Lions Go ROAR!!

So what do Kasia and I do when the temperature in mid-January gets into the upper 60’s? Why, we go to the zoo of course. After all, we did pay for a membership and it would just be folly for us to let it sit around and go to waste.
This trip was slightly different than all our others. We were making our rounds down to the zebra (after having to tear her away from the big water globe that’s at the entrance) when I spotted something off in the distance. It was a lion. An awake lion. Then I saw another one. Two awake lions?! Amazing. I told Kasia the elephants had to wait because if we didn’t go immediately, we’d never see this again as long as we lived. I’m not sure she appreciated the gravity of the situation.
By the time we got over to the viewing area, we became witness to four awake lions. The Norfolk Zoo was blessed in October to have two lion cubs be born. Now they are letting the little ones out and run around the exhibit for all to see. Kids being kids, they are very exciting and full of energy, and this means that neither mom or dad is allowed to sleep. Much of the time we were watching them, all we saw was the kids getting into trouble and mom having to chase them down.
After watching all the excitement for a few minutes, things began to calm down and the four lions all found comfortable places to rest and eventually fall asleep.
To see the lions in action, or the elephants, visit the Virginia Zoo’s animal cam here and see what’s going on with the little guys.

Merry Christmas: Part Two

After months of waiting, Christmas morning finally arrived. At last, I was able to leap into the pile of presents and swim through them like Scrooge McDuck in his money bin. The only problem was that all the presents these days are for the kids. That’s what really stinks about growing up. Your Christmas gifts get to be fewer and fewer, and when you shake a wrapped book, it makes no noise.
By the time the Southern Branch of the Gruetzmacher family awoke, everyone else was already downstairs opening their stockings (which were in fact hung by the chimney with care). It was awesome, or so Alex told me. Santa came. He left presents and ate the cookies which my mother was so kind to leave out since the kids forgot to.
Kasia was apprehensive about opening her stocking at first. I’d pull something out for her, and she’d put it right back in. After a little cajoling, she finally got the idea that the toys inside were for her and it was ok if she wanted to take them out and play.
The rest of the opening of the gifts went much the same way. Everyone had their own strategy for opening presents. Alex tore them open as fast as he could get a hold of them. Noah opened them whenever he was given a new one. Kasia opened one, and didn’t want another one until she had satisfactorily played with the toy she had just opened. And Rick, he just kind of hid all of his presents so that when everyone else was done, he could feel special by having a ton of unopened gifts.
All in all, everyone had a great time.
The friday after Christmas gave us a special treat. It snowed. Oh my, however did it snow. Finally we were in a winter wonderland as this mini-blizzard came pouring down upon us. Kara and I went out to do some quick shopping, and we had a great time having a snowball fight out in the parking lot. It was that amazingly great snow that sticks well and is perfect for snowball fights.
The next day, we went up to Milwaukee, where they got even more snow than we did. For the first time in, well, maybe forever, the grandchildren of Ray Schumacher all got together under one roof. That alone is worthy of a party.
We decided to head back home on January 30th because we didn’t want to be driving on New Year’s Eve. The drive was very uneventful, until we got to Pennsylvania. Somewhere in the mountains we ran into a blizzard. So there we were, driving in a blizzard in the mountains in the middle of the night. The weather could not have gotten any worse. When we couldn’t see the road because of the blizzard, it was the fog or the rain. Whatever it was, there was something trying to keep us from getting home.
But we did get home. It took 16 hours, but we got home. We managed to sleep for a few hours, and then when we woke up, we brought Kasia over to her Granny’s house to spend the night. Kara and I spent New Year’s Eve at home, and we caught up on our sleep. It was the best possible way to start off 2008.

Merry Christmas: Part 1

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are over. As I keep putting away our Christmas decorations, it seems to me like it was only last week when we were pulling them out and putting them up. Maybe this is why people are beginning to put up Christmas decorations in October.
Our Christmas was wonderful. We drove up to Chicago to see my family and hopefully see some snow. We got snow as soon as we hit West Virginia. It was only a light dusting, but it was everywhere. The trees were coated in a glaze of white, and with the mountains in the background, it made for a very picturesque drive. The rest of the drive was very uneventful. Though we could have driven straight through, we decided to stop for the night just outside of Indianapolis. I know, I know, we’re getting old, right? I mean, we can’t even make a simple 16 hour drive anymore? Well, our thinking was that if we drove all the way through, we wouldn’t have gotten to my parents’ house until after one in the morning. With Kasia having been asleep for awhile, she would been wired and awake once we got there and wouldn’t want to go down. Then by the time we did get her to go to sleep, Alex and Noah would be waking up. So instead of just ruining everyone’s Saturday, we decided to suck it up and get a hotel for the night. As it was, it still took us awhile to get Kasia to sleep. And besides, I was feeling a little unintelligent that day, and so I needed to stay at a Holiday Inn Express to recharge my brain.
Once in Chicago, we were greeted by a lot less snow than we were expecting, but a lot more enthusiasm from Alex and Noah than we had anticipated. Apparently they had foregone their naps because they were just too excited about Kasia coming. It was nice to be surrounded by family that we don’t get to see very often during the holiday season. The weather outside was frigid, and snow was in the forecast. Christmas was coming.
On Sunday we got a special surprise from Santa Claus. Kasia was having a hard time taking a nap, so she was rather tired and grumpy when he came by (how dare Santa interrupt her nap?!). She eventually got over it and learned to enjoy her My Little Pony toy that Santa had for her. In a surprise move, Santa also had gifts for all us big kids too. The guys received little bottles of good booze the girls got... well, stuff that wasn’t as nice. Santa knows. Bro’s before... well, you know the saying.
Christmas Eve was a rather mellow day. We were going to Church in the late afternoon, but aside from that, there was nothing planned. It was really nice. At church, I was amazed at how long Kasia made it through the service before we had to run off to the nursery and have her run it off. It was nice, because in the nursery, I bumped into an old friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen since high school. I’m sure glad that he remembered me, because he had changed so much that I didn’t even recognize him anymore.
On Christmas Eve, we played a game that I think was designed by my mother. It was rolling dice for presents. She had a bunch of wrapped presents, some really nice, some not, and they were the prizes for a dice rolling game. If you roll doubles, you get to pick a present. You can pick from the pile, or you can steal somebody else’s. Then after all the gifts are gone, and the time limit expires, you open whatever gifts you have left. Alex really dominated this game and in the end, everyone came out with the appropriate gifts. I’d like to tip my had to Kara, who won the grand prize, which was a gift card to Barnes and Noble. I had quite a collection of gifts to open, until a last minute rally by my opponents saw them all taken from me. I never told anyone, but I cried for hours that night because I lost all those gifts.