January 2, 2005
Adios 2004
While Magda is napping, I'm suppose to be doing productive things on my computer. Instead I took about 30 minutes to read my 2004 journal entries. I really had a great time last year and I'm looking forward to the adventures of Year One with Magda.
On New Year's Eve, Step, Magda, and I went to the Burgess home. Brian and Karen made chili rellenos, another couple made a wonderful salad with mixed greens, walnuts, strawberries, blue cheese, and mandarin oranges, and we brought our kitchen torches and made congac flavored creme brulee. We enjoyed talking with everybody about our children and various things that have happened during the year. After toasting the new year, we got to spend the night in the guest house (a small apartment above the garage that Brian and Karen lived in while waiting for the main house to be finished). In the morning, we enjoyed some delicious migas and a bit of fun playing with the Burgess children underneath their mamoth Christmas tree.
Our nearly annual New Year's Day party was a surprising success. Attendance was down since we only sent out the evites on Christmas Eve when most people would have already taken off for the holidays, but all of our favorite people were able to make it. We made a beef stew which turned out great (I want to do more crock pot cooking!). I also made Texas caviar (the only good way to eat black eyed peas), and baked a presto brie from Central Market. Magda seemed to enjoy it - especially the time she spent in her bouncy chair getting entertained by Eamon McHarg. It's wonderful to think that next year she'll be able to join all the children running around the house!
I have no hopes, resolutions, or expectations for 2005. I'm just going to let the year take care of itself and enjoy loving my family, socializing with my friends, and making discoveries about myself and the world as they happen.
January 3, 2005
St. Jenovifa, Pray for Us
Today is my name's day. Jenevifa is the czech version of Genevieve. Here is more information about my saint.
I've long envied this tradition of Stepan's that has one recieving gifts on one's names day. Stepan's day in the day after Christmas (St. Stephen's Day). In the past, I've been getting him dvds, but this year he got a sweater that he wanted from Eddie Baurer. Anyway, last year, in Prague on Jan 2, we were in Vysehrad, one of the old churches there. The pillars that support the nave are all decorated with art neveau images of various saints. We discovered St. Jenovifa on one of these post and promptly looked up her feast day when we returned to the Riha residence in Prague (that info is on most of calendars that I've seen over there). Noone had any time to do much for my name's day last year since we only discovered it the day before (though I believe I got a belated name's day dvd from Stepan when we returned home). This year, I got special name's day greetings, a lunch date, carrot cake for after dinner, and the fourth season of Buffy on DVD.
Many thanks to my wonderful husband for making this the best St. Jenovifa Day ever...I'm looking forward to many more to come.
FYI - Magda's name day is on July 22. The date of the name's day in relation to her birthday and other major holidays was one of the many things I considered when compiling my possible name list for her.
January 6, 2005
Arm Shortage
When you stretch your arms towards the ceiling, where does the top of your head hit your arm? Now imagine if that spot was at your wrist, like it is for Little Magda...kinda silly, huh?
January 24, 2005
Holy Magdalena
My darling daughter is well and truly baptised. Of course, she missed most of the mass. She was wide awake and gets very fussy if we're hanging in one spot for too long (i.e. longer than 30 seconds). The baptism was surprisingly informal though it had a nice community vibe about it. All participants and witnesses gathered around the baptismal font and Father Bill presented each family group with the symbols, ceremonies, and prayers of the sacrament one after the other. Magda handled the whole thing very well. Though she cried indignantly during the actual baptism, she also smiled at Father Bill when he was annointing her with oil (I hope someone got some good pictures of that!).
The dinner afterwards at Buca di Beppo was a tremendous success. Everybody had a great time and the food was great though next time I must remember to not blindly follow the restraunts recommendations on how much food to order (we came home with an amazing number of leftovers).
Many thanks to all our family and friends who came out to celebrate with us. Having such a large gathering there really helped make the occassion An Event. Mea culpa and abject apologies to those who didn't get an invite and should have. We ended up inviting those most likely to come (i.e. those living closest to Austin) and didn't give the spatially distant friends and relatives an opportunity to decide if they could arrange a trip to Austin for the occassion. I'll do my absolute best to ensure that such rudeness does not occur a 2nd time from this Riha household.