September - December 2013

The blog posts will be coming fast and furious now, recapping in 6 month (or so) increments.
in October 2013 we went on a wedding planning trip to California and purchased wedding bands in Boston. It was a whirlwind. We stopped by Michigan to say hello to the family there and to California to help Lisa celebrate her birthday and visit June and Grandma Choko.

We also moved from the beach to the central city. we were a bit apprehensive about this at first, but we soon got used to the quick commute to work and more free time in the evenings. Forrest also
benefited greatly from less road rage.

Avon River - Central City

Boston

Lobster in Boston

Michael and Ellen

Halloween

Wine Tasting in CA with Lisa

Visiting Big Trees State Park

June, Choko, Forrest

Chocolate School at She Chocolat

Thanksgiving set up

Thanksgiving Friends

Great Santa Run year 3

message from Mom

a real Christmas tree in our new place! 

Bob and Sheila visited (Forrest Dad and his wife) for Christmas. It was lovely to have visitors for the holiday. We travelled to Wellington via train and ferry before Christmas and then went to Fjordland and Queenstown after Christmas.

Thanksgiving Memories

I love Thanksgiving.Every Thanksgiving is special to me, but the years that jump to the top of my list as truly special are:

2009: New York City with my sister Erica for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, drinking wine on the train up to Chappaqua and hiding wine in my purse at Erica's in-laws house, drinking on the porch (since they don't serve wine with their Turkey Day dinner). It should be noted that I was the only one having wine, since Erica was currently pregnant with Claudia, but she hadn't told anyone yet and surprised us all at Christmas that year.





2008: Mom and Lisa visiting Arizona (and taking exceptional care of me) for my ankle surgery. Lisa spending her first Thanksgiving away from home, and me trying to make meringue for chocolate pie while on vicodin (took two attempts). Lisa helped serve dinner and even did all the dishes. certainly a first for her. ;)













2005: Fountain Hills Thanksgiving Parade with Alicia, listening to the most monotone announcer repeat "happy. thanks. giving." over and over, then traveling to Mesa for Thanksgiving with Eric Johnson and his family.





2000: Thanksgiving at Home in Michigan, Granny Gulick's last Thanksgiving. Aunt Nancy, Ed and I drove from MA (I was at RPI then) to MI. The day after Thanksgiving we convinced Aunt Nancy to go shopping with us at 4am. She was in *delicate* shape from the Thanksgiving wine. As such, we sang to her, "12 days of Christmas" while waiting in line for a store to open. "and a partridge in a pear tree" turned into... "and one hung-oooover Aunt". :)

1999 and 2001-2002: Thanksgivings in Maine. Simply magical. I will always remember Aunt Nancy and Ed's friend Karen calculating the time it takes to cook the Turkey on her mini calculator/wrist watch!

Of course I love every Thanksgiving I am lucky enough to enjoy. I love remembering special ones from Time to Time as well.
I certainly hope you, and the ones you hold dear, had a lovely day full of calories and thanks.
xo


Thanksgiving 2010 - San Jose