Christmas!

Sunday, December 21

The Sunday before Christmas, Santa drives thru every street in our town on the firetruck throwing candy to all the kids.  You can always hear the sirens and the kids always look forward to them driving down the street!

After that, Aba and I went shopping.  There are a number of things he wanted to buy but couldn't seem to find exactly what he wanted.  I am going to set him up on Amazon and he can buy online! I'm not sure he believes me that the snow is coming and it will get very cold for a very long time,  and won't warm up until June!


We host Christmas Eve dinner at our house.  This year, my sister, Alicia and husband, Larry, came along with my cousin Paula.  They all had gifts for Aba, which I think surprised him :) We had a nice beef tenderloin dinner with all the trimmings.  Aba had been out shopping with a friend of his earlier in the day and she ended up joining us for dinner too.  When I was taking a couple of photos, they were in the basement watching tv...I was busy cooking and watching Sunnie get to know my sisters 2 dogs so I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked.

On Christmas morning the boys were up at around 6:30am and opened their stockings.  My parents were coming over to see the boys open up their gifts so we let Aba sleep in until they arrived.  Aba got the boys their first snowboards which they thought was pretty cool.  All we need now is snow!

We like to stay home on Christmas Day and relax.  Of course, Sunnie gets a nice walk in the woods and then we watched "Marley & Me" and played with the new games, ate then watched "Titanic" since Jack is learning about that in school.  For dinner, we thought we would try something new and ordered take out Chinese food....ohhh was that good!

The Day After

Well, it looked like a bomb went off here.  We got cleaned up and Aba is now off to Boston for the night with his friend Laszlo.

I'm not sure what we will do all week, the kids do not have school.  I'm sure I will figure something out!

~Linda

Semi-formal dance

Saturday, December 6, 2014

I thought I posted this last week!

Aba had a busy weekend with an all day wrestling match against a bunch of other schools.  When he got home he had to get read for the first semi formal Junior dance at the high school.  He went with a girl named, Giselle.

Scott hurried up to get some dinner ready for Aba before the dance. He just grilled some burgers in the kitchen on the stove top grill. But, wow, did it start to get really smoky...then the fire alarms started going off, the dog was running around like crazy chasing a laser pointer and it was pouting rain outside. Quite a chaotic moment in our house!

Anyway, here comes Gisele amongst the chaos and I did manage to get a couple quick photos of the two of them!

We are getting read for Christmas, just got the tree up yesterday. The kids had been telling me that I better get decorating! They do love all of our traditions. Each decoration has to go in the same exact spot that it has always been before.  Last year, we were traveling so we celebrated Christmas quietly in Santa Barbara, CA.  So since it's been awhile, they are especially excited this year.

~Linda

Wrestling

About a month into his wrestling career Aba is doing quite well.  He had an all day meet over the past weekend, it was more like a scrimmage and didn't count, but was great practice.  With two matches he was 1 and 1, one win, one loss.

Wednesday night was his first official meet.  Scott was there cheering him on and I sent him with my camera and he took these few photos.  Aba was one of a few kids that pinned his opponent in the first period.  Here is some more information on High School Wrestling.

I think his festival bracelets are finally off!!

~Linda

White Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

There is no school for the kids today thru the end of the week in order to celebrate Thanksgiving.  This year, it was a white Thanksgiving with the snow coming down all day today with about 6 inches total.  Many people lost power in the area, we were fortunate and did not.  Although, we have a generator, so when we do lose power, it is of no consequence to us.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day

We went to Scott's brother John's house in Maine for Thanksgiving dinner.  Also joining us were Scott's brothers Mark & Dave and their families.  We had the traditional turkey, a smoked goose and all the trimmings plus the most awesome desserts made by Uncle Dave.  Dave is the Chef of the family and owns a restaurant.

Quite ironic that there was a gang of wild turkeys that passed thru their backyard. 

This was probably one of the first holidays that I didn't take out my camera...I guess I just wanted to take the day off too!

Friday-Sunday, November 28-30, 2014

Aba's friend Laslo took the train up from the Boston area to spend the day/night up here.  We had a nice dinner at home with them and enjoyed getting to know his friend.  I find it very entertaining to have someone new at the dinner table.  

After dinner, one of Aba's friends came to pick them up and they hung out with a large group of kids at another house for most of the evening.  I love knowing that they are having typical American teenage experiences.  

Bright and early on Saturday morning, Aba was off to wrestling practice and Laslo decided to stay here and enjoy a nice breakfast with us, talking and spending some time with the boys. They went out hiking in the snow covered words for awhile, Scott made his delicious pizzas and we convinced Laslo to spend another night so I wouldn't have to drive him home late.

By Sunday afternoon, he was ready to head out.   We enjoyed getting to know him and I hope he knows that he is welcome here anytime.

As you can see, not the easiest shot for me to get, but at least I got it!

~Linda