10 Days Of Family Togetherness

I have been a absent on the blogosphere over the holidays. But having the entire family visiting for 10 days took a bit of focus. Entire family consists of:

The #1 clan from the East Bay area - Consisting of #1, 1A, 1.1, and 1.2- aka the Ostrogoths
The #2 clan from the Washington DC area - Consisting of #2, 2B, 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 - aka the Visigoths
The #3 clan from Amsterdam - Consisting of #3, 3A, and newly minted 3.1! - aka the Vandals

Actually it was a gradual build up with the Visigoths arriving first, the Vandals the next day and the Ostrogoths the following day. With all 14 (including Lord and Lady de-I, castle owners) here for 3 and half days when slowly they started to depart.

#3 and 3A practicing their first ever - "Let's get baby into the car seat after the 18 hour flight from Amsterdam" - technique

The #2 clan are enthusiastic about cooking. I felt a little like Tom Sawyer getting both 2.1 and 2.2 (only 6 years old mind you) to literally spend 40 minutes peeling 5 pounds of potatoes!

I guess you have to be of Eastern European Jewish extraction to appreciate this.
The production of schmaltz (rendered chicken fat for cooking) and gribbnes (the crispy bits of skin left over from the rendering). This is 6 pounds of fat and skin for the process.

My crew LOVE gribbnes!

I mean everyone - the kids, the sons-in-law, the kids - everyone but Wife :(
2.1 my, designated sous chef for the whole holiday (a BIG help at 13 years old) made sure she brought home a container of schmaltz - chip off the ole block :)

#3 and 3.1 aka Munchkin

1.2 - 2 years old. You have to take to spend a morning with him at the 'hands-on' children's museum and listen to his totally joyous "Wow, Look at That!" to appreciate the shear joy only a child can have :)

One of the main objectives of having all the clan here was too drink up a bunch of my older wines (so I have room to buy more! Love buying wine)
This was the oldest one I had, a 24 year old white burgundy that I got at an estate sale a couple of years ago. I was concerned that it would be vinegar but it turned out just fine with all the spicy attributes of a great old white burgundy.

Decorating cookies - absolutely de rigeur for a Wife inspired Christmas

The two six year old cousins (1.1 and 2.2) are like fissionable material. So to give the adults some rest, there is resort to the electronic pacifier.

A little Christmas Day action

2A has decided to make a serious, serious run at the Silly Awards this year (Best Son-in-Law). So he decided that he would understudy Wife and become apprentice bread maker.

Here he is starting with learning how to make pizza dough.

However, 2A is giving him a run for his money by solving with Wife a problem with my computer connecting to our printers and then sucking up to critical Silly Voter, Wife by putting one of the printers of limits to me!



1.1 playing at the computer with 1.2 looking on

Daughter #3 was having lots of issues between sleep habits of the 4 month old and jet lag but mastered the art of napping.

Need to catch a nap in the middle of the afternoon? Not a problem.

Husband and parents talking for too long in the evenings? Not a problem.

There is a certain 'center stage' status the only comes when you are the newest, youngest member of the clan.

Don't think that Munchkin stole Wife's (and de-I's!) heart?

We are a very, very lucky family. We enjoy each others company. It is very difficult for us to even see each other with given the great distances that separate us (which will be even more when #2's diplomatic career takes her and the clan to Manila this spring). But when we do get together, it is as sweet as can be.