Happy New Year!

For a change, we decided to take a little get-away to ring in 2012 this year. Jeff had some unused vacation points and we were able to get the last room available in the entire White Mountain area! Ironically, it was at the Snowy Owl Inn, Waterville Valley, which is adjacent to the Golden Eagle Lodge which is where Meg and I vacationed with our mother for many years in our late teens/early 20's! What a great location! Once we arrived, we never had to use our car again until we checked out of the Inn. The Waterville Valley town square was right outside our hotel, which was home to many shops, restaurants and activities. We had a fun-packed two and a half days of swimming (indoors!), hiking, eating and relaxing. On New Years Eve we took a sleigh ride and there were fantastic fireworks right in the town square. The kids had so much fun - they immediately started jumping on the beds when we arrived (Evan has always done that when we have stayed in a hotel...he goes straight for the bed and starts jumping!) Sophia made a new best friend (it was a stuffed snowman in the lobby that she was obsessed with! Every time we passed by she had to stop and gives lots of hugs...so cute!) It was just so nice to get away from the never-ending household chores and daily routines. It was a great way to end 2011 and begin a new year year. We hope 2012 brings good health and happiness to our family and friends!

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year - the kids must have been on Santa's "good list" because they got lots of neat toys that they have been playing with all week. Evan's big present from Santa was a drum set (and Mommy and Daddy got earplugs in our stockings!) He was thrilled! He has asked for a drum set for two years in a row from Santa and the look on his face that morning was priceless! And it really isn't as loud as you would expect - we have already gotten used to it, and of course it came with rules...no drumming while Sophia's napping etc...or else it goes back to the North Pole! Santa recognized that Evan really does have talent and decided to trade in those empty Folgers coffee cans for a real set this year! Sophia was absolutely in princess land - she got a chest full of princess dress-up clothes and shoes from Santa and Evan gave her a baby Cinderella doll and some princess puzzles. She immediately got dressed up as Cinderella and didn't take the clothes off the entire day. The other big gift that the kids got this year was a homemade puppet theater! This has been a huge hit this past week - among Jeff's many talents which always cease to amaze me - he is an awesome puppeteer!! Really! He has had me mesmerized by some of his creative puppet shows, and the kids are loving it! And Jeff actually made the theater out of scrap wood at work and spent the last two weeks before Christmas painting and decorating it every night. It came out amazing! Mommy and Daddy had a light Christmas since we bought each other a new car this fall, although Jeff did surprise me with a new camera. We are getting used to it - it is a bit fancier than our little pocket camera so we are trying to adjust settings etc...to get better pictures. It is taking some time - we have had lots of blurry and dark photos, but I think we got a few good ones from Christmas.