Deep Fried Turkey

This year we decided to host the Mooney family Christmas at Dearbourne as well.  While it wasn't the entire extended Mooney clan (Dirk & Karen, Brett & Nancy), it was still occasion enough to warrant a special turkey.

Firstly, Mer ordered a fresh, locally sourced, organic turkey.  Then, it was decided (with a fair amount of lobbying on my part) to deep fry that bad boy!  I had been researching how to deep fry turkeys since before Thanksgiving and had spent the better part of the preceding 2 weeks trying to find all the equipment I'd need to deep fry that 15 lb bird.

I have to say, that for the first time, things went remarkably well.  By what measure do I make this claim?  I did not burn myself, the house, or any property.  It was a bonus that the turkey seemed to come out fine :-)  Everyone seemed to agree that it was a delicious first effort and good enough to warrant future deep frying of other poultry for family gatherings.

If you'd like a deep fried anything for your next function, I'm offering my services for the low, low price of 2, no 3 beers.

Lee Family Christmas

The Lee clan gathered on December 22 at Dearbourne to celebrate the first of two Christmas get togethers - the other would take place in London with Penny Popham.  Anna and Spence did a tremendous job preparing most of the dinner, with delicious appetizers from Nancy.

This was the first Christmas gathering of the season for Samara and she had plenty of fun opening the many gifts that she received.  Her grandad and Nan gave her the third book of the Knuffle Bunny series, and also included an actual Knuffle Bunny!  This may not sound terribly exciting to the rest of us, but this series happens to be one of Samara's favourites, so to actually receive a Knuffle Bunny was a bit magic.  Talia didn't miss out on scoring great gifts too - the only difference was that she slept through it ;-)

Samara Gets a Big Kid's Bed

Shortly after Talia was born, I took both girls for a car ride, both to give Mer a chance to rest and also to pick up some groceries.  During the ride, Samara declared that she would like a big kid's bed.  Now this may not sound particularly important to you, but Mer and I had been pondering how to get Samara out of her crib and into a bed, in order to use the crib for Talia in the coming weeks.

We didn't want Samara to start making negative associations with Talia (e.g., Talia gets all the attention, Talia gets my bed, etc.), so when Samara requested a bigger bed, it was like a gift fell into our laps! 

We struck while the iron was hot, and took her to IKEA the next day so that she could pick a bed.  Unfortunately, she was more interested in jumping on the beds, than in picking one.

So the following day, Mer and I made an executive decision, picked up an extendable bed, took down her crib and set up her new bed while Samara was at daycare. 

To make things more fun, we also strung up flags that Elspeth made for Samara and some ball-lights that Sara gave us a while ago.  The "doll" on the bed is Talia! 

 

Now Samara wakes up and says "Look at me, I slept in a big kid's bed all by myself!"

Samara's Impression of CN Tower

Samara's been a real treat lately - lots of fun and silly times.  I'm going to suffer some withdrawal when I return to work next week.

We were having a bath the other night, when I got to messing with her hair - was noticing how long it was getting and thinking about haircuts and other things when I noticed my hands were slowly pulling her hair up to a point - and it held!  I started to laugh and Samara asked what was so funny, so I lifted her out of the tub so she could see herself in the bathroom mirror.  She had a laugh too, so we called Mer to come see.

Those 10 minutes had more entertainment value for me than any movie I've seen in the last while.  It makes me greedy - I feel like hoarding as many of these moments as I can because I know that our girls grow each day and before we know it, they will be young women excited to forge their own paths through life.  

Of course we will always celebrate and cherish their accomplishments and milestones in life whenever and wherever they are - it just feels perfect right now.  They are the perfect size for hugging and tickling; they say things just right, even when it's wrong (like when Samara says aminals rather than animals), their heads fit perfectly under my chin or in my neck when I hold them.  I never understood when Mer used to say she missed Samara, even with Samara in the room - I finally get it.

Talia Meets Her Great-Grandparents

 
 

We took Talia to see her GG (great grandfather) and her Wang Halmuni (great grandmother) this past week.  She got on well with both of them.  She was very polite and did not interrupt while her great grandparents were speaking - in fact, all she did was listen ;-)

Never having met or known my great grandparents, it was very poignant to see two people separated by over 80 years of life connect and share an experience together.  I have no doubts that Talia will have little memory of her meeting, but I hope she has many more of these in the next couple of years, so that some memory of her great grandparents stays with her.

Sisters

Samara's taken a real shining to Talia - she likes holding her and asks to do so quite regularly....sometimes the timing isn't so great because Talia is in the midst of nursing, but Samara usually waits until it's her "turn".  She knows to wash her hands before holding her and always gives her kisses on her head instead of her face, so that Talia doesn't get catch anything from her.

I just hope Talia is equally enthusiastic about Samara - hope that these two kids will grow to be friends, and not just sisters.  Although with names like Samara & Talia, they may be mistakenly taken for a folk/roots band (as one cousin remarked) or as trapeze artists (I've got my fingers crossed for that one!).

Snippets of Conversation with Samara

I've had so many fun and funny conversations with Samara recently - at home, in the car, during a meal, pretty much any place and all the time.  I am sad to say I can't remember them all, but I always end them thinking, "I've got to remember this one - too funny".

For example, one day, Samara and I were in her room - she just woke up from her nap.  We were about to read a story, and Samara said that I should read it "properly".  It prompted me to ask, "Samara, what does "properly" mean?"  She replied, "Properly is when you do something and your mommy and daddy don't say 'do it properly'."  I think that's what the dictionary definition should read.

Here's one conversation we had recently...

Introducing Talia!

In case the change in blog title didn't make it obvious, we'd like to officially introduce Talia Sabine Jahyun Lee Kim!

Yes, her name is long, but we figured we set a precedent with Samara and did not want to short change Talia.

Her Korean name, Jahyun (pronounced Jah-yun), means nature, natural, genuine, intrinsic.  This ties in nicely with Samara's Korean name, Haneul, which means sky, infinite, heaven, as well as with Talia, which means "morning dew" or "dew from heaven". 

Her middle name, Sabine is the french form of Sabina.  Turns out the Sabine tribe were an ancient people who lived in central Italy, their lands eventually taken over by the Romans after several wars. According to legend, the Romans abducted several Sabine women during a raid, and when the Sabine men came to rescue them, the women were able to make peace between the two groups. While I'm sure the actual proceedings were far messier than this synopsis, I like that this element ties in with one of the meanings of Samara's name (peace maker). 

That said, I think the photo evidence indicates that she will be more combative.  I placed a photo of Talia beside her ultrasound image to show just how much she appears to love holding up her hands by her face.  From her womb to her room, Talia has not dropped her fists....potential makings of a good boxer...can hear the promoters now....Talia "will maul ya" Kim goes undefeated with a record of 23-0!

Little Bean Joins the Family!

Well, I'm sure Little Bean doesn't see what the fuss is that's being made about her - mostly because her eyes are generally closed ;-)

However, we've taken a shining to her and very happy that she's part of our little family. Like all newborns, she has does little besides eat, sleep, poop and pee.  However, I've been impressed by her singular focus and dogged determination in tackling each of these tasks.

For example, she had 2 poops in one day - both so voluminous that it spilled out her diaper and onto her clothes - that's not absurd....it's abturd!  In any event, I've included a video of her first day in the world - mostly uneventful, but if you're like us, absolutely riveting.