First Christmas

By -
We finally managed to write up our very first Christmas open letter, here's what's been happening in our lives over the past year.


Last Christmas we received the best gift from Santa that we could have imagined: we found out on Christmas morning of 2012 that we were going to have a baby!

Everything after that was just filled with happiness, and the entire year of 2013 was marked with many life changing experiences.


The second wedding - the one in Romania happened in May when I was 6 months pregnant with Mara. We brought Gene and Tammy over the ocean to see my home country, we hiked to Babele (pronounced bah-bay-leh, The Old Women) and the Sphinx in the Bucegi (boo-chaydj) Mountains.
We ran into a bear at the ethereal lake St. Ana, stopped for a night in the idyllic Bucovina and visited family.

The second family-honeymoon happened in Paris with Greg's parents, just like we had our first family-honeymoon after our Florida wedding with my family in Sedona/Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam/San Francisco the year before. That year, we were chasing sunsets in the most romantic fashion (<3 to Naty and Alex) and kayaking in the dark night watching myriads of bioluminescent creatures turn water magical.
This year, we climbed the 300 stairs up the Sacre Cour,

visited Google Paris, the tomb and the laboratory of Marie Curie and strolled happily in the gardens of Versailles and Giverny.

We got back to California and signed our final papers for the house we had fallen in love with, and moved in three weeks later while treading lightly into the 9th month of the pregnancy.

End of August brought us Mara - exactly on the due date just like clockwork! Time simply slowed down after that and we felt like we lived 4 years in the 4 months with her: Survival mode blended with oxytocin-flooded happiness.

This Christmas we were a young family in their first house. The three of us, our kitty cat and the little birdie. It was a happy mellow cozy Christmas with two parents staring lovingly at the baby.

The first time we showed Mara the lighted Christmas tree was a unique experience. She was quiet, staring at the wonder for a long time, even forgetting about being in tummy time on daddy. Her eyes were wide open, and hundreds of little tiny stars were reflected in them.


That week we had such peaceful bonding moments.

Mara learned how to turn front to back consistently, and practiced it for the three days before Christmas. On Christmas Eve she gathered up all she had, launched herself to the right toward the Christmas tree and landed straight under the ornament that we got from the Grand Canyon with Alex and Naty the year before.
She then wiggled at it happily.

Sending all our love to everyone.

Merry Christmas!

G.E.M.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But I Will Still Need Your Money

By -
Image
In the past 6 months we've travelled over 27,000 miles, if we were to add up all of our trips with the kids. That's more than the Earth's circumference of 24,901 mi, so we could technically say we travelled around the world. On one of the last trips, our two seasoned travelers Mara and Gaius were so self sufficient: they knew how to handle the security line, and even carried all the luggage in the airport. Elena: Do you guys need us anymore? You carry your own luggage, and Mara already knows how to give the tickets to the airport people. Maybe next time you could just go on your own without us. What do you think? Mara: But I will still need your money. Way to be pragmatic; I guess parents are still good for something. Here's some highlights from our trips (non-chronological):  Seattle Zoo, USA  Space Needle, Seattle, USA Chisinau Airport,  Moldova  Bucovina Monasteries, Romania Palace of Culture, Iasi, Romania - with Andrei!
Read more

Bye Bye 2021, Welcome 2022!

By -
Image
It's a feeling shared by many: quite glad 2021 is over and behind us. This post will rehash some marking events during this long year, both ones we loved and ones we never want to go through ever again, if we could have a say. For those latter ones, we are deeply grateful for the friends and family who were by our side, offering kind words and support when it was needed most, whether from close or far. We started the year with Grandma Tammy still staying with us for several months, during our COVID-19 self-imposed isolation. She brought our family twice as much joy and peace, as conversations exploded in many more combinations than when Greg and I are the only adults around. Fae gained a whole extra year of learnings, just by being around all that, and is now speaking like a four year old at the age of two. For the first part of the year, our friend Chandni taught Mara and Gaius througho
Read more

Giant Fig Tree - Largest in North America

By -
Image
In Santa Barbara, California, thrives a giant. In fact, it is the largest fig tree in North America , the Moreton Bay Fig Tree. Yes, a Fig Tree - with actual figs strewn about, although now with the drought they were not so juicy.  You can lean on its roots, climb up on its trunk till where the branches spread out, or hide between its ridges. A great hide-and-seek spot for both kids and adults.  Here's our family playing between its giant roots; scroll to the bottom to get an idea of the actual scale, which is hard to comprehend. Giant. Two ladies shyly making an acquaintance with the giant.  Here's an interesting thing we noticed about nowadays toddlers: they seem to take amazingness as a common day-to-day thing. Maybe it's because we, the parents, strive to always show them things we find outstanding, so a zebra becomes common. Or maybe they simply enjoy the world at level 100, regardless of whether it's a random leaf in the yard, or a world-uniqu
Read more