Day 22

Day 22 - Tradition

We love doing the advent calendar with the kids, but it's hard to find stuff to fit in the little boxes, so we've started using post-its with little notes written on them.

Day 21

Day 21 - Peace

A picture of our Christmas Cards wishing us peace and happiness.  Yes, that one in the middle is from my push-up buddy George.  He sent me a Xmas card.  Thoughtful of him to remember me :)

Day 20

Day 20 - Tree Topper

Kurt had this when we met.  It's been on the tree ever since.  Micaela really likes it.  This was the first year that Jon got to place it on the tree, next year it will be back to Micaela who is almost tall enough to do it without being held up.

Day 19

Day 19 - Candy Cane

They are slowly disappearing off the tree, but there is at least one left!

Day 18

Day 18 - Stockings

Day 17

Day 17 - Presents

Of course I'm not going to show a picture of the presents, they aren't wrapped yet!  (see Day 10)

So instead I'll show you a present I got from one of the full professors in the department.  It's homemade wine that is very good (well, was very good, it's gone now).  The label says "Grape Expectations, Holiday Red, Dirtman Special Reserve".  Thank you COL Fleming!

Day 16

Day 16: Outside Christmas Lights

Okay, not the greatest display of Christmas lights ever, but we were going to put them up today and then it started raining, so one strand is what you get.  And a Santa flag on a candycane pole.

Day 15

Day 15: Favorite Holiday Song

The Christmas Song.  One of these days I'm going to try a chestnut for the full experience.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos
Everybody knows a turkey and some Mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow 
Will find it hard to sleep tonight
They know that Santa's on his way
He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh
And every mother's child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer really know how to fly
And so I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from 1 to 92
Although its been said
Many times, many ways
Merry Christmas to you...

Or for an extra special experience, click here for Justin Bieber singing the song: YouTube Link

Day 14

Day 14: Christmas Tree

It's quite the departure from last year when we actually went and cut down our own tree, but I am quite thankful for this fake tree that came with lights on it and still looks quite nice.

Day 13

Day 13 - Family

It's Sunday morning and we are sitting on the couch watching a Christmas movie (we've been promising this to Micaela for two weeks).  Don't ask what we picked, it was a bad choice for a family movie (re-do tonight).

Day 12

Day 12: A Beautiful Sight

Okay, so I probably should have put up pictures of the kids, family, Christmas stuff, the Hudson Valley, West Point or any number of the beautiful things around here.  But this is more of what's on my mind right now- last day of classes is tomorrow!  It's been a fun semester, but looking forward to Christmas Break!

Day 11

Day 11: Green

Well, I've already shown a picture of our fake tree (which I am a huge fan of), so I won't do another.  Instead I'll thank Mari because Kurt took advantage of her generosity to redecorate the house with some cool new posters that he's wanted for a while.  This first one is mostly green, right?

Day 10

 Day 10: Wrapping Paper

I have no picture for wrapping paper, because we don't wrap presents.  If we do, it's usually in a plastic grocery bag.  Or for a really special occasion, tin foil.  That's why we give all our Christmas gifts to the wonderful Grandmothers to help us with the wrapping.  Thank you!

Day 9

Day 9: Something I'm Reading

Yes, that's an undergrad Physical Geography textbook.  I'm writing homeworks, quizzes, and exams, so it gets referenced a lot.  Very exciting, I know.

Day 8

Day 8: Ornament

One of my favorite Christmas traditions - finding the pickle ornament.  You can read about it here.

Day 7

Day 7: Bright

Referring to the candle below the pictures we just hung up in our dining room.

Day 6

I couldn't decide which picture was more indicative of our shopping trip today, so you get both:

Day 6: Shopping (a few small gifts and two rugs for the house)

Day 5

Day 5: Today's Temperature 

Perfect for staying inside on the couch under a blanket while the kids run around (and we'll just pretend that I posted this yesterday since I'm already one day behind from the start)

Day 4

Day 4: Joyous

Okay, so maybe school photos aren't exactly joyous, but the kids look happy!  It is crazy that Jon is old enough to have a school photo.  Glad they have Doug and Mari's photogenic abilities and not mine or Kurt's.   

Day 3

Day 3: Something Red - Gluehwein

And yes, that's a half eaten waffle that I'm having for dinner (had cereal first). 

Day 2

Day 2: Favorite Holiday Movie

I've been so busy working on this Dirt Skit for school that we haven't had a chance to watch any Christmas movies yet - but this is on the list.

December

Ok, lets give this a shot.

1. My View Today - putting the Angel on top of the tree.

This week in NY

What we've been up to this week...

Micaela has been busy with school and cross country.  I'm impressed that these middle schoolers go out and run around the track every afternoon and then once or twice a week race other schools running 1.5 miles each time.  She seems to like being part of a team, and what a good way to get in shape and be outside enjoying the fall weather.  She's in one of the gold uniforms sort of in the middle.

Every once and a while Jon stays home with Kurt.  And he usually says something cute like, "Dad, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  "I highly doubt it, but go ahead, what are you thinking"  "I think that we should make the biggest tent ever!"  And then this happens:

I've been doing lesson plans/preparation, some triathlon team assistance, and some Dirt Skit directing (I'll save the explanation for another blog).   And in the mean time I take pictures of pretty trees.  Two days after I took this picture all the leaves fell.  With the hurricane approaching I'm sure a few more will fall next week.

Kurt has been working a lot on the house and every room is looking really nice. This is probably our favorite place we've lived so far (just missing our W-burg neighbors).   One new addition was a small play place for Jon behind the couch in the living room so we can watch TV in peace while he plays.

And these are berries.  We read somewhere that they are supposedly "happy food" so we have them for breakfast.  We've also added ice cream to that list, it make us happy.  :)

5 Things...

I finally downloaded all my iPhone pictures and realized that since we've moved to NY, almost everything we've done can fit into the following 5 categories:

1. House / Yard work
2. West Point
3. Triathlons
4. Football
5. NYC

It kind of sums up our life.  It's a pretty good life.  Here are the pictures:

1. House / Yard work

2. West Point

That's West Point in the background. 

I think this is called the Thayer Room, they do awards and ceremonies here

That room in the back is where the academic board meets for a variety of reasons.  The chairs in it are very heavy (in case you were wondering).

These are the Freshmen (plebes) marching back from summer training to start their first semester.

This is Dirtman greeting the freshmen marching back.   The class we teach is Physical Geography, but the cadets call it "Dirt", so they created a Department mascot and named him Dirtman.

Parades are cool.  They do it before every home football game.  That's the building I work/teach at in the background

The cadet parachute team is awesome, they practice every afternoon when the weather is good enough.  I think these are actually the Golden Knights though, the Army parachute team from Ft Bragg.

3.  Triathlons

This was when we went to Placid over the 4th of July

And the pictures below were two weeks later for the actual Ironman.  There seem to be a lot of food pictures that accompany the Triathlon pictures... hmmm.  

Triathlons are complicated.  This is me laying everything out before doing my first one at West Point.

I volunteer with the West Point triathlon team and go with them to some of their events.  This is a race they did at Lake George.  It was a small race, I just spectated and cheered them along.

Lake George was also a cute vacation town, so we had fun after the race was over.

After Lake Placid, Kurt decided that he didn't want to waste his training, so he signed up for a Half-Ironman in the Poconos.  It was a nice event, but nothing like Placid.  While waiting for Kurt, the kids and I found this: 

This is LTC Allen, the Officer in Charge of the Triathlon team.  I basically work for him when I volunteer for the Tri Team.  He placed 4th in the Poconos Half-Ironman.  He's pretty good.

Triathlons tucker everyone out!

 4.  Football

The thing I've learned out Army Football is that Tailgating is more important than football.  No one cares if they make it to the stadium for the kickoff, but they tailgate before, at half time, and after each game.  It's serious business.  I guess you have to make it about the company and camaraderie when your football team has a record that is not so great.

5.  NYC

I've been to NYC twice now, once with my Department from West Point (with Micaela) and once with Ranj.  Between the two, I've seen most of the highlights.  Someday I'll take Kurt with me.

Ranj's iPhone took really nice pictures of the artwork at the Met

 Okay, I think this post is long enough.  It might take a couple hours to upload as it is.  I'll try to be more punctual next time!