New Year's Eve

Nothing like March 1st for remembering the start of the 2-month-old year! For the third year in a row, we headed down to Baltimore's 34th street in Hampden to see the lights at dusk. Shelley went with us, and we met our friends Betsy and Logan there.

As you can see, there are times when it's pretty in the city!

Then we headed home to watch "Tangled," play Wii, order Thai food (another recent tradition) and play three-handed Rook. Shelley, Alan and I barely made it to midnight. :) The girls were in bed long before that. (We learned our lesson about keeping the kids up late!)

Building, Creating

Right now I've got high levels of building and creating going on at my jobs, so it's pure pleasure to sit back a bit and enjoy the creative output of these two. :)

Check out what happens at the kitchen table at Grandma & Grandpa Blackman's house. (Again--pictures from Christmas. I'm enjoying going through them all!) And thank you, Aunt Barbara, for the slinkies. They are still commanding attention, although, as you can see, not in traditional ways.

More Holiday Memories

Christmas in VA Beach with Aunt Becky and Grandpa. (Grandma, Uncle Matt, and Casey were there, too--just not in the picture.)

I really love this picture. :)

Holiday Memories

The 2011 tree...with our greatest gifts under it. :)

Not too much of January passed, either, before it came down. for some reason, I just wasn't up for a Super Bowl tree this year.

And speaking of the Super Bowl, my cousin Charles Bisset was in one of the commercials shown that night. He is featured from :34-:38, (besides being the farmer driving the tractor at the beginning) and the crowd gathered at my parents' must have rewound, paused, and cheered three or four times when it aired.

Three cheers for Charles! He's one of the many folks in L.A. whose FaceBook "employment" looks something like this: trainer/actor/bouncer/kickboxer.

A Historical Thanksgiving

While I regret not having more Thanksgiving pictures, I proudly blame it on "living in the moment!" A group of family and friends met to play football and Jon & Courtney's in the morning and it was SO FUN. (It was so fun that my entire body was unable to forget it for days. But of course I'd do it again.)

Then we all headed to Mom and Dad's--our family, Jon & Courtney's, Shelley, Stacey & Brad, Brad's brother Derek, and the wonderful addition of my in-laws. I really love when our kids can gather with both sets of grandparents. It was so generous of them to drive up from VA Beach.

Being together is just GOOD. I've always been a sucker for family gatherings, and while my love lapsed when the girls were small and all of life felt so much more exhausting, I've come full circle again. We played games and visited, and I only regret not having a group of us storm the kitchen and insist on helping Mom clean up. Mom and I are taking notes for next time. Thank you, Mom, for all the work you did hosting so well!

On Friday we did something I've never done before--my in-laws, parents, and I took a customized historical tour of Baltimore via Zippy of Zippy Tours. She is 79 and I dare you to keep up with her. (Zippy is short for Zappora.) She knows her stuff, too. She took our varied interests (Civil War, old Baltimore neighborhoods & architecture, Wallis Warfield Simpson, and Betsy Patterson Bonaparte--choose only a few interests unless you want to spend an entire day with Zippy, which would probably leave the most fit marathon runner lolling on the floor with his eyes glazed over) and wove them into 2 1/2 hours of fascinating lecture through the streets of our city and in some of its most interesting (and not on the typical tour route!) places. I would definitely do it again!

Thankfulness.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Col.2:6-7)

Overflowing with thankfulness. Thanksgiving weekend was a good start to that.

Celebrating Casey

Our nephew, Casey, is three weeks younger than Evelyn. (I've always loved that Alan and his twin sister, Becky, had their

first

kids only
three weeks apart! The twin thing is pretty cool.)

Becky had the party at one of those bounce-places--and it was glow in the dark! All the kids wore glow-necklaces and the place was lit only with black light. It was hilarious--and great for social anxiety, I might add. I think the next time I'm asked to host a mixer, I'll do it by black light!

Afterward we had cupcakes and sang a version of the happy birthday song I've never heard before--I'll have to have Casey dictate it to me so I can write it down. His whole group of friends knew it--had one of those "I'm a grown-up and totally out of the loop" moments!

We followed him home and hung out a little--well, Casey's neighbor got a lot of that "hanging out." Abby is about Evelyn's age and the girls have mixed well every time they've been together, and have always graciously let our girls come over and play. And between the neighbors' gracious play-date and the party in the dark, I have regrettably few pictures of the birthday boy himself!

Happy birthday, Casey! It's so fun watching you grow up!

The Zoo is Different...

...when you're not there with your own kids! Our Scottish cousin, Alice, was visiting with her daughter Ruth and granddaughter Alice Emma (who live in the Shetland Islands! Ruth is a renowned artist. Check her out here.) I met a crew of cousins at the zoo while my own kids were in school, and I just loved taking Eva and Alice Emma to brush the goats with cousin Kate's Aunt Debbie (familial confusion, anyone?)

It wasn't that long ago that I had my own two and three year olds brushing goats at the zoo. How nice to shepherd my cousins' girls on this little visit.

And I had to post the video of Eva. While the picture of her on the saddle looks pensive, she's actually very enthusiastic. I love when she says "gee-ee-yup." And I must say, those two with their heads of blond curls were magazine-worthy (although it would probably be challenging to dictate to them during a photo shoot!)

If you have a Mac Laptop...

...you can make some extra cash setting up photo booths at street fairs & events. Last month when the girls and I went to a friend's neighborhood festival, a young woman had a backdrop, a few props/costume items, a printer & some photo paper, and voila--a line of people ready to shove cash in her jar to have adorable pictures like this taken.

Amelia and I had so much fun.

On another note, we came home from Deep Creek today--29 of us in our 26th year of gathering each fall to reconnect, hike, fish, eat, play games, watch baseball, and stay up way too late discussing all sorts of things (i.e. the effects of Facebook on our social culture and how to talk about sex with your children. Good stuff. Very good stuff.)

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Mom and Dad had us over today to celebrate my little brother's birthday. Mom made steamed shrimp and the kids were hyper and crazy even before the cake and ice cream. They just get so energized by being together! Me, too.

On a more solemn note, Jon's wife Courtney lost her dad this week. His battle with Alzheimer's had been long and slow, but the end is still hard. How good to listen to Courtney's experiences and to rejoice and mourn together.

Our love goes out to you, Jon and Courtney!

Waiting for the Cousins

Look at those two--they're like puppies when it comes to their cousins! The day after Hurricane Irene Mom hosted an impromptu potluck.

The girls are waiting for Anna and Aidan to arrive.

I don't think we've even seen the sun since this day, come to think of it! We will all be happy to see the sun again--almost as happy as Evelyn and Amelia are when they see their cousins.

How do you prepare for a hurricane?

Why, you, your mom & your cousin go to a local winery for a tasting, brick-oven pizza, and an outdoor movie! (Your husband will enjoy the wine and pizza part but will skip the feel-good "Blind Side." I love the Ravens even more now.)

Later today we'll see how well this prepared us. :)

(No slight intended toward those who have to work hard to board windows, send boats out to sea, and stock food and water for life-threatening shortages. You all need the wine, pizza, and relaxing outdoor movie afterward.)

VA Beach!

Check out that giant chair! It's one of the many things we enjoyed at Portsmouth, VA's awesome children's museum last week when we visited my in-laws for a few precious days of R&R. The girls LOVED this place, and once my father-in-law discovered the wall where you can push your impression through from the other side, we were all in stitches entertaining one another.

This is a VERY rare picture of Evelyn. She is ASLEEP. In the CAR. During the DAY. I think building the Greek Parthenon out of blocks at the museum pretty much sucked the life out of her. (It couldn't have been playing on the playground afterwards or walking the 18th century neighborhoods of Portsmouth while Alan and I drooled over architecture...)

The next day was BEACH DAY! Alan played 9 holes, the girls jumped waves until they were shivering and blue-lipped, and I was SO proud of myself for re-applying sun-screen on the girls AND me!

My in-laws joined us for dinner al fresco overlooking the ocean (and eating hush-puppies, one of our favorite beach delicacies), after which we toodled around the boardwalk in this very environmentally-friendly, sassy little cycling number, topping it all off with some kiddie rides. (You'd think Evelyn would have fallen asleep in the car after beach day. But no.)

And a visit to my in-laws' is never complete without an evening of cards and ridiculous laughter, which I am happy to report we succeeded in enjoying. How is it that we can all KNOW my father-in-law is GOING to try to "run 'em" in hearts, but he still manages to get away with it? Uncanny. And very entertaining.

Finally, the girls have found something new to love about Grandma and Grandpa Blackman's house--it is located in a quiet, flat neighborhood where lots of people walk their dogs. It is PERFECT if you are five or six and you love to ride your scooter, pet dogs, and make conversation with strangers. It's the South, and everyone is very friendly. :)

Thank you, Mom and Dad Blackman, for a lovely time together!

NY Road Trip

We went to hear cousin Savannah sing her senior opera recital (some serious "Kill the Wabbit" stuff going on there--and seriously, she is AMAZING. I cried!) and made a road trip of it.

On the way up we paused at cousin Stacey's and Brad and met their adorable new puppy, Vinny. At first their dresses had the effect on Vinny that matador's capes have on bulls--but once the dresses were tucked into their tights, all was well. (What a look!) The girls even fantasized about BEING Vinny, as evidenced by Amelia's occupancy of his crate.

We said our goodbyes and continued northward, ending near Purchase at Alan's drummer friend, Rogerio's house. Rogerio and Noemia are Brazilian, both artists (her medium is...trash!! I wish I'd taken pictures of her art made from used tin foil. She gave me a vase made from a plastic juice bottle remolded--so cool), and are committed Christians. We enjoyed a wealth of conversation while in their home, where their college-senior daughter, Anne, impressed us immeasurably. She got out her collection of Brazilian jewelry for the girls and they put on a show.

And speaking of shows, Savannah's recital was SO enjoyable for me. Her voice is smooth and controlled and big, and she has great stage presence (the girls probably thought she was some sort of princess in her WOW dress.) We had dinner beforehand with Uncle Steve and Aunt Joan, and got to visit with Josh, Laura, Uncle Chuck, Audrey, Aunt Sharon, and another of my dad's cousins and her husband. It was great.

On the drive home we stopped in Jersey City to visit one of Alan's college friends and his wife, who just so happened to have a cappuccino machine, a wall of world maps, sparkly nail polish and a really nice dog, so all of us were once again perfectly entertained. It was another good road trip. :)

Pioneering on Easter morning

I can't believe I only took ONE picture at Jon & Courtney's on Easter. I also can't believe they hosted Easter while their house is staged and on the market. Kudos to them!

Easter morning was funny. We'd gotten home late Saturday night from our NY trip (pics to come), and I hadn't thought a lick about Easter baskets or an egg hunt until I was in the shower Easter morning.

My mom was always so good about having beautiful, overflowing-with-gifts Easter baskets outside each of our bedroom doors Easter morning. And she and Dad staged Easter egg hunts all the way through my college years (yes, really.) So standing in the shower Easter morning realizing I'd done nothing gave me that familiar sinking feeling.

But it was short lived. I like to think of myself as a survivor, a fighter, a pioneer even. But besides going on very infrequent backpacking trips on the Appalachian trail, I have very few opportunities to put those qualities to the test. Easter morning gave me the modern, urban woman's version of an opportunity.

Rummaging through bags in the entry way, I found a school craft of Evelyn's that had two plastic eggs in it. There were even two pieces of chocolate. So I beefed up those two eggs with a few gummy worms and hid them. Then I scrounged in the basement--found last year's baskets, pulled two teddy bears out of storage, and grabbed two colorful spiral notebooks out of a drawer.

In the frig were the remnants of two chocolate bunnies my dad had gotten the girls. I don't think they cared that they'd already eaten parts of the bunnies in their baskets. And while they seemed a tad disappointed when I told them they each had ONE egg to find, they perked up when I reminded them that the REAL Easter egg hunt would happen later at Uncle Jonnie and Aunt Courtney's house, and that Grandma and Opa and Aunt Shelley and Esther would be there. That smoothed everything over perfectly.

We dyed eggs Sunday afternoon after church and before heading to Jon and Courtney's--and of course being with the cousins and family is the girls' favorite gift. I know I would like to do Easter a little differently next year--be more focused on how vital it is to us as Christians and create some fun memories that center around that. But not this year. This year was a survival year as far as Easter was concerned. It's been kind of day-by-day survival around here for several weeks now, actually. I'll just enjoy the memories we made this year--how grateful I am for our girls and their readiness to enjoy and accept pretty much anything. I need to be a little more like that, actually. :)

Happy Birthday, Anna!

So my brother has an eight year old daughter! And she loves her American Girl doll, her horseback riding lessons, and now her new hamster (Courtney gets kudos for overlooking her distinct distaste for house pets, especially ones that resemble rodents) which she named Lucy. I heard that Lucy awoke Anna a few times the first night running in her wheel. I told Jon to tell her that new members of families often awaken other members of the family in the middle of the night. This is not unusual.

So our camera is wigged out right now. While taking pictures, the digital screen is BLACK. It is a point-and-shoot-and-hope-for-the-best situation. I actually think it's enabled me to take some slightly more artsy pictures. :)

See all that fun? That's exactly what it was like at Anna's party on Monday. Happy birthday, Anna! You are a beautiful girl inside and out, and your cousins and aunt and uncle love you very much.

A Super Super Bowl Celebration

I'm almost a week behind with these, but I didn't take my camera that night and had to borrow Mom's camera to get hers. It's our tradition to go to Mom and Dad's for the Super Bowl with Aunt Joan and Uncle Steve. We eat dinner during half time, which is why none of us saw Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" a few years back. That's a good thing, since this year Aidan, while watching Super Bowl commercials, was heard to exclaim, "Look at her BOOBS!" (Which is probably what the rest of us were THINKING.) From then on, Dad was vigilant with the remote control, even though Uncle Steve told us that it wouldn't make any difference if we let our kids see boobs on commercials.

Jon and Courtney made paninis (and they are FOODIES--'nuff said), Mom and I made chili and butternut squash soup respectively (also noteworthy, if I might say so myself) and of course Stacey's Rainbow Cake had yet another awed audience.

And what do you know--the Packers won! Even though Alan is a Steelers fan (don't hate him--he chose the team off his brother's bedspread that was covered w/NFL helmets. I think that's so cute!) but we all enjoyed watching Uncle Steve rejoice (at the last moment, of course) that his Packers team--"The Team of the People"--WON. It is hilarious to watch football with Uncle Steve. He is an eternal pessimist. You would never have known the Packers were ahead the WHOLE game if you just went by Uncle Steve's commentary. You would have thought they were sunk, done, finished, and ready to fold.

Then, at the end, the whole neighborhood could hear his hoots and hollers. I suppose he saved them all up. We think a lot of the luck was thanks to Jon, who bought and wore a cheese head for the game, which matched his own coloring amazingly well. :)

Mammoth Cake & Mahjong!

Check out that CAKE! Stacey says she "experiments," and we agree to continue being her test subjects.

When given an enormous, dinner-plate-sized slice, we asked Evelyn how she thought she would feel after eating it. Her reply? "Proud!"

Alan and I finally got our brains wrapped around the Kennedy sisters' game addiction: Mahjong. We managed to win one game (we THOUGHT we won a lot more than that, but we're not really detail people...and this game has a lot of details.)

Evelyn enjoyed giving everyone ponytails. :) They're all such good sports. AND Stacey did a really nice thing--she found a one-dollar second hand VHS tape of "The Snowman" for us...which the girls watched at least twice while we played Mahj. Thank you, Stacey! Thank you, Stacey, Sarah and Shelley for taking the time to come over, hang out, and patiently teach me and Alan Mahjong, all the while giving the girls the distinct and precious impression that you were there for THEM!

Cousin Weekends

Last weekend we had all the Bisset cousins over for a pot luck--it was lively and fun and there were rarely less than two conversations happening at once. All the little cousins watched a movie and played, and while it took a while to find a place for baby Eva to finally get some sleep (I'm not sure the big kid cousins have THAT much awareness of what it REALLY means to "keep quiet") she finally found a restful spot when we moved the pack and play to the vocal isolation booth in the studio. We'd originally gotten together to look at Caleb and Amanda's pictures from New Zealand, but we didn't even get to them! It was a great evening, but I have no pics.

Tonight the Kennedy sisters arrive from NJ for the weekend. We're going to play games tonight, and the weekend will culminate in a Super Bowl party at my parents' house. We're all pretty excited. This blurry picture is from when they came in September for Shelley's b-day. It's one of Evelyn's "artsy" shots.

Let the cousin fun continue!

Christmas Eve

We lunched causally at Joan & Steve's & awaited the arrival of Josh & Laura from NYC. Uncle Steve just had total hip replacement surgery, and we enjoyed strolling the street on his daily walk. Afterward, he was the only one who wasn't up for a riverside walk in the woods near their home (that lovely window is on the front of their home, BTW. Uncle Steve made the window box arrangement.)

Finally, the girls ended up in a pile with Josh & Laura. They'd have stayed there if we'd let them. However, we needed to head to the lovely Christmas Eve service at Mom and Dad's church. I wish I had pictures of that.

Christmas Eve was quite nice. :)

The Gifts of Christmas

The week of Christmas, Evelyn confessed, "Mommy, I don't think I love God."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because I love toys more."

"We all struggle with loving things more than loving God," I said,my own list emerging easily in my head. Praying a silent, Nehemiah-style prayer, I said, "As we grow, we have to practice loving God, and as we get to know Him, we love Him more."

Thus began my thoughts on Intro to Idolatry. Good thing my student is six. Not that I'm unfamiliar with idolatry.

In the midst of these thoughts came Christmas, when we choose to give material things to our kids and one another. And it is SO delightful to see them open those presents and express their glee.

On Christmas Eve we attended Mom and Dad's church service, where the music was, as always, lovely, and the message clear. The girls loved sitting with Anna, lighting the candles one to the next as we tried to act like it was no big deal for our 4, 6, and 7 year olds to be holding lit flames. As Courtney said so well, "They did GREAT!"

Christmas morning had us exploring stockings, eating Daddy's traditional waffles, and opening some gifts. Amelia was thrilled with her Nutcracker, which she'd asked for and which Evelyn and I had gone to three stores on the 23rd in search of. (I'm teaching my kids so many good habits, aren't I?)

We all then met at Mom and Dad's for lunch and the rest of the day. Of course, the kids couldn't wait to open presents.

It feels good to give gifts. Evelyn had asked for "a beautiful dress, like a wedding dress, with a rose on it," and my mom came through 100%, complete w/thrift store veil and bouquet. She was dumbstruck upon opening it, then did a chair dance caught in one of the photos here. All the kids requested Twinkle Toes tennis shoes, and even the grownups made lists & drew names, which nicely simplified the gift buying (and I admit--it was SO FUN to open the books I'd asked for, along with a nice clothing gift certificate.) It is warming to watch those you love open things you've chosen for them.

We all watched "Up" together (which is one of the most endearing children's movies I've ever seen. Have yet to watch it w/out shedding a tear), and ate a dinner of homemade calzones thanks to Jon and Courtney. Then we just sat around enjoying one another, playing w/the kids' toys, and being together. So nice.

But back to gifts. Thinking about the kids' reactions to their gifts made me wonder: Ho do I respond to the Lord's gifts to me? Do I dance with glee thinking of my everlasting life, of the presence of the Comforter in my heart, or of the thrill of actually knowing my Creator? Am I wide-mouthed in amazement opening each day with it's new mercies? Do I revel in the wonder of having God's words at my fingertips? Do I realize that one of His deepest desires, through these gifts, is for me to be closer to Him? To know Him more?

Christmas 2010 was sweet, precious, cozy, and comfortable, full of good gifts, well-appreciated and generously given. And we have the blessing of a family who would all recognize the deep, rich, unseen but most meaningful gifts of all that are ours because of the magnificent story of redemption that starts in Genesis and runs in a fascinating red thread all the way to Revelation.