Zoo Lights

Our final Christmas tradition:  Going to see a lights display.  Usually this is at a zoo, but not always.  For instance, I think in the future we will just go to Peacock Lane (an activity that I was very, very disappointed to have not done this year) and skip the zoo.  It was a beautiful and impressive light display, but the insane crowds and lack of animals really didn't justify the price tag.  Boo.

Oh, and hello learning-curve for our dSLR camera.  Wow.  We really didn't end up with many good shots from the night.  Time to bust out the user manual.

Belated Christmas

Kraig's parents and siblings came into town on the 29th, so we had more gifting and gift-opening to do.  

Owen got a sweet new keyboard that he just adores (but I wish he didn't know how to turn the volume up...)

And he liked helping everyone else open their gifts.

We were glad to have been able to watch everyone open their gifts from us.  While we enjoyed our relaxing, obligation-free holiday, it's a little weird to send people gifts and not be there when they open them.  Ah well.  There are pros and cons to everything :)

Break

I know this might seem like it is coming out of left field- which it is- but I am going to take a break from blogging publicly for a while.  There has been a string of "things" (I hesitate to call them "events" because it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just a lot of things at once) lately that has left me a little jaded.  I need a little time to do some debriefing and re-evaluation with my husband about what the blog means to us.  I like that it has always been a sort of record, a virtual baby book of sorts.  I like that we have these memories safe forever so we can always go back and revisit this time in our lives.  I also like that it has been a way for us to keep in touch with far-away family and friends.  It's our blog, so it has been our safe space to work out what it means to be married, to be parents, and to have moved cross-country.  We, as young adults, are in process and this has been a place to share our journey.

Part of that process and journey has always been to expound upon some of the quirky things about us.  Like I said, this has been a safe space to not only process but also share some of the reasons for why we do the things we do.  We know we're different.  We know there are questions about why we eat/purchase/believe/think/parent the way that we do.  We encounter those questions quite frequently- more frequently in Ohio than here- and honestly, it has been nice to be able to "explain ourselves" in black and white.  Just like memories with Owen, though, we are on a journey and things are very dynamic, so it has been a blessing to us to be able to have record of all of our personal development as well as family development.  You know, like how Kraig had to teach me how to sort my recycling.  Or how we transitioned from a one-vegetarian household to an entirely vegan household (again, thanks Kraig.  Maybe he should do the blogging ;)).  Or how we nailed down some traditions for our little family.  That kind of thing.

But, we moved to a place where we aren't seen as "different".  Our experience has shown us that there are as many types of people as there are people, and we are in a place where we are free to be and we are accepted for us.  We always knew that this would be the case- that's why we wanted to live here.

So why stop blogging?  To keep it short, in Ohio we felt like we had to just avoid talking about certain topics.  We had to "act normal".  We shied away from being too "weird".  Now that we have been able to fully express ourselves for the last 4 months, I feel a disconnect between how we think and live and how I feel like I can blog about our life and experience.   Frankly, I am feeling like I can't write or speak about our values and beliefs publicly without feeling scrutinized (and sometimes being outright judged).  I know that is normal when you put things out into the blogiverse.  Maybe that's okay- the door is there for anyone who doesn't want to read about a young alt-family in Portland.  Maybe I need to find my voice again.  Maybe I need to get over it and not care what others think.  I think I just need time to think and come back to it later.

I plan to continue recording Owen's development and maybe other random stuff too, but it will not be public.  That way if I do make it public again, all the content is there and we don't miss a step.  Maybe I'll make it invite only.  Maybe you can email me and I'll "let you in".  Maybe I'll change the address.  In any event, you can keep up with us on Facebook, me on twitter, or call/email/text/visit.  I just need to retreat to where it's just the three of us for a little while so we can regroup.

Love-
the Buesch fam.

PS.  Merry Christmas!

Owen's gifts... round 3/ Christmas Morning

We love Christmas.  Not because we receive gifts (we don't, at least not from each other), but because giving gifts to Owen is so wonderful.  Also, I get to wear my polar bear pajama pants, which is always awesome.  Right?

 Since we didn't have anywhere to be (wow, that was really great) we just meandered through the day.  We let Owen do whatever he wanted.  If he wanted to open gifts, that's what he did.  If he wanted to play with his toys and ignore the wrapped presents, that's what he did.  If he wanted to eat/sleep, that's what he did.  It was awesome.

He usually chose to play.
Until it was time for breakfast.  YUM!
I made vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls, hash browns, and vegan faux sausages.  

Then it was back to playing.
He got an awesome drum from his Grandpa Tim.

And later in the afternoon we skyped with Nana and Papa and Owen opened his train set and books that they got for him.

We skyped with Kraig's parents as well (no photo evidence, sorry).  We headed over to our pastor's home for a meal (we didn't eat, but dropped in to say hello) and then came back home for dinner.  We then dropped by our neighbors' to say hi and give a few little gifts we'd made.

All in all it was an extremely relaxing, wonderful day full of laughing, playing, good food and great friends.   Merry Christmas!

A Vegan Christmas Feast

Is it gratuitous to post photos of our Christmas meal?  Oh, it is?  Shucks.

This was our first all-Vegan Christmas and I was darn proud of it!  IT WAS SO DELICIOUS!  

Cornbread. nom nom nom.

Obligatory mashed potatoes.  Surprisingly delicious for being vegan.  I'd dare say they were the best MP's ever.  

I was not part of the meal.  Well, except that I cooked all of it.  Kraig just likes to capture me in my element.  Ha!

Garlicky greens.  Come to mama.  

Boy Eating Cornbread

The Best Mushroom Gravy in the World.  Seriously, I think I drank some of it straight (not really, but I really, really wanted to.  True story.)

 Green bean casserole with homemade fried onions.  (For inquiring minds, the "cream of mushroom sauce" in the green beans was my mushroom gravy.  YUM.)

 The Christmas Roast Beast!   Haha!  Braised veggies with Field Roast Celebration roast.  It was really, really good.

 Check this out, Owen is trying to steal more cornbread.  Thief!

First of all, that looks so amazing.  Secondly, our new camera captures STEAM.  How crazy is that?!

Elves

If you don't have children, I'm sorry that you do not (yet?) know the joy of preparing the gifts on Christmas Eve after your little one is in bed.  If you do have kids, you know exactly what I mean.  We scurried around like little elves after Owen was asleep, straightening up the house, putting out gifts, arranging things so they were just so.  We wanted everything to be ready and perfect for him on Christmas morning.  Seriously, since becoming a parent Christmas is all about Owen and not at all about me.  (Kraig and I haven't even exchanged gifts the past two years, but you'd never know it because we are both as giddy as school girls at a Bieber concert on Christmas morning.)

 Owen's new kitchen set, made by Educo

 puzzle from Aunt Dawn and Uncle Chris, toaster set from Joe and Greg.

We love Christmas.

Owen's gifts... round 2

Up next are our friends Joe and Greg.  They picked out some accessories for Owen's play kitchen that we gave him for Christmas (sorry to spoil the surprise).  

A toaster, bread, butter, a knife, and a set of fruits and veggies (not pictured.)  Owen loves making "peanut butter sammiches!"

Thanks, Greg and Joe!

Owen's gifts... round 1

There are going to be a lot of posts about Owen's Christmas gifts.  Bear with me.

Wow, we are so blessed.  We had a wonderful community of people surrounding us in Cleveland, and I don't want to discount those people who cared for us and loved us so much while we lived there.  But we are extremely blessed by the people we have met thus far in Portland.  I don't think we ever expected to find such a wonderful community of people so quickly, or to form such strong bonds with them as fast as we did.  It's true, though- we have stumbled upon a strong, caring, wonderful bunch of folks to love us and live alongside us.  I don't think any of them have replaced our friends and family in the midwest, but they have certainly added to our ever-growing list of "family".  We are beyond thankful to have so many people who love our son and can provide the relational aspect of family that we are lacking (biologically) here in Oregon.  

So, first up, we were grateful to Kraig's boss for hand-selecting a lovely book for Owen.

Thank you, Marissa!

Trip to the park

More like a short walk to the park, but you get the idea.  Kraig and Owen went to see the ducks and play on the playground while I worked on some christmas gift wrapping.

Christmas Ornaments

It is a tradition in the Buesch house that Kraig gets Owen and me a new ornament each year.  I love this tradition, because Kraig always picks out the best ornaments.  Last year he got me a gorgeous wire birdhouse/castle.  We kept with the birdhouse theme for this year's ornament:

See that little green and white elf back there?   That was Owen's first ornament.  This year we went with a sock monkey ornament.  Too cute!

Do you get a new ornament every year?

Silly Baby

Owen has been extra funny lately.  I think he gets his sense of humor from his dad, and between the two of them I think I'll have a reason to laugh and smile everyday for the rest of my life.  They're always cracking me up.  Beside the jokes and silly faces, Owen has been acting in peculiar ways.  Take, for instance, this photo.

He grabbed a pair of my socks, crawled halfway under the bed, and said "Night night!" before laying there for about 5 minutes.

He's also taken to crawling around like a baby.  He doesn't really crawl anymore, folks, but when he wants to sneak by you or act silly, he takes to all fours.  Goofy.

Starbucks.... Oh Starbucks.  Owen started pointing to the Starbucks sign and saying "Dada" about 3 months ago.  As cute as that was, now he sees the logo and says "Starbucks- Huppy (coffee)".   He walks in and says "Soy?  Treat?"  The boy knows what he wants.  Of course, we let him have a little cup of soymilk as we sit and enjoy our own drinks.  He's able to drink from the cup without a straw now.

He looks pretty grown up sitting there in that leather chair with his Starbucks cup, doesn't he?  It makes me flash-forward to days in the (distant) future when he will sit with his daddy and enjoy a cup of coffee.  Thinking of him being that big makes me hyperventilate a little.  So for now, I'm soaking up this little two-and-a-half foot mancub snug in his froggy raincoat with his teeny little paws wrapped around the smallest cup they could give him.  That's our silly baby.

Christmas Boat Parade

As planned, we made it to one of the nights of the Christmas Boat Parade on the Willamette.  It was so fun, and a quick and easy thing to do with a little one.  They start "early" (5pm as opposed to 7pm) on a couple of the nights, so we headed down to our local riverfront park to watch.

Pre-parade shots

My favorite boat- the whales!

Kraig and Owen's favorite boat was the fire truck complete with sirens.  But our camera battery died before the end so you'll have to use your imagination.