Christmas Break in (many) photos

For the rest of December
(in three parts: Wilmington, NYC, and Philadelphia)

I made four loaves of bread for my friend Brandy's Christmas lunch

(this is for my dear friend over at Tortillas and Oranges who successfully apprenticed me in the technique)

 ...we took Aunt Jayne to see the Christmas displays at Longwood Gardens

 

...we went bowling with the Andersons, where this boy surprised us with exhibiting a double ear infection making for a last minute Drs. visit, 

but where Jayne got the high score of 137

(made only slightly less impressive by the fact

that in 2nd place was 2yr old Wyatt with 134).

....went to NYC for Christmas

....actually getting Adam and Sharon to go to Rockerfeller Center

and brave the crowds of tourists

 

...Christmas Eve dinner with some NYC friends

....happy kids on Christmas morning

....Olivia's handmade bookmark for Aunt Jayne (and one for Max too)

...Jayne's first hotdog from Gray's Papaya

....checking out what Dad looked like as a little kid

....getting Adam and Sharon to actually go to the

American Museum of Natural History and brave the crowds of tourists

...making sure Jayne doesn't leave Philly without having had both a proper cheesesteak and a pulled-pork w/ brocoli rabe sandwich from Reading Terminal Market

....a sweet boy whose only present from Santa was a binky clip

(but having no complaints about that)

(p.s.  this photo was taken at Reading Terminal Market by a man who offered to take a picture of me and Saul together referring to us as "yous guys."  I heart Philly.) 

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....Whoopee Pies for dessert

....a visit to the Franklin Institute and the Body World's exhibit (very cool!)

....cheese fondue for dinner

And other fun (un-photodocumented stuff) like...

...catching up with a few NYC friends at church

(and missing the last two hours of meetings because of it...oops)

...getting to see White Christmas on Broadway w/ Jayne and Sharon

(and taking a couple of rides on the elevators at the Marriott Marquis just for kicks)

...a day at the MoMa and the kids' request to see Starry Night

...two trips to Chinatown for knock-offs

...a piano recital with the neighbors

...seeing Sherlock Holmes

....a tour of Independence Hall and seeing the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia

and, of course,

...lots and lots of good food, fun conversation, and game playing.

So When Olivia asked me the other day when she gets to go back to school because she really misses school, I was all, like, "What, this hasn't been the best time ever and you want to go back to school?" 

Some people!

New Year's Eve

Just in case you're at home watching NBC and Carson Daly (no substitute for Dick Clark, I might add) at Times Square and hearing John Lennon's Imagine in the background, well, that was just what it was like in Wilmington too.   Except, that instead of John Lennon it was BeatleMania, and instead of 200,000 people it was more like 200.  And, it wasn't snowing, it was raining. And the fireworks....I guess someone decided that they can't go off in the rain. 

But there was a "train", if you count a couple of golf carts tethered together circling around Rodney Square.  And there was "ice" skating, if you count a big plastic sheet as ice.  And there was a "Date with a Tramp" if you count a big trampoline where you can jump while attached to bungee cords.

See, Wilmington knows how to party.  Too bad my camera jammed up after only a couple of pics.

Happy New Year.  And maybe next month I'll finally finish posting all of the pictures I have from Christmas.  And then maybe I'll get ambitious and post all of the pictures I have been meaning to put up from last summer.   But maybe not. 

For now I should go wake up Adam who fell asleep during another Rhianna song and give him a New Year's smooch and tell him thanks for being the best part of the last decade. Wow. 2010 here we come.

Happy Holidays

Just before the holiday season officially ends, we finally got our picture of the kids in front of the tree. 

I hope that everyone had a fabulous holiday season.

The rest of December, Part I

Here I am on the last day of December and only moments before we are going to take off for the very exciting First Night Celebration in downtown Wilmington. Remember, Wilmington: A place to Be Someone. Or maybe it was, Be Someone In Wilmington (get it... Wilm IN gton!). Kindof like Utah when it was "Utah: A Pretty Great State" if you like that sort of thing, I guess. But I digress....and I should be clear that actually I love Utah and actually think that it is a pretty and (comma) great state! And, truth be told, Wilmington is a place where you can be someone too. Nothing like a small pond to make for some big fish, eh Joe Biden!

Ok, ok, ..... So, for Part I of the rest of December, I cannot leave out the massive snow storm that rolled in a couple of weekends ago.  And it was awesome.  The storm came late Friday night, so I spent the earlier part of that evening with the rest of the city running out to the grocery store and stocking up on milk and eggs, and finishing all of my Christmas errands.  It made for a lovely weekend of  nothing left on the plate but to play in the snow because by Saturday morning we woke to several inches, and by Saturday night, we had 18 inches and had already shoveled out the driveway three times.  And thanks, Church, for being canceled--that helped too since I wasn't so caught up on that RS lesson I was supposed to teach! 

The first time I ever saw our house, I came to tour it on a wacky day in March when there happened to be snow storm.  I remember looking at the snow covered hills in the back yard and thinking that this house had some amazing sledding.  What I didn't know was that the snow was also covering up a multitudes of other sins committed on the yard by years and years of neglect, and that's a topic that I try and avoid blogging about for fear that it would take up 75% of my blogging topics, but as for when it snows, yes, the back yard does indeed have some pretty incredible sledding.  And it makes for a great time to invite over the neighbor kids.  Here's a picture I took from the safety and warmth of the kitchen (while making up some cocoa and popcorn, mind you!) of our back yard with 14 people in it.  The kids filtered in and out a couple of times on the tour of all the back yards near by.  Max and our neighbor Charlie were out there together for at least 3 hours, if not more.

 But it was Adam who probably took the most advantage of the snow.  He got out his cross country skiis and did a couple of laps around the neighborhood on the unplowed streets.  Then he had his snowboard and his telemark skiis out for the hills in the back yard.  By the end of the afternoon when the kids were all snowed out and finally inside, he went back out to pack in more snow time before he lost daylight. 

And then, they canceled school on Monday and Tuesday.  It was  a good start to the holiday break.

December so far

December has been going on as usual.  We've been doing all of the things that you just do during December, like spending way more time at the post office than I should be, and going to Costco and Target and (surprisingly enough), JoAnn's at least four or five times so far.  I've spent enough time online that now I just call Amazon.com  "Santa's Little Helper."  We've bought mulitple boxes of peppermint Joe Joes and I've consumed nearly a gallon of egg nog on my own (so maybe Adam has figured out that I don't don't like it any more).  We've done crafts for cub scout parties, school parties, and baked a ham for the ward party, where it may have been the first year that no child was screaming on Santa's lap and of course my camera runs out of batteries after I get only one blurry shot.  No wait, I forgot, there was the one other year when somebody (and I wish I could blame it on them being drunk, but that won't work) asked Adam to be the Santa for the ward party.  There probably wasn't a kid in the whole place who was fooled by Adam's Jolly Old Elf--I guess he's got the jolly and elf-like down, but not so much on the old.  And the black eyebrows are kind of a give away too, I think.  How my kids still believe in Santa is kind of a mystery after that one. 

Anyway, I bought a big puffy tree this year and we got it up just in time to host a fondue party for my neighborhood book group--that's how I roll: last minute.  We also prepared for piano and dance recitals, had haircuts, listened to hours of both bad and good Christmas music, watched the First Presidency Devotional, The Nutcracker, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Boris Karloff version!), and Mr Kruegar's Christmas.  We've faithfully lit our weekly Advent candle with an accompanying Christmas devotional, baked batches of sugar cookies, ginger cookies, and peanut butter cookies (you know, the Christmas kind! The ones with the Hershey's kiss on top!), and even managed to throw together an 11th-hour Christmas card, with a picture where all of the kids have their eyes closed or severly squinted, but I look awesome!  And now we're preparing for my sister Jayne to come tonight and spend the whole break with us, which should be great fun, as long as she doesn't mind babysitting tomorrow afternoon while I make another trip to Costco. 

p.s.  I love lists and parentheses and exclamation points (in case you hadn't noticed!)!!

The kids also got to sing at the mall with all of the other primary kids in our ward.  If only I had brought the video camera to get Max's actions while he was counting the correct amount of "oh's" sung during the "gloria's" in the refrain in "Angels We Have Heard on High."  But I did have my camera and it wasn't until I looked at the pictures later that I realized that Olivia had brought her black cat Webkinz and had it up "singing" with her the entire time.  Great. 

Also, I never got around to buying Saul any "Christmas" clothes--so it's navy blue and green for him this year!  I'll blame it on that for not getting any Christmas-y pictures sent out.

So far, it's all been pretty swell.

Happy Thanks!

Happy Thanks is...

a perfectly roasted, brine-soaked, Amish-raised, fresh turkey

....and done completely (including all the gravy made from giblets) by these two gentlmen. 

adorable little feasters

an 18" stalk of brussel sprouts

(actually one of the most delicious vegetables ever when roasted and salted)

making place cards with assistance from a (published) artist/illustrator

two cute little muffins

pumpkin pie made from the fresh pumpkin they grew in the backyard

stuffing with fresh chestnuts

two peas in a pod

(and thanks to legos--and the occasional Wii time--we didn't hear from them for basically the entire day)

post-dinner entertainment

and....

getting to spend the entire day in food preparation

and great conversation with some of our favorite friends.

amazing food for dinner

game time, once the littles are sleeping

(with seconds on pie)

the next day joined by the Eskelsens for even more good times,

kids playing w/o incident,

 a field trip to the Army Education center to check out what a WWI trench was like

and thoroughly enjoying all the leftovers.

Interpretation

I had to ask Olivia who the subjects were in this picture she recently brought home from school.

"Mom, it's you and Daddy!"

So, apparently I'm going through a Michelle Obama-phase, what with those fabulously sculpted upper-arms and a gown worthy of a State Dinner.  And Adam must be in his Sammy Davis Jr.-phase, with that sharp blue suit and his signature wide smile.

She even remembered my green eyes.