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The day after we got home from Virginia we headed to the Christmas Tree farm to cut ours down. 
Sophie trying her best to saw the trunk. 
Dave and the girls with the kill. 

Later that week we decorated the tree. Definitely one of my favorite things to do in the Christmas season. I love taking out all of the ornaments and remembering the story each has. Especially the homemade ones from the girls. 

Lydia helped decorate too

The final product! 

Benson stayed by the fire and monitored our process. 
Earlier that day Lydia took the girls to see Santa at the King of Prussia mall. Sophie is asking for a stuffed unicorn, LOL dolls (which are apparently the hot item this year), a makeup kit, and a surprise.  Lauren just wants a stuffed cat. We’ll see what Santa delivers. 
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We headed down to Charlottesville for Thanksgiving again this year. We got there late Tuesday night and stayed until Saturday. That gave us lots of time to visit with friends while we were there. I met up with Jenny, Samantha, and all of their kids for lunch on Wednesday. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them and all of the kids are so big! They all got along really well. I helped that we ate at a restaurant with an arcade 😉

The kid crew: Lauren, Darby, Bracey, Sophie, Mary, Kaylee, and Parker in the back. 
And then I went and saw Sarah and her kids, who were in a new house in Holly Meade. Sophie and Lexi had a lot of fun playing together, and also playing sardines with Kali and Luke (what good sports those older kids are!). 

Lexi and Sophie. These two have known each other for a long time! 
We had the usual Thanksgiving crew, including Dick and Suzy. We all stayed at Mom and Dad’s house. It was pretty tight, but we made it work.
Here’s Nana (who turned 92 in October) showing off her new iPhone. Finally, she’s made it to the modern age. Carley even signed her up for Instagram! 

Bestie cousins, Ari and Lauren. 

As we’ve done for the last few years, we deep fried the turkeys (2 of them). Doug was the fry master. He’s perfected the rub and dropping of the turkey in hot oil. 
The Thanksgiving crew! 
The day after Thanksgiving Dave took Lauren hiking up to the top of Humpback Rock. She was a trooper and walked the whole thing herself. Here she is taking in the amazing view. 
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Last weekend we all went down to Clearwater, FL to celebrate dad’s 65 birthday. Mom, Dad, Becky, and Ari had made a week of it, driving from Virginia with a 3 day stop in Orlando, but we had to make it quick – arriving on Friday and heading out on Sunday. It was worth it though. The weather was beautiful and we got some good pool and beach time in.

While we were there we saw 3 beach weddings. The girls were spying on one here. We all had our own opinions about which bride’s dress was best. 

The girls with the birthday boy

Cousins! Mom and Becky took the three kids to the aquarium (while Dave and I enjoyed some solo pool time). 

The bathing beauties, Lauren and Ari

The sunset on Saturday night was beautiful, so we took advantage and tried to get some good shots. 

The whole fam! 

Becky and me

On Sunday morning the girls wanted to go and look for shells. There were a ton of really small ones all along the water line. 

Cousins & besties

Triple threat

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Halloween this year was a success! The weather has been beautiful, so there were no jackets necessary. We had a series of Halloween parties the weekend before the big day. First up was the Fall Festival at Bala House Montessori. 
Here’s Lauren with her friend Tegan and Julia – the pink and purple crew. 
Then we headed to the Philadelphia Girls Choir Halloween party, where Sophie arrived as a vampire bride.

The vampire bride. Lauren was scared to look at her.
And then that evening Dave and I headed to the neighbor’s party that had a Circus Freak theme. 
The Circus Freaks. Parasidic twin and he/she. We totally freaked out the kids. 

On Halloween Sophie’s school had their annual Halloween parade. I went and watched the kids march around the athletic field and then went to the classroom for a party. Here she is with her whole 2nd grade class and Mrs. Murphy, the minion. 

And then the actual evening of Halloween. Sophie went as the vampire bride again and Lauren decided to go in her Halloween dress. The scare crew above. 

With the neighbors before trick-or-treating – Davis, Parker, Maya, Lauren, Emma and Sophie. 

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On June 20th we got a new member of the family – Ashwini Tara, the daughter of my cousin Dan and his wife Maithili. They also have a son named Kishore. Although we met Ashwini once before, she was so tiny, so the girls couldn’t hold her. They came over for a visit in September, and this time the girls got to hold her.

They were both happy to love on their new little second cousin. She is a really sweet baby, and barely fussed while they were here. So adorable! 
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On September 9th we went to the wedding of Justin and Steve, who have been dating for 10 years.  The event was a Greensgrow in Fishtown and it brought together our whole college gang. 

Me, Dave, Justin, Steve, Crystal, and John

Most of the whole gang

The hansom couple. This picture was taken before the ceremony, so they were both super nervous (although look cool as ever)

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In the middle of August a group of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee located in a park recently renamed Emancipation Park. The horrific display of hatred was met with anti-hate protesters, all a block from the Downtown Mall. As the crowd grew, a white supremacist drove his car into the crowd of anti-hate protesters and killed a woman named Heather Heyer. The event has been a national news item for weeks, sparking heated political debate, causing our asinine president to make ignorant and mindnumpingly stupid remarks, and associating the town of Charlottesville with a horrible, tragic, and sadly historical event.

It’s heartbreaking for so many reasons, one of which for me personally is the link that Charlottesville now has to this event. Since then (it’s only been a couple of weeks), when asked where I’m originally from, I now get a look of sadness, or even alarm, when I say Charlottesville.

The weekend after it all happened, I took the girls down for a visit with Becky and Ari (mom and dad were in Norway for 2 weeks). We had a good weekend together and went and visited the site where it all happened, which is now a makeshift memorial. The girls of course didn’t totally understand what happened, but I find it hard to believe that I even have to explain white supremacy and killing because of racism in 2017.

The makeshift memorial where Heather Heyer was killed. Chalk was left out so people could write messages of hope and love. 

Sophie, Lauren and Ari in front of a “LOVE” sign erected on the Downtown Mall

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She tried and tried all summer and finally she got it! Lauren is officially riding a two wheel bike without training wheels. She was determined to get it and with some coaching from Dave (she would take none of my coaching) she got it. 
Here she is a little wobbly, but riding with confidence anyway. She hasn’t quite mastered breaking yet, so she’s either slowing down and jumping off, or using her shoes. We’re hoping the breaking happens soon, before we need to purchase all new shoes. 

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Well, summer is finally over (author sadly wipes tear from eye as writing), and school is back in session. The Tuesday after Labor Day Sophie started 2nd grade at Cynwyd Elementary. This year she has Mrs. Murphy and so far loves her. A few of her classmates were in Ms. Henry’s class last year, and she’s also met some new friends.

The big second grader on her first day! She was the appropriate mixture of excited and nervous. I can remember so well these first day stomach butterflies!

Sophie with her school’s mascot. They make drop-off on the first day really fun, blasting music, balloons, and all teachers standing outside to greet everyone. 

And then a week later, on September 11, Lauren started her last year of pre-school. She was much more excited than nervous for the first day. Here’s the big girl ready to get back into Mrs. Kiernan’s class at Bala House Montessori! When we arrived she ran right into the classroom – no time for goodbyes for Mom and Dad. 

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On August 21 we got to experience a total solar eclipse, the first time this has happened in 99 years. Although Philadelphia was not in the “path of totality” – meaning that the sun wasn’t completely covered for us – it was about 85% covered, which was still pretty cool. Lydia took the girls and Eleanor to a park to watch the event. They weren’t as impressed as perhaps they should have been – Sophie commented that she was disappointed that it didn’t get completely dark – but a life experience for them nonetheless.

The girls looking at the sun with their special eclipse glasses (which became quite the hot item in the days leading up to the eclipse, with stores and websites selling out)

A shot I took outside my office when the sun was behind some clouds. This was about the maximum coverage that we saw in Philadelphia. 

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