Christmas

Poor Charlotte is still saying that tomorrow is Christmas and that we can open more presents. If only that was true.

We had a nice Christmas with my family and luckily avoided the plague this year. However, our New Years is a different story. We are staying home with a sick child and probably won't stay up past 10, but I guess you can't win every holiday.

Yet, I believe our Christmas was a success. We had a great time playing with cousins, going to the movies, braving the American Girl Doll store with the nieces, staying at Papa and Grandma's House, making roasted marshmallow milkshakes and more delicious treats, and NOT dealing with any snow.

Happy New Year and hopefully your evening is more eventful than ours!

Next Christmas...

Already wishing for next December. Why? Because I can't wait to see THIS!

Yes, I'm a little obsessed when it comes to LOTR.

Not a Grinch

So, I'm not a grinch this year like I was last year and I have proof. After 6 years of being together we put up our first Christmas tree, stockings, and mailed our first Christmas cards (just to family, sorry). To some of you this is nothing, but it's a lot of firsts for me and feels very adultish. I don't know why I have this weird hang up with holiday decorating....I like Christmas and sometimes like it when other people decorate (moderately), but I think it can often look like Santa threw up everywhere and I can't handle that.

However, I did unintentionally make a massive wreath at this lovely event last week. I really wanted a small wreath for our door and somehow ended up with one half my size. I put it on our door, which then wouldn't shut, so I had to give it a haircut.

Charlotte's first ornament

No chimney for stockings

Wreathmaking

Our first Christmas card from Teaplant Photography. I love our Christmas cards but only ordered enough for family because I'm taking baby steps.

So in the spirit of Christmas, I'll end with:

New Neighbors

Just found out who our new neighbors will be on the Vineyard. The perks are there will be no more secret service (so they say), but do you think they will be receptive to a welcome plate of cookies? My aunt is determine to do so.

I bet my great grandmother never imagined how coveted her house would be.

Big Thanksgiving 2011

This year for Thanksgiving Stuart and I hosted dinner with our friends and I think I can say it was a success! In total, we had 26 adults and 5 kids, so luckily we were able to use my parent's home since they were out of town. Everyone brought LOTS of food so we really did have a feast and plenty of leftovers too.

I am quite proud of myself since I was able to organize enough tables, chairs, linens, china, flatware, glasses, etc. for everyone. I really wanted to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner that didn't include paper cups and plastic forks.

We have wonderful friends who helped not only with the food and set up, but did all the dishes too! I didn't even do one dish! It was a large group, but everyone contributed and it was nice to spend the holiday with our Cambridge family.

A Gaggle of Girls

Last week Stuart had a conference in DC and I wanted to visit my sister Tracy in Maryland, so we all drove down and I was able to stay with my sister and her 4 girls. Charlotte loved seeing her cousins and even though she got sick, she still found time to play dress up and paint. It was a great visit. We didn't get to do much touring around or see other family members (like we had planned) but it was still a fun visit.

Family Pictures

We got some family pictures taken by my friend Terese. She did a fabulous job, especially since Charlotte was all over the place and I was then hopeful of just one good picture of the three of us.

I loved our locations and nautical theme too. We were along the Charles and near both Riverside and MIT boat houses. I love the crew boats in the background...very fitting for me.

Happy Halloween

This year we all chose something different...no theme here, except that for some reason I tend to choose costumes that I can hide in. See our costumes from last year here.

Charlotte - a ladybug

Stuart - the unabomber

Aubrey - transformer (I'm really inside)

Here's a video as proof. And another one.

A Visit

We had a wonderful visit from Stuart's parents last weekend. We were able to show them the highlights of the Boston area, which included the Head of the Charles, Lexington and Concord, Longfellow's House, Mount Auburn Cemetery, the North End, and some delicious restaurants and bakeries. We had a lot of fun touring them around, but I think their favorite part was playing with Charlotte at home.

At the HOTC

Longfellow's House

Charlotte invading Grandma's purse

View of Boston from Mount Auburn

At the top of Mount Auburn Cemetery