Merry Christmas, Happy Everything

We celebrate Christmas today here at the Ramsay house. Ashley and Uriah came tonight, we wrapped up wrapping and I'm looking forward to opening presents and eating breakfast. Landon put his reindeer food out, we'll see if it's still there in the morning.

A photo every couple of days?

My friend Emily has a great, no-fail blogging method...post every day, a pic or two with a one-line description. I think it's perfect and I'm going to try to adopt her style.

So here's a few from the phone:

The first: Gord and I went to Boston for our anniversary. We occupied the room at the top point...very lovely view from there.

Then a pic of G on the subway.

Sweet tile on the walls at Smith and Wollensky :

Breakfast with my Gord. Thankful for that man.

See you tomorrow? :)

More Snow and More Snow days

Lots of snow, lots of fun! There have been so many snow days and so many "opportunities" to shovel and clear walkways and even the roof! Uriah was the only person brave enough to get on the roof, then Adam got up there too and the two of them made quite a difference in the roof. Uriah left our house to go to Jim and Emily's to clear their roof as well. Oh to be so young, motivated and strong :)

Maura and Landon had fun with the crazy dog. Kona loves the snow, poor Saff doesn't.

Dad and Adam working hard;

Adam and Gord both have the same Mac, gord and I both have the same phone and case. I think I need to Bedazzle Gordie's so that he can pickk his stuff out easier.

Dave made his way through the waist deep snow to the back door, which had not been shoveled yet. Kona made quite the entrance:

One of David's favorite foods is "cheese stuck to the pan" and he makes it himself. Here is the sequence of events.

I've included some pics from around the house. It's been wonderful to be home on all these snow days, even if I have been working at home here for most of them. I love being here in my own space with my own people and really living here.

A christmas gift from Beth- what a special gift and a big surprise. Lots of great recipes in there too.

I'd like some more of this please.

How much do I LOVE my pink Bible? LOVE it a million as Landon would say. Isn't it pretty? I made the little bookmark in a meeting at the Saugus conference during a slow segment, shall we say. Maura taught me how. She opened up her little bag of tricks and had all the embroidery floss, scissors and Scotch tape to tape it down with. Seriously, so CUTE!

My dear old favorite dog. I heart this dog so much. I wish she wasn't turning 9.

From Etsy seller thewheatfield, we always need a reminder.

Sweet sunshine

49 shots of Uriah clearing the roof, Adam is some of them too. Thanks Uriah, you are awesome!

Quote of the week:

Landon to Maura: "You're treating me like people treated Chicken Little."

Mr. December

Happy December! This fellow, handsome one that he is, will have a birthday on Friday. He old. Not really actually, compared to some people out there, but let's face it, he's twenty years older than when I married him. We've grown older together and it's a good thing!

This guy here used to be my baby. For three years it was just him and me all day long. What a great segment of life that was, I have great, great memories of those days!

Here is an outtake from our photo shoot in October. It still cracks me up, if you can, zoom in on Landon's face. This is why I have to shoot so many photos to get one good one.

We're gearing up for the holidays here, the tree is up; Gordo just bought me some Christmas Blend decaf from Starbucks; there are lights and garland on our stairs...it's the holidays! We are making cookies tonight and the boys are watching a football game.

We just came back from the Bible conference in the Boston area and had a great time staying with friends who have kids Maura and Landon's ages. They got along amazingly well and Adam and David were very entertained by their busy little one year old.

I found it amusing that I was telling someone who still has mostly younger kids, (as opposed to me having just Landon who is younger- it's all relative) that I had only packed Landon's clothes. The "older" kids had packed their own. She was joking that the true test of success would be on Sunday morning- if the kids actually had all they needed. Well guess who was wearing the same thing on Sunday as they wore Saturday- MOM!! I forgot a critical wardrobe item and ended up having to re-wear my outfit. The kids- all set, no issues. Deep breaths........ I guess I need more practice?!?

Hope your holiday season is warm, safe and cozy! What defines a great holiday season for you?

• Family
• holiday smells
• traditions
• certain foods
• memories made
• travels
• lights
• decorating
• fires in the fireplace?

Leave a comment and share your favorite things about the holidays- inspire us!

We are twenty/We took a picture.

On Saturday we endeavored to take a family picture of ourselves. We had a location in mind that I have had my eye on for a long time, maybe two years now. The object of my affection is an old hangar at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT. I have heard that Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart both flew out of there at some point. So we packed up the kids, camera stuff and headed out. Gord stopped at Starbucks and we all ordered hot drinks, setting the holiday mood for everyone. We were indeed in a great holiday spirit when we arrived at The Hangar.

Gord and the kids assemble in front of the hangar, at a distance so we could get the tower in. I was taking some est shots for exposure, etc. It was then that a problem we thought would be surmountable became an obviously insurmountable problem. We had no tripod. No amount of piling camera bag on top of car seat, on top of coats, on roof of truck, etc. could serve the same purpose as a tripod. So we all piled back in the truck and went to Best Buy to get a tripod.

Everybody back in the truck!



We arrived back at the hangar, still in the holiday mood, still smiling, and dancing.

We took lots of pictures and got "the one for the card"......but you'll see that one on the card.

We got married 20 years ago today. We celebrated by going to Vermont for a couple of days earlier in the month. Ash and Uriah babysat for us and we had an awesome quiet, relaxing mini-vacation. When I say relaxing, I mean that it included quiet dinners, a house all to ourselves, a 3 hour spa/massage, stopping wherever we wanted to shop and browse in sweet little shops, and great meals. It was a great getaway! Twenty years...I just find it so inconceivable that I have done anything for twenty years, but the reality is we're REALLy twenty years older than we were in 1990 and here we are, so much to be thankful for! I love that this is my life and God has chosen this for us, this colorful tapestry.

The kids let loose at the end and no, this is not the card pic!


Speaking of the holidays....I am waiting for Thanksgiving to pass and then we are diving headfirst into Christmas decorating and cookie baking! Last year was so disappointing as I had just started working at the cookies were lacking, the decorations few, and the holiday spirit nil. So onward to the cookies...we've marked a few pages, me and the little girl.





We'll call you when they're hot out of the oven!


Have a great Thanksgiving, I hope it is warm, happy, thank-filled and pie-filled.

Au-Gusto!

Someone promised me guacamole with a candle in it if I blogged again. At least I think that's what she said. It's harder to hear as I get older. Someday you will surprise yourself and hear yourself include the words "as we get older" in a sentance to your hubby, and you will be discussing something like using mouthwash and you realize it's all going to go downhill from there.

My dear hubby threw a very nice party for me on Saturday, with a guest list that was full of surprises. It was a great day and I will show you some pictures of all the friends that came. The food was incredible, he went to Groton and bought southern style bbq from Chester's, one of our favorites. I promise to add pics and details in another post. It was a great day with wonderful friends and my little sisters!!

Steve and Thianna stopped by for a short but great quality time visit. That was awesome :)





Landon turned 6, Maura made him a sign, take a moment to read the things she wrote.

His party is not til saturday and it is being held at a martial arts school, he will cut the cake with a samurai sword....could get very interesting, very quickly.

My big boys are leaving on Friday to go a cruise to Bermuda with cousins, Grandpa and Maria, Vick and Dan. It is definately one of the highlights of the year. For them. I will miss them very much as they will get home and start school immediately. Boo hoo, I hate school starting.

Also, I asked for a cut in my hours so that I can be home when the kids get home. I think there will be much more homework support needed this year and three kids in soccer, two in Scouts, it would be a great thing for me to be home when they are. To say I hated leaving for work with them home during the summer, would be a gross understatement.

Also, the big move has happened, Ash and Uriah are now close enough to touch and it's a dream come true to have a sibling living nearby. They've been a gigantic help this month with the kids. I'm not sure the kids know what hit them. It's all good....

Summer shapes up.

The boys left today for PEI. Their departure was a whirlwind because we left packing until this morning and I did not get my traditional picture of the kids. I was sad that I forgot, just because I was distracted. But they did give me their big hugs.

After they left we went to say good bye to our pediatrician because he retired today. He has been their doctor since we moved here ten years ago. Lucky duck, he is retiring to Maine.


I then had to drop off a friend of David's who slept over last night. Or should I say, was at our house all night. At three AM, Landon and Maura came into our room to tattle that David and Brian were pranking them. Brian was writing on her nose and David was tying Landon's feet together. When we got up to investigate, both defendants were "sleeping" in their beds. I peeked in on Adam and saw that he was covered in stuffed animals; his lampshade; and a lava lamp but he was sleeping soundly. I told Dave and his friend to go to bed, fully expecting compliance. I guess I was born yesterday! For the next half hour, those random items piled on Adam kept falling of him as he moved in his sleep and Gord and I lay wide awake surpisingly amused at the nocturnal adventures of Dave and his friend. But they were still awake at 4 with their light back on, they were building things in the room. But when I made them go back to bed that time, they really did and slept until 9 when I made David wake up to pack for PEI. As expected, he was not happy this morning.

After we dropped David's friend off, I had to go into the office (even though this is one of my work from home days) and promised the M&L that if they did not interrupt me then I could be done very quickly and then take them to the park for lunch. They were perfect and whispered the whole time so we hit the park. It was 86* and humid and they wilted fast, within a half hour we were on the road home.

We stopped for ice cream- Boston Red Sox cups for ice cream.

Little soccer player:

Earlier this month:

Landon helping vacuum out the ashes from the fireplace so we could put the pretty candelabra in that spot instead.

And....Saff, so cute with Gordo.

Hope you are having a great summer so far!