The Holiday in Pictures

Time to share...

These first few pictures are from our trip to Canada. Cameron's friend, Devin, joined us for this annual excursion. I had to apologize to him after, as John and I do not travel well together. He just said, yeah I've never heard you two holler like that before!



The last pics are from New Years Eve. We were joined by Cameron's girlfriend's family, who we happen to be friends with. Won't that be awkward when they stop seeing each other?!?

Looks Like We Made It...

We made it through another holiday season. Except for the annual sojourn to Canada, this was one of the simplest and peaceful holidays yet.

I expect the reason for the calm is this is the first year in over six years that John actually has a job and can take paid holidays for Christmas! We slept in almost every morning, played with our new Wii, watched every Indiana Jones Movie, and The Dark Knight, and Narnia Prince Caspian...

I have come to believe this is really what the holiday's should be. A chance to reconnect with family - not just the extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins once removed - but the family you run to practices and games, music lessons and concerts, friends parties and sleepovers; the family you live with and take for granted everyday!

So here's to family - my family and yours. May we all find time to just "be" with each other in 2009!

The Christmas Concert(s)

It always makes me laugh that we parents take our video and still cameras to every concert our children are in, but very seldom manage to get close enough to actually see our own children!

Witness this photo of Jackson's Christmas band concert last week. Can you see him? He's the dot on the right, with the glasses, in the white shirt, wearing the grinch tie...

Alas - I was able to get real shots of Caeden in his final elementary school chorus concert. But I had to arrive 45 minutes early to do it - and I have the grumbles and whines from Cameron and Jackson to verify that we were there that early.

It was worth it :)

It's Going To Be A Long Winter...

We woke up to this...in November...before Thanksgiving...

Don't get me wrong, I love snow...but only until Christmas!

Jackson is Jack Sparrow

OMG! How good does he look?!

Course the idiot amateur photographer in the mirror didn't have to be in the shot too but she made up for it when she took another photo with his BFF, Christian.

The Voyageurs Have Returned...

We had a lovely visit to Canada, sans Cameron. Great weather, lots of time with family in Barrie, a bit of history thrown in for good measure.

These pictures are from Sainte-Marie-Among-The-Hurons; a beautiful Jesuit/Indian village that has been recreated in Midland, Ontario.

John golfed that day...

I had been lamenting the fact that all my friends were away on their own vacations, but it actually made the trip much less stressful and jam packed. We were even able to hang out at the beach for an afternoon!


The highlight would have to be the Blue Jays and Yankees game we took in on Thursday.

The boys rode the Toronto subway for the first time. For me it brought back really fond memories of my years spent going to school and working in T.O. What a great city.
By the way, I wish I could say the bottle in my hand was mine but I was holding it for the girl taking our picture! Not to say I didn't carry MANY bottles of wine on the subway in my day :)

The non-highlight was the drive home - arriving home at 3am after leaving John's nephew's wedding that ran an hour to two hours late the entire day!

Actually the real non-highlight of the trip was driving anywhere with John. We are the worst - I mean divorce court worst - at driving together. We both had serious uglies in the van. Thank God Jackson and Caeden wore headphones most of the trip.

The Biggest St. Patrick's Day Parade

The town we live in does not have a lot to brag about. Located in the middle of the rust-belt, this one-time thriving metropolis is a shadow of its former self - many still believing that the resurgence will begin when the labor unions save the day and bring back the steel mills.

The newbies to the area know nothing of this - we simply moved here to take advantage of the lowest cost of living in the nation, and the BEST environment to raise children.

Probably the most anticipated event of the year, for both old and new Valley residents, is the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade - dubbed the largest in the eastern half of the United States.


When I say largest, I don't necessarily mean large floats or bands. I mean large in length - over two hours featuring every politician, mom and pop business and previously unknown organization - parading and promoting.

Everyone becomes Irish on this day. In this area of ethnic diversity - it was fun to watch all the Italian names going from "gallito and traficanti" to "o-gallito and O-traficanti". Even the biggest success to come out of the Valley in years, our own Middle Weight Boxing Champion of the World has the first name "Kelly"!



So today, we brag and celebrate. We may not live in the most glamorous or thriving part of our nation - but we do know how to throw a good party!

Those Crazy Californians!

Last week we had the immense pleasure of visiting friends from California - here to celebrate the holidays with their mid-west family.

The kids hadn't seen each other in a year and a half! It didn't matter that Dylan stands 6 ft. tall and now has his driver's license, or that Amanda is almost 14 and stunningly beautiful, or that Parker hasn't changed a bit -- all the kids immediately picked up where they'd left off with each other.

We had been dumped with snow the night before and the three Californians couldn't wait to get out and play. Of course, my boys were up for anything that involves outside and being physical. Besides - we had forgotten how much fun it was the first time we had snow four years ago.

But those crazy Californians...

I guess Amanda is a big fan of the movie "A Christmas Story" and had always wanted to act out a particular scene. Her Grandma's house had the right prop - a metal pole right in the middle of the backyard. The picture tells the rest of the story...

Demolition

We have a holiday tradition that the boys look forward to all year. It fits naturally into a boy's innate desire for chaos and destruction...

The perfect mother in me takes the time to buy just the right gingerbread house kit. I construct the walls and roof, squeeze icing over the entire structure with just perfect icicles dangling from the sides, and select colorful candy pieces with just the right Christmasy feel.

All of us used to participate in the construction of this seasonal treat; but only Caeden and I took the time this year to lovingly create our family masterpiece.

All the boys eagerly anticipate as New Years Day approaches. In keeping with family tradition, our beautiful gingerbread house was slated for DEMOLITION...

New Years Eve In Pictures

The Games Begin!
Who Needs A Shirt?...the threads just come lose anyway!

TARTUGA! (His imitation of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie...)

You can't make me look..I'm a teenager and I have to pretend I don't like my picture taken!

Friends Join The Countdown...

It's Here!


We Are SO Illegal!


Who Cares - Happy New Year!

Ohhh...Christmas Tree!

A couple of days after Thanksgiving we found the PERFECT Christmas Tree...you may recall that my parents participated and greatly contributed to the discovery of this treasure.
You may also recall how beautiful it looked once home and decorated. The perfect size; the angel almost touching the ceiling.

But our beautiful tree did not react well to being chopped down and brought into our home. She started to lose her needles. Of course, all trees lose needles but not like this...

We knew she was in trouble when we left for Canada but we had hope that the copious amount of water we were putting in her pot would prolong her life until after New Years (our traditional schedule for taking down the tree). We even had our neighbor, Ken, attend to her needs in our absence.

On our return Christmas Eve, I went over to say hello, touched her delicate branches...and heard the sound of thousands of needles falling to the floor.

Alas, our beautiful tree was gone...

Yesterday was her funeral...as we carried her gently outside, she left a trail of needles through the entire processional route.

Our neighbors will be able to continue to call on her at her final resting place at the curb...until Tuesday when she turns to dust in the back of the garbage truck!

I'm Back...

Where on earth did I go? I have no idea why it has taken me THREE weeks to write a post. I would get up in the morning with the intent of writing something and then go to bed at night realizing I hadn't even logged into my account.

And it's not like I didn't have anything to write about!

Since my last post on December 3rd we have had...
Wrestling matches... (still working on learning the new camera),

Christmas concerts...
We bought a new Chrysler Town and Country...

Cameron celebrated the first snow day by building "Mt. Cameron" in our front yard!

We had our annual Christmas visit to Canada - John got to drink REAL beer (see Moosehead)
...the boys were able to snowboard with their girl cousins, Kelsy and Alana. Kelsy is "going on 14" and not so happy with cold and snow...but she's great at posing for pictures! Seriously - we are so happy that they are growing up together as friends...




On the way back from Canada, Caeden started throwing up - IN THE BRAND NEW VAN! Hence, it was the first time we weren't able to go to church as a family on Christmas Eve. By Christmas morning all was back to normal, and seeing the boys faces is always the biggest gift of all!

Long and short of it...while typical December stress created a writer's block for me, it didn't diminish my desire to celebrate my family highs and lows with all of you!

I'm back...wishing everyone a belated MERRY CHRISTMAS!