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!!