It's racing season again!

Jacob took part in his first 5K of the season and ran in the Pursuit of the Holy Grail race in Epping.  He did great and finished 28th overall and third in his age group.  He averaged a 6:54 minute mile.  I am very proud of that boy and can't wait to see how he does at his next race.

Look who finished 28th out of 463 runners!

Message of the day...

Yesterday Jacob wrote a message on our whiteboard, it said - "Hay is for horses."  Today Benny wrote a message -

Help others - Benny's message of the day!

January - the month in review

January was a busy month for us.  Work was busy and the kids were involved in several activities.

Basketball was in full swing for Jacob.  He played on the school team.  The team had a game or practice 4 days a week.

Benny's schedule was actually the busiest of all of us with ski club, basketball and Chinese lessons.  Plus that kid's social calendar was full of birthday parties and sleepovers!  George joined Ben each week at ski club and the two of them enjoyed exploring the trails and terrain parks.

We also celebrated Benny's ninth birthday in January and had a sleepover party with 5 of his buddies.  We started the party with some tubing at a local ski mountain and then enjoyed Legos, pizza and a Star Wars movie.  What else could a bunch of young boys want?  That same weekend we had the family party for Ben and celebrated with my folks, in-laws and sister.

Benny at ski club.

Benny off the jump!

Getting the birthday party crew to the ski mountain for tubing!

There they go!

Benny.

Kid party.

Benny and Grampy at family party.

Blowing our the candles at family party!

Need to get back to this blog....

Here is a picture of the boys taken at Redhook yesterday evening.  After doing some serious shoe shopping for Jacob - he needed waterproof shoes, George and the boys decided a snack and some relaxing was needed.

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Day started off with Benny running down the hall at 3:00 am.  The boys later told us they were up from 1:00 am onward.  Not sure I believe that, but those kids were sure tired.

At 7:30 am, after being up for a couple of hours, the boys woke up George and our Christmas festivities started.  Later that day we headed into Portsmouth for Christmas dinner with my family.  We had a great time and ate way too much good food!

Here are some of the highlights:

Benny and his big gift!

The latest addition to my nutcracker collection.

It is not Christmas without a Steeler jersey!

George in his new hat working on a puzzle.

And playing Scrabble...a present for the boys.

And how can you not like Seinfeld Monopoly?

The Sofarelli sisters.

And some Christmas Day football!

Benny played a little Jingle Bells for us.

Jacob's shirt tells you when there is WiFi available!

Michele and Rick.

Elizabeth and the sock monkey!

Christmas Eve 2011

For the last five years or so, we have celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with my in-laws.  This has become a tradition now.  Grampy, Grammy and Aunt Stacy are regulars and sometimes George's brothers join us depending on their plans for the holidays.

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed some great company, good food and way too many presents.  We also started a new tradition and Grammy read The Night Before Christmas to us in front of the fire.  (We had wanted to read How the Grinch Stole Christmas but my organizational system failed me and we could not find that book on Christmas Eve.  We have since found it!)

Usually George and I are up until the wee hours of the morning making final preparations for Christmas Day - wrapping presents, washing dishes, etc. but this year we were done by 10:00 pm.  How nice!

Here are some pictures from the day:

My Christmas Eve table.  George made the birch candle holders.

Grampy and Aunt Stacy before we dug into the gifts!

Dinner time!

My youngest boy.  Listening to Grammy read.

Popular gifts from Aunt Stacy.

Twas the night before Christmas...

George was pleased.

Stacy and I were enjoying ourselves.

Opening gifts is hard work.

Family shot!

Sneak preview of Christmas Card...