In His Glory

For any of you who know Chris, he just lovvvvveeesss keeping the cars clean. Before we moved in together in Charlestown, Chris had a driveway and a hose so he could clean his car whenever his heart desired, weather permitting. When we moved to C-town he would disappear for hours in the summer or winter, and go to the car wash, dry the car until not one bead of water remained, clean the windows until streak free (and wouldn’t let me roll them down for days) and use up every last quarter to vacuum.

One of the best features of our house is of course the garage. Not only does it keep our cars warm and dry during cold days with or without ice and snow, it is the perfect dry, semi-warm environment to tend to the vehicles during the cold winter months. Just a quick trip to Fitzy’s in Ashland for a car wash and then home to clean windows, vacuum, wipe down dashboards, shine tires, etc. Ahhh…what a life for Chris -- in his glory in the garage. I am sure once the weather gets warmer he will be rigging up the hose and leading it to the driveway for some car washing fun. I just hope he doesn’t make me do my own car or spray me while I’m gardening!!

Slackin'

With Christmas, New Year’s, birthdays, family time, house “stuff” and making the transition to working a full work week again consuming most of our time in the past few weeks, I have been slacking on the blog front.

Since I know my dad is an avid blog reader (when his PC isn’t infected with viruses), I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to mention that while he was visiting NH from Ohio for the Christmas holiday, he and Kerry got to spend a day at 19 BHL. My dad visiting officially completes my immediate family first-time visits…yay!! For some time he probably thought the house was just a figment of our imaginations or random pictures on the web…but it really does exist!! Now if only the Pats where in the playoff we would be all set.

Thanks Dada for visiting and we hope you visit again soon!!

Holiday Gathering - UNH Style

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Between the hustle and bustle of the season, family time and just life in general, I have found that during the holidays it is difficult to get together with great friends. New children, new houses, house hunting, busy work schedules, distance and short trips to MA really don’t lend themselves to quality friend time. Well, not this time!! Thanks to the recommendation of Aimee and the perfect timing of Lisa and Bruce’s visit from AZ and Oz, we UNH gals got to celebrate while Chris and I got to entertain once again at 19 BHL. It was a very fun evening full of excellent potluck fare, lots of laughs, wine (no accident victims this time around!!), and Paul and Jeff even took a chance on the Diabolique. It also just happened to fall on the one month anniversary of our big move to the ‘burbs; Happy One Month Anniversary to us!!

We missed Kate, Delia and Wally but I have no doubt they will be dropping by soon…I hope anyway :-)

Thanks all for coming and we can’t wait to do more entertaining in 2009!!

Buon Natale

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This year, similar to the past 6 or so, Chris and I kicked of the Christmas festivities at his aunt’s/uncle’s in Medford for the traditional Italian Feast of the 7 Fishes. At last count, we think there were only 6 but really does it matter? When it comes down to it, I just enjoy knowing that Chris and his family have been celebrating the tradition for as long as he can remember. Although Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, it helps to bring families together and set forth the traditions that have been established throughout the centuries. You can’t beat listening to Uncle Tony’s stories and watching others munch on traditional fish dishes such as fried smelts and bacala as well as the original recipe for Ciano calamari pizza that was one of Chris’s dad’s specialties. I stay away from all and stick to clam chowder, Auntie Ro’s spinach balls and Ann Marie’s stuffed mushrooms. A part of me thinks that they weren’t part of the original Feast of the 7 Fishes but that’s okay by me. The last I checked, I was French and Greek so I can get away with it.

The pilgrimage continued to Concord, NH with our gifts and yummy chocolate and pear Panettone in tow. The Fisher/Henderson tradition began with a delectable breakfast before opening our gifts and watching the dogs fight over who gets the bigger candy cane raw hide knowing very well that Lilly will conquer all. The day was topped off with a fantastic Christmas dinner of prime rib and it wouldn’t have been the same if my dad wasn’t in attendance. Lots of laughs and wine later we headed to Manchvegas (responsibly) to visit aunts and uncles and drop dad off to play in the holiday poker game. They ask Chris to play every year and thankfully he says no or else I think we would go broke.

After a day of fun, family, great food and wine we retire into a slumber and still had visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.