holiday summary

It seems that the busyness of the holiday season made us blog-impaired (actually, our internet connection was bad). So much has happened since Christmas that I actually need to look at a calendar to remind me of everything we’ve been up to!

Zuzu’s Poppa came to visit and take care of Zuzu for two days before Christmastime. Our normally good-natured girl decided those were the days to get her Christmas wish: her two front teeth. Except they wound up being one of her front teeth and one next to it on the other side. Thankfully, her other front tooth just broke through so soon she won’t be so asymmetrical. Now she’s got a total of six teeth and knows how to use them.

On the Friday night before Christmas, Andy & Rox drove through the fog and stayed with us after their flight from St. Louis to Des Moines was cancelled. Zuzu had a surprise to wake up on Saturday morning and find her uncle and aunt here!

The next day was “adventure day”. Once we got all packed, car loaded, and headed west on the interstate toward Ames, our windshield began to ice over. Just outside the Little Amana exit, all cars suddenly started braking…then the car in front of us slid into the ditch (thanks to Ty’s maneuvering we managed to not hit it)…then a semi narrowly missed rear-ending the car next to us…and then we saw a freshly-flipped car in the median…all in a matter of seconds. Clearly no one was meant to be traveling and heading back to Iowa City was not a safe option. We would end up getting a room at the Super 8 in Little Amana before all the rooms were sold out and had a “vacation” at exit 225. By vacation I mean there was no laundry to do, no phone to answer, no emails to check, no presents to wrap, and there was cable TV and a king-size bed. Who cared that our sink in the hotel didn’t have hot water? Zuzu thought sleeping in a king-sized bed was pretty cool, and decided to let us know by giving us a happy wake up call in the middle of the night. Here's a view from our hotel room window the next morning, and a glimpse at our exciting night in Little Amana.

Zuzu had a wonderful first Christmas. As expected, tissue paper scored high marks in the gift category. She now has actual toys to play with and is having a ball. The other day I sang one of the songs that a new toy plays and she looked at me, then at her musical table, and made a beeline straight for it. Below are some of the miniature canvases that Zuzu painted for her grandparents and aunts and uncles as gifts with her fingers and toes.

We returned from Ames to be greeted by ice dams…water coming in the kitchen window, through the insulation, out the light switches, dripping down into the storage room, through the soffits and who knows where we can’t see. Argh. The roofers who put our roof on last winter came out and cleared all the snow off our roof twice. Once winter is over they’ll try to solve the problem and begin repairs.

After Christmas, Zuzu's Ama and Poppa came to take care of her for a few days. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity and get both sets of her grandparents together. Actually, our parents hadn't seen each other since the day after our wedding seven and a half years ago, so it was kind of a rare thing. I think it looks like they're tearing Zuzu apart in this picture, but the theme was intended to be "sharing".