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In October, Kathy and Dave Sharp left for their 8 month adventure aboard their boat, So Many Stars, from Newport, RI to the Caribbean. On December 26th we met them for the first time since they left down in the Florida Keys. At 9:30am the morning after Christmas we boarded a flight to Ft Lauderdale, rented a car, and drove the additional 4 hours (which ended up being 6 with traffic) to Stock Island, just north of Key West. The Sharps are currently keeping their boat in a slip at a marina there attached to a beautiful hotel called the Perry Hotel. We spent the next 6 days enjoying the weather, seeing mom mom and pop pop, and just relaxing… it was wonderful.

We took the kayaks out a few times to explore different areas. Here we are going into some mangroves to see what creatures we could see. This day it was mostly fish, but in another day we saw a baby hammerhead shark, hermit crabs, a sea turtle, sting rays, dolphin, and manatee (pics and video below). It was pretty cool.

We took the hotel shuttle into Key West two of the days we were there to explore. Here the girls are standing at the Southernmost point. This was actually Sophie’s second time to this spot – we took her for a vacation when she was just 11 months.

Another day we took the boat to Grande Key, a small island only accessible via boat, where we swam and explored. Look at that water!

For Lauren’s birthday mom mom and pop pop gave her a huge inflatable unicorn (of course!), which they played on for hours.

Hotel Perry had an excellent pool that we had access to as well. The girls swam almost every day. THey’re like little fish. They were totally wrinkled each day when we finally dragged them out of the water.

Here’s a shot of two manatee that we saw in the marina. They were huge and slowly making their way around the boats. It was really cool to watch them.

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We also had dolphin accompany us on one of the trips we took (click on the link above to see the video).

Sadly, the Keys are still recovering from Hurricane Irma, which as totally devastating. Most of the Middle Keys were almost completely knocked out. On the drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Stock Island we saw miles of debris that had been piled by the side of the road. Everything from trees to refrigerators to sides of houses. It was pretty terrible. This pic shows a crane picking up destroyed boats. We saw hundreds of these boats, either still in the water or on land. It will take a while for this region to fully recover.

We headed back home on New Year’s Day and were hit (literally) with below freezing temperatures. When we got home it was 12 degrees with the windchill! Talk about a reality check. But we had the lovely vacation to think about to keep us warm.

Happy 2018!

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Well, it’s finally here…Christmas!

We celebrated early with my family, who came up for Sophie’s choir concert. All three girls got to open presents and we also made gingerbread houses (not pictured, because it was a total disaster).

Pre-present opening. The excitement was palpable! If this was a movie you would see the girls shaking.

And then actual Christmas came. Here’s the living room set up Christmas Eve (with the dining room table poking into the living room because it was so long).

And the girls Christmas morning before running into the living room. Sophie is shielding her eyes so she can’t see the presents. Amazingly they both slept in until about 7:30. And Santa, as he always does, put their stockings at the foot of their beds, so that they could occupy themselves for a bit before running downstairs (and in theory let mom and dad sleep longer – although this year we were up before them).

Just a few of the many gifts the girls got. Lauren is ready for ski season with a new helmet (not seen in this picture is a unicorn on the back), and new goggles, and a new book for Sophie, which she read entirely by herself over vacation (proud mom moment).

Later that day the entire local Rainer crew came over for dinner, as well as Zoe and Elliott from Dave’s side of the family. Here are a lot of the cousins: Lauren, Julia, Maithili, Kishore, Quinn, Ashwini, Sophie, and Carley.

The dinner table, which started in the dining room and went into the living room, sat all 24 of us, which Kishore at the head, of course! For the second year in a row Dave cooked the entire meal. As always, it was delicious! Everyone else brought desserts. Afterward we opening presents and relaxed.

The crew opening presents; Addison and Hayley with Ashwini

Dick and Suzy

Lydia, Zoe, and Elliott

Zoe and Elliott slept over because they were housesitting for us the following week while we were in the Florida Keys. Those two, along with Lydia, were AMAZING and helped us clean up the entire house that night, because we left the next morning at 7:30am to catch our flight. Phew!

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Since Sophie was 2 1/2 I’ve taken her, and then both girls, to see the Nutcracker performed by Pennsylvania Ballet. The production is amazing and it’s a fun tradition to get us into the holiday spirit. This year because December was so busy, we didn’t go until the 23rd, which was actually pretty fun because the City was at the peak of Christmasness.

All dressed up and ready to go. I let Sophie wear some of my red lipstick (oy) and she also recently got tall boots. 7 or 17? Hard to tell.

The girls with a ballerina during intermission.

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This year Sophie auditioned for and made it into the Philadelphia Girls Choir, a pretty prestigious choir in the City, which is associated with the world renowned Philadelphia Boys Choir. She started with the group in September, and had her first concert in December. It was held at the Episcopal Cathedral on Rittenhouse Square and was amazing! There were 750 tickets available and they sold out.

Here she is at the house in her dress before leaving. She was so excited and also so nervous.

You can see her here, second row on the right.

The girls were allowed to audition for either a solo or a dance. Sophie got a dance part (back facing the camera with the braid). During one of the songs she stepped down and did a dance along with the song.

The choir is made up of three sections: Etude (ages 7+), Cantata (ages 10+), and Concerto (ages 12+). Each section sang a few songs on their own, and then the entire choir sang together. Each group was more impressive than the next. In the picture above Sophie is second row, center.

A shot of the entire choir with all three sections. Sophie is center, about second row.

Afterward she was so excited and happy, it was so great to see.

Doug, Vicki, Quinn, Carley, Mom, Dad, Becky, Ari, and Lydia all came to the concert and afterward we all went out to dinner. Here Dave and I are with Sophie in Rittenhouse Square before dinner. It was extra festive walking through the park, which was all decorated and ready for Christmas.

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At the beginning of December we spend a weekend in DC with our friends the Townsends. It was a cold one! We got the first snow of the season and it was wet, but we tried to make the best of it and enjoy all of the holiday festivities around the city.

This picture about sums up the mood when we were outside. “Please let us go in and drink hot chocolate!” Lauren is only smiling in this picture because she was bribed with hot chocolate (good parenting). They had put up Christmas trees for each state and decorated them with items that were symbolic for the state. The girls are standing on front of Pennsylvania.

Much happier after they got their hot chocolate and cupcake rewards 😉
Lauren and Bella get along really well…

…which also means that Sophie felt left out, which is obvious in this picture. She was not thrilled to be forced into this picture. This was taken in front of one of the many trees (indoors!) around the city. Crystal planned our whole weekend and we ate at some fantastic restaurants – this was in a lobby attached to one of them.

The girls and Dave also went ice skating (their third time this year so far). I stayed outside long enough to take a few pictures and then found a nice spot in the warming hut 😉

Since we got engaged (15 years ago!!), Dave and I have been going to NYC for a weekend in December, but last year we just decided it was too much – too expensive, too crowded, full of cranky New Yorkers, etc. So when the Townsends suggested meeting in DC instead we decided to give it a go and it was great! The City was beautiful, clean, and not at all crowded. We ate fabulous food, enjoyed all of the festivities, and didn’t have to spend a fortune and wait in hours of lines. I think a December DC weekend will be our tradition moving forward.

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