Morning motorcycle ride

Good morning! I'm Jerod. Since I'm now one year old, I can ride a motorcycle. This is me headed off for a joyride on my bike. I'm going to the farm, obviously, since I'm in my overalls. I've got some business there to attend to, but I'll be home soon and expect a big welcome back after my little trip around the living room!

Aw... polar bears!

For Christmas, Zarya got a pair of super cute, cozy pajamas. They have a little polar bear all decked out in a scarf and hat on the shirt, and like 50 polar bears on the matching fleece trousers. Because, you know, what's really cuter and sweeter to bundle up your little girl in at bedtime than a fuzzy polar bear pajama set? After all, polar bears are one of the only animals (crocodiles are another - how about some crocodile-patterned summer pajamas?) that will hunt humans for food. How about let's put our daughters to bed with a pack of bears all printed all over their tender, meaty legs.

Don't get me wrong, I like polar bear decor as much as anyone else. In fact, my favorite Christmas mug features the Coca-Cola Always Cool polar bear, because nothing says peace on earth, goodwill to men more than cuddly faces like these three below:

Christmas 2015

We had a holly, jolly Christmas, and we hope you did, too! In lieu of listing presents and activities, I thought my Christmas post this year would feature some food photos. :-) Andrew got a new camera a month or two ago, and he took some food pictures this year, in addition to the usual mix of kids and gifts and Christmas tree shots. I think they turned out pretty well and deserved to be featured, in order to make you all hungry!

But first, an interesting observation...

Andrew and I have celebrated eight Christmases together, in a variety of locations:

2008 - My parents' house in Olympia, Washington

2009 - Andrew's parents' house in Arch Cape, Oregon

2010 - Our Mwisenge house in Musoma, Tanzania

2011 - Our Makoko house in Musoma, Tanzania

2012 - Andrew's sister's house in Warrenton, Oregon

2013 - Our Makoko house in Musoma, Tanzania

2014 - Our house in Indiana, Pennsylvania

2015 - Our house in Indiana, Pennsylvania

As you can see, being in the same place two years in a row is rather out of the ordinary for us!

Breakfast

Way back when Andrew and I were children, we both had cinnamon rolls every year for Christmas breakfast. Upon getting married, it was easy to figure out what we were going to have as our family's Christmas breakfast tradition! We have had cinnamon rolls for every Christmas breakfast since we got married. There were also some accompaniments of eggs, sausage (for Andrew), and winter fruit compote (what you see the remnants of on my plate). Andrew said that my fruit compote looked like something a monkey vomited up, or something like that, and declined eating it. I think sausage smells like a pig who got too close to a hot frying pan, and declined eating that, so we were even.

Dinner

Dinner was seafood soup, made by Andrew. It had mussels, shrimp, and cod in it, and it was pretty good. We liked it enough to want to tweak it a bit and have it again. Since we had clam chowder last year for Christmas dinner and seafood soup this year, it seems that we're starting a seafood tradition for Christmas.

Dessert

Dessert was Pumpkin Cranberry Cake. There are also pecans and raisins inside, and it's pretty good stuff! Maybe it's earned a spot as a Sandeen holiday classic, too. This was my and Zarya's first time to make it, and we are still enjoying it days later.

Family vs. Jesus

Okay, so the title of this post is a little out there, but hey, it got your attention, didn't it?

I just read my parents' annual Christmas letter, and it contained the following line: "We enjoy our family, but we worship Jesus." What a great reminder!

It is December 9th, and the stores, music, decor, and everything (it seems - except the weather, which is oddly warm) is telling me it is Christmastime. In general, people divide the Christmas season into two categories: material holiday ("worldly Christmas") vs. happy traditions with your family ("good Christian Christmas"). Jesus would be included in the latter, since he is a traditional part of Christmas.

I hear plenty of people saying that we need to remember the real reason for the season and how Christmas should be about Jesus, not presents. What I also hear is a lot about family. But is Christmas about family? Isn't it supposed to be about Jesus? But doesn't Jesus want us to be with our families and love them? Families are good, right?

I know some families who don't celebrate with any/many presents. They have a big fun day together as a family, but don't give any (or many) presents. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they are worshiping Jesus any more than those who have ceiling-high piles of stuff that takes them all day to open. Both situations could be about people having a really great day with their families as they celebrate Christmas, one is just a less-expensive version. Is either situation more or less about Jesus? Not necessarily.

This isn't a blog post with an answer, so you can read the above questions and think about them and draw whatever conclusion you wish. Personally, I think celebrations are a lot more fun with other people. The people with whom I usually choose to celebrate things (such as Jesus' birthday) are my family. If you want to dig back into history, God commanded the Israelites to celebrate Passover and other big holidays with their families (and friends and neighbors at times, too). Small families were supposed to share their Passover lambs with others, so as to create a bigger group with which to celebrate.

So, let's enjoy being with our families as we worship Jesus, and let us not confuse the two!

Cheerios

Jerod would like to give you a tutorial on how to eat Cheerios. Since Cheerios are clearly the best food in the world, this is a very important skill.

Are you paying attention? This is how it's done!

You have to pull them out of the far reaches of the tray, which is very tricky.

Next, once it's within reach again, you have to pinch them between a finger and a thumb. Concentrate - so much can go wrong on this step! 

Get it up to your mouth without dropping it, then smash it in.

Delish!

Pandemic Board Game

I had heard of cooperative board games but didn't really understand what that meant until I actually played one. The concept of all players being on one team so that everyone was working together and all would win or all would lose as one seemed rather cheesy. I mean, let's all be honest, what's the fun in not getting to beat anybody else? It sounded like a modern twist on the old Ungame (board game in which you talk about your feelings and there is no winner or loser).

Well, let me tell you, there is a lot of fun to be had in Pandemic! Sara and Julie, two friends from Hope College were here visiting over the weekend, and Julie brought the game with her. We played six rounds of it all in one day, just because it was very fun, and we were determined to win. Finally, on the sixth round we got it. I think if we won too easily, it wouldn't be as much fun, since in a game with four players, you should only win about 1/4 of the time (I know, I know, that's not how it really works, but if all players were equal and luck distributed evenly, that's how it should pan out). Having a cooperative game that is a true challenge made us all put our heads together and try to plan moves out for each player in advance in hopes that we might win. Guess what? It was really fun!

Should you be interested in aforementioned game, it appears that the cheapest place to buy it is on Amazon: Pandemic on Amazon

I highly recommend it!

On this date...

November 25 is one month before Christmas, is sometimes Thanksgiving day and is always Thanksgiving week, at least, and is a memorable day for us - the anniversary of The Flood and Jerod's birthday!

Way back in 2011, we had a week to remember. We had recently returned from vacation, and I returned with cases of both malaria and dengue fever. Just in case one mosquito-borne illness wasn't enough, I picked up two. I've never been so exhausted in my life! I missed an entire week of work because I was lying on my couch either asleep or acutely miserable most of that time.

Our amazing friend Holly was living next door to us at the time, and I remember one day she came over for dinner. I had mustered the energy to attempt to cook, but halfway through I told her, "I think I need to sit down." I guess I looked like I was going to fall over right then and there, because she ran and got me a chair and made the rest of the meal herself while I sat there. I don't think I managed to eat anything.

Thursday of that week was Thanksgiving, and I left the house for the first time that evening, and ate my first food of the week at Thanksgiving dinner. And then on November 25, we awoke to rain on Friday morning, and then THIS is what happened: http://www.amsandeen.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

To keep things exciting, that very night we had visitors from America arrive for a visit, too! Just in case being doubly sick, a flooded house, and a big holiday weren't enough, how about two guests coming? Of course the runway in town was flooded, too, so they had to fly into a city several hours away and we didn't know how or when they'd actually be arriving in town, and they had no way to contact us...

On November 25, 2014, we had another "visitor" arrive - Jerod! He wasn't due until mid-December, but he wanted to arrive early, and I certainly wasn't opposed to the idea. Because he was born on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we skipped last year's celebration. It seemed a bit much to try to put on a big dinner on our first day home from the hospital. We were certainly very thankful for our healthy little boy, though. We were also very thankful for a house that wasn't flooded, and not being sick with malaria or dengue fever!