Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

William likes to say "Happy Christmas" instead of "Merry Christmas", which I find adorable.  He's so sweet--this age is just the perfect Christmas age.  He still feels the wonder and enchantment of the season and he still believes in Santa.  The older two are a little more jaded.  There's not quite the same level of holiday spirit, though there's a lot of excitement to get down and get at the gifts under the tree. We did go to church last night, all of us in one pew, everyone shiny and neat in their best clothes and me in my Christmas dirndl.  And lo, it was beautiful enough to drive me near to tears for a few moments, but then the squirming and musical seats started up.  Luckily, it was a family service designed especially for--you guessed it, families--and so there were a lot of lively little ones there.  Anyway, here are some pictures from today:  It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a Pillowpet!  Annika picked this out for Wil...

I have to say it:  I think I nailed the whole sugar cookie thing this year!  My ultimate proof is that we made them on Monday and today they are ALL gone, all three dozen of them.  I'm not going to lie.  I ate at least half of them.  I really wish the holidays didn't coincide with PMS (apologies to my male readers)...since I feel like eating everything I lay eyes on!!  Anyway, enough about my PMS, which could comprise several posts of its own (I should give it a name).  How about some pictures of my children and Hans (!) decorating cookies? I'm happy to oblige: Annika on Sunday, waiting for the cookies to bake  Christmas Tree 2012 Preparing to frost--Josiah still remembers the year(s) I made them take off their shirts for this activity!   SO excited to get Daddy to come home a little early on Monday and frost with us!  There was plenty of sampling while we decorated, and we did end up giving quite a few...

By now, you all know our stunningly good news.  I was pretty much convinced that it would go the other way, so...I am surprised.  Proud and pleased and back on the bandwagon of waiting to see what happens next.  The Navy surely has kept us on our toes for the past decade!  Now we wait and see what happens.  According to Hans, he will have a little input into what type of ship he wants and where.  A very, very little, and of course he is subject to the whims and needs of the Navy.  I'll keep the five of you stalwart readers informed.  That's a promise! I'm just stunned, I think, to find that our adventure isn't quite over.  Thankful that we will now have more time for Hans to consider what he wants to do for a living post-Navy.  That one was scaring me more than anything:  if he didn't screen, what in the world would he do and in this job market? As life goes on.  Of course, I have to mention the tragedy in Newtown....

The Facts of Life, right?  A show that I saw maybe twice because we didn't have NBC at our house.  Or ABC or whatever non-CBS channel it was on.  I could have learned so much from Blair and Jo, but I had to learn my lessons from Thomas Magnum and the Simon Brothers.  Whatevs. So, it's been one of those days.  I knew last week was just too perfectly perfect, what with everything falling so neatly and amazingly into place. First.  The kids have had these God-blessed colds for about six weeks now and I'm about at my wit's end.  The only other stranger virus I've encountered was my bizzare German virus--remember that one:  fever, chills, body rash?  They thought I either had Lyme Disease or there was a dead Nazi in the basement whose malevolent spirit was causing my illness.  Remember that one?  This cold that the kids have (which Hans and I have not caught, for some strange reason) appears and disappears at random.  They wil...

Just a quick post/public service announcement.  If your kid has a wart, don't even bother. I took him to the doctor on Monday to have it removed.  Doctor was a nice(ish), older, civilian. Before doing anything to Will's wart, he lectured me for upwards of 10 minutes on how "they" don't recommend removing warts on children anymore.  He proceeded to describe to me in depth, using complex terminology (maybe I should be flattered that I looked intelligent or something?) that the wart was a virus and would retreat on its own.  I'm paraphrasing.  I may have fallen asleep for a couple of minutes.  With my eyes open. Well, I felt a little guilty because he asked if I still wanted him to freeze the wart and I said I did.  I am a horrible mother apparently, because he told me that it hurts the child and that it isn't necessary and I still want him to do it. It took an unreasonably long amount of time for the nurse to return with the freezing gun. So, ...

I'm pretty sure that I've done odds and ends at least thirteen times, maybe more.  Bear with me, friends.  This is one of those posts. And now, for the bullet points: Please give us a thought and a prayer this week.  In some doubtlessly drab government building in Millington, TN a bunch of important Navy people are looking over Hans' record and deciding, for the third and final time, if he's fit for command or not.  Let's hope that this time around, these are smart Navy people and not the kind of Navy people who keep picking drunk, fist-fighting, crew-abusing, adulterous, other-ship-hitting dumbasses for command.  Please let them be smart, please let them be smart, baby Jesus. OK, so anyway.  Having said the above, Hans and I have made peace with whatever decision the board comes up with (do they use dice?  do they throw bones?  read tea leaves?) and will be happy either way.  All right, we will admit that we will be 8.3% happier if the...

 Home sweet home (for now...)   Turkey tealights and my plucked from the front/backyard bouquet After supper games     Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family around the world!  I trust that everyone ate until their buttons strained, had that second piece of pie and then dozed while watching football.  And then got up and went Black Friday shopping.   Fact:  I did not know that Black Friday is called Black Friday because it's the only day that merchants are "in the black" versus in the red.  I'm not sure that I believe that anyway.  Are you telling me that Target is running at a loss the other 364 days of the year?  That can't possibly be true. Fact:  I won't even make you laugh by telling you why I thought it was called Black Friday...   We had the traditional dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggie and rolls.  The kids did not like 98% of the food we set in f...

Well, I guess, technically speaking...HANS has got a gun and Rachel uses it from time to time. So, I signed up through the NRA for a basic pistol course that I will be taking next Saturday for about four hours.  This time includes some basic instruction on parts and caring for the gun as well as range time and a stop at a dealer afterwards to "shop".  I like Hans' gun and it has been oohed over already by the Marine LTCOL who is going to be teaching the course.  He says (and of course, in the De For household we already know this) that the Germans know how to do things right.  Sig Sauer .40 is what we own. This gun is a little big for me, though.  I barely have the upper body strength to put a bullet in the chamber, so I'm thinking that I'll look around for something a little more...feminine?  Just smaller, maybe a Walther .22.  James Bond has a Walther, so I'm down with that and we're still sticking to the German family of guns. I know that...

Finally, Halloween pics!  But first, a couple from last week's Fall Festival at Larchmont Elementary.  We purchased tickets to have BBQ and then played free games in the backyard.  I love how the PTO handles fundraising at LES--get-togethers rather than door-to-door sales. (By the by, can you believe how beautiful our daughter is?  I mean, really!?) The backyard at Larchmont Elementary--they have a school garden here.  I had no idea it existed until Fall Festival. Annika, transformed into a tigress.  Rawrrrrr!  Josiah participated in the sack race.  Halloween, traditional doorstep picture before trick-or-treating.    Will as The Dragon, Josiah as Luigi, Annika as a Tigress  I can't decide which of these is cuter, so I'll just stick both in here!        Halloween was short and sweet, just the way Mr. De For and I like it.  Our friends Cory and Patty invited us to stop...

Rachel here, reporting from the midst of Tropical Storm Sandy. I just wanted to let my myriad readers now that we are still dry, as of 11:30 Monday morning.  It has been raining steadily and the winds are brisk, off and on, but it's nowhere near the end-of-world scenario that The Weather Channel was predicting. When they mentioned Virginia, of course...we're not exactly the national focus at the moment.  Understandably. We have a lot of ponding water along the curb on our street, but so far, it hasn't crept up into the driveway, so the cars are safe and sound (yes, of course I'm worried about the cars--I swear, this is absolutely the LAST house that I am inhabiting that doesn't have a garage).  If it does start to rise, we can move them into parking garages at the university around the corner. I don't think it's going to get that bad, but we'll just take each hour as it comes. I am very thankful that there are no large trees around this house ...

Leaving Baltimore  Maine     Our ship, Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas in Portland, ME Pulling into Bar Harbor, ME   Hans in Bar Harbor The famous reversing falls in St. John, New Brunswick (I have no idea how to explain this phenomenon, Google if interested) Hans, shopping in St. John - the book is called "My Love Affair With the Navy" (he did NOT buy it) The market in St. John Leaving St. John  Pulling into Halifax, Nova Scotia Noon cannon firing (blanks only--haha!)* My husband forced me to try on regimental dress and pose...Halifax Citadel Towel art onboard the ship         *  It's still a joke almost a decade after our honeymoon...staying in Edinburgh, we saw the noon cannon firing from the castle there and I was horrified that they were firing shells so close to the city.  UNTIL my husband explained to me that they used bla...

 Less than a week old, October 2009 First birthday, October 2010 Second birthday, October 2011 Third birthday!         Yesterday was my littlest man's third birthday...as you can see, we celebrated in style.  I didn't get any good shots of the decor, but we did more than just completely mummify Will's chair in crepe paper!  That was Josiah and Annika's job, and they used almost two entire rolls of paper to do it.  After we finished with the cake and opening of gifts, they tore all that paper off and had fun messing around in it (again, why do we spend money on toys?!).  At one point, they all three had red headbands and were pretending to be ninjas.  Good times.   Well, I can't believe that William is three.  I shouldn't be surprised, having gone through this two times prior, but I am still delighted at his growth.  In the last few weeks, he has matured so much:  his language ...