So, I’m gradually catching up on all these old posts and photos…now we’re onto December. Much to my surprise and delight we had several snow storms in December, before the holidays. We live up on a pretty steep hill, so we’ve had to learn quick how to get up it when the roads are bad. On occasion it’s taken us a couple of tries, but we’ve never not been able to get home. The storms also provided us with an opportunity to meet some of the neighbors as everyone is outside shoveling. Oddly enough on two occasions different neighbors came over to introduce themselves and help us shovel our driveway. It’s a bit of a culture shock for us – very different from apartment life, but we’re not complaining. :)

Here’s something new: a video post.
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We spent a lovely Thanksgiving with Aaron’s family in DC. And staying true to our annual tradition, we spent one morning making centerpieces for the Thanksgiving dinner table out of pizza dough. Molly, Emily and I created our seasonally appropriate cornucopias while Aaron and Andrew sculpted a manta ray. The above video was filmed by Molly, while we were taking a break from our centerpieces. In it, Aaron is flipping scraps of dough in Emily’s direction as she tries to catch them in her mouth. It was pretty funny.

Oh, and here are the finished products, Molly, Emily and my cornucopias and Andrew and Aaron’s manta ray.

We spent a great deal of November at the new house, cleaning out the dirt and grime from the old owner’s, before we moved in. Several nights a week we would come home from work, load up the car with packed boxes of our belongings, drive to the new house, unload and then clean for a couple of hours. We borrowed a shop vac and vacuumed the attic and basement, we uninstalled an old electric hood, we shampooed the rug in the one room in the house with carpet, etc. We spent a great deal of time on the kitchen, especially on the cabinets, which had all sorts of previous owner residue – ranging from maple syrup to candle wax. Mom came over and spent several nights contact papering the drawers and inside the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. Amy, Joe and Justin (who now live so close :) joined us for take out dinners and helped with little projects as well. Justin particularly enjoyed hiding in the empty pantry cabinet (as shown above). It was (and continues to be) a lot of work, but now that we are here, it’s all well worth it.

Last October was a big month for us, and looking back now it’s all kind of a blur. Aaron and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary, my brother James and his girlfriend Chrissy got engaged, we bought the house and we went back to the shore two more weekends (if you hadn’t figured it out, we love it there). So, most of the photos from that month have already been posted – except for these. This is a small album of photos from the shore from those October weekends.

At the end of September Amy, Joe, Justin, Aaron and I went to the Topsfield Fair, a local agricultural town fair. It had everything from farm animals to the world’s biggest pumpkin and entertainment ranging from kids climbing greased poles to amusement park rides. We spent an evening there, wandering and people watching, but really we were there for the food – which for the most part, was totally delicious. Between the four of us we had corn dogs, German potato fries, fried dough, sugared nuts, soft pretzels and the biggest turkey leg I have ever seen. Justin, who has a thing for lights, loved watching the ferris wheel and all the rides that lit up. At the end of the night Amy bought him this toy that had spinning lights inside a clear globe. The above photo is of him playing with it in the car ride home. Click on this picture to see the small album of photos.

Hi all – I’m back. I’m going to start with stuff I have from last fall. I know many of you have requested house photos and I’m working on those – so stay tuned.

Back in late September Aaron and I spent a weekend at the beach with Amy, Joe and Justin. James and Chrissy joined us for part of the weekend as did some friends of Amy and Joe’s. It was a lovely – low key weekend with our usual shore activities of lounging, having a meal at Lenny and Joe’s and playing games. We had a cookout on the last day and made smores – which made for some great Justin photo ops – make sure to click on the photo above to see the full album. This photo was taken moments after Aaron, who was barefoot, stepped on a sharp shell and made quite a funny sound. Both Joe and Amy clearly thought it was hysterical (as did I), but Justin wasn’t sure what to think.