New Years Eve

Our New Years Eve party was a blast. I had prepared a ton of appetizers, dinner, and desserts - our pigs in a blanket were the hit of the evening! Holly, Katie, Andy, Greta, and Greta's fiance Brian made it up our way. We set up Rock Band to play, which is really fun to play in a group setting. I know Greta has a great voice, and she was awesome on vocals. Holly loves to sing (but she was coming down with a bad cold and was too stuffy to sing, except for some Weezer!) We downloaded some extra songs per group request, including more Weezer, David Bowie, The Police, and Radiohead.

It was good to see Andy, who we briefly saw over the summer, but hadn't really had a chance to hang out with since the wedding. Brian usually has a jazz band gig on New Years, but this year he wasn't playing, so he came along with Greta. Greta and Brian brought an updated Trivial Pursuit, with 80s, 90s, and current trivia. We had a blast playing, and it turned out that Greta & Brian were the trivia masters! Matt & I had Andy on our team, which was good, since Andy is a walking encyclopedia of music knowledge.

We watched the ball drop at Times Square (where Katie was last year!) and rang in 2008.

The next day, Matt, Katie, Andy and I caught a morning showing of Sweeney Todd, which I had been looking forward to seeing. I had picked up the soundtrack before Christmas, so going in I was familar with the music (although the soundtrack did not include the final few songs, so I had no idea how it ended!) Despite its gruesomeness, I was amazed (as always) with Tim Burton's direction and artistic style (particularly the streets of London, and the beach set for Mrs. Lovett's "By the Sea". And I absolutely love Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and, of course, Johnny Depp!

Of Christmas and Wisdom Teeth

We've had a wonderful Christmas season. Matt's work Xmas party was at Max Stein's Steakhouse. The steak was delicious, and the room chosen had a huge projector screen, which the gang hooked up XBox 360 to and played Rock Band all evening! My work Xmas party was held at the Society, and was catered by Vinny T's and had a string quartet playing holiday songs, which was fun. The family reunion was a blast to see everyone (although I missed my dear Daleys!), especially little Jessica - not quite so little as the last time I saw her!

For Christmas Matt & I continued a mini-tradition we started last year - roasting chestnuts (we don't have an open fire, but carving X's in the shells make them roast quite well, then serve with butter and cinnamon sugar or sea salt), and Terry Pratchett's Hogfather was playing on TV, as well as the beloved A Christmas Story, which Matt had never seen!

Christmas morning we opened our gifts - an abundance of history books, scifi books, Tim Burton, Elizabeth Peters, Neil Gaiman, VeggieTales, Nintendo DS and video games, Mel Brooks, For Better or For Worse, etc!

Then we headed over to Carver and got to see all the kids goodies. Mom & Jamie made delicious appetizers, Joe showed off his iDog, Nikki wore her Aeropostale pjs, Julie & Corey showed off their electronic stuff, Tim his Sudoku, Dad his Beatles collection, and Mom her new video camera. We then went over to Hanover and got to see the Sironi's, including Jeff who was home from LA. It was inadvertently a penguin-themed - we gave Chris Happy Feet, March of the Penguins, and a singing penguin Hallmark card, and he gave us a set of stuffed animal penguins!


After Christmas, I met up with Momoko, Jojo, and Sara in Boston for a Brownie reunion. Coming from DC, Nova Scotia, and Texas, it was wonderful to have a chance to catch up with everyone and spend the day together.

Then last Friday I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed -ack! The surgery was quick, and there were no complications [nice, but it still hurts like a son of a gun!]. I spent most of the weekend sleeping, with large ice packs on my face.


My mouth, while still hurting, is feeling a lot better, and tonight we are having a New Years party with the gang - luckily it has stopped snowing!

Here's to 2008!

Christmas decorating

Today we went to the Greenwood Tree Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. We picked out our tree last year from a flower stand on 3A, and the tree didn't last long, dropping its needles everywhere, and drying out too fast. So we thought it would be fun this year to go to our local tree farm. They have several fields of trees which they rotate each year. Their trees generally grow for 5-6 years. You grab a saw and go out, pick your tree, chop it down, and bring it to your car! Plus they had a neat little farm stand with apple cider, farm-made honey, and a variety of Christmas wreaths and centerpieces for sale. We picked our tree and a nice small wreath. The farm was really neat, it's on a huge piece of property along Dudley Road, which spread back near the Concord River and the famous historical "Two Brother's Rocks", which served as landmarks in the 17th century for John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley when they marked the boundaries of their properties.

We set up the tree, then grabbed lunch at the Border Cafe, for a Mexican Christmas fiesta.

Then we had fun pulling out all the ornaments and decorating the tree. Our ornament collection is filled with a fun collection of old and new.

Here's Mary's tooth-brushing Santa from 1985:


Here's Matt's teddy bear glass ornament from the 1980s:


We also received several "Our first Christmas" ornaments for our engagement in '05 and our wedding in '06. Last year we bought a variety of bulbs and other ornaments to fill out the tree. This year, I bought Matt two Hallmark ornaments from Pixar's Cars and Ratatouille.

Here's our Hilton Head Lighthouse from our honeymoon:


And here are some of our kitchen decorations:

Alasdair Fraser

Yesterday, we saw an amazing performance by Alasdair Fraser, a Scottish fiddler. It was Matt's Aunt Linda's birthday, and as a present, Louise got tickets for us, Steve & Linda, and Chris & Louise to see him perform. They had seen him twice before, and loved his music.

So they came up for a big lunch at the apartment - Steve & Linda had never seen the place before, and Chris had not been up in awhile. Matt was excited about the prospects of making (and eating!) antipasto for an appreciative Italian audience.

The concert was held at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, which we had visited last year.

The music was wonderful, and Alasdair was really entertaining and funny. One of my favorite parts was when he asked the audience if there were any fiddlers in the room. He started marching through the auditorium, playing his fiddle, and all these little kids popped up from different parts of the room and followed him onstage, playing the same song, a fiddling Pied Piper!

There were also two Boston-based Scottish dance groups that performed, which was fun to see.

Now if only I could persuade Matt to dance in a kilt...

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! It's my favorite holiday.. the apartment is decked out with creepy things, as well as lovely autumn decor (my favorite season!). Although this will be (gasp!) my first year without trick or treating myself, it should be fun to hand out candy to the kids in our apartment complex, and see all of their costumes.

Our newest decorations come in the form of our jack o'lanterns!

Here are our Victor and Corpse Bride jack o'lanterns this year, carved by yours truly:

Here is the inspiration for them:

Happy Halloween Party

This past weekend, we had a fun Halloween party at the apartment. The night began with a tour of the South Burying Ground at dusk (led by yours truly). We didn't get to do any gravestone rubbings, because it began POURING! Luckily we had jackets, hoods, or umbrellas - and the rain did make the tour very atmospheric and creepy!



We then came back to the house for our food contest, costume contest, episodes of Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror (with my favorite episode, where James Earl Jones reads the entire poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe!) and, of course, watch the RED SOX!

Here's the lineup of costumes:

Katie won the Best Costume Award as Edward Scissorhands


Matt made a dashing Dr. Watson (of Sherlock Holmes fame)


I was a colonial patriot:


Natyra was a Halloween spirit:


Greta was very bewitching...


And Holly was a vampire (note her purple colored contacts!)


Katie had a bit of trouble getting her way...


But she found a solution!


Finally, we carved pumpkins, and they all came out looking extremely impressive! Here's the whole gang's finished pumpkins, sitting on our balcony:
Greta's ghostly dog Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas, Holly's Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, Natyra's Dawn of the Dead, Katie's pug, and my Victor and the Corpse Bride (it was a good night for Tim Burton!)

My pics from the Red Sox Parade

Here are my photos from the Red Sox Parade, taken on my camera phone...

The Globe Bar Cafe had a painting up of the Rocky Mountains and a stick of TNT with a sign saying LEVEL THE ROCKIES!

Here's the sparse crowd at Copley at 9 AM

And here's the big crowd at 12:30!!

The first Duck Boat arrived, with machines that blew confetti everywhere

Terry Francona!

Youkilis, shouting "Re-sign Lowell!!"

More confetti at Copley Square

Papelbon and the Dropkick Murphys

Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury

More Coco and Jacoby! And a sign in the background reading THANK YOU FOR THE FREE TACO!

The sun was too bright for Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and the Jordans Furniture guys!

Mike Lowell, Julio Lugo, and Alex Cora

The Red Sox announcers got their own Duck Boat

And another member of Red Sox Nation! =)

Red Sox Parade

I missed out on the 2004 Red Sox Parade, because I was in Providence at the time. Holly braved the weather that day (freezing and rainy!) but didn't even get to see her beloved Mark Bellhorn.

Today, though, I knew the parade was going to be coming right through Copley, a block away from me!

This morning, tons of little kids and families (and high schoolers skipping school for the day!) were on the Lowell commuter train, decked out in all kinds of Red Sox Merchandise. The T was pretty crowded. When I emerged @ Copley Square, the police were beginning to block off the road, and a small crowd had gathered. Channel 5 was setting up their news reporters, and a big Jumbotron was set up so that the crowd could follow the parade route through the television.

I wore my Red Sox hat into work (a breech in dress code!), but received smiles and "Go Sox!" all morning.

Some of the gang at work were excited to catch the parade, so we followed the parade route online for a bit, then headed out to Copley, which had become much more crowded! Toilet paper rolls were tossed back and forth across Boylston. Some people were hanging out of the windows at Trinity Church and the surrounding tall buildings, or climbing the trees and bus stop stands!

I chatted on the phone with Mom right before the boats arrived, and poor Corey had to miss out because of class!

Then we caught sight of the tops of the Duck Boats! Confetti was blown everywhere.

A few players and their families were in each boat - we got pretty good views of practically everyone (although I didn't get a good view of Curt Shilling!) But we got to see Mike Lowell - Kevin Youkilis kept shouting "Re-sign Lowell! Re-sign Lowell!" and the crowd went wild, and later other players repeated the sentiment to the crowd

[the pics below are from the Globe, who had much better cameras and viewpoints than I did!]

And Dice-K


Manny and David Ortiz were on a boat with our beloved Jordan's Furniture guys - WOO HOO for my free bedroom set!!! Manny had the mic and kept thanking the crowd.


And of course, everyone was waiting for Papelbon..


To do his jig with the Dropkick Murphys!


We only caught a little bit of him dancing, but it was pretty funny.

It was neat to see everyone - old, young (the parents of a 9 month old baby girl were saying they had taken her to several games this season!), people in business suits, people in Red Sox gear, guys with no shirts and covered in red paint - together and cheering. Red Sox Nation was proud!

And nice to see the very cute Jacoby Ellsbury up close! =)

Time warp @ North Station

A few weeks ago, after work I headed up to North Station to catch the train home.

Needless to say, it was a bit strange to see a man from the 17th century sitting there, reading a newspaper

(fresh from the Freedom Trail, I am sure!)

Flooded train tracks

On the ride home tonight, the train tracks were flooded at various points - not deep enough to prevent them from running, but still pretty strange looking to be gliding through water!

August cookout

Matt's brother Tim, his girlfriend Cindy, and her two girls came over from England to visit for about two weeks. We had an early birthday cookout for Chris & Jessie and had a blast getting to catch up with everyone.

After the cookout was over, the girls and I had a chance to talk-both profound and silly!- and we played together - multiplayer Ninendo DS games! And tried out a few photos on the camera phone, too:

Hollie

Jessie


Matt playing guitar

Duxbury Beach

With Matt's brother & the England gang still on vacation in MA, we had made plans to visit Salem. Unfortunately, Chris had hurt his foot and didn't cherish the thought of walking around all day, so Louise & Chris stayed at home, while Matt & I went with Tim and the girls on a trip to Duxbury.

We stopped for lunch at Arthur & Pat's (well-beloved restaurant in Marshfield) where we had tasty food and good conversation (as well as a conversation about the differences between a frappe and a shake)

We then headed down to Duxbury beach. It was too crowded to fly the kits we had brought. But the ocean was wide open for Hollie's grand plan - we had given the girls little rubber duckies, and Hollie brought several long lines of rope to tie around their necks, so that they could be tossed into the ocean and then retrieved.



While Cindy dozed on the beach, we transformed her into a lovely mermaid:


The culprits left their signatures:


Jessie, Tim, Cindy, Hollie


We then set out to create a medieval English sand castle


With pretty impressive results!

Happy birthdays to me

I love birthdays. They feel like Christmas. Its not necessarily the idea of getting presents (although that's certainly a wonderful bonus!) but the idea of celebration. And luckily for me, I got practically an entire birthday week!

Matt took me out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill , which has delicious Italian food. And crayons, which we couldn't resist. I made some lovely cartoons of myself & Matt , which he promptly turned into villains...
We spent an evening at the pond with a few good friends, and got to swim, canoe, grill, make s'mores over the campfire, play the guitars and sing songs. And my favorite, ice cream cake!!

Later that week we went to see Entrain, which was the band Matt & I went to see on our first "date". It was a pseudo-date (we saw them in August 2001 and didn't begin officially dating until November). Kristin Webster was living down the road from the Mayflower and brought us sandwiches! There was also a waterfight, which I distinctly recall winning (Matt might disagree, but he can be a crafty liar!)

This time around the whole family came, and it was so much fun to sit around with everyone, hear the band (ok, so maybe they aren't that danceable - but they do have fantastic rhythms!) And huge chocolate chip cookie birthday cakes, too!

Hmm, my friend Greta was on vacation during my birthday week, and I missed hers too.. maybe we can extend this into a whole birthday month!!

Harry Potter Party

Professors Mary & Matt of Hogwarts hosted a Harry Potter party! It was a lot of fun decorating the apartment. We also hosted a food-creating contest which a) encouraged people to being food and b) encouraged people to bring GOOD food! =) We later headed out en masse to see the 5th movie, which was fantastic!

Our guests first arrived at Platform 9 3/4...


Cousin Kate made wizard cupcakes


Mark & Megan made an owl cake


Mary made Tonks' Tasty Trifle


and the Fortress du Fromage!


Natyra made Gryffindor cupcakes


Sadly, I did not get a photo of Greta's Hogwarts Brie or Holly's Pumpkin pasties! Holly was the lucky winner of the food contest, with her delicious creations.

Mark & Megan


Natyra & Greta


Kate, Holly & Katie


Mary & her Mischief Managed shirt!


Lamppost o' directions!


And of course, Hogwarts Library