Farewell to Oregon, hello Pioneer Valley!

So, once again I am going to have to change the name of our blog as (for the time being), we are no longer chronicling our lives in Oregon. We have started a new chapter in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, also known as "Western Mass" (you will note that we live just north of Springfield - home to the Basketball Hall of Fame and infamous for it's gangs- but no one ever mentions Springfield, at least when trying to sell you a home here).

We found a nice rental house in South Hadley, close to the Mt. Holyoke college campus. There's a coffeeshop, some restaurants, and even a two-screen movie theater a couple miles from our house, but still everything involves driving (a big change from our Portland neighborhood life). Although it was a bit of a crazy winter (very cold) after Portland winters, we occasionally got out to enjoy the white stuff.

Klara and I are beginning to explore the local towns and what they have to offer for 2.5 year-olds. We live in what they call the "five college area" which includes South Hadley (Mt. Holyoke), Northampton (Smith College), and Amherst (home to UMass Amherst, Amherst College, and Hampshire College).

We've joined a local YMCA (for Klara's swim lessons and a chance for mommy to exercise - and maintain her sanity).

We found a family center (non-profit where adults can come be with other adults while our kids play together) that we attend once a week. We've also found 2 libraries (the five college area LOVES their libraries) that have story hours. It's a far cry from the Albina library, but Klara is enthusiastic anyway.

We had Christmas here, at "the new house" (as Klara calls it). The house is big and sunny with a great wood stove. Here's a shot of the back side of the house.

We have a stream behind us called Bachelor Brook that often hosts up to 9 mallard duck pairs on a good day. Klara loves to feed them.

Mr Mallard in Bachelor Brook

We are only 3 hours from Portland, ME, so we enjoyed a gathering of family and friends for Christmas.

A motley crew

Cousins

Lily made the trees...

...so did Grammy

A Christmas Eve reading of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Klara loved Christmas and as somewhat of a surprise to us, is still talking about Santa... (when did we even talk about him?). Here are a few photos.

Setting up the Nativity requires concentration

Santa's little helper

Santa baby

But before we get too settled here, in one week we take off for Germany. We'll be there until the end of May, likely. We're all excited about it for different reasons. Oma and Opa are excited to see us more often and we are excited to see them. We're excited about living in Schwerin, about an hour outside Hamburg, which is supposed to be a lovely city (surrounded by lakes with a nice "old city" that has a large pedestrian area). We'll live right in the old city, walkable to nearly everything. Our living space will be much reduced (instead of 2000+ sq ft, it will be more like 500), so it will be an adventure in many ways.

I'm hoping I'll have time to do some updating on this blog while in Germany, but our Internet situation may not work out so well, so we'll see. If not, I'll have a big update to make when I get back... including the title of our blog. Any takers on name suggestions?