Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving at Gary & Paula's house and had a wonderful day!

Gary and Paula are always such great hosts. They really went all out with the dinner, everything was perfect! Gary and my dad carved the 2 turkeys.

This was the "big" bird. They had another in the crock pot.

One half of the table, with Gary, Kelly, Sheila, Rich, Paula and my mom.

And the other side, with my dad, me, Laura, Alex, and Kelly again. I think Arlene is down at the end. Paula's dad and his friend Arlene stopped by for dessert.

This was my very full plate full of food. I was so stuffed I could barely move.

We got to Skype with Greg, Diane, Emily, Derek and Mark. We wished they could have been there, but it was nice to share part of the day with them via Skype. Now that we have video phones, maybe the flying cars will be along soon...

Here's Laura looking very pretty with her pink bow!

And Kelly enjoyed the black frosting a little too much!

Laura took a nice photo of Eric and I.

Mom and Kelly played on their tablets.

Alex looked up Turkey Trot results.

And I enjoyed sharing my birthday with my wonderful family! Thanks for everyone who made Thanksgiving and my birthday such a special day. Especially Sheila, who made this adorable turkey cake!!

Oh... and who could forget little Jenny. She was there as well. Sitting under the table, playing the part of a canister vacuum.

ThanksBirthday

It's been a fun day today! It was Thanksgiving AND my birthday. All in one day. I'm thankful so for many things, most of all another year on earth to spend with those I am thankful for.

This morning we got up bright and early to continue an annual tradition. A tradition that was apparently born the same year that I was! For us however, it's just been a tradition for the past 3 years.

Alex changed it up a little bit this year. Instead of running the 5k, he ran the 10k. He's been sick for the past week, so I was a little worried about him. But he did great! He came in 33rd over all (out of over 500 runners) and ran the 10k in 42:14. Not too bad for being sick. He's the one on the long-sleeved white t-shirt in the middle.

Here he is heading towards the finish line. It was a great event. Over 1800 people ran the 5k, it was quite a crowd, but it was nicely thinned out by the time the 10k was over.

My parents are in town for the holiday, and my dad joined me in cheering for Alex. He said that next year, he wants to run the 5k. Should we hold him to it??

I'm going to post Thanksgiving/Birthday photos tomorrow. We went to Gary & Paula's for a wonderful dinner and I have lots of photos to sort through. Too many to do tonight. I'm stuffed and exhausted. But I had a great day!

Hello, It's Me

Eric had a mini vacation this past week. He took a trip east to visit his friend, Vic. He lives just south of Boston. They spent an afternoon at the shore in Scituate.

And they climbed on rocks and wandered around.

Then they went to a Todd Rundgren concert in Boston, at the Wilbur Theatre. I'm not sure how many times Eric has been to a Todd concert, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot. It was nice that he was able to take a few days off to hang out with an old friend. (And I don't mean "old", that they're "old", just old, meaning they've known each other for a very long time... )

Let the Holiday Season Begin

It's a sure sign that the Christmas season has begun. At least for me anyway. No, we don't put the tree up until December. And no, I don't start any real Christmas shopping yet. But the one thing I do that sparks a little Christmas spirit, is attend the local holiday craft fair at Alex's old Elementary School.

I've done this for many years now, and it's a nice tradition. Even before we moved to NY, I would try to attend a local craft fair. It's nice to support the local artisans, although I don't usually buy much. But it's also nice to take in the sights and the smells and get that little bit of Christmas spirit going.

New Digs

Tonight, WCNY kicked off its big "Capital Campaign" with an event at the architect's office who is designing our new building. They also happen to be across the street from our new building. And, their building is designed much the same way that our building is being designed. Using renewable resources and a combination of new and old materials.

There were about 300 or so WCNY supporters in attendance. We showed a few videos (all of which were created by Eric!)... and some of which are also on the wcny.org website. (Under the yellow Capital Campaign tab at the top of the page.)

This was the view from above. You can see the neat building in this picture. It has a very industrial and open feel. The person at the podium speaking is the County Executive. She was in attendance, as well as the Mayor of Syracuse and the Chancellor of Syracuse University.

We gave out some "bricks" to all those in attendance (They are miniature bricks.) As well as lots of literature, most of which I designed. (And is not pictured.)

This is a current picture of our new building site. The de-construction is going very well. If you look in the middle of the photo, there is a small portion of the building left standing. Apparently they found an old safe on the 2nd floor. They are waiting for someone to come and remove the safe, and then they're going to get someone to try to open it... maybe there will be a treasure in it! Or maybe it will be like Geraldo's opening of Al Capone's Vault... I'll keep you posted!

Motivation

I decided to start tackling the basement today. I had some motivation, so I thought if I waited, it would pass. So I jumped on it. It's been a disaster down there. It's become a dumping ground for anything and everything. I feel like a hoarder when I go down there!

This is how far we got today. I want to do a lot more, but this is a great start. Many bags of garbage will be leaving the house this week, lots of consolidating, throwing away, recycling. I need to figure out how to store the bins better. The other side of the basement is also a giant mess, so there's a lot more to do. But at least I feel like I accomplished something!

2 Cakes, 3 L's and a Wreathe

This week, Alex had his end of season cross-country banquet. It was at Meghan MacMurphys, one of our favorite places!

It was quite crowded with 40+ kids and their families. But it was a nice evening. The boys pictured are only half the team. Alex is the one in the white shirt and tie sort of in the middle of the bunch. The coach is the woman in the red shirt, on the right. She deserves an award just for dealing with 43 teenage boys on a daily basis! She's really a great coach and quite a motivator.

Alex earned his letter this year, so now he has 3. We only got one letter "back in my day"... and then pins for each sport. I guess these days they get one letter per sport and then from here on out, they just get pins. This is his cross country shelf. These are the racing bibs, ribbons, certificates, etc. that he earned this season. He'll pack them up soon and clear the shelf (except for the L's) for the upcoming Indoor Track season. He's getting quite a collection of memorabilia. I'm sure it will only grow from here.

In other random news, I helped create this wreathe at work the other day. It's going to the Food Bank for a fund raiser. I thought it was adorable!

Hot Stuff

A friend of mine gave us these hot peppers on Friday. There were more... but we used some of them. The round ones are Habanero peppers. Those, we have not used. They kind of scare me. I think next weekend I'll figure out something to do with one of them. The little ones we used in some delicious chili that we had for dinner tonight. I can't remember what they're called, my friend said they were kind of like a Jalapeno, but hotter.

I have to say it was some of the best chili I've ever made! It wasn't as hot as I thought it would be, it was perfect. And there was barely any left, so I think it was enjoyed by all. Does anyone know what to do with Habaneros??

Sectionals

Today was the long-awaited Section 3 Championships. There are some amazing, talented runners in Section 3, the most competitive section in New York State (perhaps in the country, really). I don't know if everyone is familiar with Fayetteville-Manlius, but they're good. I think there must be something in the water over there... I can't begin to tell you the monopoly that school has had on Cross Country, but it's pretty insane. The girls have won the National XC Meet 5 years in a row. They are the best in the nation by far. The boys aren't far behind. So when FM is in a meet, it's not really about who is going to win, it's about who might come in 2nd...

And yep, their fingers say it all. Liverpool came in 2nd! It was a surprise, they were not expected to place 2nd, more like 3rd or 4th. But they did it! It was a crazy race, top runners for the other schools went out too fast (to try to stay with the FM guys) and they died. Which is most likely why Liverpool did so well. But hey, they did it, does it matter how they got there, really?

Alex ran well. He won't tell you that if you ask him though. He's pretty disappointed. But I thought he ran very well. And I'm extremely proud of him.

He came in 8th for his team, and 38th overall. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the day for him though, is that only the Top 7 get to move on to Federations. So his season is over.

I thought I'd give a special mention to one of Alex's teammates, Anthony. He's a team captain and a senior. He's really worked hard the last 4 years and it's great to see all that hard work pay off. He individually qualified for the State meet and gets to compete at the State level. The photo above are the guys that all qualified for States, including the entire Fayetteville-Manlius team. Alex has 2 years left, and I can't wait to see the new goals he sets for himself and how much he succeeds. Alex worked so hard this season and is determined to do even better next year. But until then, indoor track starts on November 14th... so there's no rest for the weary!