On the Road Again...

After almost a week at Bubba & Pap's house, it was time to hit the road again. With the van packed full (inside and the roof rack!), we headed to Duncansville, PA (near Altoona) to visit with Chris's Grandparents for a while. Not only did we get to see Grandma and Grandpap Beyer, but Janaye and Brandon were there as well. They are Chris's cousins - the children of his Auntie and Uncle Jeff (they were both at work during our visit). Here's a cute picture of the kids with their cousins (first cousins once removed, actually).

We also took a couple of pictures with Grandma and Grandpap Beyer. I love that the kids have great grandparents, although they are certainly too young to appreciate that they do. Here are the photos - Grandpap Beyer has been ill so he was reclined a bit, so forgive the up-the-nose shot!

Christmas Morning

After a fun Christmas Eve where the kids stayed up a full three and a half hours after their normal bedtime, it was finally Christmas morning in the Ruffo house (aka Bubba & Pap's house). Now, because we are traveling and lugging luggage (hmmm... perhaps that's a hint to the origin of the word "luggage") and presents, we decided to write a letter to Santa and let him know that we would not be home for Christmas. To ease his burden for Christmas Eve, he could skip our house that night and instead bring us gifts belatedly once we returned home. So none of the gifts shown in the next pictures are from Santa. Those are still yet to be delivered!

Once we were home from Aunt Lorraine & Uncle Ralph's house on Christmas Eve, the kids went to bed and we got out all of the presents, laughing a little hysterically at how many there were. (We were tired, stuffed full of food, a couple of us may have been a little drunk - not me - and the sight of all those presents almost caused a case of hysterical giggles.) So we piled them under and around the tree, in front of the coffee table, and on the side of the couch. And shhh... don't tell the kids, but we each opened a couple before heading off to bed, knowing that at exactly 7:00 AM, at least one child would be up and looking for presents!

Here's a cute shot of Chris with the beautiful tree and presents spilling out from underneath it.

As predicted, Dominic was the first one up on Christmas morning. He made a beeline for the family room to check out the presents. After posing for a quick picture, he started stacking presents by the recipient. He loves playing Santa!

While Dominic couldn't wait to open presents, there was a certain cranky little girl who insisted she didn't want presents and pouted her way through breakfast.

Finally we were all ready to open presents - even Francesca. With the exception of a paper cut causing some thankfully-short-lived-hysterics, we had a wonderful Christmas morning! Here are a few more photos from that morning.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! We've been traveling for the holidays and still have a few days before we get to go home. On December 23rd, we drove the 10 hours (500 miles) to Bubba and Pap's house outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Dominic was supposed to have school that day, but we took him out so that we could be in the 'Burgh before Christmas Eve, since that's when our big family gatherings happen. We left a foot of snow in MA to go to a rainy, dreary PA. No white Christmas for us this year, but that's okay. I'd rather be with family than snow!

First stop Christmas Eve is my Grandma Ruffo's house - my Dad's mom and the kids' Great Grandma. We eat a traditional Christmas meal consisting of several yummy foods that we only get once per year, including spaghetti with clams, fried smelts (little fishies!), beets & eggs, broccoli in red sauce, rolled pizzas, mushrooms & hot peppers, and other goodies. Francesca loved the smelts - I think she ate about 15 of them or more! After dinner we take the annual family pictures and then open presents. Here's the picture of our family with my Mom & Dad, my brother Michael, and my Grandma. She turned 81 a few days before Christmas.

After we leave Grandma Ruffo's house, we go to my Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Ralph's house where my Mom's whole side of the family gathers for barely controlled chaos. The crowd consists of my grandparents, our family, Aunt Lorraine & Uncle Ralph and their whole family - including Cameron & Kellie and the four girls plus Christopher and his girlfriend, Aunt Barbara & Uncle Todd, Aunt Marilyn & Uncle Rich with Matt & Dan, and I think that's everyone. It's quite a crowd and the kids have a blast! Dominic and Francesca love seeing their cousins, although every time Francesca was sitting with Aunt Lorraine, little Lindsay would run over looking concerned and crying out "My Grandma! My Grandma!" Francesca just gave her "the look" as if to say, "I don't know who you think you are, but this is MY Godmother." It was a riot!

We also take family pictures at their house so we have the whole family immortalized on film. Well, not on film - at least not with my camera. I guess we're immortalized in bits and bytes! Here's a picture of the four of us. (Uncle Ralph set up a "photo studio" in the basement with tarps. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the wrinkles looked awful and the lighting was bad!)

My camera becomes the group picture camera, so I set it up on the tripod, lined up the shot, got my remote control, and got into position. From there I can click as many pictures as I want either immediately or with a 2 second delay. It's so much nicer than pushing the shutter on the camera and scrambling into position before the picture takes! That little remote was definitely a great investment. So here is one of the group shots with everyone in it.

I have more to write about and more pictures to post, but we're leaving to go out to dinner in a few minutes. (We're at GG's house right now.) I'll try to catch up more soon!

First Tooth Fairy Visit!

Dominic lost his first baby tooth!

If you remember from previous blog posts, his two bottom front permanent teeth have been growing in behind the baby teeth. Luckily the baby teeth seemed to be getting looser, otherwise they'd have to be pulled. As we wait for both of them to fall out, we've been telling him that he has "shark teeth" since sharks grow new teeth haphazardly and in rows behind existing teeth. You should be able to see the two rows of teeth in the bottom in this picture:

Then last Wednesday, December 17th, he was brushing his teeth before bed and out popped one of the bottom baby teeth! (Thank goodness, it was barely hanging on and giving me the heebie-jeebies every time he was twisting it around!) Good thing Bubba had given him a tooth pillow about 3 years ago in preparation for that very event!

So the tooth was placed ever-so-carefully in the little tooth-shaped pillow and left at the head of his bed for the Tooth Fairy. And guess what - she came! And because that first tooth is so special, he got a whole five dollar bill for that tooth!

I wonder when the other one will fall out. Hopefully in the next month - it's getting pretty loose!

The Nutcracker

You may or may not know, but both Dominic and Francesca take dance class - ballet & tap. This is Dominic's 3rd year and Francesca's 2nd. In order to have them in the same recital at the end of the year, Francesca was moved to Dominic's class where the kids are all 5 & 6 yrs old. She does pretty well and holds her own with the older girls, and the convenience of having them in the same class is certainly a benefit.

Every year, Patti Morris Dance puts on "The Nutcracker" here in town with her dance students. Last year, Dominic was one of the angels (Francesca wasn't in it as we hadn't moved her to his class yet.) This year, they were both mice. The pictures below are from the dress rehearsal, so they don't have their mouse hoods on. (No photography was allowed during the actual performance.)

They both did such a good job, I was so proud of them! We taped the dress rehearsal, so I hope to get the video on the computer before too long. *fingers crossed* We can't wait to see what parts they get next year!

Real bowling is not like on the Wii

Last weekend, Chris, the kids, and I went to a birthday bowling party for their friend, Nicholas, who was turning 5. And not just regular old bowling, but candlepin bowling - something neither Chris nor I had ever done. We were all looking forward to the experience!

Now, we have a Nintendo Wii and one of the games in the Wii Sports collection is bowling - 10 pin bowling. And the kids are good. I'm talking strikes and spares good. When our families were visiting for Thanksgiving, Bubba, Pap & Uncle Mike would crack up watching the kids flail their arms and end up with spares, while we tried desperately to get the right board position or curve to accomplish the same thing. So they felt prepared to bowl. Ready to get their hands on a real ball. Strikes and spares, here they come!

Yeah, right. Thank goodness for gutter bumpers! Even Chris and I needed them a few times! Here are a couple of shots of the kids bowling and with the birthday boy.

The Ice Storm Cometh

Last Thursday, the television weather forecast called for ice storms overnight and cautioned viewers that conditions would be bad - trees covered in ice, icy roads, etc. We left Dominic's birthday party at Pump It Up at 6 pm and there was just rain and wet roads. No ice. We went to bed that night - no ice. We woke up the next morning and our trees were icy. Not crazy icy, just covered in a relatively thin layer. A few branches looked weighed down, but otherwise not bad. School was canceled for Millbury, causing us to wonder why.

Then we turned on the news.

Wow, the photos they were showing of trees and power lines down across the state, of tens of thousands of people without power, of cars, fences and houses crushed by falling tree limbs... Unbelievable! It turns out that the western side of Millbury didn't have power for at least 24 hours, but that's nothing compared to what some MA residents experienced - and are still experiencing. There are still people I know without power, with an anticipated date of Monday, Dec 22nd for when they could get it back. A week and a half with no power. People are in hotels, spent nights in shelters, lost all the food in their freezers.... You can't buy a generator anywhere in MA as they are sold out. If you are a lucky one who has a generator, you'd better lock it up because people are stealing them - not to mention looting the houses that people have had to temporarily leave. Unfortunately a crisis can really bring out the dregs of humanity.

On Monday, I drove through the town of Shrewsbury on my way to go Christmas shopping. I was absolutely shocked to see the state of things just 15 minutes from our house. The tree line looked as though a tornado snapped off the tops of every tree - limbs were broken and shattered, their inner wood a bright, sharp contrast to the dark exterior bark. Like sharp, jagged teeth they're a visible reminder of the ice storm. Looking lower, every yard, sidewalk, and open area was piled with branches, some small, some full trees broken off from near the roots. The tree-lined cemetary was apalling. The tombstones were literally covered with debris, some knocked over by the falling trees and limbs. Unbelievable. I couldn't pick my chin up off my lap as I gawked at the devestation.

I don't know how we got so lucky. Not only didn't we lose any of our trees, but we never lost power. We were snug in our beds fast asleep as thousands of people - and friends - in neighboring towns lay in the dark with no heat, listening to the crash of trees as they fell, hoping their cars, their fences and their homes would be intact come morning. No, I have no idea how we were so lucky, but I am thankful that we were.

Slacking

It seems as thought I've been slacking with the blog posts. A lot has happened here since my last writing. Last Thursday, December 11th, we had Dominic's birthday party at Pump It Up, the inflatable playplace extraordinaire! Two full hours of jumping, bouncing, sliding, running, and eating junk. That's a great idea - let's physically exhaust the kids and then rev them up with a sugar high! :) Seriously, though, the kids love that place and the party was definitely a success - we had 24 kids who enjoyed themselves. Here's a shot of Dominic before blowing out the candles on the cake he couldn't eat.

We tried to get a photo with all of the kids. I think we got most of them, but keeping their attention and getting them all to smile was an impossibility.

A great time was had by all, and even better, the ice storm hadn't yet started at the end of the party so everyone had an easy drive home!

More about the ice storm in my next post....

Ice Storm A'Comin

From yesterday....
Holy cow is it windy here today! The weather is remarkably mild for December - the car thermometer said it was 62 degrees when I picked Francesca up at school less than an hour ago. Unfortunately it is rainy and extremely windy. I've seen several umbrellas blown completely inside out, plus one of the teachers doing the drive-through at school couldn't keep her rain poncho on because of the gusts. The poor thing abandoned the poncho and ended up looking like a drowned rat as she helped the little ones out of their cars.

Today...
Okay, I'd love the 60 degree weather back! It is cold and rainy today. It's predicted that the temperatures will continue to drop, turning the rain to ice. By this afternoon we may be in the middle of an ice storm. That's just great. Dominic's birthday party at Pump It Up is today. Last year we got snowed out and Pump It Up canceled the party. I'm crossing my fingers that the weather holds off until after dinner tonight so that everyone can come to our 4:00 party and not slide off the road in the process. Cross your fingers...

Thanksgiving done, next stop, Christmas!

We're finally back to status quo here at the Beyer household after a fun family Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law arrived from New York last Wednesday afternoon, followed by my mom, dad and brother on Thursday just after lunch time. Six adults, four pies (2 pumpkin, 1 apple, 1 black raspberry), chocolate covered pretzels, snickerdoodles, pizzelles, homemade candy and biscotti, and a wealth of other edible yummies filled the house. (Why we felt the need to add a dozen Dunkin Donuts into the mix yesterday is beyond me!)

We were definitely in the Thanksgiving spirit here! Dominic even had a turkey shaved into the back of his head!


Francesca even helped me make the cranberry sauce on Wednesday before anyone got here.


Although I wish I could say that her happy demeanor lasted more than a few minutes at a time...


But no matter how grumpy one little girl likes to be, it's wonderful having the family here for any reason, and this is definitely an appropriate holiday for their visit. I am so thankful for my family, especially my mother as we have such a close bond. Having them here is so great, but I think it gets harder every time they leave. At least in this case, I know we'll be seeing them in three weeks when we drive to PA for Christmas. I can't wait for the craziness of Christmas Eve back home!

This past weekend was filled with shopping, eating, playing the Wii, more eating, more shopping, more Wii bowling and golf, and did I mention eating? I got pretty much all of my Christmas shopping finished - woohoo! Now comes the fun part - wrapping! We also put up the Christmas tree, took the kids' picture in front of it, and ordered our Christmas cards. I ordered them yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, then logged into my account at YorkPhoto.com this morning and saw that their status is "processed and shipped" already. Impressive! I guess I'd better get on the ball and get our labels updated and printed so we can get those bad boys in the mail asap once the mailman drops them off. Plus there are the rest of the Christmas decorations to get out of storage and put up, but I'll admit that I have a hard time mustering up the motivation to do that when we're going to be away for a week at Christmas. But Santa is still coming here - we have to leave him a note asking him to please bring our presents on Dec 31st instead of the 25th since we'll be in PA and don't want to have to cart them home from there. I'm sure he'll understand. ;)