Hockey in Columbus

Way back when, there was a group of friends who went to a 'couple' of hockey games.
They had the best seats in the house - way up high where the real fans were.
Tuesdays, Thursdays and the occasional Sunday were reserved for the Flyers.
This weekend they were back together.
It wasn't Tuesday or Thursday or even Sunday.
It wasn't way up high on the corner.
It wasn't the Flyers.
But, it was hockey and it was fun!!!

Steve, Christopher, Eric, Steve

And in reverse order still with Steve bookends.
Steve, Eric, Christopher and Steve

The Blue Jackets played a good game.
A couple of times it looked like Rick Nash would get a hat trick and Eric would have to sacrifice his beloved hat.
The good news was that Eric kept his hat, the bad news was that the Jackets lost.

CJ enjoyed the awesome seats. He said he would love to see another game, as long as we got these seats!

12 Years Old

January is birthday month.
We started celebrating on the 10th by taking CJ to pick out some D&D items. We don't normally let CJ pick out his birthday presents. This time was different as we were clueless to where to start with Dungeons and Dragons. Off to the local hobby store where they are not clueless. The guy at the store had a good time with CJ. Throughout the store there are planes hanging from the ceiling . CJ was quizzed on make and model and knew most of them, impressing the sales guy. Then it was off to a book store where CJ had seen some D&D stuff 6 months ago. At this store Steve began his birthday celebration by purchasing 3 new/used CDs.

On the morning of his actual birthday CJ was allowed to open one gift. In the past he's opened more but the middle school bus comes really early.
He chose the one from Bunny. Bunny is a Star Trek fan from way back and was excited to send CJ a battle scarred USS Relient and a birthday card featuring starships that CJ had designed while playing on the computer at her house.

After school CJ wanted to open more gifts. He was distracted, slightly, by watching a movie and doing homework. The long skinny gift had him very curious.

After dinner he was thrilled to finally be allowed to open the rest of the gifts and to dig into the birthday cookie.

A side note on the weather, it snowed everyday from December 27th thru January 12th. The temps did not go above 30 and most days not even close to 30. It has since warmed up and we even saw the sun a couple of times.

So That's Why He Mumbles

A little while ago CJ started to mumble.
Upon losing yet another tooth we realized that the mumbling may be directly related to a lack of teeth!!!
The teeth have started to come in and thankfully the mumbling is getting better.
I wonder how he chewed his food????

Two of CJ's Favorite Things

Orchestra Hoodie


Dickens

A Real Snow

For more than a week we got snow every day. The tiny flakes would come down all day and amount to no more than a dusting. Eventually the dustings added up to something the kids could sled on and that was good.
Then on Thursday it started to snow. This time it was a 'real' snow. The kids got home from school and went out to play.
CJ finished his homework just in case there was school on Friday, then before bed he flushed ice cubes and did the snow dance.
It worked!!!
No school and 4 inches of fluffy white stuff to play in.


CJ, Matt and Hunter built snow forts and filled the recycling buckets with snowballs.
No easy feat with fluffy snow!
After the battle it was time for hot chocolate and snacks.


The birds were happy with their snacks on a cold, cold day.
Even a woodpecker stopped by.

What was that?

The other day Steve looked out back and called us all to see the giant bird in our backyard.

It was flying close to the creek, below the tree branches. It had a huge wingspan, so big that it could barely get through our 'forest'. The wings were an amazing shade of blueish gray.

We think it was one of these - a great blue heron.

If so what was it doing in our little creek/forest?
Did it come up from the river?
Did it hear about our abundance of mice and voles?
Will we ever see it again?
Does anyone out there have any thoughts on what it may have been?

Christmas Morning

Before dawn Christmas morning CJ couldn't stand it any longer and snuck downstairs to make sure Santa had arrived. He was pleased with what he discovered and was quickly back upstairs to drag me and Steve out of bed. He fed the pets while we made coffee, he has learned that even presents must wait until the P's have their coffee. Very soon CJ was surrounded by presents and wrapping.


He spent the entire day in his PJs with his toys around him. Time was taken to eat and watch our new videos.

Tucker was just exhausted from playing with his new toys.
It was a wonderful day to relax and reflect.

Boys gone wild

A gingerbread house kit has been sitting on the kitchen counter for several weeks.
CJ with friends Matt and Tim decided to take some time out of their busy schedule to decorate it today.
If you would like your image of them to remain pure do not read any further.

The man on the roof is on look out and may have a gunshot wound.
The candies at the front door are mines.
The man on the ground is not sleeping.

Merry Christmas to All!!!

More Snow

This time the snow was in Maryland. For Christmas this year Steve and I gave each other a ski trip. So off to Wisp is was. Wisp is in western Maryland just beyond West Virginia. They had just gotten a massive snow storm, that same one that brought us an inch and Philly 23 inches. Tuesday was cold and grey but the skiing was great. We skied from early in the morning until mid afternoon, with no lines at the lifts we were up and down the mountain no less than 12 times.

After showers and a snack we ventured to a brew pub (imagine that) for dinner. Dinner was yummy. CJ had a flatbread pepperoni pizza, we had a chicken, spinach and cranberry pizza.

Shortly after returning to the hotel CJ and Steve went out for more time on the slopes.



Tuesday brought blue skies and warmer temps. It warmed up enough that Steve took off his gloves for a few pictures. This one is of CJ and I (aka Darth Vader) on the lift.


The trees were beautiful with snow clinging to the branches. What a great sight with the blue skies!


This is CJ making his way down one of the trails. CJ and I decided that we preferred the green trails while Steve managed to sneak away and try the blues and even a black diamond.
While I practiced the ever elusive art of keeping my skis parallel, CJ and Steve were much more adventurous. They liked to ski off trail, sometimes through the woods. They managed to find several 'bumps' that would get them airborne for a second or two.

It was a wonderful way to start the season.

Relaxing...

Tucker and Steve spent a restful evening on the couch enjoying the Christmas tree and watching hockey. Unfortunately since the Blue Jackets were playing and losing there was no enjoying the hockey game.

Snow!!!

It snowed last night, a wet, heavy, cling to the trees snow.
So far just a half an inch.
Since the plow has been by twice somebody is expecting much more!
We hope so. There's nowhere to go and plenty of hot chocolate in the house.

Update - we didn't get anymore snow. It has been cold and it's still on the grass so we might be able to say we had a white Christmas.

First Concert on the Big Stage

The 6th grade band, orchestra and choir got a taste of things to come the other night. They all stayed after school and in the bitter cold walked their school books, bags and instruments over to the high school. Each group was given time to practice. While not practicing they were given the opportunity to do homework and study, and some did. Others used their time to play paper airplane football, gossip, giggle and just enjoy their time together. Dinner was served shortly before the concert and believe it or not the mac&cheese ran out before the cookies!

The concert itself was amazing. Having music class everyday has been great for these kids. While last year's band sounded good, last year's orchestra was still hard on the ears.

Not anymore!!!

Both groups were fabulous.

And yes the choir was great too, I'm just partial to band and orchestra.

The high school has a great set up and the kids loved playing on the big stage.

Thanks for a great night!

Thanksgiving Dinner - take two

The boys enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner so much that we did it again. After a day of working on school projects and the hunting and capturing a Christmas tree, we sat down to a yummy Thanksgiving dinner (in December).

A week later CJ said he thought we would never be done the leftovers. They are gone but it took 2 turkey quiches, a couple of batches of turkey salad and a bunch of turkey sandwiches. We love turkey and cranberry!!!

Star Wars in Concert

Wow!!!

This was a concert worth every penny and we'd even do it again!

The orchestra and the arrangement were amazing.

They were so good that it made me want sit down and watch the 'first' three movies with CJ.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Traditions

Turkey, stuffing, and Mark in a Cowboys shirt.

C.J. becomes a Cowboys fan for the day so he can hang with Uncle Mark.

This year Mark got both the turkey legs, next year he'll have to fight C.J. for them!

C.J. and Bunny exchange Christmas gifts.

On Friday, CJ, Bunny & I met up with one of my best friends from elementary school. Richard and I hung out together from second grade on. We spent hours playing MouseTrap in his basement.

We then made our brief visit to the Art Museum - hey wait was that The Thinker?

Who cares we came for the Armor!!! Someday...



The girls, as always, were dressed for the occasion.