deck the halls

tonight we put up the christmas tree. it didn't take nearly as long as I expected it to, it would seem we have it down to a science by now. we put in a movie and finished the second half while eating yummy pizza.

chris and i agreed to get a new tree topper this year, so you'll see that the top is bare. we've been using a santa hat in the past, something chris had started years ago, but it will be nice to buy a new one together.

the big city

After Doylestown, Chris, me, my parents, Nicole and her boyfriend all drove to New York City, where Chris and I stayed at Nicole's apartment and the rest of them stayed at her boyfriend's apartment in Jersey.

On Sunday we walked around the city, saw 'Mamma Mia!' on Broadway (my first broadway show!), ate dinner at ESPN Zone, saw the giant tree at Rockefeller Center, and went to a Knicks game. It was a long day but so much fun! I can't believe we did so much in just so many hours.

On Monday we did more sight-seeing and ended up at Macy's (10 floors!), Tiffany's (no purchases), and the NBA store.

Chris and I boarded an Amtrak train around 4 p.m. to head back to Erie. (My parents went on to visit more relatives in D.C.) The photo of Chris sitting at a table is from the train. We slept, ate dinner, and hung out in the lounge car for a while. We got into Erie a few hours late due to some unexpected stops, so we got home around 4 a.m. We've always talked about taking a train to the city, so it is nice to have had the experience.

It was quite a weekend!

Siblings

Chris and I tagged along with my parents to Doylestown, PA, to hear my brother sing in a barbershop quartet this past Saturday. We met up with my sister and her boyfriend and my brother and his fiance for dinner before the show. This is my younger sister, Nicole, and my older brother, Peter. She lives in New York City and he lives in Virginia.

Thanksgiving

This is just a pic of Chris and I out over Thanksgiving weekend. One of my best friends who lives in Erie and another who was visiting from out of town with her husband all came out for drinks and good times.

'Emu Dreaming'

We recently visited the Erie Art Museum, and their current exhibition is "Earth & Spirit: Contemporary Indigenous Art from Australia and New Zealand". Dot painting is the traditional visual art form of the Aborigines in Western Australia Central Desert. The canvas is covered in small dots of paint which create patterns and symbols.

The "Dreamtime" for Aboriginal people is the time which the earth received its present form and in which the patterns and cycles of life begun. The emu is the law keeper and protector of the law. This law if from the Dreamtime and cannot be changed unless the ancestors intervene.

There are gold emu tracks running from the bottom to the top of the painting. This was Chris's favorite.

Rocket Thomas

In this picture it would seem that Rocket was standing still like a good model birdy, but I was really shuffling back and forth with him as he wandered along the back of the couch. The chair in the background is a combination of an old chair they were getting rid of at work, a new chair cushion, and some brightly striped material I bought at a garage sale for $3. I love having the color in the room.

Trick or Treat

Trick or treating was actually on Halloween this year, but because they moved Daylight Savings it was still light out for the first hour. It seemed odd at first, but it was dark by 7 and it was nice walking around at dusk.

Daulton was an 'army guy' and Chris dressed the same. I opted not to dress up this year, but it was still as fun to see all the kids running around. Each year we meet at Michelle's house and trick-or-treat around her neighborhood while she passes out candy.

Daulton was on a mission this year, with hardly any complaining and a good deal of candy collected. There was a very little ninja we kept passing who said, "hi, soldier" each time he saw Daulton. It was so sweet.

He usually stays with us on Halloween, but this year Michelle kept him and Chris and I got to have a night out on the town. We stopped at an Irish bar where they have leather couches and a fireplace. They also have the best quesadillas I've ever tasted! Then we met friends who were out to see one of their favorite bands at the bar next door. Good times ensued!

pumpkin guts, anyone?

Tonight we went to a pumpkin-carving party at my friend Heather's house. She went all out—tons of food, two pumpkin carving tables, and games for the kids. One of the games was a guessing game, where they blindfolded the kids and had them put their hands in "mystery" bowls. Some of the items were lima beans, oatmeal, and grapes, but I made sure to tell Daulton it was all eyeballs and intestines before he tried. He made the funniest face each time he put his hand in a new bowl.

Chris, Daulton and I all carved a pumpkin. I don't know about Chris, but that was the first time I had carved a pumpkin in several years! Everyone's came out really well. In the photo mine is on the left and Chris's is on the right. Halloween is just a few nights away, I hope they last that long!

Happy Birthday to Chris!

Chris's birthday fell on Friday this year, so he opened cards and gifts that afternoon and we all headed to the Olive Garden—our old stomping grounds—for dinner. It took three hours, but we were all properly stuffed afterwards (with plenty of leftovers for the next day!). We decided to forego the ice cream we were going to finish with and plan it for another day. I took this picture of Chris and Daulton in our booth with Chris's phone.

We visited with one of our old managers and a few servers who are still around, including Juan, a nationally ranked pool player with a thick Peruvian accent and extremely nice personality.

Saturday we made a big breakfast at home that consisted mostly of waffles and big fat pieces of bacon—what could be better? I think Saturday night we finished yet another chapter of the final Harry Potter book. We've been getting a chapter done per night, so even though we don't read every night, we're making pretty good progress.

Sunday Chris and I headed to the casino, and we walked away with fat pockets! We blew it all on candy and cigarettes—no, just kidding! But I did buy a tank top and Chris helped himself to some goodies at the store as well.

We seem to enjoy spreading out birthday celebrations to entire weekends, or if you're lucky, weeks! Which I think is what it's all about—spread the love, spread the love.

Tournament Time

This past Saturday Daulton participated in another Tae Kwon Do tournament. He competed in forms, breaking, and also for the Grand Champion. The Grand Champion was a bracket format, where each person did their form against one other person and one of the two was eliminated, until all but one remained. In past tournaments he's brought home trophies, so he was pretty disappointed this time around when nothing came up. But there were a lot of kids competing at the black belt level this time around, and we explained to him that he'll just need to put in more hard work.

Later that day we headed downtown to the Eerie Horror Festival. The main movie they were showing was called Netherbeast Incorporated, but it was actually a comedy. It was pretty funny, and the creators and one of the actors were there to answer questions after, which became quite a lively discussion. It's quite a well organized event for Erie, they put on a great show.

I am old.

My thirtieth birthday came this year, and to be honest, I'm glad it's here. I've read such great things about being a woman in her 30s. (And, if we're being honest, I'm the last of my friends to actually experience the milestone, so it's tough to feel bad about it.)

Dinner at Dad and Char's is an official birthday event, and Craig and his girlfriend Lindsey joined us. Since we never had a chance to celebrate Craig's birthday in July, Char added his name to the official birthday refrigerator. You can see in the picture he had a little fun at my expense while I was busy putting on the official birthday candle light-up hat. Oh yes, we are THAT official.

Most people know I am named after my mother, who was also Penny. She and my dad, and Char and my dad after, have carried on a tradition that my mother's parents first started with her. Each year, they wrap a penny in wax paper and bury it in my birthday cake. Whoever finds the penny in their piece of cake gets a wish of his or her own. Shorty got the penny (for the third time!) this year after eating two slices of cake. And he was able to fully enjoy the sweets after finally pulling out his loose tooth. And then, hopefully, made good use of his wish.

One summer, four weddings.

This summer Chris and I went to four weddings. The first was on the west coast, where my sister Misty married a very handsome cowboy. We spent time with Misty and my amazing nephews and neice for the first time in many, many years, which was both special and refreshing. Peter, Nicole, and dad and Char were all there too, along with Clayton and Shelly.

We met a lot of nice people in the town of Condon. The most interesting introduction was to my dad's first wife, Lois, who is quite a character! She has a strong presence—something I think Misty was lucky to inherit—and could not have been sweeter. You can tell the kids adore her.

And it was my second time to Oregon, which is a beautiful state. (Plus I always am amazed to see snow-capped mountains—if we get so much snow in Erie, imagine how much snow is on those mountaintops!) I came home with over 400 photos, including this adorable video of Chris playing with Waldo, an abandoned baby cow the family is raising by hand.

The other three weddings were all in Erie and were friends of ours. All three included time by the lake, and the weather could not have cooperated any better. You can't help but love the summers in Erie.

New school, new school year.

The middle high school has been under construction for a little over a year now. The 6th graders are displaced to one grade school, the 7th and 8th graders are using an empty school downtown. So this year Shorty started 7th grade and a new school. By spring break next March they plan to move into the new building, a state-of-the-art middle school just down the street.

He's at that age where he switches between acting 15-years-old and about 7. You'll think, "Oh, he's so grown up!" And then he'll tell you how he and his friends made a "mystery" drink at lunch and talked one of them into drinking it. Ah, middle school.

Wise Words

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? —george eliot