"It's the most stressful...I mean, wonderful time of the year!"

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for Christmas decorating, cookie baking, card writing, gift sending and gig playing (for those of us who work as freelance musicians). We actually really love this time of year. Joey and I both enjoy putting our Christmas decorations out, and this year we decided to invest in a much bigger and higher quality fake tree (is that some kind of oxymoron?). We also decided to use white lights instead of colored lights, and I think they look really beautiful. White lights are a European tradition, and I have always thought they looked very elegant.

We have had fun watching Clara experience her first Christmas season. The town of Stonington puts on an event every year called the "Stonington Stroll". People gather in the green and sing Christmas carols, drink hot cider and celebrate the lighting of the tree. This is followed by a lovely walk down Water Street (the main street with all of the restaurants and shops) where businesses have decorated their windows and give out free goodies and wine. Joey, Clara and I took part in the stroll and had a lot of fun singing and looking at the decorations. Joey and Clara were interviewed and photographed by a reporter from the "Westerly Sun"(a local Rhode Island paper) during the carol sing, and we were shocked to find that a picture of Joey and Clara with carolers in the background made the front cover of the paper the next morning!

We have been doing other fun Christmas activities. We took a trip to a Christmas tree farm where we picked up a wreath and a few other "real" holiday plants. Clara had fun looking at the wreaths and Christmas store. We also took a trip to Providence, RI to check out a mall everyone had been telling us about. It was a very nice mall, and Clara got to meet Santa (well, Santa's helper) and have her picture taken with him. She wasn't too sure that Santa was such a stand-up guy. At one point during the photo shoot she turned to check him out a little closer and promptly burst into tears. Overall though, I think it was an okay first experience with a mall Santa, and the pictures turned out pretty cute. We also visited an old Cider mill in Mystic, CT where we enjoyed fresh apple cider and wine tasting.

December can sometimes be a very busy month, especially when your husband is a church musician. Joey has had some really busy years in the past with multiple Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services to play. This year, however, is really pretty simple. There is only one Christmas Eve service at 11pm and then a Christmas morning service at 10am at Calvary. I am going to be playing violin for the Christmas Eve service. Also, in the past Joey has had to commute quite a distance for church and kill time between services. This year he will actually get to spend a lot of time at home and even enjoy a Christmas Eve dinner with my parents and me. My parents arrive on December 19th and will be here until January 2nd. My aunt and uncle from Virginia (Clara's Godparents) will also be here to celebrate New Years with us. We are really excited about seeing everyone. Unfortunately we can't make it home to MN this year, so we will miss seeing Joey's side of the family. We hope they can come see us sometime this Spring.

Clara is going to be 8 months old on the 20th. She is now sitting up all by herself. She can sit and play for several hours which allows me to get some good practicing done while I watch her. She responds well to my playing. She really likes my bow, and when I play something fast she laughs and claps. It's pretty cute. (Clapping is also a newly learned skill). She sleeps 9-10 hours a night, usually waking up once for a quick bottle and then going back to sleep. She is also starting to develop a better napping routine. Napping has always been difficult for her, but she is starting to have longer naps at more predictable times, which makes my life a lot easier. She is a sweet little girl, and we are excited about her first Christmas. She has a sparkly red dress to wear on Christmas day, and I recently took some photos of her in it in front of the Christmas tree. I used the best pictures for our Christmas card, so I won't post those until later. Here are a few others to enjoy.

It's easy to get caught up in the commercial side of Christmas. Joey and I sometimes have to stop and remind ourselves about the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. It is also a wonderful time to give thanks to God for the many blessing in our lives. Whatever your beliefs or traditions this time of year, we hope you have a magical holiday season with very little stress and a lot of happiness and love!

Joey, Erin and Clara

Thanksgiving 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Our Thanksgiving started out bright and early this morning at 3:45am when Clara woke up crying and was unable to go back to sleep due to pain from teething. Poor Clara suffered off and on throughout the day and only seemed to be able to find relief by sucking on cold teething rings. I guess someday she will be thankful for her teeth, but right now they are giving her a hard time.

In spite of Clara's teething issues, we were able to enjoy the day. Joey still managed to turn out a wonderful meal although he was quite exhausted from getting up so early with Clara. As it turns out, we did not have to spend the holiday alone. We found out that some new friends of ours from church were also going to be spending the day alone so we invited them to join us for dinner at our home. They contributed some wonderful food and wine to our meal. It was a fun afternoon with great food and conversation. Clara managed to take a long nap during our meal and seemed to find some relief from her gum pain later this evening.

Traditionally we have always decorated for Christmas on "Black Friday" and we plan to do so tomorrow. We were able to skype with a few of our family members today but I also wanted to write a quick entry wishing those of you who follow our blog a very Happy Thanksgiving. We hope you enjoyed the day with family and friends. Have a safe and fun holiday weekend!

Joey, Erin and Clara

Clara is 7 months old!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Today marks Clara's 7 month birthday. It's amazing how much she has grown and changed. At her 6 month check-up, she was in the 90-95th percentile for height and weighed in at 17 pounds. She is full of energy these days and requires constant stimulation. She is very social and loves going out and being around other people. She is extremely attached to mommy and daddy right now and will sometimes cry if one of us tries to leave the room. She does not appreciate having a toy taken from her while she is playing with it and will let you know her unhappiness right away. She is much more aware of things in general than she used to be. Overall she is very happy and loves to laugh and sing. In fact, she sings more than she talks. She hears a lot of singing in our house though, so I guess I'm not surprised. One of her favorite things to do is to "fly" in the air with daddy. See picture below! Daddy's "Flying" game never fails to generate a huge grin. Clara also really enjoys looking at books. (She also enjoys trying to eat them).

Joey is in Minnesota this weekend. He was invited to perform a recital on the concert series at Augustana Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, MN. In fact, as I write this he is performing. He left Friday and will be back tomorrow afternoon. He always enjoys going back to Minnesota to perform because he gets to see many of his friends and family members. Fortunately for me, my dad was able to fly out for the weekend and help me take care of Clara. He and Clara have been having a lot of fun together hanging out and reading books on the couch. Clara is pretty crazy about her Grandad. My dad is returning to Minnesota on Tuesday and will celebrate Thanksgiving with my two brothers and their families, which will include seven grandchildren. He is really getting to enjoy being Grandad this month!

Joey, Clara and I recently spent a day in Newport, RI. We really enjoy going to Newport to shop and look at the grand mansions and ocean views. Last fall, when I was 3 months pregnant, we took a "baby moon" to Newport and spent one night in a beautiful B&B. At the time we did not know whether we would be having a girl or a boy. We had, however, chosen our baby names and we knew that we were going to name a baby girl Clara after the Nutcracker ballet. When we opened the door to our room at our B&B, the radio was turned on and music from the Nutcracker Ballet was playing. Looking back, I think it must have been a sign. During that same trip we checked out a Christmas store and purchased an ornament of a girl dancing with her nutcracker and the name "Clara" written at the bottom. It was fun to return to Newport with Clara. She enjoyed looking at things in the various shops. We are thinking about going back in December to see some of the decorated mansions and perhaps make a visit to Santa Claus.

Hanging out in Newport, RI

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week. We will be spending the day at home and Joey will cook his usual yummy Thanksgiving feast. When we don't have company, we always try to limit the amount of food we make, but inevitably we end up making a meal which could feed a small village. Oh well, it's fun and we enjoy the leftovers. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Joey and I have so many things to be thankful for this year, especially our little Clara.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday,

Joey, Erin and Clara