Bella Swim Lesson

This weekend the therapy (warm) pool was closed for cleaning, so Bella had her lesson in the lap (cold) pool instead. I was afraid that she would put one foot in the water and refuse to take the lesson at all, but she surprised me by getting in and starting to play even before her lesson started, which is why I was able to take couple shots.

Bella's chosen outfit

Snowy Cincinnati

This morning we woke up to several inches of snow. It was a pretty sight, and allowed the girls to go sledding at one of the neighbor's houses for a little while later in the day. I wish I had also taken pictures of them.

Our New Piano ... Kind of

Today we went to a music store to look at pianos. The price tag on the real thing was a lot higher than we expected, so for now we settled on a digital piano that is still a serious upgrade from the little keyboard Sofia had up until now. I would not say that this one was cheap by any means, but it was definitely more doable than the acoustic ones and should do it for a few years.

Lionel wasn't 100% convinced about spending the money on it because Sofia is not that good and dedicated just yet, but on the other hand she may never get there if she doesn't have the right tools. So I was ready to make a bet on her. Besides, I have added learning to play the piano in my bucket list.

We couldn't bring it home today because it wouldn't fit in the SUV with the car seats in it, but hopefully Lionel will be picking it up and bringing it home tomorrow.

Vacation Project

For many, vacation is a time to relax. For me there is definitely some of that, but it is also a time to work on projects that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. So this year I once again picked a house project and tomorrow I will start painting my room. It has been about four years since we last painted, which is not that long. But back then we chose a really dark color and I am ready for a change.

Today

My plan for today was to get up and get going, but the weather had other plans. It was very cold and the roads were supposed to be in bad shape, so I didn't go anywhere. Instead I kept cleaning the house and getting rid of more clutter, an intense exercise we started 2 or 3 days ago. If I was to get stuck in the house all day, at least I had to make myself useful or I would go crazy as I was starting to get some cabin fever.

Christmas Day

Yesterday wasn't the best day ever...

Bella was grumpy for the start of the day, didn't have fun opening presents - which she apparently didn't like either - and whined for a good part of the day. At my request we made it to church in the morning, but once there the girls decided to pick a fight over a marker, which ended up with Sofia being reprimanded and sitting there with a very long face. Since we had such a disappointing and unemotional start to the day I was particularly disappointed and got grumpy myself. After all, Christmas is supposed to be a happy family day!

The only real break happened when I took Sofia to the movies. Nobody else wanted to go, so we went out by ourselves. On our way I called Abuelita and asked if she wanted to go, to which she said yes.

Eventually Bella did warm up to her gifts, but it was too bad that she wasn't even excited about getting them to begin with.

Christmas Eve 2012

This year, instead of doing the "funny" gifts we decided to do real gifts from the girls to each member of the family. Also, Sofia played the piano for us ... and so did Bella who didn't want to be left behind. Both girls also got couple gifts, including a necklace in the shape of a musical note for Sofia and new earrings for Bella.