine, suffering the after effects of the previous night’s revelry, managed to rouse herself out of bed and make it all the way down town. She even had enough energy to give Dad his present, but as soon as the food was served, her hang-over won out and she headed back up to Silver Spring and the comfort of her own bed.


(click here to see all the pictures, or here for the slideshow)