The life and times of a little hippie in the Bersagel-Briese clan.
The three of us piled into the car this evening and headed on a 5-stop tour of the best that Castle Rock has to offer when it comes to Christmas lights. We saw everything from a Griswold house (see below) to a professional setup between two homes to a five home cul-de-sac that is all tied together with lights over the center of the road.
If you happen to live in town, here are the streets: Foursome Way, Lantern Circle, Cherry Street, Neptunite Way, and Silver Dollar Court.
The bag is packed and ready to go. Almost. Just missing a few clothing items to get us through the delivery, but we’ll get those in there ASAP. There might be some things in there that you might not have seen in other bags, but when you combine Hypnobirthing practices and the experience of a prior 36-hour labor, you get a back that has granola bars, peanuts, crackers, construction paper (for covering the clock), a music player, toiletries, snack items for Ezra, and clothes for us. Chances are that we won’t touch a lot of it (unless we have another extended labor), but it’s good to have available.
Ah, and one random picture of Ezra from this morning.
Today’s baby preparation included getting almost all of the gifts mailed out to family and setting up the co-sleeper in our room. The sleeper isn’t yet hooked up to the bed, to allow us to get on and off the bed easier for the next week, but everything is in place for it to become the new primary sleeping spot for a baby.
We celebrated the final night of Hanukkah a day later since I was at work for the actual night. The night was highlighted by a tired kid that didn’t really want to listen to us at any point and found himself in/near time-out on several occasions lighting all of the candles and being able to spend a reflective moment together. Here’s to the miracle of Hanukkah!
Welcome to a new daily feature that I am hoping won’t last more than a few days. The countdown is till the anticipated due date of December 17, and despite all of the advice out there to pay as little attention to that date (as it is just a guess), I have decided to go the entire opposite direction and focus entirely way too much on it. Besides, it gives me something to do other than wait.
So, today’s baby preparation event was the installation of the infant seat in the Highlander (the Subaru is at work with Ahna so I will get it’s base installed later tonight). Say goodbye to any backseat easy storage for us and say hello to a new neighbor for Ezra! It certainly looks a little strange – about as much as it did when we installed it for Ezra. I suppose that each of these prep events will ease our minds a little as we try to get everything ready; but this one at least allows us to get the baby home from the hospital….a welcome thing.
The first of what is sure to be many Christmas/holiday themed dinner parties has come and gone. Actually, we have already attended two separate Hanukkah parties that I failed to bring the camera to, so this is actually #3. This marked the 4th annual holiday gathering of the group comprised of the Allen’s and the Fahlsing’s (it’s a new name to us….since Cyrilla and Todd got married this year). Of the 4 years, this one marked the first that we were able to host, and once again the house proved to be a wonderful space that we were able to share with some great friends. The kids played really well together, and each shared their gifts equally well (or not so well as the specific case may have been).
Each night prior to our meal, we hold hands and say a short prayer about whatever needs praying. For the past several months, Ezra has been not only disinterested, but flat out mad when we do it; at times pointing to us and saying “no praying!” We persevere through the childish scolding and pray each night, extending an open hand in his direction passively hoping that one time he will want to join back in.
Last night was that night. We started our meal off in the same fashion that the past several months have come to be – including the prayer protests. But halfway through the meal, and completely unprompted and unprovoked, Ezra reached out each of his hands and told us that he would like to pray. Ahna and I looked at each other with a certain sense of happiness that it’s possible he might be loosing his distaste and falling on the side of wanting to pray again. Many months ago, when he was still excited/interested in the pre-meal prayer, he would even ask to do it in the middle of the meal at random times…we always obliged. So when he asked last night, I thought it to be no different that any of those times from before.
But this time was different. Before either Ahna or I could say anything outloud, Ezra says “Gracious God, thank you for Saba and Savta, Nana and Papa. Mommy and Daddy and Baby and Ezra. Amen.” Those last two were with a little prompting. WOW! It was stunning. For him to be not only interested in a prayer again, but to lead the prayer with his own words and thoughts was an amazing thing to watch. It was just one of those moments in parenting that makes everything okay. We were so proud of Ezra on so many levels – and it might have even brought a tear to one of our eyes, but I’m not going to spill who it was (hint: the person’s name rhymes with Ahna).
There is no intention of posting every photo that I take on here….after all, this is a blog about what we do as a family, not a photography blog. However, I can justify it by saying that this is the sort of thing that happens after Ezra goes to bed – so it’s loosely connected…in the ‘life of a parent’ sort of way. Anyhow, here are some shots of downtown Castle Rock that I took last night.
Correctly Exposed Single Shot
HDR
Correctly Exposed Single Shot
HDR
Yea, I was just too intrigued at the photo possibilities. Now I just need to sell a few photos to make up for the cost of the program. Here is the refined, non-watermarked version of the Station 151 photo.
The Life of a Little Hippie 