Merry Christmas

from our house to yours.

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Bea's Harp Recital

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Christmas lights

I took these last night at midnight.
This side of the house the lights are red. Older lights.
New led lights.
This side is blue.

I love the look of Christmas lights in newly fallen snow.

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A Starbucks moment

Annabel stayed after school today and walked across the street to Starbucks to study and be cool while she waited for me to pick her up when Noah finished swim practice. This is the sight I saw when I went in to get her. I took this picture with my iPhone. She really was working on her homework and drinking hot chocolate. She was so cute, it nearly killed me. She told me all about her afternoon being a sophisticate at Starbucks. She is only 11, but in her mind she is 17.

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A new flute for Annabel

Annabel has been begging for a new flute for quite some time now... Years actually.
Well, we finally decided that maybe she was ready for something better than a 30 yr old rental that Music Lovers gave us 5 years ago.
So we bit the bullet and ordered 4 flutes from NYC for her to try out. Coincidentally, on Thursday, her flute broke--beyond what I typically can repair.
On Friday, 4 beautiful,new and shiny flutes arrived on our doorstep.
She played them all and found one that she thought had the warmest sound and called to her musical soul. She choose the Sedona Apache. It is the one in the purple lined case. She is so excited to have made this big step up in the quality of her instrument.
She had a recital on Saturday and played better than I have ever heard her. It brought a tear to my eye.
She also got to play in church on Sunday.
She was part of a flute prelude for the Christmas program.

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A Kodak moment

On Friday, one of Darren's partners, Laura, asked if they could use our tree for a photo shoot. I, of course, thought that was an absurd idea--my tree is lovely,but my carpet is horribly stained and waiting to be ripped out, my walls are blank, ugly and in desperate need of a paint job. She must be kidding, but she insisted that this was just what they wanted. She was a little nicer and said they were looking for tall ceilings and a neutral background.
Come to find out, her husband, Joel, was actually looking for a location for work. He works for Kodak.com and they were shooting for the Christmas day picture that will appear there.
My little camera corner and then there is the professional gear.
The tree looks pretty. The kids computer table is pushed out of sight. This is Laura and her 2 girls.
The professionals at work.
Their real family.
The fireplace should be in the pic. I think.
My blank walls and neutral carpet.
Noah took these while I was out.
See the disgusting carpet stains?
I was mortified and a little excited at the same time.
Check out kodak.com on Christmas day, you might see a little of my tree and maybe a little bit of the fireplace. Our friends will definitely be in the picture.
FYI, all I got out of this was a cool blog post. I'm not complaining. How many people get to see a behind the scenes photo shoot like this?

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A little snow

We had a little snow today. Not too much when we woke up, but by afternoon it looked like this. I had a friend get stuck in this between here and Buffalo. She had to spend the night in a hotel 30 minutes from home.
As bad as it looks, we had very little accumulation. Just a teaser of things to come.

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6th grade band concert

Annabel had her first 6th grade concert tonight. She has really enjoyed being in band and we are happy she is playing her flute more often.
I think one the things she enjoyed most was getting dressed up for the concert.
She had a great seat to see and be seen, which is very important to a 6th grade girl.

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Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving here. My youngest brother and sister and her boyfriend came to visit us. This was our first time to have family here for a holiday --ever. John lives in NYC now and Megan and Evan came up from Charlottesville, VA. John is 14 yrs younger than I, and Megan is almost 20 yrs younger.
The rest of the family (mostly) spent Thanksgiving together in Texas at Sally's.
Megan and Evan drove to NYC to pick up John and then drove here. What should have been a 6 hour drive from Charlottesville to NYC took them 12 hours and then they still had to drive here-another 5+hours. They got in at 5AM Thursday morning. Talk about holiday traffic!
For several people in our family, Thanksgiving is all about the pie. We had 7 pies for 8 people.
2 pumpkin
2 cherry/raspberry
3 apple
We didn't manage to eat all of that, but the turkey is all gone.
Pie making

John brought with him the game, Khet. It is a laser chess game that was quite the hit of the party.
I felt like my mother who was always mixing up the boys' names. "Tom, Sam, John, whoever."
I kept mixing up John and Noah's names and Megan and Annabel's. It nearly drove me crazy.
Thanksgiving dinner

On Friday we headed out to see some of the local sites. Noah stayed home to play Xbox. He's 13, and not really interested in spending much time with the rest of us these days.
Pictures from Charlotte Pier on Lake Ontario.
These guys got to experience crazy Rochester weather. It started sleeting sideways on us as we headed back to shore, and the waves were spraying over the pier. Fun, cold and crazy.

John and Annabel spent most of their time pickin' at each other.


Megan and Evan
3 siblings
John and the Kodak smoke stacks.
We played Ticket to Ride and Bea and I won both games! Woohoo!
More Khet. Noah loved this game.
Everyone usually thinks Noah looks like Darren, but I have always said he looks like John. What do you think?
Who does Noah look like?
We loved having family here to celebrate the holiday with and also getting to know Evan better.
And, Darren got the Christmas lights up.

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Look what I made

Stacy Julian had a project on her blog that I did yesterday. This is my version.

 

It was so easy and quick.

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Annabel's solo flute recital

She worked hard and we are proud of her.

Flute recital

click on the photo to hear her play

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Halloween

Halloween is a favorite holiday of the Pulley kids; the mom, not so much. But, I decided to make it easy on myself this year. I let Annabel buy the costume she wanted and the other two came up with their own costumes.
Darren always takes charge of the pumpkin decorating.

It's great that they are old enough to do most of it themselves.

The girls went to the ward trunk or treating. Noah stayed home to do homework (his choice). I made Darren come as well. I told him if he stayed home, I would be very mad for a long time. I spent the night complaining about being out in the wet, cold night. Is there an equivalent to Scrooge for Halloween? That would be me.

Bea and her best friends. I crocheted Bea's beret from a pattern from 1936. A little big, but she liked it.
We compromised on the costume. She had to add the t-shirt and she couldn't wear the fishnet stockings that came with it.
Noah went as Steve Irwin-his own idea and creation. He went out with friends this year and we didn't see him all night. Bea also left us for friends this year.

I got my tonsils out the night before, so I pretty much took it easy and have no pics of the kids trick or treating, but they had a good time and brought home a haul of candy.

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