all that's past is prologue...

I spent some time on the internets today, trying to discover the history behind the fact that most Scandinavians — and thus many Minnesotans — celebrate Christmas Eve over Christmas Day (a situation that greatly vexes our friend Xanthia). I didn't discover the history behind it, but I did find out that many of the Christmas customs I have grown up with are indeed Norwegian. Leave a bowl of cream out for the cats on Christmas Eve, because it's the one night of the year they can speak — check. At least seven kinds of Christmas cookies baked — check. Yule log — check. Family member sneaking out and showing up as "Santa" with gifts — check (though we haven't done that since I was young and we celebrated at my grandparents'). I also learned that December 23 is called "Little Christmas Eve," and is the night you truly prepare for Christmas. Tonight I listened to an old mix cd that Patrick made me when we first started dating, while doing laundry, ma...

If I missed you in real life sending our Christmas card (because I don't have your address, or ran out of stamps, or haven't quite gotten all of them in the mailbox yet), here it is in all its digital glory: Happy Holidays 2008, from our newly expanded family! Of course our big news in 2008 was the birth of Beatrix Camille Gladhill Rhone on February 9 — hard to believe she’s almost a year old! Our little “tiny tyrant” brings us joy, laughter, and a lot of attitude every day — and we love it. Another big change was Patrick leaving Carleton and returning to full-time consulting. He’s available for a wide range of projects, ranging from technology installation and support, to web design and branding, to productivity enhancement; find out more at www. machinemethods.com. And let’s not even start on the election…but we are awfully full of hope… With much love and hoping to see you soon, Bethany, Patrick, Beatrix, Maxim, and Miles

Today I was at the Nautilus studio all day with the annual audit. After taking Beatrix to her new daycare, Patrick came in to reconfigure the network, which was having some serious issues due to being rained upon in a recent leak. Deciding he didn't have everything he needed, he went off to buy some new parts, and also brought me back lunch. See how amazing this man is? He got my system up and running, and brought me a yummy cheese panini. I am in love!

Our incredibly talented friend, Michael Armstrong, is having a show of his fantastic photographs at our house this weekend. He has a great eye for beautiful, unusual images, mainly of the Twin Cities, as seen here . Please stop by to see the work, and maybe pick up some (very reasonably priced) prints. Holiday shopping! The show runs: Friday, November 21 from 6-9pm (with wine and food!) Saturday, November 22 from 10-4 I really hope you can make it and see this great work!

I just got a Britax Marathon carseat for $46.10 at target.com. For comparison, they normally run $270. Beatrix is still in the bucket, but I have faith she will outgrow it someday. This is the carseat that takes her up to 65 pounds, so we are not likely to get any other hand-me-downs from friends (we already got an Evenflo from Tom and Sarah, but have 2 cars). Apparently my deal-fu is still strong! EDITED 11/17/08 - Or not so much. Apparently target noticed their mistake and cancelled all the orders. In my case, they didn't even tell me — my order that was on the system earlier today (and that I got a confirmation email about) is just gone. I am royally pissed off!

So tonight we visited the new daycare provider's house, and liked her and her son as much as we had at the first meeting, so decided to go ahead and switch. This means that Beatrix will get more personal, one on one care — plus some fun field trips to museums and libraries and the like! — which I think will be better for her. It also means less hectic piecing together for Patrick and myself. I will really miss KidsPark, though; it's such a great place! The handyman we found on Craigs List last year to put in our flooring stopped by tonight to take a look at our furnace. He did some tweaking with it that *might* have solved things. I really hope it does. The heat and daycare were two of my most looming, horrible issues, and if they are really solved, it will go a long way towards getting a lot of the rest of my life to run more smoothly.

I've read so very many inspiring things about Obama's election that I am not going to even try to sum up my feelings here. Despite Patrick being unfortunately ill that evening, Election Night was one of the most wonderful days of the recent past for me. I feel so infused with hope. On a personal note, I feel honestly that I can tell Beatrix that she can be anything she wants to be and do anything she wants to do, that there are no barriers to her except the ones that she places. On an even more personal note, things are coming together well on the home front too, and that feels hopeful as well. We met with Beatrix's cardiologist for four hours earlier this week, who admits that Beatrix is a conundrum; she even presented on her case to a conference and everyone was very divided between those who said "Do open heart surgery NOW!" and those who said to wait it out. So our current plan is to bulk her up with fortified milk, try to get everyone more sleep, and m...