At the end of November we made our annual trek down to Washington, DC to celebrate Thanksgiving with Aaron’s family. The journey was remarkably easy and hassle free, which I can only imagine was a direct result of the economy and fewer people flying. We had a great visit. We spent lots of time with nieces Molly and Emily, and nephew Andrew, which was fabulous. We saw a bunch of movies – Slumdog Millionaire, Australia and I took Molly and Emily to see Twilight, which was fun for me since Molly is the one who initially told me about the books. I think a highlight of the visit for Aaron though was watching the extended versions of all three of the Lord of the Rings movies with the kids who apparently enjoyed them just as much as he does. We continued our Thanksgiving tradition of making the centerpieces out of Pillsbury pizza dough. The girls and I made the usual cornucopias, while Aaron and Andrew made an armadillo. And of course we did some great eating. Lisa cooked a delicious Thanksgiving feast and hosted 14 of us for dinner. Click on the above picture that Rita took of all of us Thanksgiving morning to see the photos from our visit.

So as many of you know, I’m not a gardener, but I am trying. Aaron’s mom has been a huge help since we bought the house and has put countless hours into developing our yard. I just try to keep up. Unfortunately Aaron’s mom broke her ankle earlier this fall, so I had to find a way to plant the fall bulbs on my own – without Rita’s help. Ugh. And then I heard about the Bulb Bopper. You see, when Rita and I work together in the yard, she works about 4 times faster than me – in the time it takes me to plant 3 things, she has planted 12. I’m not kidding. She’s a machine. I think this tool might help me to level the playing field a little bit. You see it’s a giant auger that you attach to a drill and it digs the holes for you. I could do their commercials. Anyway, I bought the tool and it definitely made the planting go quicker, although admittedly not as fast as when Rita does it by hand. I’ll take whatever advantage I can get.

We went to visit Aaron’s family in DC back in October. It was Homecoming weekend at the kids school and so we spent much of Saturday on campus. Fortunately it was a clear and sunny fall day and it felt great to be outside. We spent the morning watching Molly’s soccer game. Later we walked around and checked out the booths, ate lunch, visited and watched (sort of) a football game.
Sunday we carved pumpkins and hung out. It was a great weekend to visit and catch up. Click on the photo of Molly above to see the photos from the weekend.

Sorry everyone…you know how it goes, all of a sudden it’s holiday time and I haven’t posted in weeks. Here goes….

Back in October, Amy, Joe, Justin, Aaron and I went back to the Topsfield Fair, a local agricultural town fair. We spent the evening wandering the fair, people watching, checking out exhibits, and eating. There were all kinds of food and we bought a little of everything and shared. Our list included latkes, corn dogs, fried dough, German fries, pizza, a giant turkey leg, a steak sub, and cider donuts. Justin loved looking at all the rides that were lit up once it got dark. This year he went on a school bus ride twice and the carousel. Click on the photo above to see the photos.