Christmas in Connecticut

Hello! Doug and I are back from five days in the lovely Nutmeg State, and I have to say that our stay was indeed lovely. I've never spent Christmas in any other state, but somehow Christmas seems right in Connecticut. This doesn't mean that I would be adverse to a Massachusetts Christmas... someday I think it would be fantastic to have the families up to our house for the holiday celebration - for us to do the cooking, cleaning, uber-decorating, and for us to have the houseguests. Once we get that guest room all set there will be no excuse!

Christmas in Connecticut this year started on Tuesday, December 23rd, and lasted through Saturday, December 27th, and Doug and I, once again, had a whirlwind tour of the state. We started in East Hartford, then Hartford, then Monroe, then Portland, then East Hartford again, which is where we ended up for the final leg of our journey. We get our money's worth out of our car over the holidays, that's for sure. But while it is a lot of driving that we do, it's all worth it, because we get to see so many people, and that's what Christmas is all about - hanging out with friends and family.

Day One: Tuesday, December 23rd
Day one started with me working a half-day and Doug sleeping for a half-day. Once those two chores were out of the way we began to pack ourselves (including the cats) up to head down to CT for the duration of our holiday. We left Massachusetts (are we the Constitution State? No, that's CT. But CT is also the Nutmeg State. So what's Massachusetts, besides the Tax State? I'll have to look that up.) at about 4:45pm and made it to the highway at about 5pm, which is probably the height of rush hour. Traffic was particularly bad, though - didn't let up until we got through the Sturbridge tollbooth on the Mass Pike. This meant that we were going to be late for our dinner reservations with two of my friends from high school, Tamera and Shannon, and their respective husbands/boyfriends. Doug and I made a few calls to try to reach either Tamera or Shannon to let them know of our tardiness (with Chris to our rescue - THANK YOU!), and after dropping off the three beasties in East Hartford (as we were going to travel down to Monroe after the dinner and spend Christmas Eve with the Siskos, and the cats aren't allowed there) we headed over to the Trumbull Kitchen in Hartford for dinner. I had never met Tamera's boyfriend, Timothy, before, and while I had met Shannon's now-husband, Kevin, before, I'd not seen him for a year. And plus, Tamera had never met Doug and Shannon had never met Doug in context of me. So it was a big meeting for all of us. I'd say it went well, too, despite us being late. Conversation was good, meeting Timothy was great, and Tamera and Shannon looked wonderful, just like last year. We visited with Shannon and Kevin (and Marley, their wonderful lab) post-dinner, and then headed down to Monroe. I wish we could have spent more time catching up, but there wasn't really time. I will say this, though - Tamera seems very happy with Timothy, and he seems like a great guy, so I hope good things happen there. And Shannon and Kevin spent a little time in Belgium for their honeymoon this last fall, so it was fun to share stories. Yes, a fun evening, and here are some photos - note that Tamera is in blue and Shannon's in white.

Day Two: Wednesday, December 24th
We woke up in Monroe, CT, to pouring rain. Merry Christmas Eve! We had a couple of last-minute gifts to get for Grandpa and Uncle Bruce, so we got those, and then spent the day visiting with Mr. & Mrs. Sisko, Grandpa, and Uncle Bruce. Doug and I hadn't seen Uncle Bruce since last Christmas, so it was good to see him. He never stays long, though, and didn't stay long enough to open our gift of a whole year's worth of vintage farm tractors (a new one for every month!), but we were glad to see him nonetheless. As always, Mrs. Sisko put on a great show, with plenty, oh-so-plenty, of food and drink. We got a great lamp for Christmas from the Siskos (photos below), and it looks just like we thought it would in our living room - perfect. So thank you! Here's something I noticed while at the Sisko house this time, though - in every room there is the same photo of Doug - his senior year photo from Fairfield High. There's one on the refrigerator in the kitchen, one in the sitting room in the front of the house, one in Mrs. Sisko's bedroom, one in the upstairs bedroom where we stay, and one in the living room. Everywhere I go there's Doug's high-school self to greet me. I wonder how he feels about that... But anyway, here are some photos to document the day:

Day Three: Thursday, December 25th
Merry Christmas! There seem to be new Christmas traditions each year, and this year was no exception. I think that this year established the way Christmases will be for the next few years, though - Christmas Eve with the Siskos, Christmas Day with the Sheridan side of the extended family, and Christmas night at my parents' in East Hartford with my nuclear family (minus my sister and her family, who will come to visit either a few days before or a few days after Christmas day). So on Christmas morning we packed up, left Monroe, drove to East Hartford to drop off all of our presents for that house, collected my mom, dad, and brother, and then headed over to Portland to celebrate the holiday with my dad's two sisters and their husbands, his brother, his two aunts, and my two cousins. There's always so much to eat there, and always so many laughs. My mother always said that she loved hanging out with my dad and his sisters because it was a laugh a minute, and it's true, really. Margaret and Mary have such great senses of humor. Christmas is always good for a little Elvis humor, too, and this year Elvis somehow showed up on the cover of Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father. Some scissors and a little tape can add humor to anything. Here's everyone hovering around the desserts:

After celebrating in Portland, we came back to East Hartford to exchange gifts between my nuclear family - Doug, my mom, dad, my brother, and me. My mother, the lucky one, is going on a cruise to the Caribbean in January, so she got a new camera to take along. Now we just have to teach her how to get the photos from her camera to the computer and she'll be set. My brother got a cool Monet figurine, Doug got a Chumby (that, unfortunately, came with a bum AC adapter, so he won't be able to really use it until he gets the replacement in the mail), I got a new coat, and my dad got socks, a sweater, a book, new shoes... we all made out well. Even Tyrone got something - a giant rawhide bone that will keep him occupied for days. Santa was good to everyone this year. Now for the photos.








Day Four: Friday, December 26th
What better way to spend the morning after Christmas, after eating all that food and sitting around on our butts, than to go for a brisk hike? There isn't a better way as far as I'm concerned, so we all got into the car and went to Gay City in Hebron to burn off some Christmas calories. After our hike we tried to go see Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, but it was sold out! We were amazed that there were that many people willing to get up and go to see Tom Cruise in a movie on the day after Christmas, but then again, we were there trying to do it so why wouldn't other people? We ended up getting tickets instead to the 7:10 show and then went to Marshall's to check out their wares before we went home to plan for my sister's family to come over the next day and to grab some quick dinner before the movie. Sasha posed for a few photos before we left for the movie, and they're inserted below. As far as the movie goes, we all liked it, some of us more than others. I actually liked Tom Cruise in it, and so did my brother. Doug was a little iffy on whether Tom was the right guy for the part, and my mother definitely did not like Tom cast as a Nazi (albeit a "good" Nazi). We were all weary of sitting through a movie that was going to try to be suspenseful even though we already knew how it would end (Hitler wasn't assassinated, everyone, sorry to say), but I think the movie was pretty good. It got 2.5 stars from Ty Burr in the Boston Globe, which was a very accurate scoring - not good enough for three stars, but not bad enough for two. All in all, we were very entertained so felt we got our money's worth. Now for the photos for the day (unfortunately none of Tom with his eye patch!):









Day Five: Saturday, December 27th
Saturday finally rolled around, the last day of our holiday visit to Connecticut. My sister, Mike, and the kids (oh, and Rose the golden retriever, too) came to my parents' house for brunch, and then opened all of their presents (there was no evidence of an ailing economy on this day, that's for sure). Uncle Jimmy and Madeline and Anna came over for the festivities, too, and we had a good day. Here are some photos that will give you a good idea of how we spent our time:













So, that's the end of Christmas 2008. Doug and I have yet to exchange gifts, but we may do that later this week. We're tired, and to be honest I'm a little tired of presents. Christmas is not about the presents to me. It's about sitting by the lighted Christmas tree in a warm room with family around, having good conversations, telling funny stories, taking lots of pictures, and listening to some Christmas music in the background. Oh, and of course eating Christmas cookies and wishing I had on elastic-waist pants. That's what I like the most about Christmas. So thank you everyone for your gifts, but thank you even more for letting us spend our holiday with you and for making Christmas 2008 such a good one.

Definitely a wintery wonderland!

Snow is on everyone's mind these days, as it seems to be impossible to avoid. This last round of storms (hopefully the last for 2008!) began here in Boston around one o'clock in the afternoon on Friday the 19th and went straight through Sunday night. It never once stopped precipitating, though the snow let up for a little while on Sunday to make room for rain and freezing rain. What a joy. Actually, the snow was (and is still) quite pretty, but I imagine the beauty will soon wear off.

Day One - Friday, December 19th:
Doug and I started the weekend off at about 5:30 (after early release from work - yay snow!) by shoveling the driveway. We already had about 3-4 inches by this point. We did this to a) keep up with the snowfall so we weren't shoveling through 2 feet of it, and b) so that we could go to the mall and take advantage of the lack of crowds to get our Christmas shopping done. As you can see, it was really coming down.

We called the mall before we left to see if it was open, and we got a message saying yes, indeed, the mall was open. We made our way there, arriving at about 7:30, only to discover that most stores had already closed, and those that hadn't would be closing at 8. Great! Here are some shots of us driving to the mall, getting gas, and discovering that the mall was closing. I'll say this - if the mall had been open its regular hours, it would have been a great time to shop - no one was there!


Day Two - Saturday, December 20th:
After being rejected by the mall on Friday night, we decided to get up early on Saturday, shovel, and then head to the mall early in the day to avoid afternoon crowds. This was a good plan, too, but it took us a lot longer to shovel our driveway, steps, and walkways than planned. Luckily, Sasha was keeping an eye on us to make sure that we didn't keel over from shoveling-induced chest pains. Next item on Must Purchase list - snowblower! (You'll be happy to know, though, that even arriving at the mall at noon was early enough... we got a parking spot without any problem and were able to finish up our shopping.)


Day Three: Sunday, December 21st:
Okay, enough already. I woke up on Sunday only to find it STILL SNOWING. While my initial thought was, "Hey cool!", other thoughts quickly followed: "More shoveling?" "Where are we going to put all of this snow?" "Will we have to go to work tomorrow?" "Will our roof cave in from all of this snow weight?" "Do we have enough ice melt" "More shoveling??" Since it was Sunday and our shopping was done, we had no need to rush out and shovel. We hung around, did chores, tried to stay warm (baby, it was cold outside!), and watched the Patriots game before venturing out again to make our (hopefully) final attempt at shoveling. Our neighbor had kindly snowblowed some of our driveway early in the morning, but by the time we got out there in the evening there was another 5 or 6 inches of fresh snow, and now a layer of crusty ice... because yes, it was now raining/freezing rain. This weather was trying our patience, but being resilient New Englanders, we layered up and headed out to face the elements. We ended up making two huge piles of snow, one almost as tall as me. If we get any more snow, we won't have anywhere to put it!







Needless to say, we survived the storms, and we (thank you, thank you!) didn't lose power or heat or anything like that. If this snow can last just another couple of days (I hear there's rain in the forecast for Christmas Eve) we'll even be lucky enough to have a white Christmas - but would I be crazy to wish for a little fresh snow to fall on Christmas day?

Merry Birthday!

I realize that the snow that's being dumped on New England right now is the biggest news and I should probably be blogging about that, but I haven't yet blogged about Doug's Merry Birthday. In order of priority, Doug comes before snow, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the snow blog.

On December 16th, Cotton turned 29 (at some point we all get a little sensitive about our age, don't we?) and we threw a Merry Birthday party to celebrate the Saturday before the big day. To prepare we made a lot of food (note the chili to the left (a pre-cooking shot because it just didn't turn out very well post-cooking and I am too embarrassed to show the end result)), but I have to say that I am so out of practice with cooking that it was not my best job in that area. I still have trouble timing everything correctly - getting everything to be ready at the same time, and not letting things cook too long. Plus, I also have an incredibly sensitive smoke detector in my house, which was adding to the chaos in the already chaotic kitchen. It kept beeping and yelling, "Fire! Fire!", which I'm sure made our guests feel completely safe. Thanks to Curt for tending to the alarm while I opened windows and tried to air out the place.

The Merry Birthday was really a Wii party... who doesn't love to play Wii? And if you have never played, which some people hadn't, then it's quickly addicting. Doug had gotten Mario Kart as a gift from my parents, and that was a hit. Unfortunately, only two people can play at a time in this house, because we only have two wheels. If anyone ever wants to battle in 4-player Mario Kart, please bring it on (and bring your wheels...) because the game is loads of fun. You can't be Wario, though. I've claimed him as mine.

Boxing was another hit... ha! Anyway, besides Mario Kart, Wii boxing is my favorite Wii game. I love watching my Mii knock out another Mii, and I love dancing around and doing all the boxing moves. I feel energetic when I play Wii boxing. Here we have a photo of Chris and Arlene duking it out. Mad props to Arlene for her boxing abilities! I don't have any shots of anyone playing tennis, but that was really the only game with four players that night. I have not yet gotten the hang of Wii tennis. My Mii spends most of her time watching the ball sail past her, or flailing her racket around in hopes of somehow making contact with the ball. I'm not surprised at my poor showing at Wii tennis - it's not like my skills on the real court are any different.

Doug's Merry Birthday night ended with him enjoying some birthday apple pie (yes, I agree, dear - not my best pie). The highlight of the evening, though, came when all guests were gone, the mess cleared away, the dishes mostly washed - Doug donned his new pajamas (his "Wii-jays" - I love that!) for one last game of Mario Kart. There were quite a few of us who were hoping that this outfit would be worn the entire evening, but Doug is perhaps getting to the point in his life where he cares about what people think of him? I certainly hope not, because that's not the Doug I know and love, but at least I got a shot of him in his regalia and can now post it on the Internet for all to see.

On Sunday, the family went to see my youngest niece, Maria, make her artistic debut as a bon-bon in Albano's Nutcracker. This event was unfortunately held in the Mohegan Sun Arena. The arena usually hosts musical acts like Britney Spears, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, Janet Jackson - big draw shows. It is also home to the Connecticut Sun, so you can imagine the type of place it is. Large, bleacher seating with metal floors, plastic seats with cupholders, a concrete slab for a main floor... All of this would have been great if we were, in fact, seeing a slightly has-been rock act, but for a ballet? It was just odd. Not to mention the fact that the concession stands were open, so throughout the performance I was hearing people munching on their nachos and fake orange cheese, or opening up another bag of BBQ potato chips. I am not trying to be snooty about the fine arts, but BBQ Lays and Tchaikovsky just don't really go well together for me.

Despite all of this, Miss Maria had a wonderful day and was a fantastic bon-bon. I see nothing but fame and fortune in her future as an artist. After all, if she grows tired of ballet at some point, which at this point she doubts she will, she can always turn to gymnastics. Either way, she'll certainly be a star on the stage for all the world to enjoy. I've posted a couple of photos of the event here for everyone to see Maria's debut. This first one is of the Mother Bon-Bon - Maria was one of the bon-bons who were hidden underneath this very large skirt, which opened and unleashed a sea of pink tu-tus. This next one is of Maria. She's slightly left of the center, with her eyes closed - concentrating on her routine, I have no doubt. This last one is of her with the Sugar Plum Fairy (who, I swear, weighted 70 pounds) and Prince Charming, the Nutcracker come to life in Candyland. Prince Charming agreed - Maria was a stellar bon-bon.

Finally (what's with these marathon posts?), let's move on to Doug's birthday dinner. On the 16th, Doug decided that for his special birthday dinner he wanted to go to Kikuyama, one of the only restaurants in Dedham Square. It was pretty good! I think the best part was the cooking of the food right at your little table. Doug did enjoy his sake, though. The raspberry flavor was a little sweet for me, but I think I could learn to like sake. Here we have Doug toasting to himself with some raspberry sake. And here we have a flaming onion. Once the onion was done burning, the chef chopped it up and added it to our meals.

So, that's that. In a few minutes Doug and I will venture outside to see if it's worth it to shovel again... it's still snowing rather heavily, and the Patriots are now on, so maybe we'll just wait until later. I do believe a snowblower will be on our Christmas lists next year!