A flashback to November - Owen's been busy this year with his Cub Scout Den. Michael is Den Leader and they have worked hard at many acheivements. One thing we've been proud of is the community service projects. After leaving bags for people to donate food, Owen and his Den went back, collected the bags of food, and organized it at the fire station for delivery. What a lot of bags they ended up with!

Now back to our regularly scheduled photos...

Chris joined us for a whirlwind day in New York City (is there any other kind of day there??). We left at the crack of dawn and drove right to the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. They were having their holiday train show - how could we miss that? They made all the buildings from natural materials then ran a train around them. Michael and I stood under the Brooklyn Bridge. Uncle Chris and Owen pose in front of the Statue of Liberty. It rained in the morning but that didn't stop us from exploring the Gardens. Later it snowed which was beautiful.

The best part of the the day involved trains (wait, this trip was all about trains!) even waiting for the train.

At Grand Central Station, there was a laser lights show on the ceiling. The best place to view it? From the floor, of course. We really started something. I think Michael and Jonathan were the first to lie on the floor, but by the end, many people were. There was also a model train display upstairs so we checked that out, too. Jonathan could've watched for hours. Owen was content to watch them go around and around, too.

Next we headed to Columbus Circle and we found a light display in the mall. It was a great place to have some hot chocolate, watch the snow come down outside and the lights change colors above us.

Our first HUGE snowfall came on a weekend in time for us to do a lot of sledding, snowball fights and generally have a good time. We got about 16 inches. Here's the back of the house. The drift in the front made it really hard to open the door. Jonathan truly loves the snow. He's usually the first one to dive right in and do a few snow angels. Then it was time to do a little shoveling. I can't believe how much work Jonathan did before getting tired. When he finished the driveway, he started on the street. Before the snowplow comes is the best time to do some street sledding.

The next day, I took the boys for a walk. Well, Owen gave Jon a push in his car. Boy was that hard to steer! We went down to our beach and were the first ones to make tracks. It was so deep in some drifts, Jonathan had a really hard time. It was up to his thighs. The picnic tables were buried up to the seats. We spent a lot of time throwing snowballs into the river. They never melted, just turned to slush and floated away. The drifts on the beach were spectacular. This is our trail we made from the gate to the water. Going back was much easier!

Merry Christmas! The camera never made it out until after the chaos but I bet you can guess what we were up to after dinner. Jon and Nana read a few stories before bed. And Owen and Michael FINALLY finished The Lord of the Rings - which they had started last spring.

It was time for a day in Boston. Adrienne met us in the North End of Boston for pizza then came with us to Uncle Greg's barber shop for some New Years' haircuts. She and the boys master the I Spy book.

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