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!