December 2022

December 30, 2022

Happy 10th Birthday, Lauren!

Two days after Christmas we got loaded up and headed to New York for a few days of skiing. We got an Airbnb in between Hunter and Windham mountains with the Morris and Townsend families. We also celebrated Lauren’s 10th birthday while we were there. On the 28th we had a little party with pizza and cake and a competitive game of Kids Against Maturity.

While Ally and I hung at the house enjoying some quiet time, Crystal and the dads took the kids for three days of skiing. According to Dave, Sophie and Lauren have been doing really well and they both “graduated” to ski poles.

Unfortunately there was one pretty big mishap. Crystal was taken out doing down the mountain and hit her face on John’s ski boot. She broke her nose and hand and will need surgery to fix both when they get home. She’s been a trooper, but was out for the count the rest of the week.

December 25, 2022

Christmas 2022

Christmas

We had a great this year! We hosted again and had a crew of 25 for dinner. Christmas morning was nice and quiet with just our family. The girls both got what they wanted – Sophie a pair of Air Jordan’s and Lauren a make-up table (she’s been very into make-up as of late).

We’ve been hosting Christmas for a few years now and have the routine down. Dave cooks the dinner, with his mom making the ham at her house, I get everything set up, and from there everyone shows up and enjoys themselves. The crowd only stayed until about 9 this year, so we had plenty of time to clean up and enjoy the evening.

December 14, 2022

Good-bye Nana

nana

On December 14 we lost my sweet Nana. She was 97 years old.

She had been sick for a few days with Covid, but was getting better and was actually back home at Bellingham. It was very sudden and a surprise to all of us.

I’m so grateful that we had just spent some good time with her to celebrate her birthday in October and at Thanksgiving in Virginia. She was a regular on the weekly Rainer family zoom calls on Sunday nights and I felt like I was closer with her these last few years because of that.

She was the matriarch of this family and will be deeply missed.

December 11, 2022

Holiday Festivities

December has been filled with recitals and holiday celebrating. I decided that this year instead of taking the kids to see the Nutcracker again, we’d try the Philly Pops Holiday Spectacular at the Kimmel Center. It did not disappoint. The music and singing were great and it was a very entertaining show. Beforehand we did the holiday brunch at the Union League which was very festive.

Sophie had her winter band concert mid-December, which ends up being her last one because she decided she doesn’t want to be in band anymore. They were impressive for a 7th grade band, and Soph was smack center playing base drum.

The following weekend were two holiday concerts for the Philadelphia Girls Choir – one in a performing arts center in New Jersey and the other at Temple Performing Arts Center. As always, the girls were amazingly impressive. I’m continually blow away by how professional this choir sounds.

And finally we got together with the college friends at a Christmas party at Justin and Steve’s house. It was great to connect with everyone again. I hadn’t seen Erin in over a year, and Vahid even longer.