21 January 2017
Secret Life of Pets
In case you're wondering what Quincey and Freckles do to unwind on the weekend...
10 January 2017
23 and Me Results - Haplogroups
Who doesn't like a little conversation about haplogroups? At the next party I'm going to mention that my maternal haplogroup is J1c2 and my paternal haplogroup is R-M529. What's that? Oh, your confusion and that weird look you're giving me is probably just because R-M529 is also referred to L21 or S145. Who wants to dance???
OK, honestly I knew nothing about haplogroups until I got my results. It's quite fascinating though. A haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patrilineal or matrilineal line. The global distribution of haplogroups sheds light on the origins of some of our ancient ancestors and on their migrations over tens of thousands of years. Obviously this isn't an exact science, but still "sheds some light" on the earlier picture of ancestry.
You can read this is the first picture, but the way this works is that the maternal line passes down DNA in the mitochondria of your cells and the paternal line passes down a specific family of Y chromosomes. Since these two never mix, you can trace these back in history for information on your Mom's, Mom's, Mom's, etc. side and Dad's, Dad's, Dad's, etc. side.
Maternal Haplogroup J1c2
If you're interested in reading more on this line, click this link. Generally speaking, the overall J Group is widely distributed across Europe. Europe is thought to have been colonized by peoples that originated in the East and Middle East and over the millennia slowly moved west until they reached what is western Europe today. Here are the relevant pieces of information from the above link:
- Although no trace of mtDNA J has been found in Mesolithic or Palaeolithic Europe yet, it is likely that some J lineages recolonised Europe at the end of the glacial period from the Near Eastern.
- J1c being so rare in the Middle East today, it can be envisaged that it was a lineage of hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Eastern Mediterranean and southern Balkans during the Epipaleolithic (10,000 to 20,000 years ago).
- This suggests that J1c lineages were probably not found among the very first farmers of the Fertile Crescent (the origins of the J Grouping), but was rather assimilated in neighbouring populations further north, notably in Anatolia (present day Turkey) and Iran, but probably also in the Balkans, which were connected to Anatolia by a land bridge during the glacial and immediate post-glacial periods.
- Samples have been identified from various Neolithic sites, including Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe, the Cardium Pottery culture in southern France, Megalithic cultures in northern Spain, and the Funnelbeaker culture in Germany and Sweden. All Neolithic (about 10,000 - 4,500 B.C.) samples tested to date belonged to J1*, J1c or J2b1a. J1c is by far the most common form of mtDNA J in Europe today, making up over three quarters of all J lineages.
So to sum up, the J grouping is believed to have its origins in the Fertile Crescent (interesting coincidence). J1C shows up later on in time farther north (origins thought to be Turkey and/or the Balkans), and is now by far the most common form in Europe today. There isn't really that much information on J1C2, but there is enough about its parent grouping J1C.
Paternal Haplogroup R-M529 (aka R1b-L21 aka S145)
This is where it starts to get interesting. More information related to this grouping can be found at this link.
- R1b is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe, reaching over 80% of the population in Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, western Wales, the Atlantic fringe of France, the Basque country and Catalonia.
- Haplogroup R* originated in North Asia just before the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500-19,000 years ago). This haplogroup has been identified in the remains of a 24,000 year-old boy from the Altai region, in south-central Siberia (Raghavan et al. 2013). This individual belonged to a tribe of mammoth hunters that may have roamed across Siberia and parts of Europe during the Paleolithic.
There is a lot of really interesting information at the above link about how the original grouping, R1b migrated from present day Iran and the area around the Caspian Sea to eventually all of Europe. However, the colorful map is a good summary of the route and the timeline that they followed to their eventual ending point and my grouping, R1b-L21. I will quickly sum up. Their route begin just south of the Caspian Sea, through present day Georgia and north around the top of the Black Sea through present day Ukraine. Somewhere around 4,200 and 2,500 B.C. they descended into present day Romania and Bulgaria, then the Balkans and into present day borders of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In about 2,200 B.C. they made their way to the area near the German, French and Belgian borders, and eventually by 2,100 B.C. a large branch now classified as R1b-L21 crossed over to the British Isles and by 2,000 B.C., Ireland. See the third picture above. The density of R1b- L21 is unmistakable.
- L21 is referred to as the Atlantic Celtic branch.
- Some L21 lineages from the Netherlands and northern Germany later entered Scandinavia (from 1700 BCE). The stronger presence of L21 in Norway and Iceland can be attributed to the Norwegian Vikings, who had colonised parts of Scotland and Ireland and taken slaves among the native Celtic populations, whom they brought to their new colony of Iceland and back to Norway. Nowadays about 20% of all Icelandic male lineages are R1b-L21 of Scottish or Irish origin.
- In France, R1b-L21 is mainly present in historical Brittany (including Mayenne and Vendée) and in Lower Normandy. This region was repopulated by massive immigration of insular Britons in the 5th century due to pressure from the invading Anglo-Saxons.
If you've made it this far, you must be my Mom and/or my Dad. Although a lot of people will probably find this extremely boring, I find it pretty interesting that we are able to put some of the pieces of history together through the studying of these two types of DNA.
OK, honestly I knew nothing about haplogroups until I got my results. It's quite fascinating though. A haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on the patrilineal or matrilineal line. The global distribution of haplogroups sheds light on the origins of some of our ancient ancestors and on their migrations over tens of thousands of years. Obviously this isn't an exact science, but still "sheds some light" on the earlier picture of ancestry.
You can read this is the first picture, but the way this works is that the maternal line passes down DNA in the mitochondria of your cells and the paternal line passes down a specific family of Y chromosomes. Since these two never mix, you can trace these back in history for information on your Mom's, Mom's, Mom's, etc. side and Dad's, Dad's, Dad's, etc. side.
Maternal Haplogroup J1c2
If you're interested in reading more on this line, click this link. Generally speaking, the overall J Group is widely distributed across Europe. Europe is thought to have been colonized by peoples that originated in the East and Middle East and over the millennia slowly moved west until they reached what is western Europe today. Here are the relevant pieces of information from the above link:
- Although no trace of mtDNA J has been found in Mesolithic or Palaeolithic Europe yet, it is likely that some J lineages recolonised Europe at the end of the glacial period from the Near Eastern.
- J1c being so rare in the Middle East today, it can be envisaged that it was a lineage of hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Eastern Mediterranean and southern Balkans during the Epipaleolithic (10,000 to 20,000 years ago).
- This suggests that J1c lineages were probably not found among the very first farmers of the Fertile Crescent (the origins of the J Grouping), but was rather assimilated in neighbouring populations further north, notably in Anatolia (present day Turkey) and Iran, but probably also in the Balkans, which were connected to Anatolia by a land bridge during the glacial and immediate post-glacial periods.
- Samples have been identified from various Neolithic sites, including Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe, the Cardium Pottery culture in southern France, Megalithic cultures in northern Spain, and the Funnelbeaker culture in Germany and Sweden. All Neolithic (about 10,000 - 4,500 B.C.) samples tested to date belonged to J1*, J1c or J2b1a. J1c is by far the most common form of mtDNA J in Europe today, making up over three quarters of all J lineages.
So to sum up, the J grouping is believed to have its origins in the Fertile Crescent (interesting coincidence). J1C shows up later on in time farther north (origins thought to be Turkey and/or the Balkans), and is now by far the most common form in Europe today. There isn't really that much information on J1C2, but there is enough about its parent grouping J1C.
Paternal Haplogroup R-M529 (aka R1b-L21 aka S145)
This is where it starts to get interesting. More information related to this grouping can be found at this link.
- R1b is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe, reaching over 80% of the population in Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, western Wales, the Atlantic fringe of France, the Basque country and Catalonia.
- Haplogroup R* originated in North Asia just before the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500-19,000 years ago). This haplogroup has been identified in the remains of a 24,000 year-old boy from the Altai region, in south-central Siberia (Raghavan et al. 2013). This individual belonged to a tribe of mammoth hunters that may have roamed across Siberia and parts of Europe during the Paleolithic.
There is a lot of really interesting information at the above link about how the original grouping, R1b migrated from present day Iran and the area around the Caspian Sea to eventually all of Europe. However, the colorful map is a good summary of the route and the timeline that they followed to their eventual ending point and my grouping, R1b-L21. I will quickly sum up. Their route begin just south of the Caspian Sea, through present day Georgia and north around the top of the Black Sea through present day Ukraine. Somewhere around 4,200 and 2,500 B.C. they descended into present day Romania and Bulgaria, then the Balkans and into present day borders of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. In about 2,200 B.C. they made their way to the area near the German, French and Belgian borders, and eventually by 2,100 B.C. a large branch now classified as R1b-L21 crossed over to the British Isles and by 2,000 B.C., Ireland. See the third picture above. The density of R1b- L21 is unmistakable.
- L21 is referred to as the Atlantic Celtic branch.
- Some L21 lineages from the Netherlands and northern Germany later entered Scandinavia (from 1700 BCE). The stronger presence of L21 in Norway and Iceland can be attributed to the Norwegian Vikings, who had colonised parts of Scotland and Ireland and taken slaves among the native Celtic populations, whom they brought to their new colony of Iceland and back to Norway. Nowadays about 20% of all Icelandic male lineages are R1b-L21 of Scottish or Irish origin.
- In France, R1b-L21 is mainly present in historical Brittany (including Mayenne and Vendée) and in Lower Normandy. This region was repopulated by massive immigration of insular Britons in the 5th century due to pressure from the invading Anglo-Saxons.
If you've made it this far, you must be my Mom and/or my Dad. Although a lot of people will probably find this extremely boring, I find it pretty interesting that we are able to put some of the pieces of history together through the studying of these two types of DNA.
09 January 2017
The Kid Life
An elitist cookie connoisseur and extra credit by wearing the same outfit as you teacher (unplanned)...
08 January 2017
Happy 40th Anniversary!
Happy 40th Anniversary Dad and Mom. We hope you enjoy each other's company and your road trip! Admire and remember the yesterdays, hope and plan your tomorrows, and celebrate your today!
Happy 40th Anniversary to our beloved parents and grandparents.
Happy 40th Anniversary to our beloved parents and grandparents.
07 January 2017
23 and Me Results - Ancestry Composition
I think I've covered all of my basis now. Over the past few months I submitted two DNA samples to Ancestry.com and recently I did a third test with 23 and Me. The second test with Ancestry.com was a result of my curiosity on how different the results would be. I did a third test with 23 and Me because they information (and therefore, cost) was more than just Ancestry.com information. The test consisted of ancestry information, wellness reports, physical traits, and disease/health problem carrier tests. I will attempt to summarize/highlight the results from each of these sections in different posts, however, the ancestry composition and haplogroup sections were the most interesting to me.
Ancestry Composition Summary
Yep, my DNA is still mostly British Isles and Scandinavian. No surprise here as that's what came back on the previous two Ancestry.com tests and what my family history supports. What was really cool about the 23 and Me test was that they actually presented the results in an interactive format for each of your 22 pairs of chromosomes (called autosomes) plus the 1 sex chromosome (hence, the 23). For each of the 23 pairs (46 chromosomes in total) you inherit one side from each parent. In these tests, it's not possible to tell which chromosome in the pair you inherited from Mom or Dad (with the one exception being the sex chromosome if you're a male - more on that later).
In this test I came out about 31% British and 27% Scandinavian. The biggest grouping was "Broadly Northwestern European" at 36%. This was a bit disappointing. As I read the fine print later I found out why. Although this test is very accurate when assigning regions, it has a really hard time assigning French/German ancestry (only recalls it about 8% of the time in their control tests). So, if you take the 36% in this broader category and give about 25% of it to French/German like the Ancestry.com test did...and, say, split the remaining 11% between British and Scandinavian and we're about in the same place as the prior two tests from Ancestry.com. Again, no surprises there.
But as I mentioned above, the fun starts when you begin examining and clicking on the data in the below pictures. The first picture is a screenshot of all categories clicked (the full map), the second picture is just with British and Irish selected, and the third picture is just with Scandinavian selected. Before I go into detail, I generally get my British heritage from my Dad's side and the Scandinavian heritage from my Mom's side.
Interesting observations are: #5 is entirely classified as British. Both chromosomes. That means I got something British from my Mom too. But guess what? #11 and #17 are almost entirely classified as Scandinavian. That means I got something Scandinavian from my Dad as well. Touche'. The pairs in #16 are cleanly split. The first chromosome is entirely British while the second in entirely Scandinavian. I think I can guess which one most likely came from Dad and which one came from Mom, even though it's possible it came from the other parent based on what I said in the beginning of this paragraph. Not as likely though. #20 is a very similar clean split between the two as well.
Some other observations are that there were small segments of Balkan and South Asian (India, Pakistan, etc.) that popped up. Kind of weird. I did find it interesting though that my DNA is 1% Finnish. Finnish is very distinct from all other DNA groups, so it's the easiest to assign/classify. This could be just a coincidence, but as part of my genealogy research several months ago I read that the area in Norway where some of my ancestors came from actually had a large Finnish settlement. At some point they were encouraging settlement in the area by giving away land and a large group of Fins settled there. Maybe we picked something up along the way from that. It's probably more likely that the Finnish just came from someone else in my family tree, but it's an interesting coincidence.
Moving right along I'd like to end this first section and post on #23. The sex chromosome. Males are XY, getting their X from their Mom and the Y from their Dad. Since this test only focuses on the X chromosome, females with two of them (XX) can't tell which one is from Mom and which one is from Dad. For many other reasons (not just this DNA test) I'm glad that I'm a guy. In this case it's advantageous because we know my X came from my Mom...and it just happens to be entirely Scandinavian.
Ancestry Composition Summary
Yep, my DNA is still mostly British Isles and Scandinavian. No surprise here as that's what came back on the previous two Ancestry.com tests and what my family history supports. What was really cool about the 23 and Me test was that they actually presented the results in an interactive format for each of your 22 pairs of chromosomes (called autosomes) plus the 1 sex chromosome (hence, the 23). For each of the 23 pairs (46 chromosomes in total) you inherit one side from each parent. In these tests, it's not possible to tell which chromosome in the pair you inherited from Mom or Dad (with the one exception being the sex chromosome if you're a male - more on that later).
In this test I came out about 31% British and 27% Scandinavian. The biggest grouping was "Broadly Northwestern European" at 36%. This was a bit disappointing. As I read the fine print later I found out why. Although this test is very accurate when assigning regions, it has a really hard time assigning French/German ancestry (only recalls it about 8% of the time in their control tests). So, if you take the 36% in this broader category and give about 25% of it to French/German like the Ancestry.com test did...and, say, split the remaining 11% between British and Scandinavian and we're about in the same place as the prior two tests from Ancestry.com. Again, no surprises there.
But as I mentioned above, the fun starts when you begin examining and clicking on the data in the below pictures. The first picture is a screenshot of all categories clicked (the full map), the second picture is just with British and Irish selected, and the third picture is just with Scandinavian selected. Before I go into detail, I generally get my British heritage from my Dad's side and the Scandinavian heritage from my Mom's side.
Interesting observations are: #5 is entirely classified as British. Both chromosomes. That means I got something British from my Mom too. But guess what? #11 and #17 are almost entirely classified as Scandinavian. That means I got something Scandinavian from my Dad as well. Touche'. The pairs in #16 are cleanly split. The first chromosome is entirely British while the second in entirely Scandinavian. I think I can guess which one most likely came from Dad and which one came from Mom, even though it's possible it came from the other parent based on what I said in the beginning of this paragraph. Not as likely though. #20 is a very similar clean split between the two as well.
Some other observations are that there were small segments of Balkan and South Asian (India, Pakistan, etc.) that popped up. Kind of weird. I did find it interesting though that my DNA is 1% Finnish. Finnish is very distinct from all other DNA groups, so it's the easiest to assign/classify. This could be just a coincidence, but as part of my genealogy research several months ago I read that the area in Norway where some of my ancestors came from actually had a large Finnish settlement. At some point they were encouraging settlement in the area by giving away land and a large group of Fins settled there. Maybe we picked something up along the way from that. It's probably more likely that the Finnish just came from someone else in my family tree, but it's an interesting coincidence.
Moving right along I'd like to end this first section and post on #23. The sex chromosome. Males are XY, getting their X from their Mom and the Y from their Dad. Since this test only focuses on the X chromosome, females with two of them (XX) can't tell which one is from Mom and which one is from Dad. For many other reasons (not just this DNA test) I'm glad that I'm a guy. In this case it's advantageous because we know my X came from my Mom...and it just happens to be entirely Scandinavian.
28 December 2016
25 December 2016
Christmas Morning
This year the Christmas holiday was longer than usual, since Christmas Day fell on a Sunday. We did the usual traditions, and not so usual traditions (I had a certain male procedure done on the 22nd). So, I was off from Thursday to Tuesday without much to do but hang out and spend time with the family and kids.
We went to Christmas Eve "Mess" at 3 and then can back to our house for our traditional fondue dinner. My parents joined us and watched us open our pajamas. After they left we watched Elf and then went to bed.
We didn't buy the kids many presents. They get plenty of presents from everyone else in the family. However, we did give them two presents and went with a technology theme. As much as I don't like the idea of giving them these types of gifts, it's inevitable and they are a part of life today...so we might as well start getting them used to them so that they can be properly managed. Plus, they are fun.
They were both given a kids "smart watch" they had been wanting. It's a just digital watch with a touch screen and small games like tic-tac-toe, fitness apps, and the ability to take low quality pictures, videos, and voice memos. Things like that. The bigger present was that we also gave them our old iPhones. We got new phones months ago but I kept the old ones to give to them for Christmas. Now they don't need to use our phones for games! The phones aren't connected to cell service, so they are basically like iPod touches. They can use wifi for some things, but otherwise have been locked down and only use limited functions. It's fun to get a text message from them while at work. They don't know the passcode to unlock the phones, so that's another way we can control usage. We'll see how it goes. For now they are having a lot of fun with their new big kid toys.
At the end of the video there are a couple clips of a fun little game for Jonathan. The strings are supposed to imitate laser sensors, and every time a player touches a string the countdown timer loses 20 seconds. The goal is to collect all the required cards/items and disarm the bomb before the time runs out!
We went to Christmas Eve "Mess" at 3 and then can back to our house for our traditional fondue dinner. My parents joined us and watched us open our pajamas. After they left we watched Elf and then went to bed.
We didn't buy the kids many presents. They get plenty of presents from everyone else in the family. However, we did give them two presents and went with a technology theme. As much as I don't like the idea of giving them these types of gifts, it's inevitable and they are a part of life today...so we might as well start getting them used to them so that they can be properly managed. Plus, they are fun.
They were both given a kids "smart watch" they had been wanting. It's a just digital watch with a touch screen and small games like tic-tac-toe, fitness apps, and the ability to take low quality pictures, videos, and voice memos. Things like that. The bigger present was that we also gave them our old iPhones. We got new phones months ago but I kept the old ones to give to them for Christmas. Now they don't need to use our phones for games! The phones aren't connected to cell service, so they are basically like iPod touches. They can use wifi for some things, but otherwise have been locked down and only use limited functions. It's fun to get a text message from them while at work. They don't know the passcode to unlock the phones, so that's another way we can control usage. We'll see how it goes. For now they are having a lot of fun with their new big kid toys.
At the end of the video there are a couple clips of a fun little game for Jonathan. The strings are supposed to imitate laser sensors, and every time a player touches a string the countdown timer loses 20 seconds. The goal is to collect all the required cards/items and disarm the bomb before the time runs out!
17 December 2016
Great Wolf Lodge
The Great Wolf Lodge just opened up near our house and we were able to stay there on opening weekend! I had never heard of this chain until they started work on the one in town, even though they are all over the country. It's a total family "staycation", complete with hotel, restaurants, and an indoor water park. There are also other games like MagiQuest (a electronic scavenger hunt with wands that is scattered around different floors of the hotel), miniature golf, etc....but the main attraction is the water park. In Colorado an indoor water park is like gold, since it's really hard to stay warm outside when wet even in the summer.
The hotel actually opened up a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, so we were able to make reservations immediately even though most of the dates in December and January were already booked. You have to be a hotel guest to use the water park, so I reserved a room for our family and my parents with my credit card points. When you stay you have access to the water park from 1 p.m. the day of check in and all day until close on the day of checkout. My parents joined us the first afternoon to see the place and to ride the waves.
Since it was the first weekend there were some glitches that needed to be worked out. But that was to be expected. Only about half our wrist bands that allowed us into the water park and that were our hotel room keys worked, so we had to get them fixed later. Right before we going to change into our swimming gear the fire alarm went off, slightly delaying our fun. But after that everything went pretty smoothly. It was nice staying in a brand new hotel, knowing that at most our room had only been used one night before we were there.
We were excited about going for another reason. Jonathan had grown to just barely over 42 inches (from my measurements at home). That was good enough to allow him to ride some of the bigger rides with tubes and mats (Julia was able to ride all the rides since she was over 48 inches tall). However, the first day, the girl working at check in gave him a red band meaning he had to stay in the little kid's section. Even though he was tall enough, I think she took off too much from his height since he was wearing boots. The second day I was determined to not let that happen again. We cut off his red (under 42 inches) bracelet so that he would have to be measured again. This time I stuffed the bottom of his boots with some of my socks to make him taller. And this time there was a different person (a guy) working the check in. Jonathan (and all of us) were so excited when he was given a yellow band for being over 42 inches tall. That allowed him to ride some of the bigger rides you'll see in the videos below.
Later that night we started the kids on a game of MagiQuest. We woke up and did some more of that the next morning too. The kids have been back a couple of times since staying there to continue their quest. I think they really had a lot of fun. I certainly had a lot of fun. I was the only one in the family to brave the green slide. This ride was at the very top of the water park. How it works is that you stand in a upright cylinder until the floor drops out from under you. Free Fallin' straight down for a little while until the slide curves around and you hit a bunch of water to slow you down at the bottom. I found it to be pretty unnerving the first time I did it. After that, the next several times were just fun because you knew what was going to happen.
It's not cheap, but we'll definitely be going back and doing this again.
The hotel actually opened up a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, so we were able to make reservations immediately even though most of the dates in December and January were already booked. You have to be a hotel guest to use the water park, so I reserved a room for our family and my parents with my credit card points. When you stay you have access to the water park from 1 p.m. the day of check in and all day until close on the day of checkout. My parents joined us the first afternoon to see the place and to ride the waves.
Since it was the first weekend there were some glitches that needed to be worked out. But that was to be expected. Only about half our wrist bands that allowed us into the water park and that were our hotel room keys worked, so we had to get them fixed later. Right before we going to change into our swimming gear the fire alarm went off, slightly delaying our fun. But after that everything went pretty smoothly. It was nice staying in a brand new hotel, knowing that at most our room had only been used one night before we were there.
We were excited about going for another reason. Jonathan had grown to just barely over 42 inches (from my measurements at home). That was good enough to allow him to ride some of the bigger rides with tubes and mats (Julia was able to ride all the rides since she was over 48 inches tall). However, the first day, the girl working at check in gave him a red band meaning he had to stay in the little kid's section. Even though he was tall enough, I think she took off too much from his height since he was wearing boots. The second day I was determined to not let that happen again. We cut off his red (under 42 inches) bracelet so that he would have to be measured again. This time I stuffed the bottom of his boots with some of my socks to make him taller. And this time there was a different person (a guy) working the check in. Jonathan (and all of us) were so excited when he was given a yellow band for being over 42 inches tall. That allowed him to ride some of the bigger rides you'll see in the videos below.
Later that night we started the kids on a game of MagiQuest. We woke up and did some more of that the next morning too. The kids have been back a couple of times since staying there to continue their quest. I think they really had a lot of fun. I certainly had a lot of fun. I was the only one in the family to brave the green slide. This ride was at the very top of the water park. How it works is that you stand in a upright cylinder until the floor drops out from under you. Free Fallin' straight down for a little while until the slide curves around and you hit a bunch of water to slow you down at the bottom. I found it to be pretty unnerving the first time I did it. After that, the next several times were just fun because you knew what was going to happen.
It's not cheap, but we'll definitely be going back and doing this again.
07 December 2016
Julia's 9th Birthday
Happy 9th Birthday Julia! What a big 3rd Grader. This year Julia celebrated her birthday with a party at Color Me Mine. She and several of her friends painted pottery together and then picked up the pieces later after they were finalized in the oven. A couple of girls had never been to this place in the mall, so it was a big hit. I've been there with Julia and Jonathan separately, and even I had fun. After the painting and pottery she opened her presents and they had cupcakes.
That was on Saturday. The next day we opened family presents at home with Grandpa and Grandma. Although family presents aren't as much fun as toys from your friends, they typically are the bigger gifts, the ones you end up using for a very long time, and the ones you remember when you're older. This year Julia got some seriously grown up presents...a new keyboard for piano lessons, a sewing machine from Aunt Michelle so she could learn how to sew, an apron, and some serious other gifts you'll probably see in the video below.
We love you Jules! I hope you had as much fun as we did celebrating you!
That was on Saturday. The next day we opened family presents at home with Grandpa and Grandma. Although family presents aren't as much fun as toys from your friends, they typically are the bigger gifts, the ones you end up using for a very long time, and the ones you remember when you're older. This year Julia got some seriously grown up presents...a new keyboard for piano lessons, a sewing machine from Aunt Michelle so she could learn how to sew, an apron, and some serious other gifts you'll probably see in the video below.
We love you Jules! I hope you had as much fun as we did celebrating you!
03 December 2016
Puzzles University
In case you're wondering what two proud, cute, kids look like after conquering a puzzle on Saturday morning...
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