December 17, 2009

It's Really Cold Now

If anyone was wondering, 11 degrees Fahrenheit is really cold. As in your ungloved hands hurt after the one minute walk from the grocery store to your car.

Thank goodness for our south facing storm windows. They trap in the heat from the sun and have us at a toasty 68 degrees inside.

And now I brave the outdoors once again to get those last Christmas presents.

December 15, 2009

Christmas help

Here's a question for my 20 or so readers. What are your best stocking stuffer ideas? I haven't gotten anything for the kiddies yet.

And here's another question. What are some good games for the kids? They had fun playing uno and cadoo with their cousins, I'd like to add to the arsenal.

December 14, 2009

J's new camera

Jesse has deemed himself worthy of a DSLR. We had some fun subjects come up for the weekend to test out the camera. T-Man was an especially willing model. Can I say how fun it is to have family relatively close by? We've counted ourselves lucky to see these guys once a year previously. Now they can't get rid of us! We went sledding on Saturday. The perfect kid hill is just a block down the street in a civil war cemetery. The $5 snowboard goes the fastest and you can load the most people on it. The kids and E played some vicious Clifford Uno during their downtime and had to settle it with paper, rock, scissors. Thanks for coming up E and kids.

As he's the subject, can you tell who has been doing most of the camera testing? And who is going to install Lightroom (thanks Tony) after this post is up? Not really his fault. Within an hour or so of getting the call that his dissertation was approved he was fielding calls from the stake president's secretary. Meet the newest member of the bishopric:You can laugh uproariously, smile slyly and wish him good luck, or just tell how uncomfortable he looks on the stand. Those have been my favorite reactions thus far. And of course, condolences to his wife are welcome as well.

December 8, 2009

Classic Japan


Going through photos and came across this gem. M's graduation from kindergarten, April 2008. Feeling the nationalistic pride.

December 6, 2009

Snow Day

We got our first snow last night and this morning. It was pretty magical. Then I had to shovel the driveway. Poof. Magic gone. It's supposed to snow tomorrow night as well. I am so glad we got snow gear for the kids already.

December 4, 2009

Countdown to Christmas

We're getting ready for Christmas with a couple of advent calendars. The first one I picked up at Goodwill for 2.99 a month or so ago. It had a creepy snowman climbing up the side of the house, so I had to do a little renovation and repainting. The house has the bones of the old houses around here, so I tried to be true to those. I need to repaint the drawers, but that will have to come next year as I have no stencil I like for the numbers.

Though I'm happy with it, there's not very much room for more than the slips of paper with scriptures on them. So, I made this. I saw something in Good Housekeeping magazine when I was at the dentist last week. Inside are treats and toys to add to the theology the children were so unimpressed by. I simply sewed bags from fabric I had and some more holiday fabric from Mardens. The tags are from a free pdf online. The clothespins are from off the line outside, and the ribbon from the dollar store. I'll probably make some changes in the years to come, but it's ok for this year.

December 3, 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

Our Thanksgiving was AWESOME!! It started with our drive down to New Haven. On the way we got a phone call from Jesse's adviser telling him that his dissertation passed! He's a doctor! A very unuseful doctor, but who cares! I'm still giddy when I think about it.
We had a super yummy lunch in New Haven, played and played, and slept a little.
I swear I talked non-stop the first 3 days of that vacation. Three months in Maine without my awesome friends and family will do that to me. Sorry Brooke. Sorry Amy.

J, E, and Ben took the kids on a long walk in Manhattan that included a few stray floats. Better luck next year, guys. E and A were kind enough to host a beautiful dinner. It was so fun to have so much family and so many friends in one house. It was also fun to see Ez and Miles playing, Ben sleeping on the couch, and Kaylynn reconnecting with her Brooklyn buddies.
Friday we went to the Botanical Gardens. FUN. Can't wait to go again!Saturday we went into the city and saw the Samurai exhibit at the Met. So cool. They are changing 1/3 of the exhibit on the 7th, so we're going to go again at Christmas. The preying mantis helmet was amazing(seriously, click on the link)! We saw Ben and Yuki's cool place on the water. Very cool. No pictures of course. Well, that was a pretty boring post, but hope the pictures make up for it!
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