Merry Christmas!

Well another Christmas has now come and gone. This one really snuck up on me and then passed right before my eyes. Here are the highlights of the Christmas festivities...

1. Chris arrived home the Thursday before Christmas from Basic Training in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. It has been so nice to have him home and we were all so excited to hear all of his stories and catch up with him.

2. For me, Christmas really began on Saturday the 22nd when Mom, Courtney, Courtney's friend Kasey, and I drove to Warwick, NY to visit the Aabs and Carabines for the Aabs' annual Christmas party. It was a wonderful trip, too short of course, but wonderful. The kids were such a treat to see and I was happy to see Pru and Brian, Brigid and Alex, and their close friends. I am so glad that I had some company for the drive, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make the trip alone, and it wouldn't have felt like Christmas without a trip to New York or without seeing my NY family.

3. Jackie and Jay arrived home from San Diego on Sunday and spent their four day Christmas vacation here at my house. Again, great to have everyone home for Christmas.

4. Monday was Christmas Eve, and of course, not drama free. Shawn, my house buddy, had been fighting a cold for a few days and woke up Monday morning with no voice and a fever, so it was off to Patient First. Now, at this point, I was thinking "I am really tired of spending holidays at Patient First" after spending New Year's Day last year there with Sean's pink eye. So Mr. Grimes found out he had strep throat, ugh, and spent the rest of the day resting.

5. Of course, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas Eve dinner at Mom Mom's. It was a wonderful evening. Not surprisingly, much of the focus was on the youngest little Emery, Nicholas, and he did not disappoint! He was so enthusiastic about everything that was going on. He helped Courtney give out presents, opened his own presents and helped everyone else open theirs, and was just utterly adorable.

6. Christmas Day proved very successful and enjoyable. The Parto clan spent the day at my house. Mom cooked a great dinner of ham and all the trimmings. We had so much fun opening our gifts and spending time together. The evening ended with some games, first a nice round of Cranium Pop 5, then some friendly competition on the Wii. Dad boxing was by far one of the highlights of the day :)

Overall, Christmas was very nice. But not a day goes by that I don't miss Sean and think of him, and these last few days have made that even more true. One of the most special things for me this Christmas was giving the gift of Sean to many of my family members and friends. With my fabulous Mac and the iPhoto program, I was able to easily create photo books with collections of photos of Sean to give away as gifts. It was such a great way to have him with us at Christmas this year.

I hope that all of you were able to enjoy your family and friends over the Christmas season and are now ready to celebrate what will hopefully be a fabulous, happy, and lucky New Year. Love to all of you!

Fun at Skateland

Well this picture is going back a few weeks, but in the interest of trying to get all caught up on this blog and keeping everyone up to date, I am going to post it anyway. Shawn G. invited Mom, Courtney, and I out to Skateland a few weeks ago to enjoy an evening of roller skating with his boy scout troop. We had so much fun! But it had been a long time since I went roller skating and it was a little trickier than I remember, despite the fact that it was my favorite pastime as a kid. Anyway, this was one of the pictures from the evening and it is clear that we had a great time.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Well it has been quite a while since I updated this blasted thing! But it has been a very busy month for me, apparently. First things first, I wanted to send a few belated Happy Thanksgiving wishes to everyone. Thanksgiving was definitely different for me this year. I decided that I was going to celebrate an un-Thanksgiving this year, so I enjoyed fried chicken for dinner and a movie in the afternoon. Boy it was nice to not have to cook! It was weird to have an empty house though, I missed the sounds of cooking in the kitchen, turkeys frying in the driveway, and kids running around the house :) It was definitely quiet around the house this year.

Friday was our Annual Black Friday outing with the girls. So a small group of us gallivanted around Columbia all day shopping and eating :) It was nice to hang out with friends and get some Christmas shopping done. It helped to get me into the holiday spirit, which was something I was afraid I would be lacking this year.

As always, Saturday was our family candy making day, a day that I love! The house definitely seemed a little more empty this year with Jackie on the West Coast and Chris in Missouri, but we made all of the usual goodies and got to enjoy each other's company. It is always so nice to spend time together, since we don't all get to see each other too often.

I got a phone call from Chris on Thursday. He is doing well in boot camp. He seems lonely and definitely ready to come home for Christmas, but he is doing well. He will be coming home on December 20th for two weeks and then back out to Missouri for job training. We are all so excited to see him. It also sounds like Jackie and Jay will be coming back this way for Christmas, definitely excited to have everyone home for Christmas. I guess you take for granted having everyone close, until they all move away and you realize that it really is a rarity for families to be as close as we all have been.

Well I hope to be updating this more often, but still want to wish everyone a happy holiday season!

Busy Weekend

Well it was another busy weekend for me (what's new?) Friday evening the family got together at Mom's to bid Chris a farewell before he goes off to Fort Leonardwood for boot camp. Saturday The Howes' and I went to the outlets in Hagerstown for our bi-annual outlet shopping spree. It was a nice trip, the weather was great and we got a lot of great deals. Today was another photo day, off galavanting around town enjoying the fall weather and getting some good shots. Today's locations included Fort Armistead (thanks Uncle Jamey!) to take pics of the Key Bridge, Rocks State Park, and Falling Branch which has a nice waterfall. Finished the day up with some delicious fried chicken and ice cream at a great little place called Hickory Dicks.

Please check out my new photo blog, there are some pictures there from today.

Steph's Photo Blog

here we go again...

Well I have been unable to maintain my old-new blog, so I am giving this another try...thinking that maybe a fresh start will help.

Life has been incredibly busy over the past two months. I will try to back-update to fill everyone in on what I have been up to the last few weeks. For now I am just happy to have this thing up and running.