The Holt Blog

We are almost at 20 weeks, ultrasound coming up soon. Here’s the best preggy pic thus far!

We had a lovely Christmas day.
Lit the llama candle and spent time with family.

Our lovely llama advent candle

Bens new speakers and mouse

Jill bummin’ around in her leg warmers

5 month preggy photo!

Dad, the baby whisperer, with Leif and Kate

The crew

Katelynn loves her dolly!

Quite the spread of deserts! And there were still 4 more pies/dishes on the table!

This was our third year of kazaroling (Christmas caroling with kazoos)! We had lots of fun and laughed a lot. In attendance were Jill, Matt Brench, Ryan Pendleton, Hannah Daman, Jeremy Pendleton, Ellen, Eli, and Nick. We stayed local this year instead of trucking up to Chelmsford or Bolton.

I’d say about half the people we visited were really suspicious of a group of people outside their door. Several people we saw never even came to the door. Either they thought we looked scary or wanted money, but here in New England good old-fashioned caroling is almost never done anymore. I don’t think people know what to say or expect. It’s really sad that we’re so independent and suspicious here that we can’t even open the door for a group of friendly young people spreading Christmas cheer!

Of course, the other people are what makes it all worthwhile. These cheerful folks will come outside in the cold to talk to us and ask us where we’re from and why we’re performing songs for them. There’s the kids who request songs and clap for us. They don’t seem to have any trouble being excited about kazaroling!

Even introverts sometimes become busy during near Christmas.

This past couple weeks I was involved in a local high school’s musical “Zombie Prom”. There was a week of practices and then four performances. I played in the “pit”. There was a lot of music to learn which also took hours of practice. I met a few cool people – Talia, Tom, and a couple of high school boys who played with us (both excellent musicians and fun to hang out with).

Last night a few of us went to a live Rifftrax event with Ryan, Jeremy, and Jesse. It was hilarious. Weird Al made an appearance too. Jill and I were almost constantly laughing.

Sugar Road will be playing December 30th, details on our website.

Our great friends Nate and Caroline are also in town, and this Friday we’ll be going out with a couple other new friends. Tuesday was the Young Life committee party at Katie’s house in Waltham. Tonight is volleyball.

Saturday we’re going KAZAROLING! Email me for details or see our Facebook post about it. For the third year in a row, we’ll be going caroling with kazoos. How many people will slam the door in our faces thinking we’re asking for money? How many odd looks and small children jumping up and down with excitement? Come find out!

Merry Christmas to all if I don’t blog before then

Someone I know is renting out a condo, and I have agreed to help find her a tenant. Here’s the description. Maybe someone you know needs a place to rent!

Location: Route 111 just off 495

One bedroom end unit with sliders to private patio in a quiet country setting. Newly remodeled kitchen and bathroom with ceramic tile. Over-sized closets and plenty of storage space. Laundry facilities and a locked floor to ceiling storage bin for bicycles, sports equipment, etc. in the same building. Available January 1

I stole this title from the very helpful blog, beetle and baby. I’ve done a lot of research (through various online searches) to see which car seat will fit in a beetle, and which stroller will be an easy fold up into a small beetle trunk. The top contestants for carseat were…
Primo Viaggio

and the Graco Snugride

As it turned out, nephew leif uses a snugride and is almost too big for it! So, the other weekend we tested it out in the Beetle and it was a fit! Got it in the middle of the back of the 2000 Beetle, and it didn’t require scootching the seats up a bit! yay!

As for Strollers, the quest goes on. I need to go to Babies-R-Us and test some out. My top contenders are…

Quinny Zapp

and the Pege Perego Aria

PS: I’m feeling huge! :O