So late one February evening – we pulled out Rockband – James on vocals, Aaron on drums, Peter on guitar and Maria on bass. This is one of those moments that I really appreciated that we live in a house, rather than an apartment. I’m telling you, if we were still sharing walls – the neighbors would have come a knocking… To access the video, just click on the white bar in the video window below, type in the password (found in the blue box) and click enter. Then just hit the play arrow to watch. Here’s the password for the following video:

Eye of the Tiger

My beloved grandmother turned 90 last December and to celebrate her grandchildren wanted to throw her a party. Including significant others, we are a group of 17. After considerable planning, lots of compromises and a fair amount of convincing my grandmother it was a good idea – we threw her lovely dinner party in her home back in late January. Grandchildren were more than happy to travel from both near and far to celebrate and honor a woman we all love so very much. At the party we presented her with a book that included photos from across the years and written notes from each of us. I am happy to report the party was a great success and although Nonnie initially put up a fight (she didn’t want anyone to go to any trouble) – I’d dare to say it was a pretty special evening for her. It was wonderful for all of us to be together for the weekend and to celebrate our Nonnie.

I am borrowing the above photo from Jay – thanks Jay for the group shot! It’s a little dark due to our mood lighting, but great to have record of all of us being there. Click on the photo to see my album of images from the party.

Here’s a small album of photos from an afternoon we spent at Amy and Joe’s house back in January. Their boys are growing up fast.

Here’s to the last post for 2009! Aaron and I celebrated New Year’s Eve with Amy, Joe and family. We wore party hats and glow-stick jewelry and had quite a feast – cheese, chips and dip, crab claws (overnighted to us from Rita), twice baked potatoes, yummy baked chicken (for those of us not interested in crab) and for dessert – chocolate fondue. I still can’t believe (and yes, I know we are 5 months into it now) that it’s 2010.

The day after Christmas, Aaron and I hosted the whole family, plus our good friends Bonney and Patrick for a post holiday brunch. We made most of the food ourselves – muffins, latkes, tomatoes stuffed with sausage and cheese, egg casserole – and I’d have to say, things went pretty well. And it was great to have the time with everyone – one of my favorite things about the holidays.

With the family expanding, times are a changing and we decided to do the holidays a little differently this past winter – we celebrated Christmas day at Amy and Joe’s house. The whole family was there, all 12 of us, and there were presents galore (as usual). We had a low key day of opening gifts, lots of eating and general relaxing. We even watched that old Jim Henson movie, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. It was nice just to have the time with us all together. Make sure to check out the album of photos…