Curry For Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is over already! and now its almost 2010!

For us christmas weekend was a relaxing few days, full of food and quiet. Christmas eve we went to church with our neighbors and then to theirs for dinner. I think its safe to say that we've been converted to lovers of Polish food. Who ever has said that eastern European food is bland was lying. Everything and I mean everything was full of flavor and super delicious...we even ate the cabbage! Not that we could pronounce anything we put in our mouths, but all of it was mouthwatering, we give our compliments to the chef - Joanna.

Christmas itself was a lazy day, we slept in as long as we could. Facing either cereal or scrambled eggs at home we decided to go out for breakfast - thank you IHOP for being open on Christmas day. After a few sleepy hours on our own we went out to dinner (yes more food) with Ivan's aunt/cousin Helen. We went to our favorite spot for Indian and stuffed ourselves with samosas, naan and curry.

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging around and doing a bit of window shopping for baby, who knew there were so many different kinds of cribs and car seats! We'll definitely have to do a bit more research before we purchase anything. We've been telling ourselves that "after christmas" is when we'd start preparing the apt for baby, and now that christmas is over we've come to the realization that we only have just over three months to prepare! eek!

Overall we had a nice relaxing christmas weekend, but we're really looking forward to our visit to Wisconsin in two weeks time!! Its then that we'll indulge in all our favorite christmas traditions, monkey bread and omelets, the sibling gift exchange and of course hanging out with family and friends.

So to everyone in WI, we're looking forward to seeing you soon!!

lots of love

Lisa

Lots of Snieg!

or at least a decent amount anyways. By the way - snieg (pronounced shneck) is the polish word for snow - a little something we learned complements of our neighbors.

We have officially received 23.2 inches of snow in the last 36 hours, apparently for Philadelphia that is a whole winter's worth in one sitting and the second highest recorded snowfall. So as we bundled up for church this morning we were greeted by a beautiful day, full of pristine white snow and beautiful sunshine. The streets were bustling with people shoveling driveways and digging out their cars. As we arrived at church we drove into an empty parking lot full of unplowed snow - church of course was canceled - we silly wisconsinites, unphased by the snow, forgot that the entire city shuts down when there is record snowfall!

So after making it home and Ivan taking a nap, we went out exploring. We ended up in Fort Washington, which is about 2o ish minutes north west of Philadelphia. There we found a state park and took a wander. Here are a few pics of our snow fall and our walk this afternoon...enjoy

lots of love

Lisa

Babies Everywhere

Just a quick note to congratulate our friends Mark and Melissa who welcomed their little girl - Alexa Ann - into the world yesterday!! We are so happy for you two and can't wait to meet your beautiful little baby!

also an update on our snow, we woke up to a white morning...or at least I did. Ivan worked in it all night and then had to drive home in it (not that he minded). We're supposed to get much more tonight...if it happens I'll post a few pics.

lots of love

Lisa

Let it Snow

We are supposed to be getting up to 14 inches of snow this weekend, needless to say Ivan is pretty excited about it. He's dusting off his snow boots and itching to get out and "use the subaru to its full potential" again. While I don't have quite the zeal that my husband does, I will be quite happy with a white christmas!

We are feeling quite loved today, we received several packages and cards in the mail today from our thoughtful friends and family. They are so good at making us feel loved no matter how far away we are! Now to see if we actually have the patience to wait till Christmas to open them all!

We've also been blessed with wonderful neighbors, this afternoon Ivan opened the door to a box full of gifts for the baby, a box full of diapers (nappies for those of you in england) and a bag of bath accessories and lotions (all the fun things babies need). Other neighbors have passed along toys and carseats, we are overwhelmed by their generosity! We enjoy the small community of our townhome complex, such a change from our apts in Milwaukee where some people didn't even say hi when you passed in the hallway. We consider ourselves very lucky to have such great neighbors!

Still can't believe its only a week till Christmas, definitely snuck up on us this year, seems to come around quicker each year! Thankfully we only have a bit of shopping to finish up and then we'll be all caught up.

Well here's hoping for snow and a white christmas, hope this finds you all well!

lots of love

Lisa

Nothing Exciting

Hello All,

Nothing too exciting in this blog, just a quick update on what we've been up to the last few weeks. Work has been keeping us both very busy, my (Lisa's) job has picked up a lot in the last month due to the year drawing to a close and Ivan's job is always busy, so he occasionally picks up an overtime shift.

Other than that we've been keeping busy with the normal errands as well as getting ready for the holidays, sending out Christmas cards and shopping for our families. Although we'll be around Philadelphia for the actual day, we're excited to be flying out to WI in January to celebrate Christmas with the Debbink family! We've definitely missed living close to everyone and it will be good to spend a long weekend catching up and celebrating a belated Christmas.

We're also excited to see some good snow! I never thought we'd say it, but we actually miss the weather in WI, just doesn't seem quite like winter when its 40 degrees and raining!

In other news we'd like to congratulate our good friends Jon and Emili Butrin on the newest member of their family - Jonah Cade Butrin - we're hoping to catch a glimpse of this little guy on our upcoming trip in WI!

well thats all for now, to close here is a picture of our trip to the Pocono area this last october

lots of love

Lisa and Ivan

First Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago we put up our first christmas tree! There is nothing like the smell of a fresh pine tree in your living room to put you in the Christmas spirit! We may have run out of lights and ribbon part way through and we may have to redecorate this weekend because of the kitties but we had fun none the less!

Hello Everyone,

just wanted to start a little something to keep you all updated on our lives. Since our move to Philly its been hard to keep in touch with everyone. Hopefully this will be a small way to connect with those far away from us.

Just a small update on our lives as of late; We've settled into our townhouse in NE Philly and our new jobs. I (Lisa) found a job as a research technician at a scientific testing facility and Ivan continues with his aircraft maintenance for US Airways. So far our jobs are keeping us busy and our 2nd and 3rd shift schedules challenge us to find creative ways to spend time with each other and still have social lives.

We've recently been attending a church near our apt called Bethel, which has the convenience of three different services (1 on saturday, and 2 on sunday) which works out nicely for our strange hours. We have been attending (almost) regularly for the last few months and are excited to be looking into small groups. We have desperately missed the community we had in WI and look forward to starting a new one here!

Our most exciting news, which most of you know already is the fact that we are expecting our first baby in April! We are looking forward to welcoming this child into our lives and starting our own little family.

I hope this blog finds you all well, I hope to continue to update it regularly and give you all a small taste of our lives here in Philadelphia.

for now, a good night

Lisa

coming soon: our first Christmas tree!