Christmas Day at the Hammonds!

A grand time was had by all the the Hammond Homestead on Christmas Day. First, we had a wonderful, yummy spaggetti and meatball dinner. Followed by present opening ! Mallory was Santa's helper and passed out gifts, evening opening Ama's for her as she broke her arm a few weeks ago and is in a sling.
Ben was conscripted as Ama's picture taker, and he did his job well. Two rolls of film well... :)

Here's Ama, Chrissy, and Mallory (who had decided it was nearly time to stop opening and start playing!)And of course Charms, aka the Charming/Charmer dog, who just had to sniff all the presents looking for hers... And this next picture is of Mallory... She kicked her Auntie Joy off the couch so she could sit next to Uncle Ben... We had a great time this year, and we hope everyone else had a wonderfully Merry Christmas!! Best wishes and many blessings for the New Year!!!

Pre Christmas Blizzard = Snow Days for Us!

The week before Christmas was an interesting one over here... We were expecting snowstorms because the weatherpeople told us so...and the storm was about 8 hrs ahead of them. Ben's school closed before the storms even hit the area, and I only had to work 4 hrs (but drive home barely able to see anything because everthing was WHITE). Over the course of the weekend, we shoveled/snowblew out the driveway four times, with the last at 5am (sorry neighbors!) Monday am. Then I came back inside and found out that not only did Ben not have school, but I didn't have to go to work either! I actually wasn't upset about finding out after working on the driveway for over an hour, after all, if I'd waited to clear the drive then I would have had to work that day... :) The next two pictures are of the drive and walkways Christmas eve, when the snow had already melted several inches...

I think it's hard to judge amount from these pictures (blame the photographer-me), so the drifts on the sidewalk were over knee deep before I shoveled, and the drifts at the end of the drive (thanks to wind tunnel between the two houses and the city plow) were just about waist deep before I cleared some room. And I'm 5'5.5" Needless to say... we had an interesting weekend.

And this is the Thunderkitty on her christmas present, admiring the tree... or maybe deciding if she is going to join the kitten in chewing on it...
And here are our family stockings.. Can you guess which ones belong to whom?
And here's a full length of our tree. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out this year, although I had to use wooden ornaments along the bottom thanks to that darn kitten... :) They don't really go with the tree theme, but neither do broken shards of ornaments...so I guess I'll live with wooden ones!

A very belated blog- Sorry!

Hello All! I apologize for being so far behind in posting- most of the blame can fall directly onto World of Warcraft's release of Wrath of the Lich King. I get home from work during prime playing time, and generally go to bed before Ben is done for the night. And then it was holiday time! So, a brief update (as if I am ever brief...). Things continue to go well for Ben and I. I still love my job, and Ben is back to a full time schedule. I'm singing in my church choir and playing bells in the bell choir- my first bell performance was a few weeks ago and I haven't been that nervous in quite some time! We had a good November, and then I got my wisdom teeth out the week before Thanksgiving- probably not the best timing, but I healed relatively fast and was able to eat dinner on Turkey day. And we had plenty of leftovers- Here is Ben's mom, Grandma, and sister working on divvying up the leftover loot.
And here is Ben, the bearded one, and me before stuffing ourselves... Ben is liking his beard, and even lets me trim it!
A few weeks later, December 7th I think, we all went on a train ride to the "North Pole." Who knew that the North Pole was in New York, had no reindeer, and Porta Potties for bathrooms? Guess who found out how cold those plastic necessities are? I'll spare you the details and say only that the walls and doors did nothing to keep out the below zero windchill...

Ben hates having his picture taken, but put up with a few pictures... We all had a fun time despite the numb toes and cold wind that blew into our car everytime people opened the doors to pass between the cars...while the train was moving...over snow and ice covered platforms...often with children... Needless to say, I continue to be unimpressed with the common sense of some people (myself included!)