Il est né Le Divin Enfant

I love the French carol Il est né le Divin Enfant (The Divine Child is born). I remember singing it ever year in my high school and college French courses and it always reminded me of the true message of Christmas. We have been so blessed this year and feel our Saviour's love for us every day. Merry Christmas to all on this glorious day and happy wishes for the new year.

New Job

It's probably time that I mention something about my new job, now that I've been working there for two months. I am the Site Director of an after school extended learning program in the North End of Boston. I love going to work each day because of the school's location and what I get to do. I'm in charge of the overall operations for my teaching site which includes the planning and implementation of lessons/activities for approximately thirty grade school students. I take the subway into the North End (the Italian quarter of Boston that has lovely historic brick buildings, cobblestones, and lots of shops and restaurants) and pick up my students at the Eliot Elementary School, then we walk to the park which is right along a beautiful waterfront. After playing at the park we walk to the Eliot Middle School building and have snack, story time, and homework time before playing group games and making crafts. Here are some pictures I've taken on my way to and from work the past couple of months.

The school shares a courtyard with the Paul Revere statue and the Old North Church.

Eliot Elementary School in November, no snow yet.

Waterfront along the park we go to each day.

Christmas decorations everywhere this time of year!

Bostonian architecture.

Passing the Old North Church on my way to the school.

The Eliot Elementary School in December

Snowball fight in the courtyard.

I feel very blessed to have found this job and to be involved in the Boston community with so many great kids and parents and coworkers. I'm on break for Christmas Vacation now but it will be back to work in 2014!

Hot Town, Winter in the City

Sometimes Jeff works at his downtown office and we get to meet up after work. I always feel like I'm on a little adventure going into the heart of the city. Tonight after work I took the subway from the North End to Downtown Crossing and walked through the shopping district before arriving at the KPMG office. The city is so beautiful, even in the wintry cold.
*Excuse the poor picture quality, I didn't have my real camera with me.

It's always fun to meet up with this guy : )

First Snow of the Year

We experienced our first real snow of the year this weekend! There had a been a couple days earlier in the month with snow flurries and chilly weather, but this was our first New England snow storm. We got about four or five inches over night.

We got an email sunday morning saying church would only be an hour long to avoid overlaping with any other wards so that no one would have to park on the steep hill that is usually overflowing with cars. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Program and returned home to cozy up on the couch and watch some christmas movies. Happy snow days from Boston!

Holiday Party

A special thanks to our friends Adam and Tory Thompson for putting on a wonderful Christmas Party Saturday evening. We braved the snowy weather to attend the gathering and enjoyed mingling with friends, sipping hot wassail, sampling the many holiday treats, and swapping white elephant gifts. A great time was had by all. Thanks Thompsons! And Merry Christmas to all!

Happy Christmas

The women's group at my church held their 50th annual wreath making party last week. It was so much fun! There were ladies wrapping wreaths like crazy and the whole room smelled like pine. You can probably tell from the asymmetrical shape of the boughs that this was my first time making a christmas wreath. But it's festive, and I love it. Plus it's December now, and we'll be going home for the holidays soon, so yay!

Thanksgiving 2013

We spent this Thanksgiving in Ithaca, New York with Jeff's sister's family. Steff and Joe will only be in New York for a few more months so we were happy to have the chance to spend the holiday with them. We had a great time getting Thanksgiving dinner ready and made some delicious pies!

Apple Pie and Spicy Ginger Pear Pie. Yum!

Some of Steff and Joe's friends joined us for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Maggie and Jack love Uncle Jeff.

The kids like to help out with the chores, but the vacuum is a little scary for them. Hence the head phones.

We also did some black friday shopping and got all of our Christmas shopping done. What a great feeling! The day after Thanksgiving we drove to the small town of Skaneateles where the townspeople dress as Charles Dickens characters and sing carols and roast chestnuts in the streets. It was so fun and festive!

Singing carols

Cute Maggie and Steffany

It was a fun way to kick off the holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving!

Soccer Star

Jeff was very happy to discover upon starting his new job that his company rents an indoor soccer facility, and employees can sign up to play every tuesday night. We went for the first time last week and it was fun for both of us! Jeff got to play his favorite sport again, and I got to reminisce about our college days when I would watch Jeff's men's league team in Lindon Utah at the 11pm games (it also made me miss my bleacher buddy Brooke Pollei).

Just before he scored a goal!

It was difficult to get some really good shots through the plexi-glass, but I thought these were the best. Way to go babe!

Freedom Trail 5k and the North End

Riding the Red Line into the city!

 After we returned from New York, we woke up early the next morning and met with some strangers at the Common and ran the Freedom Trail 5k! It was a very entertaining, low stress run. We followed our tour guide from one historical site to the next and would stop at each place to hear some interesting facts about Boston. It was SOOOO cool! Note: some of these pictures are from a phone and some are from our camera. The nice pictures of our 5k were taken by our running guide.

First stop was across the street from the Common at the State House

This running tour was awesome. We learned so many things that we never knew! Boston has such a cool history.

Paul Revere grave site.

Granary Burying Ground

Old Boston State House where the Declaration of Independence was first read.

Site of the Boston Massacre

Paul Revere's House

Bunker Hill Memorial

We became fast friends with our running partners on this two hour tour. The run ended at the U.S.S. Constitution in the Naval Ship Yard. Our running guide distributed t-shirts to everyone and bought us drinks at a nearby convenience store. Then we boarded a ferry and rode back across the harbor. We absolutely loved the whole thing and definitely plan to do this again!

Later that day we went back into the city to have dinner at the oldest running restaurant in the country! 

This was actually outside of a bar that is just around the corner from the Union Oyster House.
Some of the plans for the American Revolution were schemed here so we went inside to check it out.

The lights are up at Quincy Market!

What a fun weekend! Thanks for visiting, mom. We loved having you!

New York, New York!

My mom turned 45 this year and for her birthday she came out to the east coast! I boarded the Bolt Bus early wednesday morning from Boston to New York and met her at the Lexington Hotel in NYC.

The Lexington, Lexington Ave and East 48th Street (picture from google).

We spent a lot of time walking the streets of the city and taking in the sights.

I thought this building was really pretty among the tall skyscrapers.

One of the things we did while in NYC was to attend the filming of the Bethenny Frankel show. My mom was interviewed during the filming and we got on TV! The episode aired November 19th.

Inside the studio.

We also made a point at stopping at lots of fun shops as we walked through the city. Dylan's Candy Bar was packed with sweets from floor to ceiling. 

There was literally candy in the floor.

It was a fun time to be in Manhattan with all of the Christmas decorations being put up for the holidays.

In front of Rockefeller Center

We got a slice of each cake at Magnolia Bakery to celebrate the 14th which was my mom's birthday. Don't worry we didn't eat it all!

We also ate dinner at Serendipity! My sister's good friend Jake (who is going to school in New York and who also worked at my mom's candy store this summer) was able to meet up with us and share in on our celebratory evening. 

It was so festive at this quirky little restaurant. I loved the decorations.

Serendipity's famous frozen hot chocolate. So good!

On the last day we were in NYC we took a stroll in Central Park. It was so quiet and peaceful in the morning. 

It was fun to spend time in the Big Apple with my ma. We boarded a bus back to Boston to spend the rest of the week with Jeff! Part two of mom's visit to come.