jrtom

This is the first year that we've had a house of our own in which to spend the holidays, and on the strength of that, we were able to convince my parents and younger siblings to spend them here (rather than our usual pattern of traveling to either Portland or Tucson).

Now, for those of you who came in late, this meant that we were hosting what turned out to be seven additional people (parents, four younger siblings, plus one younger sibling's sweetie) plus an assist dog. In a 3-bedroom house that already had three people (Megan, Corwin, and myself).

Somewhat surprisingly, it actually went really well at almost all times.

I think that it helped that Dad made a point, on a couple of occasions before their arrival, of saying that if anyone decided that it wasn't working for them to stay with us, that they'd move into a hotel. Plus, on the few occasions in which it came up, he was supportive of us doing things our way rather than what they (well, mostly Mom) was expecting.

In any case, it was a great visit; I got to spend a lot of time with Dad (who's normally pretty busy; he considers a 50-hour work-week to be positively relaxing) and with various of my younger siblings. Most enjoyable.

We've had some unusual weather here in the last couple of months. A windstorm in mid-December knocked out our power, which then remained off for four days with highs in the 40s (and lows in the 20s)...and our gas heater doesn't work without electricity, apparently. Fortunately we have a fireplace (and we'd recently replaced several windows with new double-paned windows) so we were able to cope OK, although the last day of no power we were casting around for a hotel that we could check us and our cats into, as it had been 47 degrees inside for a couple of days. (On the plus side, we didn't lose anything from our refrigerator or freezer; keeping stuff outside in a cooler worked just fine. *wry smile*)

In the course of all this, I found out that when Microsoft's campus status phone recording states that the campus is functioning with generator power, this doesn't actually mean that any of the lights or outlets inside the buildings work. ("I spent two hours driving into work for _this_ [and another 3 hours to get home]?") :P

We also have had two different snowstorms which each dumped several inches of snow. Corwin got to build his first snowman (well, Megan built it, Corwin knocked it down at every opportunity) and to go sledding for the first time.

(On a vaguely-related note, Tucson actually got a couple of inches of snow a few days ago. I'd guess this happens every few decades, at best.)

It looks like we'll be having to acquire a minivan this coming year.

We'd realized that our current 17-year-old car wasn't going to last forever, of course, but we figured that, barring unforeseen failures, it would satisfy our transportational needs for the next few years.

Thing is, you can't really get three car seats in the back seat of a Honda Accord. (At least not if you want me to be able to drive.)

Yes, I said "three": Megan's pregnant with twins.

Their genders and type (fraternal vs. identical) are as yet unknown; all we know is that there are definitely two of them, and that they are scheduled to emerge on 19 June ("Juneteenth"--although, being twins, they'll probably show up early).

Megan and I are mostly doing OK with this. We did plan to have another child at this point, and even probably eventually a total of three, although we weren't really planning on two at the same time (and for the record, according to the physician we talked to, despite the fact that Dad was a twin, this is almost certainly Megan's fault, genetically speaking :> ). We're sure that it will take a lot of adjustment to figure out how to deal with twin infants (we're thinking hip holsters, although if we're going that route we really ought to get spurs, or at least things that go "chink" when your foot hits the floor), but we're looking forward to it.

Except that we have to get another car. And no one's selling hybrid minivans in the US yet.

Dangit.

Corwin doesn't really know what it means yet, but he enjoys saying "two baby!" (especially into the phone) a lot. We've been trying to get him used to the idea that Megan has babies in her belly. I don't think he's really buying it, but he says "hi" to them and blows kisses when prompted. We'll see. :)