Girls Christmas Presents

The girls got two bright colored toys as presents - a strange Rube
Goldberg contraption with funnels and balls, and a kind of piano they
bang on to make noise.

The pets had asked for toys that do not make noise, so are sulking in
the other room.

Powder Day

A great powder day, on the uphill pictures you can see my tracks,
followed by some cocoa afterwards. Except all that snow made for a
long drive home...

Mine Mine Mine!

Only one season pass, and two (hungry) girls.

Mid mtn at northstar on a windy xmas

Christmas Eve Skiing

J demo'd a bunch of skis today, and took a pass on the Austrian
Atomics (the brand I have) and will probably go with American K2's.
It was a sunny and fun day to be on the mountain, so we skiied all day
and enjoyed ourselves.

That evening we went into the village, and warmed ourselves by the
fire. The girls sat on their first chairlift ... albeit an antique
now turned into a swing by the icerink.

In the village before xmas eve service

Santa Lucia Smorgasbord

We had a holiday party over the weekend, with a smorgasbord. J. made all the cookies on the tri-platter in the foreground.

Kottbullar, prinzkorv, and other hors doerves
Vasterbotten and other nutty types of cheeses. Plus herring on the left.
There were also some other twins there, so we took a group picture. It looks like they all got the 'red clothes memo'.
We also had a visit from our college friend Matt, who now lives in New Orleans, but was visiting family in the area. And we took the girls to another family friends for another little get together.

Today, there was a St Lucia service at St. Johns, followed by another Scandinavian feast, except they enforced a 'everyone must try lutefisk' rule. It is a codfish preserved in lye; it is spongy, stringy, sour and vile. Everyone loved the cold smoked Baltic style salmon we brought.

The girls took a pass on the lutefisk (but had to forsake dessert because they took that option) instead enjoying some limpa bread and peas.

Skiing at Heavenly & Sierra @ Tahoe

We went skiing at the southern Tahoe areas this weekend -- Sierra on Saturday and Heavenly on Sunday.

It was my first time to Sierra which is quick drive (maybe 75 miles on Rt 50) but the snow was wet packed. It seemed like a good place to visit for a day trip, rather than a place that would keep you entertained for a weekend, but that's fine since it is so close to home. We just got our ski legs and tried out a pair of K2's for J. in a new size, 160. Those seemed to work well so we will look for new gear near that size. We stayed in the West Bowl area, which has a fast lift that delivers 1500 vertical feet. Lunch was fish tacos that tasted like cardboard.

We then spent the night in Heavenly Village at our usual spot, the Forest Suites. It's good value and is convenient for the gondola. We picked up a pair of Salomon's for J. to try the next day and had supper at the Stateline Brewery, which was ok, but we were quite hungry so we gobbled it up. The next day we skied the convenient Sky Lodge part of Heavenly as well as the East Lodge area. Those have mild runs, get good snow, and are served by the fast lifts.

The other brand of skis J was testing out didn't seem as pleasant so we've removed them from the potential buy list. The snow at Heavenly was much better, probably because we were higher up, but also because of their snow making, which was well done. As always, the views from the top of the mountain are great, especially on a sunny, clear and warm day like what we enjoyed. On the way home we tried another gastropub recommended by a college friend, which was much better than the first one. So we'll be back to The Brewery.

turkeys at the cabin

So now that we are not at the cabin in Vermont to keep the hordes of turkeys at bay, they have started hanging around persistently.  They're lucky that Thanksgiving is over, otherwise I'd be motivated to put a few of them into a batch of double crust turkey pot pies.  Our old basset hound wasn't much of a guard dog, but she would occassionally gallop after a slothful turkey, so that also used to keep them circumspect about loitering.

 

 

box of babies

all these crazy toys but they love their box the best

do you want to play fetch ?

sitting at grandmas

fish tacos ...

at sierra at tahoe on a wet packed snow day ...

Second advent candle lit

Baby Christmas party

the girls had their first christmas party with other babies from st. Johns

We love our tree!

And want to break as many ornaments as we can grab...

First advent candle lit

Tree finished

Cats cannot resist...

playing in styrofoam packing peanuts ...

Christmas tree trimming

with the girls supervising...

all dressed up

Playing on clean new carpet

Thanksgiving

Some turkey day pictures

Black Friday

Meribel spent her black friday tearing up catalogs:
rip shred tear
fold spindle
Mutilated

Flying monkeys

Big girls at Costco

Sitting side by side carts in their tandem carts!

New outfits

My computer has been at the shop -- one reason why there are less posts -- but here's a picture of the girls new outfits from uncle Andy.

They are getting excited to see everyone at thanksgiving.

Christening at St Johns

Here are some pix of the girls Christening

Diwali Festival

Here is a slideshow from November's Divali festival.

Halloween Pictures

The girls got all dressed up for Halloween -- Ilsa as a monkey and Meribel as a penguin. If you click on the picture, you can see what fun they had all day.

A new play mat

J. went to the twin mothers swap meet yesterday and came back with a multi colored play mat for the girls, which is imperverious to their drool. Here's a short clip of them playing on it, although I missed them smacking the weeble wobble penguin. The poor penguin makes a happy sound when they do that, so Meribel particularly loves hitting him.

It's been a warm October out here -- we have not even turned off the A/C yet -- and some of the fall rituals we used to do in Vermont are no longer necessary here.

A trip to the pumpkin patch

The girls went with their grandma to the pumpkin patch yesterday.

They picked out a nice big pumpkin, went for a hay ride, walked through a maze, and also brought home a bag of fall vegetables.

The twins had a great time, and came home tired and ready for a long nap.

If you click on the picture above, you can see the slide show.

Be Gentle

This weekend the girls went to their nonny's, where they played with
Pablo, the dauchshund. At first, we had to tell the dog, 'Be Gentle'.
So he was polite and only licked their feet. But then the girls
started grabbing at him, especially his long ears, and by the end of
playtime, the girls were the ones being warned to 'Be Gentle'.

I guess that's progress.

The picture with the girls should come with sound, so you'll just have
to imagine the monkey shrieking that accompanied it. They have
healthy lungs indeed. Tonight they had their first vegetables --
roasted pureed butternut squash. They liked it, especially the change
in color from their usual goop.

The paella was from the same recipe that has been in J's family since
the Nixon era. I cheated and took a few short cuts, but it was still
quite good, and J's parents enjoyed it. It's also a good excuse to
pull out the ridiculously large pan we make it in, as well as the
pricey saffron spice jar. And the last bottle of a favorite Rioja.

Felonious Feline

So last night the girls grandparents arrived, and I made lavender stew in the pressure cooker, along with mashed potatoes and sauteed patty pan squash. The lavender stew is in fact made with a tablespoon of lavender and has that unique and delicate flavor infused in it.

This morning we had bagels and sockeye salmon lox. While we were munching on this in the living room, Zamfir had been greedily observing the slab of salmon, and hopped up on the dining room table (and channeling Lena) and started chowing away. I was annoyed since it was a $20 piece of fish and I had assumed we'd have it for both weekend days, but there wasn't much we could do other than consign the rest to the cats. It's a little salty, which he craves, so I hope it doesn't make him sick.