Family Gathering

When we moved to the DC area 15-1/2 years ago, young and naive,  most people assumed that we didn't know a soul.   Really, though, our family's ties to this area run pretty deep.   Glen's parents were both born in Washington, DC and Glen's mom even graduated from the same high school as Spencer and Cami.   When we moved here, we had Glen's paternal grandparents living nearby, as well as three aunts and their families.     

The Crain side wasn't represented yet, but they soon changed that as well.   Over the course of that decade and a half that we've lived here, we've had all of my seven siblings do at least a short stint living in the area.   Four of them have settled down and made it their home.    

My side of the family is pretty tight knit and we see each other pretty regularly.   Glen's family, however, is another story.   When Grandma was alive, we used to get together with them a couple times a year.  Since she passed away a few years ago, it's been a much less frequent occasion and we miss seeing them as much.  So when Glen's aunt hosted a cousins' get-together a couple weeks ago, we  were excited to go!  

↑↑↑ This was all the Goold cousins except Glen's five siblings and Stephanie.   ↑↑↑

There were kids galore...

and lots of activities to keep them busy 

for the young...

and the old.   

It was fun spending time with some of the younger generation...

There was some serious adorableness going on there...

and I couldn't get enough of this smiley little sweetie-pie!  

My girls were excited to get their fill of baby-loving while they were there!  

Cami's the cousin once-removed in this picture, but Jane and Jill are much closer to her  age than Glen is!

Danny and Jeff had a little impromptu jam-session going on that was fun to listen to!  I knew that musicality ran in the Goold side of the family, but I had no idea how talented they were! 

This little cutie, Tristan, was very impressive!  He is barely two, but can name every single one of the animals in this set....in English and in Farsi!    And I'm not just talking dog, cat, cow...  He says daschund, polar bear, jaguar, etc.  

We all really enjoyed the time we spent together that day and it was great to reconnect.  They may mostly live in the DC area, but we definitely don't see them often enough!  

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Senior Prom

Sources have informed me that I have been negligent in my blogging responsibilities of late. Normally I would protest and point to the handful of blogposts I've written in the last week as proof of my loving devotion to the blog, but alas it would all be a lie.  While it's true that I keep typing words and pressing publish, it has been with all the passion of a burrowing cicada in year 8 of its 17-year life cycle.

I could blame it on the rain, but Milli Vanilli already did that and it didn't work out so well, so I will just accept responsibility for my sleep deprived posting and apologize profusely to you and to the entire universe for making you wait three whole days to read about Spencer's senior prom.  I will make it up to you though, by blogging about it with a searing zeal  that would put any newly awakened cicada to shame.

Spencer, the most dashing eighteen-year-old  this world has ever known asked the fairest princess in the land, Jill-erella to accompany him to the final dance of his illustrious high school career.  Some people call it "Prom", but at our house we just like to refer to it as  "The King's Grand Royal Ball of the Century".  No matter what you peasants call it, I just want it to be known that our young hero has set an unattainable standard to all peons who think they know how to creatively ask someone to a Grand Royal Ball of the Century.  

Flowers--✓
Homemade cupcakes (made by Spencer)--✓
Armies of ants--✓
Chalk message on sidewalk--✓

 Seriously!   Who, but Spencer, would have ever thought to train entire ant armies in the special academy of cupcake writing?  None, I tell you, none!  He is the new standard for prom awesomeness.

After Jill-erella was irresistibly drawn to his creative culinary genius and agreed to accompany him (are you surprised?), ball planning went into full gear.  And when I mean full gear, I mean literally 47 text messages per second being tossed around in group messages to the entire senior class.  Spencer's phone literally buzzed for nine straight days and even now sometimes in the middle of the night I still think I hear it buzzing.  But then I wake up and realize that it's only the sound of my own snoring waking me up again (got that from my dad).

Finally on Saturday,  the big night arrived and all the plans fell into place.  Catered Uno at a friend's house, a rented bus, pictures on the Potomac, the Royal Ball itself where they dazzled everyone with their gorgeousity, and finally breakfast at the Illustrious  House of Pancakes, where I hear tell that they ate only caviar pancakes smothered with truffle sauce.

It was a dream come true.


Literally.

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Christmas Guessing Game

All of the following statements about our Christmas are true, except one.  Can you guess which one? 

1.  I made Ellie and her doll matching dresses.  While Ellie is absolutely in love with the idea of matching her dolly, the whole sewing process reminded me why I don't do it very often.  

2.  Adam got a Lord of the Rings Lego set, a present which has already been well-loved and much compared to the book and movie. 

3.  Spence was the happy recipient of his first smartphone!   

4.  One of my kids drove me to tears on Christmas morning because of their ungracious responses to a couple of the gifts they opened. 

5.  Emma knitted Cami a super soft scarf in just the color she wanted.      

5.  I got a microphone and stand to help me prepare for some upcoming auditions I have.

7.  Emma got some stylin' new clothes! 

8.  We ended Christmas day with a trip to the theater to see Les Mis.  It was spectacular and despite the criticisms about the singing/acting I keep reading about on Facebook, we absolutely loved it. 

9.  Glen considers Christmas 2012 to be one of the most peaceful ones in his memory. 




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