Third Annual Thanksgiving

This weekend we celebrated our third annual Thanksgiving. This is our own special weekend every year when we spend time together in our city and around our home. Both of us really cherish this time and look forward to it every fall. This year was almost the same as the previous two, and that's the way we like it! Wednesday night, to kick off the long weekend, I cooked a pork tenderloin and we talked about our weekend plans.

Thursday morning I got up early to start baking the pies (pumpkin and apple, yum!) to bring to the Ums for dinner. It was a rainy day, so instead of strolling over to Charlestown, we had to drive with the pies. I sat in the back seat with my babies so that we didn't have another episode of a Thanksgiving dish ruined by gravity. Dinner at the Ums was perfect. The company was delightful (11 of us) and the food divine (no pun intended)... my favorite was the cornbread stuffing with chestnuts and bacon! I got the recipe.

Friday morning we got up early (again) for the third annual trip to Maine to chop down our Christmas tree. P and I like to kick off the holiday bright and early and get things festive around the house. This year the Ums joined us, and we hope they had as good a time as we always do. We weren't sure they were prepared, especially when PU showed up in dress pants, but everything turned out great. We took the hay ride, drank some hot chocolate (although it was warm outside), and after chopping down the tree (see above, for ours) we loaded it on the car and brought it home. We stopped in Kittery for some fish and chips at Bob's Clam Hut. The name says it all. Pure fried goodness. That night we had tickets for the Celtics game (second annual), so we put the tree in its stand and let it get used to living on Fulton Street before decorating it.

Saturday night after eating our beef stroganoff, we had our tree-decorating extravaganza. P and I always argue over who should put the lights on, since it's the least desirable job, and somehow I end up doing it. I put up all the ornaments from our childhood, and let P put up the one that he made when he was about four years old (it's priceless). Then we just sat and smiled at our tree and remembered what Christmas is all about. We prayed that we will remember Christ's birth every time we look at our tree.

Introducing...

Welcome to Fulton Street Knits! This logo, which will adorn my baby hats, has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, but I finally just put it to paper in the past month, and I am presenting it publicly here for the first time. I hope you like it, -- and look for it soon on a baby's irresistable little bald head in your area.

The Littlest Visitor

This past weekend we had our littlest visitor come stay with us. My brother and five-year-old niece came to visit from Dallas. At first I was shocked when my brother told me back in September that he was interested in coming to stay a weekend with us--particulary in November, when the weather starts to turn chilly. Then I got so excited that I would finally be able to show them our house and our city.

We spent the weekend within a 1/2-mile radius... never straying from the North End/Waterfront, except for a boat ride over to Charlestown to see the U.S.S. Constitution, and a jaunt Saturday night to the BC/Duke football game in Chestnut Hill. We took three trips to the Aquarium, two to Quincy Market, one to the IMAX theater, and had lots of fun taking digital pictures of our weekend and printing them out for a little photo album for S. to bring home to show her mom, little brother, and friends. When she returned home, her mom asked her if she wanted to go live with Aunt S. and Uncle P.--to which she replied that she couldn't because they were going to have a baby. Eventually. Thanks for the great visit, J. & S.

Work in Progress

People around me have heard about this so-called Picture Wall I've been talking about for at least a year. (J, it has probably come up in every conversation for the past month!) Well, I finally started it--meaning I finally got some on the wall. I have hung about seven pictures so far. Lately I've been feeling that despite all the work we've done to our house and all the nice furniture we've picked out, our house lacks a feeling of family. I started hanging the pictures on Saturday, a few days after our painter finished the walls, ceiling, and trim. Already I feel like this wall is exactly what our house has been needing: a reminder of who and where we come from, and what has come before us. It's so easy to get stuck in the present and the future that we forget to enjoy our past. I love this about the picture wall--that in climbing just a few steps in our home I can reconnect with my grandad in 1915 or my grandma & grandpa's wedding in 1939 or feel like I truly knew P's Grandpa Charlie. How did I get my hands on these priceless gems? Every February I go to Michigan to visit my grandma, aunt, & uncle. This past year when I was there, I confessed to my grandma that I was about to dig into the depths of her closet to unearth some of her old pictures (my favorite is grandma & grandpa when they were "courting" in college, lying on the lawn). With only a little hesitation, she acquiesced, and knew it was for a good cause. I went to the kiosk at CVS (several times over the past 8 months) and made several copies of each picture, one for each of my siblings and cousins. Then I got my mom involved, for her side of the family. She has some great old ones of the Winslows. Then of course we couldn't leave out P's family... when his parents came to visit us last May, they came armed with a slew of old photos, and the best part was that they knew who the pictures were of and when they were taken! Hooray for a family that takes pride in old photos. I married well. So next time you come over, let me guide you through the history of the family that we are making.