Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Merry Christmas 2018! (Siobhan)


Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We had a wonderful first Christmas in Alabama and hope your family had a very blessed, restful holiday season. This past week has been filled with lots of sickness, but we were thankfully able to fit in a lot of fun before we got hit with some pretty nasty colds.

I finished finals in time to come home on Mom's birthday. To celebrate, Mom had run a marathon with Ethan the weekend before. We made her a yummy birthday dinner (which we unfortunately forgot to take pictures of)
I brought my roommate, Miriam, home with me for the first few days of break. We packed our days with lots of fun activities. We took Miriam to our new favorite hiking spot, Rainbow Mountain Trail

Christmas Cookie Decorating!
Brandan was sad that we wouldn't get to go to Grandma's for cookie decorating this year, but she mailed him a package of cookie dough and decorations. When I made them with him he got a little teary and said it just wasn't the same as doing them with Grandma and that the onions were making him cry...

 Despite missing family everyone did have a fun time decorating. The twins' cookies look the same of course:


Aidan got his very first pair of glasses. He looks so handsome in them!
Baxter and Cade are inseparable, and they always tell us the same stories. This year they became convinced that our neighbor's inflatable Santa was 'dead' when he deflated 😂
We always give gifts to Mom and Dad as siblings. We made Dad a homemade 'tool box', complete with Sam Adams, a Redbox gift card, coffee, truffles, and a key-chain that says, "If Dad can't fix it, no one can!"
The boys pooled their money to buy Mom and Annalee doll representing our 'pilgrimage' from NH to AL. It was such a sweet gift!
 Baxter and Cade's favorite book and TV show is "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Their favorite Christmas gift was matching mice and cookies.
 Christmas morning wouldn't be complete without our traditional Christmas brunch! This year we invited Joel and Amber over to celebrate with us. Last year Mom promised to pull out the twelve days of Christmas china if we moved to our new home this year. It was such a beautiful gift from Grandma Piercey, and we were so happy to put it to use!
 
Here are some of our past Christmas posts. It's hard to believe we have been blogging for ten years now!

Saturday, December 22, 2018

Connor's Basketball (Siobhan)

Basketball 2018

One of my favorite parts of being home for break is being able to take the kids to some of their sports and activities. Ethan, Miriam, and I took Connor to his last basketball game before Christmas, and he did a fantastic job. I wasn't able to get very good pictures, partly because I was using my phone and partly because Connor never stays still when he is out on the court :)




We love you, buddy, and are so proud of you!

Friday, November 30, 2018

Thanksgiving Week 2018 (Siobhan)

~Happy Thanksgiving~

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. We packed in a lot of fun family activities and enjoyed a much needed break!
On Tuesday we went to visit the Huntsville Botanical Garden's Galaxy of Lights. This massive, walk-through light display was amazing! The kids' favorite part was the fake snow :)

 
Next up: Family Movie Night! If you haven't seen the new Christopher Robin movie, you should definitely watch it!
 We spent Thanksgiving with our pastor's family this year. We had such a wonderful time with them and ate lots of yummy food!

Here are some of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes:
Shredded Brussels Sprout Bacon Salad and Warm Cider Vinaigrette
Maple Oat Nut Scones
Pineapple Stuffing
Sweet Potato Casserole
Gingered Sweet Potatoes
Death By Chocolate Mousse Pie
Apple Frangipane Tart
Pumpkin Bavarian Cream Tart
Gingerbread houses!





 Family Walks
 The day after Thanksgiving we always get our Christmas tree and decorate our house for Christmas. This year we went to Trim a Tree farm. It was so much fun! There were donkeys, free pony rides, hot cocoa, and of course lots of Christmas trees!
 











Library trips :)




We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!