You've got to move it, move it.

Trynica is great. She loves to have, what she calls, "a dance party." We will turn on some upbeat song and she will jump and dance around longer than you could imagine a person being able to do that. Yesterday Tryn, Berli and I were playing in the girls' room (we had left some music on the the living room) when suddenly Tryn heard one of the songs that she loves to dance to. She stopped playing, said, "I have to go dance," and ran out to the living room to dance all by herself. I could hear her jumping around for the entire song, so cute.

However, this also happens outside the home in rather crazy ways. Thursday night I had to be out of the house with both of the girls and so we went to our favorite store, Super Target. It is the Christmas shopping season, of course, and so there were tons of people there. I was pretty distracted trying to make sure Berlin was happy and that Tryn was following me. We were browsing the toy section and Tryn picked up a little microphone and started singing. Fine so far. Then she realized that this little microphone did, somehow, make her voice louder. It took about two seconds until she was yellling Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star at the top of her voice. Slightly embarrassing, but still pretty cute. Especially since all the moms are looking and smiling with that little 'oh look, isn't she cute' grin. Well, we move on the the Christmas wrapping paper and for some reason Tryn thinks the wrapping paper is like a trombone. She picks it up and starts singing into it as well. At least I can hear where she is and I am not having to wonder if she is still following me. Then, suddenly I hear, "YOU'VE GOT TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT! YOU'VE GOT TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT!" and I turn to see my two year old having her own little dance party, to her own music, in the middle of Super Target. Just lots and lots of jumping and shouting, "YOU'VE GOT TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT!" Lovely. Now the moms aren't smiling, they are actually laughing at us. I mean, it was pretty funny, but I wouldn't have minded if it would have been someone else's kid being so funny...and so loud.

Sure makes her daddy proud how much she likes music though ;)

Memories...

There are certain things that will forever remind me of my mom.

• My mom always had Trident gum in her purse. In fact, her purse sort of smelled like Trident gum and coins.
• She always wore Secret Fresh Powder deodorant and that was really the only scent that she wore. I actually can’t wear that same deodorant because the smell of it reminds me so much of my mom, but the smell is very comforting to me.
• Christmas reminds me of my mom for many reasons. For starters, besides Mother’s Day, the month of December is when my mom got all of her yearly gifts. Her birthday, wedding anniversary, and, of course, Christmas, are all in December. Not only that, but my mom loved Christmas trees and holiday traditions. She would get really excited about the Christmas kid movies/shows that were on TV every year and we would all sit down with a candy cane to watch the Christmas specials. Also, my mom baked tons of cookies. She had some really great German cookie recipes from her mom that nobody else around would make, so she always had a great variety. She would make gift boxes of cookies for all the neighbors and for members of her family.
• Almost every time I go to a garage sale I think of my mom. We went to so many when I was younger. My mom would get the newspaper, circle the sales she wanted to go to, and that is how we would spend our Friday mornings in the summer.
• My mom loved to have afternoon coffee with a little bit of chocolate. She loves Russell Stover’s chocolate. Sometimes, if we were going to town, she would bring a cup of coffee in the car. As this was before the days of ‘to go’ coffee she would put it in a regular coffee mug. Sometimes, when I got old enough, it would be my job to hold the cup so that it wouldn’t spill as we went over the bumpy gravel road.

These thoughts are just on my mind as I am realizing that Trynica is starting to remember things. What will she remember about me? I am realizing that when she is 27 years old some of her favorite things might be her favorites because they were things that I really like right now. I love Russell Stover’s chocolate, garage saleing, and everything about Christmas. She might love Jelly Belly’s for the rest of her life because I love them and we eat them a lot together. She will probably love Christmas because I love Christmas and she loves to get excited about whatever I am excited about. Tryn will probably always lover her birthday because my mom always made a big deal about my birthday. Tryn talks about her birthday all the time and her next birthday won’t be for another six months. Of course, this carries on to Berlin too, but it is more prevalent with Tryn right now because she is remembering. In 25 years from now, what will she remember and be comforted by thinking about memories of me? This is really strange for me to think about…

Yay Minnesota...

I spent the weekend up at my parent’s house in Holyoke (near Duluth). We decided Friday night to drive up Saturday morning; we needed to get some dad help for our car. When I called my mom to see if that would be okay she reminded me of the pending Saturday/Sunday snowstorm that we should be expecting. I just shrugged and told her that we hear stuff like that all the time in MN and it a lot of the time it doesn’t really mean anything.

Well, on Sunday afternoon, during the busiest shopping season of the year and in an economy that is in financial crisis, the Miller Hill Mall in Duluth closed for the day because of the storm. Several other businesses followed suit, including the public transportation system. I guess the bus driver’s couldn’t see where they were going. We were officially snowed in. It has actually been awhile since I have truly been snowed in. We decided to try to leave Monday morning instead of the original plan of Sunday night. My parents live on a dirt road that is definitely not the first road to get plowed and, after struggling for 20 minutes just to get the car started, we pulled out of the driveway. As we struggled to make it up the first slight incline Steve was pretty sure that we were not going to make it. We were plowing snow with the front of our car and trying to follow the tracks made by no more than two or three other vehicles. Thankfully we got out, though the whole two hour drive back to Minneapolis was pretty stressful. Yay Minneasota.

Things that remind me of my childhood Christmases

•Brach’s Milk Maid Royals caramel candies
•Green and red jelly wreath candies hung on the tree
•Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer movie on TV
•Red and green patchwork quilted tree skirts that my mom hand-made
•My mom and dad bringing us to the Fleet Farm Toyland so they could figure out what we wanted for presents
•Looking through the huge JCPenny’s toy catalogue and picking out toys
•German hazelnut cookies with strawberry jam filling
•Filling our toy tractors and wagons with needles that had fallen off our dying Christmas tree and pretending it was the grain/hay/silage to feed our toy animals
•Snow
•Cutting down real Christmas trees out in the forest, occasionally being scared of getting chased by cows while completing said task
•Going to the mall to sit on Santa’s lap to make sure he knew what I wanted for Christmas
•Putting out my boot on St. Nick’s Day so that Santa could come and fill it up with candy and a new ornament to hang on the tree
•The smell of oranges (as there was usually one in my boot)
•Santa shaped trays filled with candy on Christmas morning
•Always wanting to go to Oma and Opa’s house for Christmas Eve (we traded with Grandma and Grandpa’s every year) because Santa actually came to Oma and Opa’s on Christmas Eve. He didn’t always make it to Grandma and Grandpa’s house
•Putting on a nativity play with all the cousins at Grandma and Grandpa’s on Christmas Eve
•Ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle and then dipped in chocolate, and only at Grandma’s house
•Taking turns lighting Advent candles with my brothers and sisters
•Christmas countdown calendars where we would open a little door everyday and look at the different pictures that were inside
•Making red and green construction paper chains to hang on the tree
•Making a village with all of the little houses and people that my mom would get every year, and getting my mom new houses so that we could add to the village
•Playing with the Nativity set, my favorites were baby Jesus, Mary, and the angels

Okay, so Steve and I don't get out much anymore. We did this for fun the other night and it was really funny. I laughed so hard I cried.