Baby Leo was given a clean bill of health, and so was Leila, so they were both released from the hospital today by their doctors. We got home around 3pm. It couldn't have been a nicer first Mother's Day for Leila.

It's amazing to finally have our little one home with us.

We hosted Easter lunch with our friends Seidi and David. Coincidentally, Seidi is Estonian, they live just a few blocks from us and they are expecting their daughter at the same time we're expecting our son… yet we never met them before until very recently. Another of those things that makes you go, "small world!"

David and I wrapping Easter eggs in onion skins and tinfoil. Everything but the tinfoil is the traditional Estonian way of coloring Easter eggs. 

Putting the eggs on the stove to boil.

Leila sets the table for Easter lunch. The food was traditional Estonian fare.

For dessert, Leila made Pasha. It was delicious!

The easter eggs came out pretty interesting! The uncolored patterns were created by adding bits of pasta under the onion skin. 

EDIT: Just a few hours after leaving our home, our friend Seidi went into labor. We understand they are now proud parents! Our best wishes and congrats go out to them. Maybe it was the Estonian food that did the trick!

Happy New Year Everyone!

We had a great time seeing the New Year arrive at the home of our friends Kristi and Marcus, along with several other guests of theirs. 

We had a beautiful Christmas vacation at a cabin rented by friends in Cold Springs, CA. (Just a stone's throw up Highway 108 from Long Barn, CA where I originally thought we were headed). 

We set out on Christmas Day morning and drove up the Grapevine on Interstate 5, and then through the Central Valley on Highway 99. We were headed into the above canyon near Castaic, CA, while calling to wish my Mom a Merry Christmas back home in Virginia.

California scenery never fails to amaze- this near Fort Tejon. 

Below Bakersfield, a small dust storm rolled in. Leila grabbed the camera just in time to capture its arrival. Within seconds the cars ahead of me nearly vanished. Luckily, visibility didn't get much worse and we were soon through it. (Some dust storms in this region completely blind motorists, and have in the past lead to deadly multi-car pile ups. 

The first three hours of the drive were uneventful. The last three we drove much of through pouring rain, then as we reached the mountains north of Yosemite in the Stanislaus National Forrest, we encountered heavy fog -at times I almost couldn't see the white line beside the road and had to take it down to a snail's pace- and finally snowfall. As we reached Cold Springs, where the cabin was, the road was covered with snow and ice, and visibility was very low. At one point my brand new CRV was skidding down an ice covered road, me with very little control, but I managed to guide us in for a safe landing at the cabin. (Our friends Irene,Tofique and their three kids and au pair were already there). I was literally minutes from mandatory tire chains. Our friends Kristi and Kalmer arrived about two hours after us, and couldn't have made it without chains.

We awoke the next day to the above scene at the cabin- winter wonderland!

Everyone warm and toasty around the cabin's dining room table. 

Tofique and Irene's twin sons made me into their favorite track to race their toy cars. 

Leila, Irene and Kristi. 

We spent a great couple of days hanging out in the mountains. Everyone went snow-sledding on the first day at a local slope. (No, I didn't go sledding, and Leila really can't do that sort of activity these days. ) On the remaining days,the others took their kids skiing, while Leila and I did our own thing. 

Yikes! My brand new car covered in snow!

The perfect arrangement: Hubby shovels, wife helps out by taking pictures of Hubby shoveling! Cleaning the ice from the windows without a scraper was even more fun!

 Leila and I went for a walk around the village. 

At the sledding slope. Behind me, the landscape demonstrates the origins of the Estonian flag: blue sky, black forrest, white snow.

Following our host's car (in Kalmer's SUV) through snow-covered roads on the first day. It was still icy enough for chains at this time, but very quickly after this the roads were nice and cleared.

Leila enjoying a winter hike. 

The kids built a small snowman on the cabin's back porch. 

Who says you can't have a White Christmas in California? We managed it very nicely!

The drive home on Tueday morning, December 28th was exactly how we prefer drives to be: scenic and uneventful. We did stop at the outlet stores in Tulare, CA though!

We're hitting the road for Long Barn, California where we'll spend the Christmas Holidays in a mountain cabin with some friends. (I'm hoping I don't have to break out the tire chains to get up the mountain!) We've got a 6 hour drive ahead of us, but we're both in high spirits and looking forward to getting away. Merry Christmas!

To all our family and friends: Wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas!

Another year and another Little Christmas Party with the girls. We celebrate it with Estonian traditional Christmas food and the fun part is the White Elephant gift exchange. And so the tradition continues for yet another year…

I love the frosted gingerbread cookies Leila creates each year at Christmas time! Leila has to keep me from eating all of them.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the house of our friends Jonna and Jeff- a tradition of many years, save for a few years where we've hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our place. As always, we had a great time and it was great to see many of our friends there. Thanksgiving means a lot to us this year; we're blessed with great families, fantastic friends, continued employment, and exciting new prospects on the horizon.

Today, we've just been taking it easy and enjoying the long Holiday weekend. No crazy 'Black Friday' sales for us this year. 

After staying with us for two weeks, the pooches are finally gone, but now we have a new returning visitor for the Thanksgiving Holiday;  Winnie the cat. She spent her first day with us hiding out under the living room sofa, but now she's setled in and lounging on everything…  including us.