Merry Christmas

I've taken many pictures the past two weeks, but my computer is on its last legs. I'm desperately afraid of crashing it if I try to upload my pictures. So I'll try to be more descriptive.

The baby

Jonathan learned how to smile last week. He opens his mouth wide, corners upturned, and his eyes sparkle with such happiness. His smile is truly dazzling. Mostly he smiles at me, but occasionally graces the other members of the family with tiny smiles. He reserves his biggest, happiest smiles for me though. Today, while nursing, he turned and looked at me and gave me such a big smile. Then he remembered that he was hungry and went back to nursing. But every once in a while, he would pop off to smile at me. While it is completely adorable, it does make the process go much slower. He already takes a long time to eat and now that he's taking smile breaks, he may start taking nearly an hour to eat! Oh well, I need the rest anyhow.
Jonathan also learned how to coo and laugh. Walter was holding Jonathan and he let out the cutest little laugh. Instead of grunting, the baby now makes sweet cooing little noises.
I love how Jonathan stares at me as if I were his whole world. His dark eyes gaze at me intently and seriously. It is both humbling and pleasing to feel so much love from such a tiny little person. It is almost as if his great soul shines through his eyes when he looks at me.

Holiday Concert
Trent and Josef performed in the school holiday concert on December 17th. Trent's class was first. He has been practicing his song for over a month now. "I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas!" It is so funny to hear the song come from Trent. With his crazy hair full of cowlicks that refuse to respond to the comb, slightly crooked smile and deep dimple, he looks the picture of the little mischievous boy who only had coal to look forward to for Christmas. Trent sang with such gusto and enthusiasm for the actual performance that he fell off the risers. Fortunately, he was not hurt and bounced right back up, without missing a beat in the song.
Josef's performance was more sedate. He sang earnestly, but a bit shyly with his class, keeping his hands tightly buried in his pockets. Grades K-3 finished with a rousing version of "We wish you a swinging holiday". Brooke did much better at this concert. I had dressed her in a favorite puffy, twirly pink dress. She danced in the aisle for most of the concert and was reasonably quiet.
Brooke's friend, Max, was a the concert. He is a serious little boy of 4, with the cutest, chubbiest cheeks I've ever seen. He was so serious as he looked at Jonathan. We talked about the baby and he asked if could pet him. Max also asked where I got the baby. I explained that the baby grew inside of me and when he was big enough came out. Max looked very puzzled and asked me if I had eaten the baby. I laughed and said no. I warned my friend that she would probably have a tangle of explanations on her hands to deal with.

Brent's job interviews
After several months of not hearing anything from IBM about a new job and moving abroad, things started to move forward. But they let us know they didn't want us to move abroad, but stay here. Brent will probably have to do some traveling, but he is more needed here. It is actually a different job from the one originally discussed, and suits us better. However, if we hadn't expressed willingness to move abroad, Brent would never have been considered for this new position. Brent has had twelve interviews in the past two weeks with the top managers. We're pretty certain that they'll offer Brent the position. We'll see what happens. Truthfully, our willingness to accept the position comes down to salary. It's been a tough two years, living on a postdoc salary in one of the most expensive counties in the U.S. We would like to be able to save money and to visit our families out west. I'm waiting to send out Christmas letters in the hopes that I can announce that we are staying here.

Birthday
We celebrated Brent's birthday on Friday. He turned 34. We celebrated mainly with food. The kids helped me fix a nice breakfast. Then I met Brent at work and we ate lunch together. In the evening we made pizza.

Snow
We had a pretty big storm on Sunday. Church was postponed 2 1/2 hours. By then, the roads were cleared and we enjoyed a lovely Christmas service with beautiful music. The snow brought back some wonderful memories for me.
It's been cold enough for the snow to stick. Yesterday, we all went outside and played in the snow. Brent and the boys made forts and had a snowball fight. Brooke and I built snow towers with shovels and then Brooke kicked them down. The air was cold, but the sun was out in full force and really made the day quite pleasant.

Christmas
We've really enjoyed this Christmas. The boys all received some very practical gifts: clothes and new mattresses. But they also got some fun board games and other great toys. We spent the day enjoying the new toys.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Much love,
Tiffany