Blizzard!!

Half an inch of snow fell last night and the entire city shut down. Stores and restaurants closed early, while it was still just raining, so that employees could scurry home before the "storm" hit. We braved the weather and found a restaurant that was still open (our first choice had closed!) The roads were almost completely empty save the armada of snowplows standing ready by the sides of the highway and a few other hearty souls who we decided were surely not native North Carolinians. Our church was canceled this morning so we have had two blessedly lazy days in a row here at home.

I took Ollie out in the snow which he really enjoyed until his poor little fingers started to freeze and he started crying. He hates mittens but I think now he gets the idea that they are not torture devices but actually convenient hand warmers. After the little freezing fingers episode he was much more agreeable about putting on his mittens. For the record Ryan is/was completely horrified that I let him play outside in the snow without mittens or a hat...those were my bad judgment calls. I accept full responsibility.

PS--Check out Oliver's NY Giants kit. (Thank you Uncle Bernie!) He's getting ready for tonight's playoff game.

Bis-Ball

Oliver is obsessed. He just goes bananas for sports, which he refers to collectively as "beec-ball/ bis-ball or just ball." Basketball, football, baseball, hockey, golf, you name it. If there is a ball involved, he's down with it. He even calls the TV "beec-ball" because, as far as he's concerned there is only one thing worth turning on the TV for: sports. (His Dad may have helped cultivate this perception.) He has eagle eyes for basketball hoops and points out each one in the driveways of houses we pass when we are out in the neighborhood. In fact, on one memorable occasion we passed a house that was TOTALLY decked out for Christmas. It had lights everywhere, several inflatable lawn ornaments including a giant snowman on a motorcycle, and a huge LCD "Countdown to Christmas" display that played Christmas carols. It was something else, to say the least. We stopped in front of the house and I said, excitedly "Oliver, look at all those lights!!!" he looked at the lights, clearly unimpressed, and pointed to the garage and said "beec-ball." Sure enough...there was a hoop over the garage door. It's amazing to me to see his little personality emerge in ways that are totally surprising to me, but archetypally, universally "boy."

Oliver LOVING his first Carolina Hurricanes game

Christmas in Raleigh

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring...

We hosted Christmas this year and happily we had a full house. Nana Ford, Grandpa Ford, Abby and her boyfriend Brian were all able to come down to share at least part of the holidays with us. Brian left after dinner on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with his family and Abby had to work on the 26th so she left in the afternoon on Christmas.

We had a lot of fun with so many people to entertain (and be entertained by.) It was so much fun having Brian around because we played games, stayed up late watching movies and sports on TV and did a lot of other things that just aren't my mom and dad's bag. Of course, since this was a Ford family gathering, by a wide margin the main activities were 1) procuring food, 2) cooking, and 3) eating. We checked out some of the foodie establishments around town, including, but not limited to:

A Southern Season, Lantern Restaurant, Weaver Street Market, the Carrboro Farmer's Market, Foster's Market, and the new Trader Joe's in Chapel Hill.

My dad got it into his head that what would really be great was if we could have goose for Christmas (eve) dinner. Hmm...no one had ever eaten or cooked goose before, but why not!? Well, we now know why not. It has an incredible amount of fat under its skin (apparently the flesh is quite lean if you can get all the subcutaneous fat to render out...which we were unable to do properly). It is also very tough. We needed steak knives to cut it. It had a pretty nice, not at all gamey flavor, but I don't think it was worth the trouble. The skin is supposed to be delicious and crispy, ours turned out more like slimy and chewy. Yuck. My dad fried some up afterwards perhaps in an attempt to turn it into a goose version of cracklins. Still yuck. He ate it of couse and insisted it was wonderful. That's my dad.

Abigail made a chocolate "Bûche de Noël" for dessert which was very good, especially with ice cream, but really, what's not good with ice cream? After dinner we said good bye to Brian and all walked over to the Catholic church in our neighborhood for Christmas Eve mass. It was such a memorable experience to walk through the dark streets and see all the houses lit up for Christmas. When we got to the church they had lined the walkway up to the door with candles and there was a roaring fire in the foyer fireplace. It was so nice to come in out of the cold and dark into the warm and brightly decorated church. We sang Christmas carols and then walked back home to drink hot chocolate and watch Millions, a very tender Christmasy movie that one of my friends sent as a present this year.

One of the most anticipated parts of Christmas for Ryan and me was setting up Oliver's new train set. He just goes bananas for trains, so we decided to get him a set for Christmas. We were so excited for him to see it that we woke up early on Christmas morning! At first he walked right by it, but then he just lit up when he saw it. He had been carrying a present that he found under the tree and he just chucked the present and ran right to the train table. He spent most of the day (and every day since) playing with the trains...first just pushing the trains along the tracks and then tearing up tracks and wreaking havoc on the table. He has a really good time!!!

Here are some pictures, mostly out of order, of our Christmas festivities.

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

In the kitchen preparing our Christmas eve dinner
Ryan HATES carving meat, and this goose was a particularly tough bird, but my dad volunteered/conscripted him for the job. He was such a good sport but you can see the look of barely masked disgust in his face.
At the Durham Science Museum Oliver explains the principle of "conservation" to Nana by showing that even though the two containers are shaped differently, they each hold the exact same volume. (Actually, he was showing her how much fun it is to pour the plastic beads in this exhibit on the floor.)

Oliver helping Abby decorate the Bûche de Noël
Grandpa Ford enjoying the NY Times...
Oliver also enjoys a good article (notice it is about dogs!)
Oliver and Brian laughing their heads off at the cloud exhibit at the Science Museum

Oliver really got into Christmas candy.
Oliver is crazy about his Aunt Abby
Our Christmas Eve dinner

Abby discovers her stocking
Oliver discovers his train table
Oliver really gets into the train table...

Oliver would touch the Christmas ornaments and say "noooo" to himself, as if to remind himself that he was doing something naughty... but his self-admonition didn't stop him from pulling on the ornaments!
Abby and Brian looking cute...as always!

Thanksgiving Pictures

We went out to Minnesota to visit the Halverson clan for Thanksgiving. I never posted about it because things sort of went into overdrive right after that. Anyway, we finally downloaded our pictures from our trip. We had a great time hanging out with Ryan's parents, his brothers and sisters and all their kids. The highlight of the trip from Oliver's perspective was the trip to the Model Train Museum in St. Paul. The older cousins got bored after abut 30 minutes but Oliver and his 2 1/2 year old cousin Jaron could have been there all day. Ryan's sister Kim did an awesome job of organizing fun outings each day, so in addition to the train museum, we went to the Como Zoo, to the Minnesota Science Museum, swimming at the Y, and bowling/laser tag which Ollie and I missed because we were napping. Despite the fact that EVERYONE (all 20-plus of us) had caught some cold bug by the time we left, we had a really great time.

Grandma Halverson gives Ollie some piano lessons
Kim and her boys with Ryan and Ollie at the train museum
Ollie's goofiest grin
Jaron and Oliver having a crazy time in the tub