The World's Largest Christmas Store

On the way back down from Dave's mom's house (Thanksgiving visit), we stopped at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. They claim they are the "The World's Largest Christmas Store" and I've not seen anything to dispute that claim! It's a tourist attraction (Frakenmuth is a minute away) but also a year-round store where you can buy all manner of Christmas stuff. We've been once before in the summer and the cavernous store was almost empty - and maybe it was ill-advised to visit on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but it was PACKED! The place is huge, maybe about the size of a Costco or a big box store and it was hard to move around, let alone look at the detail of ornaments. People had carts full of stuff (decor & ornaments mostly) but out of the thousands of ornaments, we found only 3 (gifts) to buy. The couple in front of us in line spent $267! Anyone who comes to visit us might find themselves at Bronner's (no matter what month!). And yes, I'll take you to the Pottery Barn outlet down the road!

Silver Bells in the City

Last nite we went over to Lansing (10 min drive) for the Silver Bells in the city celebration. They close down a bunch of city blocks around the state capitol and have an electric light parade (not quite Disney, a bit more down-market!), the big Christmas tree lighting, self-guided tours of the capital and a bunch more fun stuff. One of the highlights for me was the roasted chestnut vendor. We initially bought a bag to share but later went back and got four more - 1 warm bag for each of our pockets. The chestnuts were warm, sweet and super easy to peel. The parade was kind of cheesy with sort of homemade "floats", but the fireworks were neat with the capital building's cupola as the backdrop and the tour of where Jennifer Granholm does work was very cool. I told Dave "This is my first small town parade!" and he said laughed and said "Mine too!". So it's not the big tree in Rockefeller Center, but it's lovely in its own right!

The Asa Trips

My old coworker Linna and her husband had triplets this past June. I went to visit them in NY (Staten Island) this past week. I've never worked in the same city as Linna (NY vs. SF) but we worked so closely together that we talked every day at least once, shared an office when she visited SF and I was fortunate enough to attend their wedding a few years back. So it's not an understatement to say that I knew all about her ovulation cycle and all the details of her pregnancy! We joked that since she was having 3, her symptoms were tripled. She had morning sickness (barfing into ziplock bags on the bus ride into to Manhattan), terrible acne, backaches, yeast infections, always tired, hungry and had a really bad case of CRS (can't remember s&*%t! - try working with someone like that!). So it turned out probably for the better than she only carried until about 31 weeks - but the babies were born so small that they were all in the NICU for 6-8 weeks. One of her sons had to have an operation on his intestine when he weighed about 4 lbs! About two months after they were born, they were all home. I can't imagine what it was like for the first few weeks and how hard it must be to take care of seemingly fragile 4 lb. babies! So by the time I got there, they were a little more than 5 months old. HUGE babies! The doctors had them on a special preemie formula that was full of nutrients & fat and it sure worked. They were born in this order, Nathaniel -> Nicholas -> Emilee, weighing 3lbs 6 0z, 3lbs 4 oz. and 3lbs 2 oz. respectively. When I met them, they were easily 17lbs, 15lbs and 13lbs! So they are happy & healthy and their personalities are starting to emerge. Nate is the most mellow. He sleeps and eats and poops and starts again. Often during my visit, I would think "where's Nate?" Nicky is the one who had the surgery, but he's fine and is the most social one. He prefers to chat with the adults and his sister than to be alone in his crib. He's the one with the eyebrows that make him look mad. Emilee was called "the girl" during her stay in the NICU and it has stuck. "Where is the girl?, The girl is crying". She is a typical girl. . .screams loudly, eats in tiny portions, sleeps for short periods of time. . .and has a bit of an attitude! It was surprisingly a pretty mellow 5 days and I am so glad I got to see them. There is a planned road trip from NY to MI this spring/summer, but we'll see what happens!Here are 2 pictures of the kids. More here.