End of 2008

As my family has pointed out/nagged, I haven't updated the blog in quite some time. Hopefully people realize that although I may not have time to type something up, I do try to update the gallery pictures every month, so there are November and December galleries with plenty of pictures from our end of year adventures. Now I have to remember where I left off...

The holidays were a bit hectic and exhausting. Thanksgiving had its ups and downs. We left for Massachusetts the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I worked out of a subsidiary of Scholastic Media in Watertown for the first few days of the week. What seemed like a great plan to have a more relaxed visit with less travel stress and more time with Mima became a bit stressful as Quinn decided he didn't like being away from home and would cry all night long, no matter where he was in the house and who was with him. Top that off with Mima being sick all week and it was a tricky week to get through. The day after Thanksgiving we were able to visit with some of my old friends at a USY (Jewish youth group) reunion at my former temple. It was great to see people I hadn't seen in ages and all of their kids.

In December, Lyla and I made a special trip to the Dora and Diego exhibit at the Children's Museum of Manhattan. It was Lyla's second time there and my first. Lyla and her friends Lily and Zoe (and their respective mom's) went to Macy's to check out the store's winter wonderland. Back in Astoria, we all had a great time at Lily's house for the moms' holiday party.

Then we headed out to Oshkosh for Christmas and brought our menorah with us, as the first 7 nights of Hannukah were during our trip. Unfortunately, Quinn also brought his aversion to sleeping anywhere away from home which made for some sleepless nights for either Erin or me each night. On the positive side, Lyla and Quinn had a great time playing with Keira and Will and getting lots of love from Grandma Jane and Grandpa all week. Lyla got to build snow forts and snow men in the deep Wisconsin snow. We also got to visit with lots of Erin's friends, which is always a lot of fun. Then the girls got down on the dance floor at Kelly Hoxtell's wedding.

Back in Astoria, we spent New Year's in Astoria at Zoe's (and her parents) house. The kids actually made it to about 11:00pm, but we had to leave at that point and they were asleep by the time the new year rolled in.

Belated Happy New Year to all! (Or relatively recent if you're Chinese!)