The many faces of Christmas













Eric and i headed down to Owego on Saturday morning to continue the festivities with the Myers clan. Kristin hosted everyone for dinner and the stomach bug alert level kicked down to yellow thankfully after anna started feeling better.









The afternoon consisted of exhausted sport - inclined nephews, the first try of an experimental Hor' duerve "Grandma's Garlic Yum Yum" and much sugar-enhanced goofyness. Presents were unwrapped, beverages consumed and mash potatoes thoroughly ketchupped. Nephews cracked smiles and there was much rejoicing.























To finish the evening, the ladies did their best Isadora Duncan imitation.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Please take a moment to study the image...If I asked you what it was and how many things do you see...what would you say? HHHmmmmm? Answers below...

Well its called Angels and Doves so by now you know it is a snowflake made of snow angels...Grace made the angel a couple of winters ago and I have been goofing around with the image to see what I could do with it...quite a bit....it may be a part of the C card for years to come....but besides the angels...look in the negative space....find a ring of doves flying toward the outside with eyes...then a second ring of doves flying counter-clockwise and the another ring of doves fling toward the outside much like the first ring...the bonus outer ring looks like scottish terriers to me...did you get all of that? Good Job.

'Tis the Season - Part Deux

Then comes the big broadway styled production by Cara DeEmmanualle...wow what a production...an army of volunteers...an army of fees...but it's what Grace is really good at and we gotta break into this racket somewhere....she made the b cast, green company...almost made red...maybe next year.

So a minor role but a great intro to the process of going out for it...just barely making it and then making it through the call back three rounds....Grace was a tropper.

So we go to the practices...we pay the money...we buy lots of tickets and we volunteer and then the shows and friends....wow whata production...and the show was good too.

God Bless Grace, she ad-libbed her one litle part and gotta a crowd laugh and made me really laugh because we talked about the bit that morning. Great job Gracie...we are all so proud of you.

We went out to the diner for a little party afterwards...joined by the Pratos and the Elliotts. A lovely evening at the theatre.

"Tis the Season

AHhhhh the holidays. There is noting quite like them you know....the lights, the money, the warmth, the chaos, the spirit of caring, the ripping and tearing...and of course the Ballets and the shows with the dress rehersals and practices and the costumes and the....

Grace has a birthday in there as well as Lizzy and a bunch of Grace's friends...It really is chaos.

So here's what all the work is about...the Pittsford Ballet School does the Nutcracker every year...Grace's 3rd...this year she is a party boy...here's the pics.

Grace did splendid.

2009 turkey day stuff

Yummy stuff at Pop's with a documentary from Mark's sister Mary, Sister Mary. What a world of difference between there (being the Congo) and here. Talk about being thankful for what ya have. Thank you for turkey.

Mot rolled in friday and we had lots of cousin fun at the Felices. I have attached a few photos capturing the silliness and usualness of our holidays...

We had to have a few minutes of piano receitals with all the girls playing a nice Christmas song and then to finish the cultural portion of the afternoon we had a little ballet...nice 4th arabesk Grace. Then we had general yelling and screaming, followed by the omnipresent game of LIFE. I somehow came in last...

A lovely dinner...

A little "one time story"...

A little after dinner movie to amuse the stuffed pallette...complete with Mot demonstrating the "gaping video awe" with Anna in accompaniment .
















Sadly we depart but with the warmth of the knowledge that we will return for more in just a few chaotic weeks.....Grace's play is coming up too!

the big sleepover

Grace' s sister had her first sleepover friday night...I was not sure why I said OK to diapers, up at night, tantrums and all that go with a 2 year old but Grace was excited so we go...Grace and I pick her up after dinner...I thought she would be a little excited...she was vibrating when we opened the door...she was just bouncing around like one of those excited little atoms. She has got her stuff on and her bag packed...she is babbling incoherently about her blankie, she jumps up on Grace then jumps into my arms...I guess she is ready.


She has not been to our house in at least 6 months so the whole way (3.2 minutes) she is chanting something about dimmy's house. If nothing else children can bring to you an excitement for things we jadedly take for granted everyday. Fun.


We had a good night. Grace and I read to her and she was ready for bed she was so happy to be in Grace's room sleeping with her. She is doing better with her language. I think she is picking up about 90% of what we are saying to her. Whoa ...is she a firery little thing....the "NO"s come leaping out of her if it's not her way...we had to "convince" her a couple of times to see things our way.



Good night sleep...only two "pops" for blanket uncoverings and the girls are ready for a little saturday morning cartoons. Maria approved of the Bravia XBR9. "Dimmy I wan wa TB". OK buddy.


I dragged the girls out for a little leaf jumping...Maria was not as comfortable with the concept as Grace but got used to the jumping in slowly.




We included a shot of the stump...thats where we removed the silver maple hanging over the





house...big tree.


After a few dance classes and books we got some lunch. Grace has a new afinity for Big Macs so we got a couple of those on the way home and some fries. Maria said she would like some fries so we arranged for her to enjoy those as part of her lunch. You can see that convincing her to eat was not really an issue.






I think Maria enjoyed her stay...I dropped her off at 5 staurday and she just sorta looked at me as if I just called her a name on the playground. She was strong and did not cry but clearly she will be wanting a return trip soon. Grace loves her so much and Maria loves her big sister in a big way so I am sure there is more to come.

Mom Mom

Grace and I created this remembrance for Mom Mom at our church.

orange tree

Joe @ 50

The BIG 5 - 0, the half century mark...wow he's old.

Let us all take a lesson from Joe in his grace and dignity...he made it look easy. Thanks for the fun party Cathy (and Amy).

opening the vault

I have almost 2000 pictures (color prints on photographic paper from Kodak...remember those?) that some of you have never seen except for the rare case where I shared double sets and or scanned a few and shared electronically...well there are some good ones and once I finish digitally archiving all of them you will get a nice dvd w/ them all on it...yeah for us.

so here's an old one I shot on slide...was supposed to be for mom and dads 30th maybe...never quite got it to them...I have 7 in the sequence...this was the best one...some are pretty funny.

More to come...

Das is Cobbler!

The Prato family came down in mid September for the Jones Pond Friends and Family weekend. Aside from some chilly weather, there was much golf cart driving lessons and the saturday night potluck. We made our annual cooking show video to show our popular BlueCherry Cobbler in the making.

another pool pic

A couple more groovy shots

....I am beginning to think I only do this stuff so I can take more pictures of kids in pools