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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!

We were so happy that the Bodenstedts came to visit for Thanksgiving! The kids loved spending time with their cousins 🥰

Sammy loved showing Uncle Eric his Bluey book.

K-Pop Demon Hunters in the Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Putting on their own show? 🤣

Shaun and Gracie took the kids outside so we could get some cooking done.

Very proud of my apple pie ☺️

Let’s eat!

The next morning, we took a short hike. The kids loved throwing sticks and rocks in the creek.

Carving pumpkins!

We always have the best time trick or treating with the Shannons!

Spider and Ghost Spider are ready to get some candy!

2 hours and 2 neighborhoods later lol so much candy this year!

Mack’s Apple never disappoints and one of our favorite fall traditions. First stop is always the farm market to get cider and donuts! We got chased out by yellow jackets this year but still had enough time to enjoy the view!

First we pose then we pick 😂

We went pretty late in the season this year so the orchard was pretty quiet and picked over. Still able to complete mission Honeycrisp.

Let the eating begin!

Mission complete!

Bonus! Sammy’s two bottom teeth were loose before we went apple picking and all that apple eating was the encouragement they needed. He lost his two first teeth!

We had the best time at Alex and Maggie’s wedding!

Gabby with the beautiful flower girls 🌸

Cousin shenanigans 😂

Things got pretty wild 😝

Margo, Nonno and Nonna came for a quick visit! Margo had lots of love for Gabby 😭

Showing Nonno her crystal collection.

Sammy showing Nonno his tractor.

Silly cousin stuff 😂

Watching Gabby at practice!

Singing to Aunt Julia. 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.

It’s not summer without ice cream!

Enjoyed lots of quality time together ❤️

Lots of shenanigans.

Nova Adventure Park!

Many bike rides.

Fun at the splash pad!

4th of July pool party at a neighbors house.

Backyard fun with friends.

Baby deer that was born at the start of summer. It’s much bigger now!

Snacks in fort.

Gabby got her library card!

Some science fun! Thanks Grammie and Papa for the fun science kits.