Recent adventures

We had a wonderful lunch at the German restaurant in Yorktown yesterday. Mom had rouladen and spaetzle and I had sauerbraten and knoedel (dumplings) while we eavesdropped on German conversations going on around us. We ordered a kiddie wiener and spaetzle for Nora, but she preferred my sauerbraten, which she pronounced "zerobraten" at first. So cute. Mom's going to make sauerbraten for Nora's real birthday dinner on the 22nd. What a kid...salmon and broccoli for her 2nd birthday, and sauerbraten for her 3rd. What will we eat for her 4th birthday? Sushi? Caroline also enjoyed eating off my plate and doing some people watching. After lunch, we drove over to Williamsburg with the intention of just walking around a little bit and then leaving so the girls could nap. But as soon as we walked onto DoG street, we stumbled across a group of girls from the W&M women's chorus carolling. So we stopped to watch them (actually, Caroline walked right up to then), did a bit more walking, and then returned to the Merchant's Square area for a 25 min. one-man-performance of A Christmas Carol. It was very funny, and Nora sat right up front with a bunch of other kids (jealously eyeing one girl's ice cream cone) while Caroline and I walked around behind the crowd meeting various puppy dogs (and Mom rested on a bench -- we're wearing her out!) We didn't get in the car to come home until 4:30 (on the way, Nora saluted a flag for Daddy...she obviously takes after her mother in that department!). It's been so wonderful having mom here...I really enjoy her company, and she's been a huge help. She's really helped me enjoy the holiday a lot more than if I was here by myself.

We had a video conference with Mike this morning...it almost didn't happen (the system was down for 2 hours), so we're grateful for the 10 minutes we had. He got to see how big Caroline has grown (she did a little up-and-down routine for him) and Nora got to show him her new Cinderella pop- up book. He and I look the same, except his hair is a little shorter and mine's a little longer. :-) I took a photo of the girls playing outside of the building where the videoconference took place while we waited to be summoned in to talk to Mike.