After church and a smooth drive to Aurora we arrived to this view and a cozy dinner...
Then this sunshine the next day!
If you can't have a white Christmas you might as well have this sky. Started my day with a 3 mile run, then a walk at Long Point.
Stayed late and caught the sunset at the College Dock on the way home.
Next day-- more sunshine! A visit with Jamie and Aimee and her kiddos in Ithaca...
.. then it was time for another lake side park!
We stopped and said hi to Farley's.
And Great Gully.
And dinner with cousins!
Christmas eve. I sang with the choir which is always fun... and does offer the best view going. That's our Morehouse triad up there getting ready for lighting the candles.
The highlight of the service was getting to ring the bells! A cacophony of celebration.
The kids have shared the back room on air matresses the past few years at Claire's house. They chose to do it again this year even though there was a free bedroom. They really embraced the shared room, heading up there often during the day to hang out, read, watch youtube videos together, and annoy one another. Proper sibling behavior.
Nestled those sugar plums in and then got things ready for the morning..
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| Christmas is tiring... |
Morning!
Jack was pretty much over the moon about what he received. It should be noted that the skateboard has been used exactly 2 times since Christmas... but we'll give it a chance til spring...
Two of the biggest hits of the day were the Onion and Far Side books Nat got at the library book sale. Sometimes after the excitement of presents you just want to sit and read...
Annual Christmas day walk on the lakefront property, complete with requisite dreaming of the house we might someday build...
Then off for Christmas dinner at Betsey and Peter's house.
Game...
Cousins...
yummy food....
More gifts! Sarah took charge of the exchange this year, with trash bag stations and a box collecting area. She's such a sweetie.
Day after Christmas brought our annual trip to shop half-price at Target... and what seems to be an annual trip to see Toughannock Falls.
Evening: more time with our Morehouse cousins and (yet another!) gift exchange...
We headed home on the 27th with a detour to Niagara Falls. Anna had never been and she was just SO excited to see the falls.
We added a new experience for our crew-- walking over the pedestrian bridge to Goat Island, which Nat and I rather loved and which the kids endured. Several viewing areas, and the bridge to tiny Luna island, were closed for the season (despite the unseasonably warm weather that day), so we've laid plans to stop back in the summer. and make the trip across to Canada too.
