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Boston / Family — 2 Comments
24
Jan 10

Happy Birthday to Josh!

Happy Birthday to Josh!  Thanks everybody for helping us celebrate his birthday, even from so far away!

Josh’s actual Birth Day.  (Not really, this is a few days later… after the blizzard of ’78 was over and Josh & Judi could go home.)  So this is George, Big Brother Thadd & Josh:

Baby Josh & the Fam:

Here Josh says, “I am 4!”  (I wanted to put a pic with Shan in!  Jackie & Grandma & Grandpa Mates are helping to celebrate the big FOUR.)

Here Josh says, “I am 4 (x 8)!”  Ha.

Becky got this awesome Celtics green tee for Josh!

And now Josh won’t be so cold with these great gifts from Mom & Dad!

And these South Africa guidebooks will be so useful! Thanks again Mom & Dad!

Watch out Dave!  Josh is going to beat you in shuffleboard now!  (Thanks Mom & Dad Allen!)

Manhattan is thrilled for Josh’s birthday.

As is Magellan.

Thanks again for the gifts and cards and phone calls and texts and Facebook wall posts.  It was a great birthday.  We finished it off playing Josh’s new Wii game (the shuffleboard and darts are our new favorites!), and cooking a great dinner that was made even better thanks to a Christmas gift from Shan – Argentinian wine, carted across the globe in her backpack!  A great way to celebrate 32 years.

Boston / Family — Comments Off on Christmas
25
Dec 09

Christmas

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We have had a very Merry Christmas and hope you have too!  Spending this Christmas just the two of us was both a bit lonely without our families and also exciting for us.

This morning we woke up early in order to open a couple gifts before services so we could wear new Christmas clothes to church, and then we headed over to Trinity Church.  It was a beautiful service with a great sermon.  We really enjoy it there.

After church we hightailed it home to continue our tradition-making.  We popped a French Bread Casserole in the oven that Jeannette had prepped last night and then exchanged gifts over Skype with the Allen side of the Fiallen family.  We had such a great time getting to see Jan, Dave, Becky, Grandpa, Uncle Bob, GrandDad and Grandma!  Skyping really helped us to be able to feel like we had a little piece of our back home family out here.

We want to mention that we got the French Bread Casserole recipe from a roommate of Jeannette’s from college from Junior year.  And it was so so SO good – the calories can attest to that!  It is going on our Christmas morning traditions for sure.  If you are so inclined, looking for a goody to bake for a special morning breakfast treat you should check out the recipe here on her blog:  eat at allie’s.

In the afternoon we watched the Celtics WIN (86-77) in Orlando, even without Pierce.   It was so much better than last year’s abomination Christmas Day game against the Lakers.

AND we got a Wii and games for Christmas (Thanks Moms and Dads!!!!) so we’ve been playing that all night!  We love Super Mario Bros. Wii and are already getting into Madden 10.

For dinner, we cooked the traditional Fiallen Green Bean Casserole, with a great Mustard-Maple Pork Loin (using thyme from our still-growing-like-crazy herb garden).  It was really good Christmas dinner!

All in all, a great Christmas! We made some great memories and will treasure our first solo, married couple Christmas as a special one.

We hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours!

I’m going to sign off with the Blessing from church today:

May you be filled with the wonder of Mary,
the obedience of Joseph,
the joy of the angels,
the eagerness of the shepherds,
the determination of the magi,
and the peace of the Christ child.
And the blessing of the holy and undivided Trinity
be upon you this day and remain with you forever.
Amen.

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UPDATE Here is a picture of the Skyping session from the West coast perspective!

Home / Moblog — 1 Comment
27
Jul 09

Kitchen Progress

Last week the oven liner we ordered arrived.   We used it to line our clean, but still gross, oven drawer so we could store our nice pots and pans in there.  It took a couple of the liners, but now we feel good about storing our stuff down there.  There’s no pictures, because that would be boring.  But here is a picture of the burner covers which arrived on Friday.  That gives us a little more flat space to work on in the kitchen.

We finally cooked in the kitchen last night.  I was afraid to use the oven without the oven liner (we had it lined with plastic bubble wrap until the liner arrived – I didn’t want to cook with that in there).  We actually only used the stove top, but that in and of itself proves I put the burner coils back in right, I guess, when I replaced the drip pans.  And the burner covers were a godsend for having more space to work.  The second picture is supposed to be proof of last night’s stove top usage for sauteing onions and browning potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves and such.  (We’re having a red wine roast tonight.)  I know some don’t think I cook.  And maybe the slow cooker doesn’t count.  You can decide for yourself.  BUT the second picture does allow me to point out Becky’s Venetian glass wine stopper she gave us, in use, and Thadd’s lovely house warming gift of champagne and champagne glasses on the pass through.  (Just ignore the dirty dishes in the sink and the messy bedroom in view.)

Still on the list of things to do:  eradicate rat poison from under fridge, clean the fridge, organize food shelves (right now things are thrown in), get a spice rack and recaulk the counter.

Boston / Family / MIT — Comments Off on Institutional Graduation
05
Jun 09

Institutional Graduation

The graduates


More pictures after the jump. Continue reading →

Boston / Family / MIT — Comments Off on Jeannettez n da Hood
04
Jun 09

Jeannettez n da Hood

Showing off the Hood & the Shoes


More pictures after the jump. Continue reading →

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