Happy New Year!

Very best wishes to all for a wonderful, happy and healthy New Year.  We hope to see as many as possible of you over the next year... or at least talk to you frequently, since we won't be travelling much!

We have had a very peaceful and restful holiday week.  Samuel has really enjoyed everything about Christmas.  He was so excited when we brought home the tree and has loved playing with the decorations and seeing the lights come on every evening.  Today we took the tree down and he was a great little helper, finding ornaments and giving them to us.  He loved seeing the lights up all over the house, and clapped sometimes when they would come on.  He discovered the joy of presents - opening shiny wrapping paper and boxes, and discovering wonderful new toys to play with.  Luckily, he isn't the sort of child who focuses only on one thing - he really has no favorite toy, but enjoys playing with nearly everything, so he has really appreciated everything that he received this year (many thanks to all those who sent him presents!).  We have spread out the new toys through the house (his room, office, living room) so that he has fun new things to play with in the areas where he usually spends time.  It will be interesting to see how much he remembers - if anything - by the time we get to Christmas next year!

Samuel has even started the New Year with a big step forward in his eating habits.  Over the last couple of months he has increasingly wanted to share our food - but most of what he would chew on would be pushed back out of his mouth again.  Last night and this morning however he ate solid food (popcorn and dry rice krispies) and swallowed nearly all of it! 

The cats greatly enjoyed their Christmas turkey, having been stuffed full of leftovers during the last few days.  If it weren't for the fact that they both react to the presence of The Bird in the house as if they hadn't eaten since the previous Christmas and the turkey was stuffed full of catnip, all would have gone smoothly... Instead, however, I had to exile the cats from the house as I took apart what was left of The Bird (to avoid relentless howling, desperate attempts to snatch morsels and pathetic displays of fake starvation).  While Molson rapidly found a space where he could stare me down through a window, Preacher decided to hide under the deck.  Bad idea.  She is either losing her mind or her eyesight... she couldn't seem to find her way out again and would only miaow pathetically from underneath the deck.  Everntually, late that night, we were able to encourage her to come out by getting her to follow a light and our calls.  Silly cat.  But, who knows... maybe we foiled a dastardly plot by Molson to monopolize all The Bird for himself... !

Dave and I have had a peaceful time, mostly just reading and enjoying Samuel's company.  All still seems to be going well with the pregnancy (now 21 weeks along!), although unfortunately since just before Christmas my pelvic ligaments turned into loose bungee cords and I now walk like Frankenstein... nothing serious for the babies, just a lot of pain and frustration for me (and more work for Dave) as I can barely walk or drive.  Not much anyone can do about it, and hopefully it should go away after the babies are born.  In the meantime though, I most likely have to work from home for the next couple of months as I won't be able to make it into the office anymore.

With very best wishes to you all, from all of us

Julia, Dave, Samuel, Bo and Go (for those of you that haven't got this yet - Buy One, Get One free...) - and Molson and Preacher