Basketball Star

Maisie had a Sports Day at her school this past weekend.  Her class needed a 5th for their basketball team and despite never having played before, Maisie stepped up to fill the spot...

and..

(that's her, all elbows, in the green)

sank the winning basket in their first game!

here she is (in green with her year older doppleganger in blue on the right) riding the pine waiting for the second game which didn't have as good a result but her House took home the first place trophy at the end of the day.

Fortunately there are no photos of me playing in the Parents vs. Teachers game.  We were doing pretty well in the first half but had our butts handed to us in the second.  Maisie said I didn't embarrass her too badly though so I consider it a success.

Making it look easy for 51 years

March 4, 1960

I love this photo.  It's of my Mom and Dad on their wedding day.  

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing but they led me to believe that being married was easy; that you just fell in love and everything worked out.  I know differently now which makes me all the more proud to have such a great example of enduring love in my life.

Happy 51st Anniversary Funny and PJ!

Skating with old friends

At the first of the year we had a get together at the ice skate rink with Maisie's old friends from her primary school.

As girls will do, there was more chatting than skating but it was lots of fun!

Here is Maisie being pushed in a learner's chair just for fun and below is a group shot.

Not the greatest photos but I just wanted to let you know that we're still alive and enjoying what little bit of Winter we've had so far.

I was able to snowshoe a couple of weeks ago while there was still some snow at a reachable altitude in an area called Rathvel 

The visibility was not so great and it was very windy but I love being outdoors so it was worth it.  

I'll try to take more people photos for the next post.  Maisie is growing up so quickly and I don't want you to miss any of it.

Tanked

Maisie used more of her Christmas money (thanks G'ma and G'pa May) to upgrade George's digs:

.

 He got double the water capacity, a new (fake) Japanese tree and, a new (live) plant.  As fancy as it is, it was just too much for George to maintain and he gave up the ghost about two weeks after moving in (RIP George, you were a good fish and we're sorry we accidentally tore your fin off before we left on Christmas vacation).  We couldn't let such a cool tank go to waste so Maisie chose the beautiful Ningyo (not pictured here) and her two side kicks Sushi and Sumo (snails) to be the new tenants.  Here's hoping they live happy and healthy lives.

Maisie's Favorite Things

We were handed some pretty crazy weather to deal with over the Holiday so things didn't necessarily go as planned but we made the best of it.  

We had dinner with our friends the Williamsons and then went to Bryant Park to watch the ice skaters:

 We shopped for Muppets:

 Maisie designed this beauty, Joyce, at FAO Schwartz (thanks to a generous gift from Grandma and Grandpa Hinson in Florida)!

We went to the M&M store which I'm still struggling to understand.  An entire store devoted to M&M souvenirs.  Really?  Is there that great of a demand for M&M thimbles and spoons?  

We even survived the Blizzard and played in the snow with Uncle Kevin.  This is how his roof terrace looked after the snow stopped!

 And here we are forcing our way out the front door:

Maisie even got the chance to show off her tree decorating skills for a second time.  Here we present Georgina:

And the Christmas Peeps Wreath:

Oh, and they have this other tree in NYC at Rockefeller Plaza.  

That's about it for our Holiday photos.  I keep getting caught up in the moment and forgetting to document/photograph everything but we had a great time and came home with lots of happy memories.  Happy 2011!

Roselle

Even though we're going to New York to spend Christmas with my brother, we couldn't resist getting a little Christmas tree.  We started the tradition last year of naming the tree so this year we present Roselle.

Maisie made up a little poem for her:  

Roselle, Ma Belle, Sapin de Noël 

which means Roselle my beautiful Christmas Tree.

Here she is with just lights:

And here she is fully decorated:

Nice work, Maisie!

We had quite a bit of snow a couple of weeks ago but then came the rain and washed it all away.  Here are a couple of nighttime shots of the snow when it was really coming down.  Not great but we still get so excited when it snows so we thought we'd share the joy.

This is the snow in our courtyard:

And this is the view from our guest room window:

OK, time to snuggle up on the couch and watch our favorite Christmas movie, ELF!  Hope you're enjoying the Holiday Season wherever you may be.

Bern Onion Market

Every year on the third Monday in November there is an Onion Festival in Bern.  I went with a friend after we dropped our girls at school.  It was a cold, slightly wet day but it didn't stop the locals from enjoying their event.  I forgot my camera but I took a couple of photos with my phone and since I'm tired of looking at the Halloween post I thought I'd share them with you.

The market basically consists of stall after stall of these onion/shallot/garlic braids.  Some with dried flowers and herbs on them, too.  This particular vendor jazzed it up with a garlic hat.  I love it!

I've never seen so much garlic in my life.  I thought it was silly to have so many people selling the same thing but by the end of the day most of the stalls were empty!  You could also buy onion soup, onion tarts, onion/garlic spread, onion jelly, dried onion flakes (do I sound like Forrest Gump?)...pretty much anything you can imagine made from onions!

I bought this little beauty

and have already used an entire head of garlic.  So good!