My good friend gave me a kit to force paperwhite bulbs for my birthday.  I’ve wanted to try doing this for a long time, but never managed to acquire bulbs and actually do it.  I was pretty excited about this gift!  Best of all, the bulbs sit on a bed…

So, I love the cello.  I’ve always loved the cello.  I can remember being a preschooler and seeing someone play a cello on Sesame Street, and then going to my Grandma Jan’s house and playing with my great-grandfather’s guitar.  Since I was so small, it made a perfect make-believe cello.…

Not only did our neighbors up the hill host an amazing New Years Eve Party, but they also called us the next morning to see if we’d like to come over for lunch.  We brought bacon potato knefla soup.  They cooked mussels.  Our neighbors half way down the street brought…

Favorite Grown Up Books Keeping the House by Ellen Baker– I actually just finished this book late at night on New Years Eve, and I loved it.  Historical fiction spanning some of my favorite times in history (1890-1950), characters that were extremely intriguing, a setting that includes a Victorian house…

We rang in the new year with scores of crazy children!  (a few hours premature, but really, right on time!) I’m sort of amazed that our neighbors up the hill keep having this party, but I’m really happy that they do! Snacks laser lights dance music a disco ball noise…

I learned how to take a screenshot on my iMac. Bluegrass music can be a lot of fun.  I loved singing the Bluegrass Mass with the Arrowhead Chorale and Monroe Crossing during our concert series this month.  It was a lot of fun to watch Monroe Crossing play on their own…

This is Grandma Bob.  He’s really the grandpa of the neighbors up the hill, but we pretty much consider him our Grandpa Bob too.  Right around the New Year, Grandpa Bob has an annual tradition of ordering fresh oysters from the West Coast to share with family and friends, which…

YaYa turned 13 a few days ago.  When she found out all the cousins were going to be here for her birthday, she requested sunny side eggs and polenta for breakfast in the bathtub.  (It might have been some kind of revenge?  I’m not sure).  So, Dr. Peds cooked up…

After a delicious ham dinner with mashed potatoes, we cleaned up the kitchen and Dot decided to take anyone healthy to Bentleyville to see the lights.  I went along to help. We decided that if we were going to Bentleyville on Christmas, we would really do every part of Bentleyville…

After a wonderful and crazy morning of stockings!  Presents!  Food!  Playing outside!  The little people,(some of which were feeling under the weather with viruses anyway) all went down for a wonderful afternoon nap.  After the big kidlets had read on their own for a bit, Auntie Dot and I rounded…