TWO

Happy Birthday to my sweet 2 year old!

2010

We have been incredibly blessed this year; 201o has brought nothing but good and happiness to our little family. Here's a review of all the fun we've had:

January - We began vegetarians (that's right no meat or fish for a year now). Berke got his stylish glasses. Christian taught a writing class to freshman at Brandeis University about Country Music. We saw the movie Avatar in the theater (1 of the 2 movies we got to go to this year).

February- I took a Tap Dancing class through Cambridge Adult Education, Christian and I went on a surprise date for Valentines to a Murder Mystery Show (thanks again Julie for sitting the boy!)

March-We worked hard at school and work. Stayed warm inside.

April- Christian took a trip to Fargo, North Dakota to see his piece, Flux Flummoxed, premiered. We cheered on the Boston Marathon Runners, I bought a new bike and Berkeley got a bike seat. Many fun family bike rides around town.

May- Christian took a trip to his home town, Show Low, AZ to be a guest lecture at a college there as well as to hear the White Mountain Symphony play one of his pieces. He was able to see his parents and both brothers during the trip. I went to Seattle, WA to be a brides maid in Julia's wedding. I FINALLY got to see Sugarland, one of my favorite country music duos. Our family took a weekend trip to Portland, Maine and explored the town and enjoyed time away from our busy schedules.

June- McDuff turned 5 years old. Christian took off for a week to attend a music festival in Norfollk, CT; while he was gone my dad came for a visit. We had fun going to the aquarium, the zoo, and Crane Beach. Berkeley is finally old enough to go into nursery at church!!! I was released as Young Women's President. We attended a real live Polo Match and attempted to live like the other half.

July- Went to the Sand Sculpting Festival at Revere Beach, we went Camping in the Berkshires and attended a concert at Tanglewood. I was called to serve in the nursery at church. Meanwhile Christian continues to slave away in his primary calling with the 7-8 year olds. Berkeley took a water babies class at the local pool; he did great kicking and jumping into the water.

August- We went to a Red Sox Game. I went with some gal pals to Oqunquit, Maine for a fun weekend get away. I quit my job at Ethos doing Elder Protective Services and started a new job as a Hospice Social Worker. The week between jobs we took a family vacation to the Cape and Martha's Vineyard; we did a lot of biking and playing in the sand. We enjoyed going whale watching and seeing lots of amazing hump back whales. Christian started back at school teaching a Music Theory class at Brandeis.

September- We went with our friends Stef and Gloria to the Berkshires over Labor Day weekend and stayed with Gloria's parents. While there we attended a Garlic Festival, went on a treasure hunt, Berkeley peed on a couch in a restaurant and we became corn hole champions. I completed my first Triathlon. We took a trip to Vermont with Ryan and Nicole; stayed in a fun cabin, went apple picking and enjoyed the fire place and fall colors.

October- Finished the Tuft's 10K with a group of women from my church. A visit from Christian's parents. A visit from my mom; highlights were the Head of the Charles Regatta, and going to Salem dressed as witches. Berke was a giraffe for Halloween and enjoyed trick or treating this year. Christian turned 32. We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.

November- Finished my first 1/2 marathon. Christian passed his oral exams; ABD BABY!!! Turned 30 years old! Christian and my ladies threw me a fabulous SNL birthday party. We saw Harry Potter in the theater (2nd movie we saw together in the theater this year.)

December- Took a day trip to NYC with my friend Kelly to enjoy the lights and Christmas Spirit. Saw The Addams Family on Broadway. Saw Jersey Boys on Broadway the next week. Attended the traditional Cambridge Wreath Making Party. Christian made lots of Christmas Candy (I ate way too much). Had a wonderful Christmas! Berkeley turned 2 the last day of the year!

We hope 2011 brings us as much accomplishment, joy and fun as 2010. We do hope we will get to see more family in 2011; please note this may be our last summer in Boston, so if you want to plan a trip....do it NOW! We look forward to the challenges, goals and outings of the new year.
We hope 2011 finds you all healthy, wealthy and wise!!!

Happy New Year!

Snowed In

Yesterday we had a big ole snow storm here in Boston. When this happens the city calls a snow emergency, which means cars can only park on one side of the road. When an entire city parks their cars on the street this can cause a major problem. It also means when it snows, you pick a spot and you DON'T move. So yesterday, we did lots of projects inside and had a pajama day!

Besides taking the opportunity to put all our Christmas decorations away, we seized the opportunity to "re-do" Berkeley's room. This was an emotional project for me, much more than I had anticipated. We decided after Christmas we would get rid of his changing table and the rocker to give him more space to play and make room for his Christmas toys. I realized how attached I was to this precious rocker; this simple piece of furniture holds so many dear memories. This room has been set up this way for two years now and it was hard to think it would be different. Before Christian took my chair to the basement I "snuggled" with Berke one last time in it; that lasted all of 5 seconds. It made me realize how fast that little baby grew up and I suddenly wanted another baby again. I realized that wasn't going to happen, so I made peace with my chair saying good bye for a time (but not before begging Christian to find another spot in our home for it). I know it will be around for the next little spirit that joins our family.

I purchased this new rug for Berke's room, I think it is pretty fun.

After a lot of work decluttering, finding missing toys under furniture, and furniture assemble, this is how the final product turned out. It really opened up the room quite a bit, and now Berke can be a crazy boy with lots of space to play.

Once the rug is in place it will be finished.

PS- As I write this I am wondering why my kid is being so quite....oh yep, he has something he is not supposed to play with and just tried to hide it from me. Clever kid! I cannot believe he is going to be TWO on Friday!!!

It's a Wonderful Life

The Christmas Season came and went so quickly this year. We had intentions of doing many more holiday related activities, but time got away from us. Gingerbread house making will be on the top of the list for next year, as it just didn't happen this year. We did do many wonderful things however, and one of our most favorite traditions is our Christmas Eve Party.

This year was our 4th Christmas in Boston; can you believe it? We really enjoy spending our holiday with our little family. The stress of traveling over the holidays has been less appealing to us in our "old age" and we have stuck around our home with our little family since our move to the big city. Since we started staying here, we have been hosting a Christmas Eve party for friends who are also staying in the area.
This year was a huge success! We had quite the aray of dietary needs with our guests; we had vegans, vegetarians, and people who needed their food gluten free. Christian pulled it off like a champion! He made a vegan and a gluten free eggplant Parmesan as well as stuffed shells (not vegan or gluten free) and it was delicious! We had quite the fun crowd this year with 5 families coming over to join in the eating festivities. We also played a killer game of Christmas Pictionary, decorated sugar cookies for Santa, sang Christmas Carols (Lisa and I did a mean rendition of "Santa Baby"), watched Berkeley crunk (see below video), and just had a good time laughing and visiting. The night went so fast, but it was memorable indeed.

That night, Santa Clause came and brought Berkeley lots of fun toys!

Christmas morning we enjoyed our traditional monkey bread and fruit, followed by hours of opening and playing with presents. McDuff LOVES opening presents; luckily he was around to show his little brother how this was done. McDuff got a variety of doggie treats, a ball and a stuffed hedge hog and was grateful that Santa Paws did not leave him out.

One of my favorite presents is my new blue tooth. I do most of my chatting with friends and family in the car, so this little gadget will be quite handy.

I purchased t his movie for Christian as it describes him to a T!
(The Absent Minded Professor)

Berkey got lots of fun toys and musical devices this year. I thought he was very clever to discover that his symbols were just the size of his electric drums and he could use them both to create "heavenly" tunes.

Just rockin' out with the Elmo guitar!

We had a wonderful Christmas! It is always bitter sweet; I love all the fun ramping up to the holidays, the day of, and then POOF, just like that it is all over!
Thanks to all who gave us such thoughtful gifts and treats!
We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family, to be privileged to have such amazing friends here that we consider to be family as well, and to be able to celebrate the birth and life of Christ during this special time of year.

Some Christmas footage

Berkeley learned how to Crunk on Christmas Eve; it is pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

Here is the priceless first moments of Christmas morning.

It's begining to look a lot like

Christmas!

We finally got our first look at the white stuff today. We may just have snow for Christmas after all!

We've been busy getting ready for the holidays! I went to my 4th annual Cambridge 1st Ward Wreath Making Night, which is always a good time. They have a wonderful program with music and talks, delicious soups and salad for dinner and then I get to make my very own wreath out of Christmas tree branches. I was happy with how my wreath turned out this year; it hangs proudly on our front door.
We've also been busy sending off Christmas cards, shopping, wrapping, finishing up the semester, realizing that a lot more people die around the holidays (I work in Hospice people) i.e. attending funerals, attending Christmas Parties, being terrified of Santa, Etc.

We have also been baking much more than usual, and when I say "we," I mainly mean Christian. However I did get domestic this week with my special apron, which has special "you are a wonderful domestic wife" powers which I thoroughly enjoy. Look how freakin' adorable it is! Sale, last year, Pier 1, waited all year to wear it. It helped me make my favorite holiday treat, "Carolyn's Cheese Ball" which I made for my work party. Growing up, our neighbor, Carolyn, from across the street brought us this cheese ball every year and now Christmas just doesn't seem the same without it. She has been gracious enough to share the recipe with me so all my wildest Christmas dreams can come true.
Christian feels the same way about his dad's famous Boston Cremes! Christian went crazy with the baking this year!

Due to my lack of self control for all these delectable treats, I promptly wrapped them all up (after eating 10-12 pieces) to be delivered to our neighbors, etc.

Our little monkey has been pretty good with the Christmas tree and not pulling off too many ornaments. He doesn't understand that presents have goodies under all the pretty paper, so that has really worked in our favor this year.
He REALLY has massive Santa fear, and the three times we have seen him have been anything but pleasant experiences.
He has been learning about "baby jeeju" and pointing him out in the friend magazine. It kinda melts my heart. He also has gotten really cute about praying and folds his arms any time I lay him down in his crib; I say the prayer and when I say, "in the name of Jesus Christ" he says "Amen." ADORABLE!

This year for Christmas I think he will be happy with anything music, Elmo, Car or Choo choo related.
He is learning a lot about the alphabet, such as all letters are "A"
He does well with his numbers, cause they are all "2"
He is learning those colors quickly, probably because they are all "Blue"
He loves his "mama" a lot, probably because that is what he calls his dada too. ( you can only imagine how much Christian is enjoying this. At church when C was sitting on the stand with his primary children during the primary program, Berke kept pointing to Christian and yelling, "Mama! Hi Mama!")

He does really well with his Sesame Street Characters and knows who Elmo, Oscar, Cookie, Abby, Ernie, and Big Bird are.
He is also doing pretty well with his animal sounds and can make the sounds of a monkey, dog, kitty, horse, cow, sheep, fish (it says shshsh), bear, and lion.
He loves to colee colee colee (color) and drink watee watee (water or milk).
He is obsessed with dried blue berries right now and eats 50-100 a day.

We are really excited to spend Christmas with our little guy this year. He is going to be so excited for every present he opens. I just love how children can bring the magic into Christmas.

We hope your Holiday is fun and festive, and that you are able to share it with people you love!

The Polar Express

Berke is geared up for the holidays; he's got his holiday PJ's and Elmo slippers, doesn't get any better than that!
Every year the Visiting Nurse of Boston holds a fundraiser by putting on a Polar Express Train Ride on the Commuter Rail at Malden Station. I thought it would be fun to take Berke Man this year as he is into "Choo Choos", and kids under 2 were free so it worked out well.
They had the train decorated with holiday cheer and Christmas Music blasting through the train.

The train started and they read the Polar Express Story to all the children. Then Santa Clause came. Berke has a bit of PTSD from his last Santa experience; this is his reaction when Santa came to say hello. He was clinging onto me for dear life. Then came the milk and cookies and Berke was happy again.

They had lots of life size cartoon characters on the train as well. I thought Berke would be thrilled to see Elmo, Christian thought he would be terrified.

Christian was right.
Berke was TOTALLY freaked out by Elmo. When Elmo came to stand by him for a picture he pushed him away and started crying. Is it mean that I find humor in my kids terror?
Not to worry, Berke still loves Elmo...just not life sized Elmo.

The train ride was fun, Berke got a coloring book and crayons and a little bell. It was a really fun Christmas activity for our whole family. I LOVE this time of year!

There's no place like New York City to get a little holiday cheer

My friend Kelly has been my weight loss, goal setting, lets do the impossible, gal pal for the last two years. We have both reached amazing goals in this time and have really been a support to one another. We decided a few months ago that we needed to celebrate our weight loss, Kelly's two 1/2 marathons and a full marathon and my Triathlon, 10K and 1/2 marathon. We planned a trip to NYC during December because we both wanted to go and see the lights and the Big Apple during the Holiday Season.
We gave ourselves the gift of a trip to NYC!

We left Friday night at 7:00 p.m. and drove to Brooklyn where we stayed with Kelly's brother, Sean. Sean owns a pizza joint in town, so we headed over and ate pizza at 1:00 a.m. (not a good time to eat pizza; felt very sick, however my eggplant parm slice was amazing when I ate it). We got to bed around 2:30 a.m. and were up at 7:30 a.m. to get ready and head into the City for our big day. We headed to the TKTS ticket booth first thing to get tickets to a Broadway Show. It was FREEZING standing in line at 9:30; it was 35 degrees but we were not moving, we were in the shade and the wind was unkind. Once I had no feeling in my toes we were able to purchase tickets to The Addams Family the Musical with Nathan Lane ( I HEART HIM!) We got great seats in the 12th row. We warmed up a bit (Thank you Starbucks), ate some breakfast and did a little shopping. I have been to Time Square several times and it is always busy, but I have never seen it as busy as it was this weekend. We went into Toys R Us and it was mass hysteria!

After shopping until we dropped (NOT, I could shop forever!) we headed over to see the show. We had wonderful seats, the show was hilarious, music was catchy and fun, Nathan Lane was AMAZING!!!! Going to a Broadway Show is on the top list of one of my favorite things to do. Next show in the que is Jersey Boys in Boston December 16th with my same gal pal!

We refueled our engines, and headed uptown to Rockefeller Center to see the ever famous tree. There were so many wonderful decorations and window displays along the way.

We even stopped and window shopped at Tiffany and Co. Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways. Oh how I cannot afford thee, not one little thing in the entire store.
(If I were a rich man...yide a yide a yide a....)

As we got closer to Rockefeller Center, the more intense and crazy the crowd became. But it was worth it to see this beautiful tree. Everyone should see it at least once in their lifetime, it was magnificent!

We got Christmas Spirit, yes we do! We've got the Spirit how 'bout you?

We couldn't end the night without a special dessert treat. We ended up at Magnolia Bakery where we found the most delectable treats one could ever imagine.

On our way back to Brooklyn we got a little lost on the subway, were harassed by an Estonian man, but finally made it back to where we needed to be by 10:00 p.m. We hit the road back to Boston at 10:30 and made it home just before 2:00 a.m.
WOW! What a day; it was a blast! Exhausted is the aftermath, but hey, you only live once, so live it up!

Happy Holidays!

Enough Said

Berke + Santa = DISASTER

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving

I had a WONDERFUL 30th Birthday!

Berke let me sleep in until 8 a.m. I visited my old friend, the gym in the a.m.
Christian and Berke got me some nice gifts (which I had put on my Amazon wish list, so they knew exactly to get me (I say, why not get what you really want)).

After Berke's nap we took the T (Berke refers to it as the Choo Choo) down to the Children's Museum, where we met up with my friend Megan and Berke's pal, Quentin (aka Q). We had a great double mommy/son date. I loved spending time with my little man and seeing him have so much fun playing with all the museum had to offer. I adore how when he wants to try something new, he grabs my finger and pulls me over to the new adventure so we can share the moment together.

Here are the cute boys, Berke and Q; they do so well playing together twice a week.

When we got back, Christian and I left our little man with a sitter and headed out for a night out on the town. This doesn't happen much, so we always enjoy ourselves when it does. We headed to the North End for some yummy Italian food with some fun friends. Then walked to the theater where we saw Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 on the Imax Screen. It was such a treat to not have to worry about the little monkey and just enjoy each others company.

Thanks to all the sweet phone calls (with so many amazing birthday songs), texts, facebook messages, etc. I felt so loved on my big day. I really think I am gonna like my 30's; it is gonna be a great time with lots of exciting changes.

SNL 30th Birthday Extravaganza

My 30th Birthday is in a few days, but due to the holiday madness, I had my party a bit early. Christian and some great friends threw me a wonderful SNL themed birthday party. Good fun, good laughs, good food and good SNL triva were in attendance!

Our good friend Lauren made this amazing cake just for me! Not only does it look amazing, but the lemon cake and filling inside are to DIE for. So good, so good, soooo good.

Everyone was good to keep the SNL theme alive, even with the food. How could you not enjoy some "schwetty balls" or Betty White's "Crusty Muffins?"
(Please Hulu "The Delicious Dish" if you need further explanation)

This was a costume party and my friends did not disappoint! Here is a run down:

Delta, Delta, Delta. Can I help ya, help ya, help ya!

Wayne and Garth were popular at that party; really though, what is not to love about this dynamic duo? There is still some really great flannel out there.

I wasn't sure who these two were at first, but if you watch the Two A Holes skit, you will see how amazing this costume and the skit are.

If you are not familiar with Garth and Kat, please watch the video below. These two crack me up every time I watch them. We were hoping to perform at the party, but my cold took my voice away and it wasn't able to happen. Not to worry, I am sure there will be more occasions to sing; I mean we still have the wigs, vest and turtle necks!

My 30th Birthday party was a total blast! I love to have so many fun and zany people in my life! Thanks for celebrating with me!

Why 30 seems old

As the 30th anniversary of my birth year approaches I am excited, ready to embrace my 30's. It is a great time full of family making, career, health and wellness, friends and family. After all, haven't you heard that 30 is the new 2o?
I cannot help but feel old however as I look back at how much things have changed in my short 30 years on this earth. I used to think my parents and my friends parents were old as they used to talk about playing video games and an Atari and listen to music on a record player or Eight track tapes. I just thought they must be ancient to have such crazy devices.

Now that I look back as a parent, my kids are gonna think I am an old crazy lady when I tell them that I learned to type on a type writer.

That is right, in middle school typing class, this is what was available to me. You put the paper in the back and roll it through, then start typing. If you make a mistake then you push a back space button that covers up the mistake with white out. If you make too many mistakes then you should just start the entire document over cause it looks like crap. No, you cannot save the changes and no, there is no spell check, so you better make sure you know what you are spelling before you type it in.

When computers did come out they were these awesome Apple computers where the screen was green and the letter you typed in were white. If you wanted to save something you had written then you did it on a big floppy disk. I used to play great games on this computer at my friend Kara's house there was Oregon Trail or Super Sluth. Will my kids believe me when I tell them I didn't have a "real" computer until I went to college and that is when I learned how to type. That is when I got my first e-mail address at age 18. Yes, before that people actually had to call you or send you a written invitation to a party. Evites didn't exist until my mid twenties.

My first video gaming experience was on this bad boy, the original Nintendo. I had lots of fun playing Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, and Tetris. OK, lets face it, I have ALWAYS sucked at video games. But I had a lot of fun trying with this beautiful machine.

I got one of these hand held Game boys one year for Christmas. Pretty much the most awesome thing ever (at the time). It wasn't a colored screen or anything, but it did the job.

This is called a VHS, it was all the rage when I was growing up. You stuck one of these bad boys into a thing called a VCR (pictured below(yes I still have one in 2010 cause I am just not ready to give it up)), and it plays the movie. There is really no such thing as a scene selection, however if you want to skip a part in the movie you can fast forward. When you are done watching the movie you have to press a button called "rewind" to get the movie back to the beginning, this will take a couple of minutes.

What we have here is a VCR/DVD combo pack. By the time my kids hit 18 I am guessing they will have no clue what a DVD player is, so best to show that now as well. These two devices are used to watch movies.

iPods are very cool, but in the 90's these were even cooler. Everyone had a boom box that played the radio and had a tape player. This was every kid's dream Christmas Present when I was growing up. Pretty sure it is still a dream for my husband.

If you have a tape player, you can play these little devices, called cassette tapes. They fit nicely into the tape player and play music quite well. My first tape was Milli Vanilli who turned out to be two guys who got famous by lip-sinching (how does that happen?) This tape, is a classic 90's tape; Dirty Dancing was one of the best sound tacks of its day.

If you wanted to go on a walk and listen to music, you used one of these amazing devices, called a WALKMAN. Insert cassette tape, push play, put on head phone and walk around. It was the first of it's kind. One of my prized possessions growing up.

Growing up there were no cell phones. We actually had to use a house phone, something I think few homes have anymore. If you were out and about and needed to call home, you had to stop at one of these peculiar places; a telephone booth that contained a pay phone. You could go into the booth, put 35 cents into the phone and make a call. Back in my day, you had to remember every one's phone numbers if you wanted to call them, now with cell phones I barley know my own phone number.
I am beginning to feel like the advancement of technology kinda makes me dumber, does any one else feel this way?

As I got a little older, the pager was where it was at. You carried this stupid little square device and if someone wanted to talk to you they would call a number; then their number would come up on the pager and you would find a phone to call that person back. When my dad bought me one, I pretty much thought I was so flippin' cool, but in hind sight, the pager was really stupid. That may be why it didn't last long (outside the hospital setting), and cell phones came in and they NEVER went out. But they have gotten much smaller and much more complex and versatile.

Let us not forget that there was not always a Nikon D40 to take great pictures. I started out with one of these cameras, called a Polaroid camera. You took a picture with the camera, it spit it out (literally) and give it a few seconds and the picture would appear, it was like magic really. Then came the camera with film; let me be clear you could not view the picture to see if it was good or not, you just had to take it to get developed and see what the result was.

My oh my, things have REALLY changed. So I wasn't feeling that 30 was old, but after doing this post, I kinda feel differently. I guess I will just take my old self, and enjoy my 30's.