Christmas 2013

Decorating cookies is a time that we always look forward to...

As you can see by this picture, some are already pretty hyped up on sugar!

Not sure why Jake has to do his creepy nerd face for every picture!  good grief!

Would you eat a cookie made by this guy?

We had a few hiccups this year with the cookie decorating process.  There was some behavior problems (due to the heavy sugar intake) that needed to be addressed.

It was not all smiles, lets put it that way...

Christmas morning!

The big rush to discover what Santa brought!

Ellie got a life like baby doll (she's been coveting one of these for quite some time, now).  Usually, the people who own these type of Ashton Drake dolls are the weird grown women that like to pretend that they are real babies)  Super creepy!

Reilly got an American Girl doll...

And Jake got a lap top...

Unfortunately, Mrs. Claus misplaced the power cord the night before which meant he couldn't play the darn thing until another cord had been ordered!

A whirlwind of excitement!

Seeing our cat, "Boy" in this picture brings back fond memories of when Mr. Boone used to come in the room every time we had a family gathering...I sure miss my old friend...

We don't usually have company for our Christmas Day dinner, but this year, we decided to mix it up a bit and invite two families to join us.

Fred and Susan Taylor, their son Ryan and grandson, Miles

and

Justin and Taunya Nelson and their two kids, Emily and Parker

Not sure how I ended up with ZERO pictures of people and several of the plain table...

What the?  You'll just have to take my word for it that there were attendees...

The only glitch with dinner was that the prime rib wasn't cooked enough which added extreme stress!  Luckily, (and to Fred's delight) we had a backup ham and lots of sides....

How to dress a chicken...

For our Christmas card this year, I was racking my brain trying to come up with a creative spin on things...

I've been seeing funny pictures on Pinterest of chickens wearing sweaters and capes.

After doing a little investigating on line, I discovered that there are actually places in Europe that rescue hens that have been raised in cruel conditions in confined cages for egg purposes only.

One of the rescues that I read about, Little Hen Rescue, takes hens that are to be slaughtered and tries to find homes for them.  

Because they have been in a stressful living enviornment, they sometimes molt.  This presents a problem if it's in the winter, so volunteers are enlisted to knit "sweaters" for these gals.  It was interesting to find out that there was a real purpose for wearing them and not just for silly sake...

 Bonnie Bailey, a good friend of ours, agreed to knit a few sweaters for our cause....

(After this photo shoot, these sweaters will be donated to Little Hen Rescue...)

We were lucky to have our dear friends Mary and Nicole to come over to take pictures..

Dressing these ladies was not an easy task...There was much in the way of pooping and fidgeting to be had!  (From the hens, not Mary and Nicole!) 

The caps are for our entertainment only!

Cricket donning her cape...

Georgie looking defeated...

Nellie looking slightly bewildered (or is it humiliated?) in orange...

Little Cocoa in a mini version of a cape...

Rosie looking, well....Rosie!

This picture pretty much sums up the feeling that all of the chickens had about this fashion shoot...

...but it was worth it because we ended up with a great card!

Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving this year, we had another big crowd!

And to think that for all the years Brian and I lived in NYC, I cooked a full meal for just the two of us!

I went a little nuts with the decorations.  It was a bit of a woodland-esq theme...

Brian kept insisting that it was a bit much but why start being practical now, right?!

The guest list:

My mom and Seth

Ken and Lynne drove down from Virginia 

The Garcia's--Holllee (Brian's cousin) and her husband, Carl and their kids, Katie, Logan and Aimee 

The Days--Caroline, Jeff, and their children Ryan, Regina, Brady and Emalee (our neighbors and dear friends)

Menu:

Turkey, mashed potato casserole, Meme's cornbread stuffing, cold green bean salad with red onions, shaved brussell sprouts, sagopanauck corn pudding, Hollie's broccoli/cauliflower casserole 

The kiddo table

It was a fun evening...There was many a topic covered...and many a laugh was shared!

Halloween-- 2013

 I headed over to the elementary school for the annual Halloween parade...

 Ellie was some sort of spooky queen?  Never did get a final "official" title for her costume.  My mom bought her the dress so she wanted to wear it but wanted to be scary too... (hence, the black lipstick)

Reilly chose to be a baby...

I'm tried getting her to think outside the box a little, but she seemed determined that this is what she wanted to go as.  More power to her!  One thing is that at least she was warm!

Here she is with one of her best friends, Emily Sontag

I signed up to be a helper for Ellie's class party...

Ah, yes...it's the old toilet paper mummy game

Ellie with her friend, Jordyn doing a craft

Solebury Orchard--Sept 2013

It just wouldn't be autumn without a trip to Solebury Orchards!

So...I loaded up the gang (The Day's joined us) and we headed on over to the orchard--

The honey crisps were ripe and ready for the picking...

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the best part of the trip...the fresh squeezed apple cider and the cider donuts...they were gone before I even had a chance to take a photo.  Luckily, I called the farm earlier on in the day to request 2 dozen of these delicious little devils be set aside for us.  It was a good thing because they were sold out by the time we got there.  A few people even approached us and asked if they could buy them from us. 

Jake and Brady decided that next year, they are going to buy up all of their donuts and sell them on the corner for a higher price.  I suppose I should be glad that they are thinking creatively, but somehow, this wasn't what I had in mind--

First Day of School--September 2013

The middle school gang...
Jake's second year in middle school...8th grade...WOW!

Reilly--5th grade--Mr. Molenari

Ellie--3rd grade--Mrs. Kralik

And...another school year begins!