New Year's Eve Eve

The day before the last day of the year.  People to see....places to go....

Bill has his end of the year outfit on.

 He wore it to shovel this.  Mother Nature's reminder that she will not be corralled by weather reports.  

Noelle came over to spend the afternoon with me in front of the fire and explained to me that bright colored belts are in.  Must get a bright colored belt. 

 Dinner in Cambridge but first, some quality time with Nate.  Must get those monkey pajamas to go with my bright colored belt.  And bright colored bibs are in too.

 Diane trying the naughty librarian look.  She thinks the dark frames don't work for her so she needs to see my magic eyeglass man.  He will determine her four-eyed fate.

 The shot of the night - Bill behind the bar with Rowan (Ronan?).  Diane spotted him (without her glasses!!) across the restaurant and thought he was Bill's doppleganger.  Bill of course is much cuter and has a rockin' plaid vest but it did make for a fun photo shoot.

 Jen, Stacey, Dave and two empty wine glasses.

 Bill misses Di Di when he's in London.  We need to soak this all in to get us through the next few months abroad.

Random Pictures from Saturday

Two cats and a monkey

 We've missed our lovely library

 My new orange shoe laces

 Jennie enjoying tea, a fire and a pedicure

Christmas rolls on, Trudie goes tech

Did we have multiple Christmas celebrations when we were kids?  Were they spread out over days and weeks?

The answer is no.  Our parents would let us open gifts in the morning, shove us in the van, drive to Ipswich for lunch and presents, shove us back in the van and then drive to Beverly for dinner and more presents.  In Ipswich the family smoked like we were in a pool hall and you could barely make out Gram across the haze of the smoke cloud.  In Beverly, my tough Italian uncles would whack us in the back of the head to wish us a Merry Christmas.  Christmas was one day and one day only.  Looking at it through the lens I have today (Grandparent, old, tired...) I would say the old way sucked.  Of course seeing the family in one day was nice, but by the end of the day everyone smelled like smoke, had minor concussions from the Italian Uncles and was generally beaten down.  The Christmas magic ended with a slight stink about it.

Today, Christmas is done in a week or more.  For our Grandkids it started Christmas Eve with us.  From there it is like a victory tour.  The kids go the homes of their many Grandparents, real and fake, and receive more bounty.  The have real and fake aunts and uncles who bestow them with more riches.  Their "non-traditional" family seems to pick up random people all the time.  When they get older and have to explain to their girlfriend who Uncle AJ is, forget it...

But the pace is nice.  The visits feel more natural.  The kids get to spend more time with their families (let's face it, they get to spend more time with the presents they just got).  

I like how Christmas has evolved in my family and don't want to ever go back to the one day road tour. 

 Meanwhile, Mom came over for pizza night.  We tried to show her how to use the Mac.  The picture you see here is rarer than a Loch Ness monster sighting.  (I heard someone say that since we all have camera phones with an intense amount of megapixels taking sharp photos, isn't it interesting that there haven't been any pictures of Nessie and Big Foot?)

Mom was cute trying to navigate Google.  She was like Crocodile Dundee in New York city; totally out of her element.

We finished the night watching one of Jennie's favorite movies, The Holiday.  My Mom didn't want to have her picture taken for some reason.  

The latest project from the star of "Furry Vengeance"

Randy and I got together for the first time in months.  Jen and I knew the worst part about this UK gig was not seeing the people we're closest to, but it seems to get harder each time we come home and have to leave again.

Whenever I get together with Randy I always feel good about it and then I end up kicking myself for not seeing him more.  Tonight was no exception.  We picked up like we were never apart.
And I had a bonus guest.  Haley came along so I had a partner to make fun of Randy with.

This is Haley's second appearance on the blog.  The first one we talked about her role in the Brendan Fraser movie "Furry Vengeance".  Tonight I found out she was in another movie "Crooked Arrows".  It's about a Native American tribe who learns lacrosse.  She has absolutely no interest in being in theatre, but she's been in two Hollywood produced movies.  

We drove to East Boston to one of the best pizza joints around, Santarpio's.  Great pizza.  Great catching up with Randy and Haley.

Rats!

Christmas in Albany.

Jennifer and I spent Christmas Day with Mother Entwistle and the family.  It was great to see AJ in town and to meet his wife, Eden.  

Mother received a special Christmas present.  We brought her a stuffed rat.  I think she's going to name it Elaine.  It's best not to ask why about the name or about receiving a rat.  There really is no why.  

Anyway, Elaine was a big hit.

 That's as close as Lillie would get to Elaine the rat.

 Mother and Lillie have matching p.j.'s.  Merry Christmas, Albany.  

When we got home we had another bonus.  Both boys were here at the same time.  It's tough rounding them up these days.  We did our annual time capsule, where we pick our favorite memories of 2012.  We decided that we'll wait five more years and then review the 15 years we filled out these sheets.  It was an easy year to fill these out for all of us.  Joey moved to and from Washington and has a new girlfriend.  Bret had his experience with the Army reserve.  And Jen and I moved our lives to the UK.  Plenty of new memories and experiences this year.

Xmas Eve Silliness

It's amazing how long it takes to prepare for Christmas Eve and then how long it takes to rip through it all and be done.  The little ones slowed the pace a bit since last year but were definitely caught up in the frenzy, putting one down while reaching for the next.  Gramma Trudi gave them a few joint presents which didn't really go over well.   Malikai adopted the phrase "Mine alone!" when asking for his next present.  

 Once the little ones went home we had the adult portion of our evening.  Bret and Joey loved their Mike paintings from Dad.

 Trudi gave me very fashionable pot holders and dishtowels.

 Bill hates the beans in England but didn't seem to appreciate Santa putting a can of Bush's in his stocking.

 The line of the night was when Joey's girlfriend called out "You can't see Churchill, Joey - Pop it!!"

Betty said she was wearing a pair as well.

 Allie really loved her new bathing cap and sun glasses.  I think she actually pulls this look off....

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

T'was the night before Christmas Eve

Bill and I spent much of the day in front of the fire - reading, wrapping presents, and surfing the web.  We are so in love with having a fire - it's possible that we will never go into the living room again.

This was the perfect way to spend the last day before the holiday whirlwind.

Holiday Party 2012

Welcome to our 2012 holiday party.  Let me introduce you to our hosts.  The cute redhead in the bunny sweater is Jennifer.  Despite  a short time to prepare, Jennifer pulled together a wonderful event.   With Jennifer is her husband Bill. He is (once again) wearing his vintage jacket and paisley shirt.  If he didn't just post pictures of this outfit he would have gotten away with the fashion faux pas of wearing the same outfit to two parties in a week.  Bill Cunningham would not approve.

When Whitney and Bill stand together it's like you're on an LSD trip.  (I know what an LDS trip is like because I saw the episode of Mad Men when Roger Sterling went on his Electric Kool Aid trip.)  It's always nice taking a trip with Whitney.  Which, by the way, may be in the works, as she and the family are looking into a UK vacation.

 Denise, Sandy, Carolyn, Geraldine and Jennie.  The girls said they would plan on visiting London soon, which was more excellent news.

 Me and the girls.  Stacey also said that she, Diane and Dave are planning to come see us in the UK next year.  We can't wait to show our friends around Eton, Windsor and London.

 Jen's Petey sweater was a huge hit.

 Lisa and Patrick.  Usually Lisa's tartlets are the favorite party food but this year she passed the torch to Patrick for his chocolate chip cookies.  That's what happens when you bring store bought dip, Lisa.

 Amy, Jennie, Jessica, Dima and Steve.  Jessica and Dima closed down the party.  Dima and I broke open the bottle of Remy Martin that Alison and Loren (somehow missed getting their picture) gave us.

 I buried the lead!  Betty made an appearance.  She left shortly after Pete inappropriately kissed her.

 I suppose the shirt-jacket combo was a bit risky.

 It's not a party until DiDi and I take a closeup.

Hands off the Queen, girls.

Noelle and Jennie.  I didn't get a shot of Noelle's hot little outfit.

Sorry, Noelle.  Notice how Jen's mouth gets bigger as the night progresses.

Thanks to all our friends who came by on a busy holiday weekend.  We had a great night.  

Tree Trimming on Atwood

The gang was all here to trim the tree Friday night:  Trudi, Bret, his friend Nicole and her daughter Lorelai, Wyatte, Malikai, Jen and Bill.  It was a typical night of carols, pizza, laughter, tears, putting small children in to boxes, and wearing silly headgear and glasses.

At the end of the night, Malikai went to put his cup of fruit juice in the sink and missing, spilling it all over the kitchen floor.  "It's just like ink!!" Bret and Joey exclaimed - A phrase they heard from me and Bill at least 4000 times whenever we would tell them to be careful with their juice.  It's good to know that at least one bit of parenting stuck.