The Annual Dinner!

Andrew in his natural habitat

Yeah! Together again!

Art being reserved

Art being himself!

Excessivly cute animals

Kovi decided to stow away to go see his cousin Prokofiev

The world's cutest German Shepard

Boy it sure is tiring around here.

Post presents, pre dinner

Unfortunatly, it's tough to capture the tree and the lights being all sparkly.

There were many fabulous gifts this year, one of the best was my new 1.3 qt copper pot. I used it for three different dishes on Christmas day alone, and I have no idea how I lived without it!

Dad waiting around for dinner.

Putting bows on presents

Cats under the tree

Getting the Tree

There is a great Christmas tree farm not far from us. Picking out a tree takes no time at all. And cutting and carrying it is a cinch when the guys come with a small chain saw and a four wheeler!

This is Aggie's preffered spot for all of Christmas. All the best parts of the outside, except it is inside!

I miss my abs

So here is the latest belly bump pictures. The learning from this picture is that I need to not wear prints in front of the rug on the wall! But I was tired and not inclined to change clothes to take a picture as I had just gotten home from swimming at the gym. While swimming back and forth I was thinking about my abdomen. I no longer turn as one unit while swimming. I turn my head back into the water after breathing, and my belly goes a moment later, it's REALLY weird. And I never knew how much I used my abs pushing off the wall! Though, after today's swim, I am inclined to push with a might less vigor.

The Christmas Stuff Begins

We put in this picture to show that we actually have more boxes of ornaments than I am tall. And, if you will believe it, this is the pared down set of ornaments. We got rid of the ones that were truly old last year. I am leaning on the boxes of lights. And these are just the tested and working lights too! There is another whole set that needs doctoring. Clearly, I need a bigger house and a bigger tree!

Charlie's Birthday

The world's best brother (mine) has a birthday perilously close to Thanksgiving. We are given to throwing him "surprise" birthday parties every year. My suspicion is that he caught on at about 8 years old. But, this year was no different and we dragged him to Tarrytown NY for brunch. I think he had an idea about who we were meeting when we went over the Tappan Zee! Of course we met the fabulous Nichols. Here is Katie rather unhappy at the camera while she is trying to eat!

And her great dad Cliff looking on, encouraging maple syrup as finger food. Guess who was not going to be cleaning up after her?

My mom and the afortmentioned fabulous brother!

Happy Katie and happy mommy!

The Bow Take 2

The bow did not hold up in the wind

There it goes, off the house! Ohh well, the wreath will look lovely anyway!

The Bow

When Andrew and I bought the Toaster last year (2007 Honda Element) it came witha big bow! What a great Christmas decoration! Charlie boldly went up the ladder to drill for a support

Andrew handed him the bow!

Beautiful! It will look great with the wreath in the window. But wait, there's more....

Thanksgiving 2007

Charlie, my parents and Andrea joined Andrew and myself for Thanksgiving. My mom worked very hard on polishing the family silver, and ironed a beautiful heirloom tablecloth.
















My dad prepared puu-puus (hors d'oeuvres in Hawaian) for us. They were, as usual, amazing!
The rotten cat slept
Andrea saking out between puu-puus and dinner

Renoir 2007

The Philadelphia Museum of Art had a beautiful exhibit on Renoir Landscapes. We met Andrea (finally in port!) and my parents in Philly for the exhibit. We neglected to check the calendar though because there were 3 BIG events in Philly that day; 1)The marathon, which ended at the Art Museum 2)A one pm Eagles game and 3) An international dog show. Andrea, Andrew and I must have walked 2 miles from Andrea's neighborhood to the Museum. Ouchy feet! We cabbed it back