An almost white Christmas

With a thin layer of snow covering the yards and rooftops a couple of days before Christmas, we clung to the hope that our family would experience the first white Christmas since settling in North East Ohio. However, the people at the Weather Channel did not share our optimism as temperatures rose and rain fell on Christmas Eve, dissolving our hopes for that elusive Christmas dream!

But that in no way diluted our Christmas celebrations!! On Christmas Eve, we continued our annual German tradition of Bunte Teller. This tradition (a personal favorite), involves us distributing international chocolates, home baked Christmas cookies, marzipan and more to each family member. This plate of divine delectables is meant to last you at least until New Year's day - however I have yet to make it more than 3 or 4 days!

Our church has two services on Christmas Eve which celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We usually attend the first service at 5pm. The beauty of this is that it leaves our Christmas Day open, and allows us to relax, open presents, and eat copious amounts of Christmas foods! After the Christmas Eve service, we came home, lit a fire and enjoyed each other's company - before retiring for the night and allowing Santa to come and do his thing :P

I was awoken on Christmas Day by Nathan who jumped on my bed shouting, "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" That was the start of a leisurely morning for us. Nathan, as you can imagine, was highly entertaining as he liberated his new toys from their wrappings. He kept on saying, after opening present after present, "Just what I always wanted!" That was hysterical, and we are not sure where he picked up that little phrase. He most likely remembered my mom saying that when she we opened our presents with her in 2007!

Nathan got a multitude of presents, all of which he loved. I even get to play with a few of the presents which can become slightly addictive :)

On Saturday, North East Ohio was blessed with unseasonably warm weather! Temperatures of 65F (17C) saw many people re-emerge from their houses to experience the outdoors. We too, took advantage of the weather, and Gabi and I drove Nathan to a local playground! Nathan just loved being able to run around again, go down slides and climbing up hills! We also took his bicycle along and had an enjoyable walk behind him along the bicycle/running track!



The lovely warm weather left Cleveland as quickly as it arrived, and soon the temperatures were diving back down to acceptable levels for the end of December.

For those of you (Robin) who need to see pictures of Joshua, here are a couple of him at 5 weeks old!

The McCarthy Christmas Letter 2008

As 2009 edges nearer, and the sound of carols are being drowned out by the sound of the cash register, we need to escape the madness around us and spend time together as a family. It's this family time that is most precious to us, and we are blessed to have Liesel's mom, Gabi, here with us to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

This is also a great time to look back on 2008 and see how God has been present and prayers have been answered!

As a family (of 3), we had many moments that we cherished together. Some of the memories included:

• Starting 2008 in sunny South Africa, as we wrapped up our Christmas vacation. We would soon be swapping the glorious sunshine, golden beaches and hours of swimming for the snow-covered landscapes of Cleveland!


• In June, Craig drove for 5 hours from Toronto, Canada and spent a weekend with us! Nathan loved having his uncle around and you could see how quickly a bond developed between the two of them! You can imagine how Nathan reacted when Craig gave him an early birthday gift, a 2 man dome tent!


• We celebrated Easter with the Lipperts in Detroit.


• Our summer vacation to northern Michigan was amazing. We stayed with the Lipperts at their timeshare in Boyne Mountain. Nathan still speaks about our visit to Mackinac Island on the jet boat!


• Nathan and I finally met the Staley's, again at the Lippert's in Detroit. The three families had a wonderful time together, catching up, and building new friendships! Gavin and I even got an opprortunity to fell two trees in Andreas' yard which was great fun for us!


• In September, Nathan and I had a fantastic, yet deafening time at the Annual Cleveland Air Show.

Individually, we also ventured into new territories, as God opened new doors for us.

• In May, I graduated from my 4 months of intensive training in the Java language at my company. I saw this as a great opportunity to learn new skills and make myself more marketable, which is vital, especially now as we are gripped by the weakening economy. The timing, as it always is with God, was perfect!


• Nathan donned his Spiderman backpack for the first time as he started preschool in September. He has been loving attending it twice a week, and we have loved seeing him come home with new knowledge, and new hand-made creations! He has been particularly fond of his extra-mural music classes. He has already learned to play a couple of simple tunes on the keyboard and is slowly learning to read music!


• In November, Liesel entered her eighth month of her pregnancy. After contracting a slight cold, she visited our family practitioner. The doctor found that Liesel’s blood pressure was unusually high, and recommended that she visit her gynecologist. So Liesel followed the doctor’s orders and went to her gynecologist, who promptly told her to make her way to the hospital. So that Monday, Nathan and I took her to hospital, where she was to be monitored overnight. It seemed like the rest and relative comfort of a hospital bed, and the medication did the trick and brought Liesel’s blood pressure back down to acceptable levels. Nathan and I were jubilant to find out that she was being discharged on Tuesday with instructions to keep monitoring her blood pressure. Our jubilation came to an abrupt end when on Wednesday night, the blood pressure spiked again, and after a call to the gynecologist’s office, it was back to the hospital. Liesel was put into a room for observation, and after getting some medication intravenously, her blood pressure stabilized and we were free to go home at 2am. On Friday, Liesel visited her gynecologist again, and again she wanted Liesel in hospital. Liesel’s gynecologist had a gut feeling that our baby would be arriving very soon, and therefore didn’t want to take any chances. That evening, Liesel’s blood pressure rose again, but this time her gynecologist told her that they would be taking the baby out, even though he was four weeks early. Once I had made my way back to the hospital, I joined Liesel in the theater. It was not long after that when little Joshua announced his arrival with a loud cry! This was a great relief for us as we were concerned about whether his lungs would be properly developed. He weighed in at a decent weight of 6lbs 6oz (2.9kg) considering how early he was. We praise God that Joshua was perfectly healthy, and didn’t even need to spend any time in the ICU, and that He had his hand on Liesel the entire time!

As can been seen throughout the year, God has been with us through every heartbeat. So the McCarthy family (of 4) wants to give thanks to our Father for his protection over us and all He has blessed us with in 2008. We pray that you and your family may have true joy and peace this Christmas and may God bless you in 2009!

Grant, Liesel, Nathan and Joshua

Week of Wintery Wonders!

Gabi has been with us for one week so far, and the Ohio weather systems are putting on an impressive show for her! For instance, as I am typing this, it is -17C (-32C with the wind chill) outside! If you take -32C, there is a temperature difference of 73C between us, and Liesel's dad's house in Botswana which was 41C today when we spoke to him! So it was not the wisest thing to go outside barefoot to plug in the Christmas lights! But hey, I am from Africa and have really tough feet!


On Tuesday, I took Gabi and Nathan to a stunning location, thanks to a tip from a colleague. We went to Finwood Estate, which belongs to a local town council. Each year around Christmas time, they string millions of lights together and make a magical place for you to bring your family to walk around. Firstly, there are beautiful scenes created with these lights and paths set out for you to explore. Secondly, as you approach the house, there are approximately twenty trains running on cleverly laid out tracks in the front yard. This was Nathan's favorite and despite the freezing rain and snow that was falling, he stood in awe of these miniature machines making their rounds! After a while, I managed to get Nathan to come with us inside the house. As you enter, you see the living room, when a jolly old fellow named Santa was sitting there and listing to children's "want" lists. Each room had the Christmas theme applied, even the bathroom that had a Christmas tree, and some blue lights hidden amongst the "foam", causing a magical glimmer.


After the house inspection, we went to the closed-in garage where we had some free hot chocolate and cookies!

Friday was Gabi's birthday, and again God decided to decorate our yard for her. This time though He didn't choose snow, but rather the rare beauty of an ice storm! So all our plants became encrusted with crystal-like coating. Fortunately it was a mild ice-storm so there was no damage caused. But none-the-less, it is still a beautiful sight to behold and a once in a lifetime treat for Gabi!


Later that morning, we took Gabi to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. This restaurant always lives up to its reputation for serving up incredible meals, and never disappoints! Gabi had a Thai Chicken dish, Lee had a pizza and a salad, and I had the orange chicken dish. We all ordered Cheesecake for dessert, but had to take it home with us to enjoy later as the serving sizes always deny us the opportunity to partake in post entree delicacies!


The temperatures started their nosedive through Saturday, so we wisely chose to stay indoors for most of the weekend. This gave me some time to become creative with Nathan's Lego, and made him a very cool fire engine (even if I do say so myself). To me there is nothing more satisfying than having a picture in my head and then using the various Lego bricks to bring my imagination to life! Needless to say, Nathan loves it too :)

On Saturday night, we took a drive through Crocker Park, to show Gabi (and Nathan) the holiday lights and huge Christmas Tree! It was another worthy display of lights that we love at this time of year!

On Sunday - we braved the frigid air and headed for Church. Afterwards Liesel treated us to a delicious roast for lunch! Shortly afterwards, I hit Nathan's Lego box again and made him a police car to accompany his fire engine, and ambulance that I had made him earlier.

Now I need to go outside (barefoot again) and switch off the Christmas lights!

Gabi's "Home"-Coming, Christmas Trees and our Cantata's

What a week! It started off with me heading back to work after being on and off for about two weeks. It devastated poor Nathan that his permanent play partner was leaving him to his own devices.... but I knew that a very capable "replacement" would be arriving on Friday! That would be Nathan's maternal grandmother, or Gogo as he affectionately calls her. She arrived after some unexpected drama at Oliver Tambo Airport(aka Johannesburg International Airport) when Liesel's grandmother's passport was confiscated due to an irregularity. Both Liesel's mom and grandmother were due to fly out to the USA together, but after this set back, Liesel's mom flew alone. But the good news she arrived on time and into the arms of Nathan who ran to meet her at Cleveland's airport!!! As a special bonus, God decorated the landscape for her with a fresh layer of snow. The funny thing is, there was no snow at all in Cleveland's city center, nor any of the suburbs I drove through on my way home! But as I turned the corner into my neighborhood, there it was - the fresh layer of snow making everything beautifully white!


On Saturday, Nathan, Gabi and myself went in search of the perfect Christmas tree! We found a place that sold a variety of trees, and we paced up and down finding one with the perfect shape. After a while, we decided that we wanted a Michigan Fir. It was conveniently netted for us and then tied to the roof rack of Liesel's Buick. When we got it home and into the tree stand, we saw that it was slightly bigger than what I expected! In fact, if you look at the photos, you can see that the highest part of the tree is actually bent against the ceiling! But Nathan, Gabi and I had great fun decorating this monster tree, and all Liesel was thinking about was the amount of needles that will fall off this tree in the next two weeks :)



On Sunday, our church had their annual Cantata which was simply fantastic! A choir consisting of 56 voices and an orchestra of 28 made beautiful, moving music! It was entitled "A Festival of Carols" and it really did lift one's spirit!
That evening, it was time for the children to perform their Christmas program! Nathan, along with many other pre-schoolers, marched confidently up onto the stage, shook his bells with vigor and sang his memorized songs :) We were very proud. Afterward, we took a slight detour on the way home, so we could enjoy some of the houses Christmas lights! There were some spectacular displays and one could see that some people spent a lot of time decorating their houses! When we came home, we put on our Christmas tree lights - and within a few minutes, Liesel spotted some smoke coming from the tree!!! One of the lights had shorted and started melting! Fortunately we never leave the lights on when we leave the house! So enjoy the photo's of the tree with the lights on, as those lights are now being taken back and some new ones will be bought :)

Freezing weather, Festivities and Flickering lights

This week I was fortunate enough to be able to take time off from work and stay at home with my new family! It was a fantastic week of getting to know Josh, playing with and making Lego creations with Nathan. And of course, I was there to assist Liesel wherever I could as she recovers from the c-section. This was also the time for me to catch up some sleep, even though Josh has been remarkably good- even at 2 weeks old. Most of the time he only wakes up once a night around 2 - 3am for a night time snack! What more could a parent ask for from their 16 day old child??

These past couple of weeks have been an incredible family bonding experience for the McCarthy's, and I will cherish the memories forever! Today (Monday), I head back to the office and try to return to some form of normality again!

It was quite fitting that for my last two days of leave, the weather gave us our first taste of snow, which transforms the dry, barren landscapes into a beautiful, clean canvas that is so beautifully accented at night by the various lights decorating the neighborhood houses!

Ever since Thanksgiving, people have braved the elements (freezing temperatures, rain, sleet) to attach strings of various lights to the exterior of their houses! I, too, did my duty and headed onto my roof and dangled lights from the the precipices of the roof! At times, my prayer life increased dramatically as my shoes were not getting sufficient grip on the steep incline, but luckily my hypothermic hands managed to keep me in position long enough to get the string of lights secured to the stupid little plastic clip! Anyway here is a picture of the final result (which took several trips onto the roof to repair some broken bulbs and re-arrange the lighting patterns.)


On Saturday night, after Nathan's bath and reading some stories to the boys, I headed off to our annual Christmas party at my manager's house just down the road from me. It is at times like this when I am really glad that his house is literally 5 minutes away, since the fresh layer of snow made the streets quite challenging to navigate! At the party, we had some great food and exchanged some awesome gifts (I got a huge box of chocolate covered pretzels and a DVD!) The highlight for me came after that when most of us tried our hand at the PlayStation Rock Band! We had drummers, guitarists and vocalists, all striving to make it to the end of the song without too many mistakes. I was impressed by some of my colleagues hidden talents, and even their significant other's joined in the fun! A really good time was had by all!!