I was amazed at how leetle Baby Texas Bunny looked as she was getting her bath.

And how cute she looked afterward wrapped up in her towel.

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This was the first that I got to hold my niece. See how she has ahold of my fingers. She is just too precious. It has been a lot of fun holding her and seeing her facial expressions. Or looking at her as other people hold her or she swings in her swing or plays on her mat. Heck, just about any time. ;-)

I'm starting to get quite a collection of pictures of Baby Texas Bunny and I've only been here for one full day!

Here is one with Grandma holding her in natural light.

I'm trying to take more photos with natural light, but sometimes the brightness makes her frown. So, I'll just be doing my best this week.

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- continued from before -

21. What is your favorite Christmas movie?

The Cutting Edge. It isn't exactly a Christmas movie, but it always reminds me of Christmas because it has a Christmas scene in it, has ice skating, and Texas Seestor and I went to see it in the theater when we were both home from college for Christmas break. I watch it every year.

I also like White Christmas a lot.

22. What do you leave out for Santa?

Nothing (ducks head).

But as children we left out a variety of cookies - decorated sugar cut-outs, pfeffer nusse, and peanut butter blossoms (the ones with the hershey kisses in the center). There were always crumbs left when we woke up in the morning. Come to find out, my uncle was always responsible for eating the cookies.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year?

Clothes. Isn't that dull? Ah well, it is what I really need and I hate shopping for clothes, so I'm asking other people to do the dirty-work for me. I suppose that is rather self-indulgent, but well, there ya go.

24. Merry Christmas Eve!

25. Merry Christmas!

May you be blessed with the Christmas spirit.

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- continued from before -

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Going to candlelight Christmas Eve service

17. What tops your tree?

An angel that Texas Seestor made for me when she was in grad school.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?

Both!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?

I don't really have a favorite. Several make me get tears in my eyes when I hear them for the first time each season. I really like the newer ones by Stephen Curtis Chapman. But I'm a big fan of the other albums that we grew up with - Anne Murray and John Denver & the Muppets. :-)

20. Candy canes, yuck or yum?

Yuck probably. While I like peppermint a lot, a whole candy cane in one sitting is just too much.

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- continued from before -

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it!

It can be pretty, but overall I'm not a fan of snow. Too much difficulty getting around in it (driving).

12. Can you ice skate?

Not very well. Hence, I usually don't go.

13. What was your favorite gift thus far?

Probably the sports-car red tea set that I received last year from HB.

Note that after talking to my friend (the really nice one) at work about my tea set and showing her the pictures, I was lamenting that I didn't have a red creamer and sugar(er?). So she remembered that conversation and got me a set for Christmas! Isn't that cool!? I was so pleased.

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you?

Being with family. This especially hit home last year when I skipped spending time with family in order to finish my thesis. I ended up crying and getting very upset about it. It was really awful.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?

Swedish spritz cookies. It is the only time of year that we have them. You might know them as butter cookies. But these have almond extract in them to give them a unique flavor.

15.

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-continued from before-

again, feel free to chime in with your own answers!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Dill pickle doobers! Remember these are the things that I talked about when we went to the State Fair. I was so excited to find them outside of our household. These are dill pickles smeared with cream cheese and wrapped in dried beef then cut into slices (discs). It sounds like an odd combination, but they are sooooo yummy!

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child.

When we were kids, we spent every Christmas at my grandparents (worried that Santa wouldn't 'find' us there) and we wouldn't open presents until my parents got up; we never woke them up early. So, we'd hang out in the kitchen with my grandparents and eat breakfast. And the one thing we were allowed to do right away was check our stockings. And the stockings were on one side of the house and the tree was on the other, through a big open doorway. So, we'd go in there to check our stockings and we'd look toward the tree and would be so excited! Because the tree had more presents than the night before - Santa came! He found us! And then of course we were excited about our stockings too. It all comes together in a memory of a very special time.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

I don't remember.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

Nope. All presents are on Christmas day.

10. How do you decorate your tree?

With care. I love looking at the ornaments as I unpack them from the boxes that they are stored in. I also like hanging particularly special ornaments at eye-level and particular ones near the angel on the top.

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I got this as an email from AquaSchwa. I was thinking that as we approach Christmas, I'd post the questions and answers to some of them on different days.

Feel free to chime in with your own answers if you feel like it. That is part of the reason why I'm just doing part of them at a time. I think it is too hard to do too many at once.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate?

Hot Chocolate - did you really have to ask?

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

As children, Santa wrapped presents and my sister and I would take turns opening them. Now that we are older, Santa doesn't leave presents - they are all from family.

3. Colored or white lights on the tree/house?

White outside - living in New England for 7 years rubbed off on me. Almost everyone does the 'classical' white lights outside.
Colored inside - the more the better. But no flashing or craziness.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

No, it always seemed like an odd tradition to me. I kiss the people I want to kiss when and where I want to kiss them; I don't need prompting.

5. When do you put your decorations up?

The weekend of Thanksgiving if we are home. If we aren't home, as soon as possible. Usually the weekend after. If I don't do it that weekend, it kind of bugs me and makes me feel like I'm cutting short the Christmas season. Because by that time, the advent wreath is getting lit at church.

- to be continued -

Posted by danielle at 08:28 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Ugh. This is such a terrible time of year for exercising. Is anyone else doing better than me (none this week)? Please say yes. Maybe it will help motivate me.

Actually I think my best hope is to get back into it while I am in Texas and enjoying the nicer weather and then maybe trying to stick with it more when I get back. Perhaps I'll make a New Year's resolution about exercising for the first time ever.

So how did you do this week?

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I couldn't resist sharing this one today, since I just got it and LOOK! You can see her hair and her eyes are open. Actually, since I'm used to newborns being pretty close to bald, her having so much hair makes her look older. But then I see a photo of Trainwreck or Texas Seestor holding her and I'm reminded of just how tiny she really is. Note, the set on Flickr is updated.

In other news, I had a migraine all day. But I'm finally well enough to eat and be out of bed and be on the computer. blah. I hate days like this. Unfortunately, this also means that I'll be working tomorrow to make up for the experiment that I was supposed to do today. Gotta squeeze it in, since I'll be off from Christmas to New Year's. But that's okay, I'll just play Christmas music loud in the lab. ;-)

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Here's my baby niece, Baby Texas Bunny (unless Texas Seestor and Trainwreck would prefer a different name), all snuggled up like a papoose. Isn't she precious?

Texas Seestor tells me that they will try to get me a photo with her hair showing, since that is her most striking feature right now.

Everyone is home, as of last night, and recovering/doing well. Of course, giving birth takes its toll on a body, so Texas Seestor is the one recovering, whereas Baby Texas Bunny is the one doing well. Trainwreck sounded pretty excited when i spoke to him. It sounds like he's taken to changing diapers like a trooper. Or wait, troopers don't really change diapers, do they? hmmm.... maybe I should say, he is 'with the best' at changing diapers.

I'm sure I'll have more pictures later. :-) Especially when I go visit them the day after Christmas!

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I've been feeling kind of blah lately. I hope that some of you have been doing better. I'll bet that SeaQueen curled and Squirl went to Curves and we all know that Texas Seestor had her share of exercising this weekend. ;-) How did you do?

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We have a baby niece!

Texas Seestor and Trainwreck are now proud parents of a baby girl. She was born between 2:00 and 2:15 Central time (I'm not sure of the exact time). So, Texas Seestor was in labor for about 24 hours, and I guess the last couple hours went really fast after she was given her epidural.

She is 7 lbs 2 oz and 20" born on December 9th, 2006. Tah-dah! My parents got the phone call from Trainwreck while they were still cleaning her up, so we don't know some of the final details that will come with time, but it sounds like everyone is healthy and doing well.

Any ideas for an internet name? Baby bunny? Baby bunny T? (for Texas Seestor and Trainwreck which both start with T's). Baby Texas Bunny? I like the bunny theme if you hadn't guessed. ;-)

Anyway, all I know is that I'm a very pleased and proud Auntie.

Updated to Add:

I've heard that she has a head of dark hair, long dark eyelashes, Texas Seestor's pouty lips and a button nose. I can't wait to see her in person!

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And in large.

I saw these orchids at the MN state fair too. I like how sharp and crisp the one blossom on the right is.

Unfortunately, I don't have much more to say about this photo other than that it was the closest I could get to Christmas colors right now.

i have a poinsettia, but haven't found the time to take photos of it yet. Soon, I hope. Of course, I'm also this weekend trying to get lights put on our tree, decorations put on it, Christmas cards sent out, and HB and I are planning to go on a date to see Casino Royale. Lots to do! All good stuff, but stuff that I want to do NOW and not have wait any longer, so it all feels more pressing than I'd maybe prefer. I just want to have time to enjoy the Christmas decorations and because our address changed last year and I never sent out cards or notices, I'm concerned that people don't have our address.

Hope you have a happy Friday and a good weekend. :-)

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How did you do this week?

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I recently read my favorite author's most recent book in the Wilderness series, Queen of Swords by Sara Donati. I love this series of historical romance. The stories are set in colonial America in New York. I've blogged about them before as one of the five books I'd take with me if I were stuck on a deserted island. I also recently got Amber hooked on them or at least on the first one.

This time, I actually took the time to get an autographed copy. It meant that I needed to order to book from Sara's hometown so that she could sign it before they shipped it to me, but it was well worth the shipping cost. I've been wanting an autographed copy.

I don't want to say too much about the story, because I could give away details to the family and friends who come here who read the books too, like Mom, Texas Seestor, SeaQueen, Jenski, and Amber.

But I did want to show off part of the beautiful map in the front of the book. It isn't really necessary to understand the story (unlike some books where you are flipping back to the map constantly) but it sets a nice ambience for the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. I'd say it is as good as the first one, or Lake in the Clouds (which is my second favorite so far). This one probably comes in as my third favorite.

If you are ever looking for an action packed story that includes a woman rebelling from her father's idea of how her life should be lived, history, and enough romance to make for a happy ending (instead of a depressing one like all those books on Oprah's list or those other popular lists), pick up Into the Wilderness, the first in the series.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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