A Family Resemblance

Calvin with two of my brother Mike's kids and dog

Cal and Jonathan really took to each other during this trip. At one point they filled up mom's laundry room with scrap wood and threw naked barbies everywhere and called it their clubhouse.

Home again, Home again

Jiggety Jog.

"Let it not be a death but completeness."

-Rabindranath Tagore


My sweet grandmother Reba passed away Dec. 27th and her funeral was yesterday. Grandma has 10 children (including my mother), and so it was quite a sight to see them all together.

Grandma's passing leaves a great void in my life. She was a spitfire, but also so loving and caring and fiercely protective of her family.

She would often call me on the phone to chat about this or that, like names for the new baby (she loved the names Kerna and Kristen Rae and couldn't figure out why I wanted to go with Ivy) and even sent me a card when Bryn and Calvin were both sick this year. And of course never a birthday went by without a card and personalized message from Grandma.

After we had our house fire, she was a solid rock for me. The farm she and my Grandpa had burned down when their kids were just little, and they had to start their lives completely over. But she was still so compassionate to my measly situation compared to theirs, and sent me things like an apron, dish towels, and dish cloths from her own kitchen. Those are irreplaceable treasures.

Grandma is a Superwoman. My grandpa was called to war (WWII) and left her to tend the farm and 4 children under the age of 5. Later, when they had 10 children, she went to college and got her Bachelor's degree, and later her Master's degree, at the same time as my Grandfather, and they taught special education/ resource until retirement.

One more random fact: Grandma was the 5th child in her family. My mother is also the 5th child. I am the 5th child in my family. Peter is the 5th child in his family. I like our little club of Fifths.

And a partridge in a pear tree

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind with Christmas, the whole family together, 4 weddings (okay, really just 1 but it felt like 4) and a funeral.

Laura married Tim on Tuesday in a beautiful ceremony. Bryn was the flower girl and Calvin was the ring bearer (or Ring-Man as he called it- it sounded much more like a superhero that way). I was the top secret stealth Matron-of-Honor. Hopefully more on this (with pics) later.

My grandmother died a week ago. I was fortunate to be able to enjoy her company a few times before she left us, and introduce her to Ivy. More on this above.

Christmas Morning

Captain's Log: The Christmas Edition

Peter continues his relentless pursuit of a Ph.D. in E.E. at M.I.T. He hopes to be done by summer of 2011, at which point his funding and his wife's patience will run out. He found an online 8-bit Nintendo emulator and conquered Metroid, much to his kids' delight.

Cami started playing soccer again this fall and joined a local indoor evening coed pickup league. At work I had a major success in helping a young lady pass the math portion of the MCAS after only a 2-week crash study course, and was featured at my company's end-of-year banquet, so I got my external validation fix for the year. In my spare time I enjoy making movies with my favorite actors.

Bryn started Kindergarten and loves almost every minute of it (except when her BFF stabbed her with a plastic fork in the lunchroom- but don't worry they made up). She swam up a storm in the summer and played soccer this fall.

Calvin is a swashbuckling gun-toting 3 year-old. He loves preschool, playing with his sisters, fighting crime, and plans to own every construction machine ever built (he's going to park them in the road).

Ivy made her grand debut on April 25th, and is a pleasant little gal as far as helpless mess-making sleep-suckers go. She enjoys mashed squash, cookie monster, and grinding her 4 (and counting) teeth.

Happy holidays!

Here we come a-virtual-caroling

Since most of you live too far for us to actual grace you with our physical presence, we thought our kids could carol you all via Youtube. Joyeux Noel!








The following video contains sensitive material that may not be suitable for younger viewers:

Better not pout?

Calvin didn't get a bell during one of the primary songs. He pouted through the whole thing.



*Thanks to EP for the photo of Calvin with Santa

Our new home security system

Don't worry Chandra, the escaped convicts hiding our forest don't stand a chance against this one.

Calvin's favorite game is tearing through Ivy's closet to find the toys and dressups I've hidden away for a rainy day. This costume and gun were today's plunder.

A guessing game

Bryn and Calvin and I played a couple of rounds each of Guess What Animal I'm Thinking Of (similar to 20 questions, but limited to animals) on the way home from the grocery store. On my turns, I thought of an elephant and an ostrich. Bryn thought of a zebra and a crocodile.

Calvin...well...let me give you the clues and you can try to guess what he was thinking of. I'll leave the answers as a comment.

Animal #1: It has fur AND feathers

Animal #2: It has brown and black and white stripes, and likes to catch little animals with its hands to eat them.

*elephant above drawn by Bryn