Author: Shaun Setlock

First year without this OG; miss you buddy.

Let’s start with the decorating! Wasting no time following Thanksgiving .. and got a good hand from the little helpers this year. 🙂

A certain little elf loved the village …

… and his bells! 🤣

Cookie day! Again, so much done by the helpers!

Gingerbread houses were sooo good this year!

G = Gabby, D = Daddy.

Time for the Christmas Eve meal tradition; lasagna! Also, some mead from our friend Sean, who opened a meadery this year.

Sam’s favorite gift from the Christmas Eve unwrapping. He wanted to bring it into the shower since it’s a color-change!

Finally, time to get treats out for Santa.

Then Santa came!

Let the unwrapping begin … but first, we need to get the color-change Jeep out of the freezer!

Mini sticks!

Then it was a purse and a FedEx truck.

Hair chalk!

There was an ukulele uncoxing? 🤷

Stella stuffies! (Thanks to my friend Jeff from work for smuggling these away at an event for the kids. <3)

Toss-Across Tic-Tac-Toe. (Which we’ve been playing non-stop.)

And lots more books, puzzles, cars, trucks, and so on.

Mommy got a smahtwool hoodie, new running gear, and another pair of kicks. She’s on her third or fourth set by now!

Daddy got a new hockey coaches bag, Linux apparel, a French Press (to go with the mustache) and of course .. candy!

And without further ado.. on with the Christmas morning tradition; monkey bread!

Lots of playing all day!

And tons of food prep and cooking. This year’s special meat-free main was an acorn squash.

Such an amazing and yummy meal, thank you Daniela!

Merry Christmas!🎄🎁

Happy birthday to our favorite lady!

The kids carried on their tradition of Woodwick candles.

And we picked out a new hat for our family’s biggest Bills fan!

We all headed to a Gabby hockey game, where they won! (Not pictured.) Daniela caught a nice sunset on our way home.

Daniela chose to order out for her birthday dinner, and got one of her favorites; vegetable biryani.

The kids helped make a nice chocolate cake.

Not our best singing!

Love you Mommy! Happy birthday!

The long overdue hockey scarecrow design and build!

Started with creative sketching.

Then some good engineering, like design requirements and a concept. 🤣

Assembly and dry testing.

Finished!

History

When Gabby and I walked through the open house back in 2022, one of the first things we told Mommy when we got back was .. “It needs a kitchen.”

Needless to say, as soon as the cabinets were ordered, we were keen to remove any of the old ones that were deemed “non-essential”.

Believe it or not, this was better.

The Before section!

Cringe …

There, all done.

Begin! More Usable Kitchen!

Thank you PODS. You were perfect for storing all our cabinets and materials!

The interior wall has the baseboard heating and had been underutilized as a result. We chose to meet this challenge with a creative solution, and are very pleased with the extra countertop area and cabinet volume!

Not bad for our first time hanging cabinets!

Chipping Away on the Exterior Wall

Daniela was always working ahead with drywall and paint prep so we could hang a cabinet or two, as time allowed. We always put the fresh cabinet immediately “into service”, so the next one could be emptied and removed.

Back to the “Kitchen Expansion”!

We hung ‘upp-ahs’ as ‘low-ahs’ (in a Boston accent) to create our base cabinets on the interior wall.

And added two new receptacles. Temporary plywood to make it immediately usable.

And easily the most brilliant idea of the whole project (thanks to Daniela!) was using matching maple table legs to finish the look. Ready for granite …

Finally, an Over-Range Microwave with Vent!

As incentive, Daniela said she would start making some of our favorite family meals only once the microwave and vent was installed. Very smart lady ..

As promised …

First Piece of Granite!

We were so giddy. (Not pictured. HA)

Goodbye Base Cabinets!

After the 4th of July, we could finally pull the trigger on demo’ing what remained to be perfectly timed with the delivery of our next piece of granite.

Shaun’s copper skills were rusty but fortunately, not leaky.

Bye bye …

Demo day!

Awful …

Cut out all the grossness.

Time for the new base cabinets!

Gabby pretending to be a dishwasher!

Hardware close-up.

Second and final piece of granite! Really happy with the granite vendor, they were wonderful to work with.

Final Connections!

No expense spared!
– Under-sink large carbon filter system with a deck-mounted fountain.
– Massive 1HP disposal.
– Single handle faucet with deck-mount soap dispenser.

One of my favorites; a retaining bar that is captured within the cabinets to prevent the dishwasher from tipping.

Back to a working kitchen! Total downtime was about 2.5 days. Not bad!

Learning Tile!

We are so proud of Daniela for learning how, and doing a great job, with the backsplash! Thank you!

Final Mile: Toekick, Riser, Scribe, Crown

Cherry On Top: New Tech For The Busy Family!

We decided to finally retire the whiteboard calendar, after more than a decade of keeping us all on the same page. Leveraging much of what we already host ourselves, we now have a digital version that is completely run by us with no dependency on Google/Apple, etc.

First session! (2025.05.04)

It decided to rain before Sammy’s first official ice time, just like it did for Gabby back in 2023.

No stranger to being laced up by Daddy. He was “pre-approved” to wear the hockey skates. New skaters are always handed out figure skates, since there’s less rocker in the blade.

Sammy was classically goofing around, writing his own rules, while boogieing across the ice without any real falls.

Once he saw the stars and shapes drawn on the ice, he was happy to pick up the pace.

His balance is sooo good; we were all surprised when he started doing all the teacher’s move without hesitation.

Great first skate for Sam! Big (rink rat) sister approves!

It has been a great season! So proud of Gabby and her team for the all progress they made as players learning the game. 🙂

Last Game – Team Photo

A great team picture from the last regular season game!

Providence Bruins Game!

Here are some highlights from their intermission skate a Providence Bruins game!

Heading to our seats!

Sam loved see the “almost matching” Zamboni!

First group got to skate!

Then it was Gabby’s group’s turn.

And some video from ice level!

She got an awesome shirt, hat, and had so much fun!

Lookin’ Ahead to Next Season

Tryouts with Woburn.

Tryouts with Burlington.

Check out this amazing, custom banner made by Gabby’s awesome Aunt Julia!

Presents before school! Some beautiful rainbow heart hoops. 🥰

Some really cool roller hockey skates. 😎

Which had to be tried out before school!

And after! 🤣

And a B-I-Y (build it yourself) alarm clock.

And the “week of cakes” continues. Mommy and Daddy can’t avoid putting on the pounds on the Gabby/Daddy birthday week.

We are soo happy our friends were brave enough to join Gabby out on the ice for her birthday party!

So many friends! (Not all pictured.)

And of course the little brother was bouncing around. 😂

Pizza, cupcakes, and singing!

Our favorite lady is one year older today! ❤️

The kids were so helpful with wrapping.

Mac even had a present for Mommy too.

Sammy was first to pass his out, but then he ran off instantly so he’s not pictured. 😂

And we had a nice evening out at one of our favorites, despite a small snow flurry. ❄️

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday. Especially when life gets busy, it’s an excellent excuse to slow down and spend a day together as a family. Mac always likes that! 🙂

What’s the best part? Starting with the Macy’s Parade?

Or the amazing treats, like peanut butter pie, pumpkin decorated brownies, pumpkin bread, and cinnamon rolls? (Cinnamon rolls, not picture; consumed instantly.)

Or the big family dinner?

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

This weekend Gabby had some awesome fans come to support her! Their cheering must’ve been a boost because she scored her first (two) goals!

Since the games are so early, there’s ton of time for breakfast afterwards. 😂

Some bonus footage from warmups.