Thanksmas is a tradition which started way back in 2001 when I was living in Parsippany, NJ. My mother’s side of the family is in Jersey and this had been a traditional Thanksgiving destination when I was a kid. Because we did not see this part of the family at Christmas time, the suggestion was made that we’d combine the two holidays and exchange gifts as well. With my Aunt Jackie’s decision to join us this year, the tradition lived on!
It was a dark and scary night, but that was mostly because of the major snow storm that was bearing down on the region. Inside it was warm and convivial. Great friends, great costumes, good times!
Recently I traveled to Shanghai where I oversaw the move of all IT equipment from our old office to our new office. Although we didn’t have much downtime, we were well looked after by our Chinese hosts and ended up really getting a flavor for China.
After a false start last weekend where we had to cancel festivities because of Hurricane Irene, we lucked out with a beautiful end-of-summer day. Emma hand made 16 Superhero capes and a very tasty birthday cake. There was a piñata, a bouncy house, squirt guns, and swings. We even let the kids use some of it!
Our first vacation was so good we decided to have a second one. Along with two other families we small children we descended on Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Campground in Ashland New Hampshire. This place is not nearly as cheesy as it sounds and has a TON of things for kids to do. There are swimming pools, playgrounds and even a river to go canoeing and kayaking. Even though we all had cabins we did rough it and a good time was had by all. Most of these photos were taken at the Polar Caves just up the road. As you will see, Noah really came into his own inside these caves.
Our very good friend, Guillermo (a.k.a. Uncle G), was kind enough to lend us his rented summer house on Nantucket while he jetted off to Turks & Caicos to meet up with some old school friends. This is the first vacation Emma and I have had since she was pregnant with Zachary. It was also the first vacation the kids have ever had. And it was LEGEN – wait for it – DARY!
Nana and Nono insisted on buying Zachary his first bike. While Emma was baking at the Spa we all met up at Toys ‘R Us and picked out the perfect bike. Zachary was absolutely thrilled. We got it home to Nana and Nono’s house and he was off to the races. They grow up so quick!
Can you believe it? Our baby girl turned one yesterday. Well we had a party to celebrate anyway. Her actual birthday is on Tuesday. Fun was had by all and Mary wolfed down her own birthday cake, painstakingly made (from scratch) by here mommy.
This is a test posting to see if Windows Live Writer is an effective Blog editing tool.
11117 Visitors
