R.I.P. Mike the Mouse

Over Christmas, we had a furry little house guest. Word to the wise: don't use poison to kill mice. They die under couches, leaving a stank you wouldn't believe. We pulled out the couch, and there he was, in all his decomposing glory. We promptly disposed of him. He is now resting in a Target bag coffin at the Cedar Rapids landfill

Ben's First Christmas (and Colleen's big 3-0)

I won't bore you with thousands of tales and pictures of the first Navidad. Suffice to say it was a nice holiday and for the most part, the families respected our reuqest to not go apeshit with presents for a baby who will not give two shits or even know what is going on.



Here is a nice picture of us before we went to Midnight Mass:

I am feeling the effects of quite a bit of wine in this picture. I was a bit drunk as we went to mass, as was Colleen's younger sister, Megan.

We really enjoyed spending time with Ben, since we really don't see him during the day while we are at work.

The whole Christmas extravaganza got off to a great start with Colleen's 30th birthday the week before. Her older sister, Erin, flew in from Seattle to surprise her. Of course, I knew about this and arranged for her to be at our house when we got home from work. Colleen was complaining about how uneventful her birthday had been up to that point and when we got to the front door she demanded that I open the door. I told her to do it, since I had my hands full of packages and things from work. As we argued over who was going to open the door, I finally had to give in and admit that I didn't have my keys. At that point, Erin heard us arguing and came to the door--and my rescue. Screaming and general giddiness ensued. We all went out for a nice dinner that night and then came home to enjoy some delicious lemon-raspberry cake from a local bakery, ice cream and champagne. Good times.

There are more posts to come, including the tale of another furry house guest, but for now, I will just post my favorite picture of Ben from over the Christmas break. Happy New Year!