Baby's Afternoon Tea

We had an afternoon tea party last weekend at L'Espalier (my favorite restaurant in Boston) to celebrate baby's upcoming arrival. It was a cloudy and snowy day, but it was toasty inside and we were so happy that so many of our friends were able to attend. It made everything feel very special.

The Library Room was perfect for the occasion- cozy, warm, and BLUE! There must have been the largest collection of blue books I've ever seen. Every single one of those books was a shade of blue, though you might not know it from the photos.  E confirmed that they were real books, too. 

There were delicious tea sandwiches and quite the selection of sweets- almost too many sweets for my taste, but who can complain about afternoon tea?! Not even the Queen (though as Chris kept reminding me, she would not be there).

just the most delightful selection of tea sandwiches!

These mugs will become veeeery familiar to you, Baby!

And these ones too- your aunts and uncles!

There's quite a bit to get together before baby's arrival, but week by week I feel like we're making some progress. Nine weeks left to go!

New Year Blizzard

We had the first snow day of the year yesterday due to a major blizzard- winter storm Juno.  I wish we had more photos to capture how truly snowy it was/it is, but it was just so cold, windy, and wet out there yesterday! Too cold to even think about photos. There was that fact and the fact that we were truly trapped inside the house! We would have had to dig ourselves out of our front door and down the long driveway!

It was a lazy day for us- we woke up quite late. Chris did a little shoveling by the back door to let the dogs out, we did some chores, watched a movie and snacked all day. Boy, were the dogs surprised to see all the snow outside! Needless to say, they didn't want to stay out there long either. Good thing they had their snow gear on!

Typically the holiday and New Year season is when most of my blogging occurs. This year, things got just so busy. The year rolled on and on and before I could even pause and reflect, 2015 was already here!

Here is a quick recap on our end of the year:

Our first Thanksgiving in the new house came and went. We ate so much food that day, we could hardly move. In fact, we had two Thanksgiving day dinners. TWO. As with tradition, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the dog show following it. However, we first started our day off with a run-  a 5K Thanksgiving Turkey Trot in town!. E & A joined in on the day's festivities. We weren't certain whether the run was even on since the first big snow storm of the year occurred the night before. Chris joked that he might need his snow boots since we weren't sure how much snow was going to be on the ground and if he was going to be "running" with me…Of course if he were to be running by himself and leave me behind, then he would make sure to put on adequate running shoes… Oh, we ran. Well, as much as a 4-5 month pregnant person runs. We made it, though. And with minimal walking!

Pre-race photo

The best part after a run is always the snacks, and this run did not disappoint. Hot chocolate, granola bars, bananas and bagels. We were freezing, but stuck around to enjoy the goodies.

Post-race goodies in hand!

Our first of two Thanksgiving dinners. We took turns slaving away in the kitchen all day!

We also celebrated Chris' birthday at the beginning of December, just the two of us. We were quite lucky in that his birthday fell on a Tuesday, so we were able to spend the afternoon together to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Of course, the Birthday Boy chooses the meals for the day and for lunch we had good ol' Rod Dee. For dinner, we ventured to a steakhouse around the South Shore called Stockholders. It was delicious and we were just completely stuffed. Actually, we were significantly stuffed after the appetizers, but still ate our way to dessert. You can't have a birthday dinner and skip dessert!

Basil-fried rice with CRISPY chicken, don't you know

As with holiday tradition, we sought out our Christmas tree. It was a terribly treacherous, rainy evening the day that we decided to pick it out, but we ended up with a good one at Volante Farms. 

Not the best photo, but you can see how cold and terrible of a night it was that
we brought our tree home on the top of the car. 

Harry loved the Christmas tree. When we brought it in for the first time, all he wanted to do was lick the sap from the trunk. That really did not help with maneuvering this big and bulky tree. It was also a terribly snowy day when we had to get rid of our poor tree at the end of the season. I (half) joked to Chris that no other pregnant wife would help him haul this tree in/out of the house and hoist and tie it to the car. Lucky guy, that one.

Gregory taking in the sight of the tree…or is he keeping an eye on the Nutcracker?

Lovely at night

Somewhere in this timeline, we added Clementine to the mix...

We've also got great use out of our fireplace! Harry adores the fires.

fire crackling and keeping warm

We spent the week of Christmas in San Diego. There was a lot of sleeping in, sun, family-time, burrito eating, boba drinking, and a little beach. 

nephews zipping around on their brand new scooters on Christmas Day

Uncle Chris' tower of super heroes 

Short day trip to the Mission at San Luis Obispo

so many cacti and succulents! I've decided we need an indoor succulent garden

mission bells

Chris' belated birthday cake. His favorite of all time: Black forest cake from Champagne Bakery
It doesn't get better than this!

Beach strolling in La Jolla

our shadows in the sand

When we returned to Boston, we had more family time...and family feuds playing board games.

First photo: taken by Chris on his iPhone. Snowflakes and frost on our bedroom window one morning. 

Fall is really happening

This is the view out our front door last week. Well, a ground view. We have so many leaves- to my pleasure (so colorful and festive), but to Chris' chagrin (raking and cleaning out gutters!). 

We spent last weekend moseying around town. We visited the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. It was very peaceful and made for a very pleasant, fall walk. Surprisingly, we ran into a 5 minute downpour on our way out.  I don't think I've walked that much since we've moved- honestly, I was  exhausted by the end of the day and I may still be feeling it in my legs!

resting in peace

a perfect, New England fall day

memorializing the family pup

We are looking forward to all the holidays coming up. Starting with Halloween! We are prepared this year for some potential trick-or-treaters. I've also started sizing up our Thanksgiving serveware and dinnerware to make sure we have enough of what we need. Since we have always had such limited space, we'd make do with all the everyday cookware and serving-ware that we had. Now that we have a tad more room, we can have things like say, a true roasting pan!  I think we lament the fact that we need a gravy boat each and every year and when space is tight, there is no room for extraneous items that see use once a year. You know my obsession with vintage china- specifically toile/transferware. The search is on and this year, we shall be prepared! 

Changing of seasons- Life according to our phones

Fall is definitely upon us! The photo above was taken on a early morning stroll to breakfast. It's amazing how quickly the leaves change colors almost without you noticing. I find that I have the toughest time keeping up with updates as the seasons change. Here's what we've been up to…at least according to our phones!

Spending time with neighbor friends

Napping- preferably in the sun.

Biking. With dog.

Making the most of Saturday

Our "weekends" have mostly been packed into one day, since C's been working six out of the seven days this past month. I really do feel we made the best out of our day, though. We did so much last Saturday that I'm a little bit glad I had Sunday to myself to relax.

On Saturday, we started the day off with chores. We made our weekly trip to the town refuse and recycling area. I had ventured to "the dump" (as it is lovingly called), alone a few weeks ago and told Chris about some free golf clubs I had seen in the "free to take" area. You can't imagine the amount of grief I got from him about not snagging a few golf clubs for him! Quite honestly, I don't know enough about golf or clubs to know which ones were any good. Well, I'm glad we went together this time. Not only were there more clubs to be had, he walked away with a caddy to keep them in, too! As for me, I found a lawn spreader that I needed (not as exciting as golf clubs, but certainly something we need!)

We had several visitors during the day, which was just so nice. Harry also enjoyed all the excitement. He had come along for the ride in the morning and then had played with our visitors. We joked that he needed a nap before we took him on a hike. That, or we might have needed a baby stroller to push him around.

We drove to a pond a few miles from our house. Our town has amazing trails and we had never walked  the Longfellow Pond trail before. I'm so glad we did, as Harry loved it too. The photo above is the beginning of the trail, called the Butterfly Meadow. 

We even saw a rabbit there before it quickly hopped away at the sight of Harry!

The trail circles a very peaceful pond and was cool and shady, and quiet the entire way. Harry loved being off leash. He didn't walk quickly, though. He mostly just moseyed his way along the path as he's keen to do. A few older ladies passed us along the way. We poked fun at him a little, but realized that he's probably older than they were, in human years. An eighth of a mile- not bad for an old guy!

taking in the sights of the pond

watching the water

Chris found a lady bug along the trail and gently placed her out of harms way after this photo. 

Near the end of the trail, we came across a large open grassy area with a picnic table. A pleasantly beautiful surprise.

a beautiful flame of a leaf, perfectly positioned along the trial

just the sweetest

Harry definitely needed a nap after that trip. Later that evening, we went a little nuts and let our hair down with some BBQ. Of course, nothing like Texas BBQ, but it still hit the spot. 

Our neighbors came by in the evening with their dog, Walter, for a little meet and greet. Chris thinks that he hadn't seen Harry that excited about another dog friend in a LONG time. It's a good thing Walter only lives over the fence.

This coming weekend, I'm hoping we can make a trip to a beach- our first of the summer and likely the last. 

Yard discoveries

I love perusing the internet. I have the daily blogs that I read and then others that I read from time to time depending on the mood. One popular food and lifestyle blog I adore is essentially notes from my dream life. I remember when I first discovered the blog a few years ago. I read, enthralled how the family made a day of walking through beautiful, enchanted woods in search of wild mushrooms. Maybe one day we can also enjoy such a seemingly idyllic life in the countryside in the south of France- enjoying delicious foods and living so close to nature. 

Until that time, that blog post was exactly the one I thought of when I made my own discovery this morning in our very own backyard! Wild mushrooms springing up where they were not, just yesterday.

I texted a photo to C immediately. Should we eat them, you think? He wrote back with a firm NO. And don't let the dog eat them either!

The enchanting mushrooms that I had such a pleasure discovering were viewed as no more than dangerous weeds! Not the French countryside attitude at all, it seems.

The little things

I was asked by a stranger at a party this weekend about what I like to do for fun. Well, the answer is a bit complex, I suppose. Chris thought it was inappropriate, or something to that affect, that I started out with…"well, I don't have too much time for fun." It's mostly true. But I also felt like listing off all the things I do in my spare time aren't most peoples' our age (or younger, in this case), idea of "fun." It's a little bit questionable whether I even consider them fun.

In my spare time I garden, do yard work, paint, run errands. Is it a bit sad to say that I like to hang out with Chris for fun? When we don't get too much free time together, it's the truth. We had a wonderful Saturday this weekend and let's see what we did for fun: we organized our trash to take to the town refuse and recycling center, we browsed for books at the public library, drove to a great farm stand to enjoy lunch and found a delicious berry pie, oohed and ahhed at other local farms along our drive, spent at least an hour at a gardening center (where I was ecstatic to find that they had the lawn fertilizer I've had my eye on), enjoyed ice cream cones from an outdoor summer shack, visited and chatted with a friend, and then gardened for two hours- planting our spoils from the gardening center. What a day! That was all definitely fun and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything else.

Today, in my spare time, I finally painted our front shutters. Ever since we laid eyes on our house, it bothered us slightly that the shutters were painted a forest green, but the front door a solid black. It's always been in our plan to paint the shutters black to match the door and the job is finally done! The photo above is the "before" picture- green shutters and all. 

Here is our house with sleek black shutters (and the gorgeous hydrangeas that we planted by the front door):

in limbo, awaiting the new black shutters

Now, before and after photos side by side to compare.

The difference may be very slight- at least in these photos, but it's the small things, isn't it? It makes a difference of night and day to me, and I think, very much rounds out the facade. It's the small things that are so fun and memorable, I suppose.

Was it fun? Maybe not as much as I had hoped and mostly a lot of hard work, but it will be so fun to come home every day to know what a big difference to us it's made.