Monday, January 5, 2015

Christmas Vacation


We kept the ladies pretty entertained over the nearly two-week Christmas vacation.

It started on the 24th with the girls baking some awesome holiday cookies all by themselves at home. Usually Lisa guides them through the process, but this year they were able to do everything on their own. Pretty cool. Bravo to Stella.

On Christmas Day we drove up to Salem to spend the day at Karen and Glenn's house. Nana and Papa joined us. As usual, Glenn's meal was delicious. And the girls made out like bandits with presents.

The next 2 days were spent relaxing in Natick. Nana and Papa took the kids to see the Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture. And Stella and I worked on her "westward expansion" school project which was quite an undertaking.

Red Lion Inn
On Sunday we headed to visit Nana Audrey in Albany with a stop for a delicious lunch at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge. Monday began the girls' triathlon of adventure with a few hours of rollerskating at the world's largest indoor roller skating rink.

Tuesday was part 2 of the triathlon with a trip to Maple Ski Ridge (notice that they don't mention "mountain" anywhere). Last year they took a 1-hour lesson at Maple Ridge but were not interested in skiing after the lesson. This year they stayed on the slope all afternoon after the lesson. By the end of the day they were both pretty awesome skiers.

Wednesday they got haircuts in anticipation of their big New Years night out at Lisa's friend Amy's house. We watched Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve (minus Dick), but little Marni started to fade. She took a short nap between 10:15 and 10:45 and was woken up in time for the ball to drop. Their first New Years Eve party!

On New Years Day we drove down to Bear Mountain Ice Rink to join the Asanovics and Stefanoff/Imhoff families for our annual get together. Both girls did their best to ice skate with help from Stefanoff and Hill. This was the final leg of their winter triathlon. After skating we ate and hung out at The Stadium Bar and Restaurant. Pretty cool place.

The remainder of vacation included a Midget Model reunion, a visit from the New Jersey Hoffmans, and a trip to the movie theater to see Night at the Museum 3. 

The beginning of Stella's project

The end of Stella's project. Look at that proud smile!
Chillin with the hound at Karen and Glenn's

Standing in front of Karen and Glenn's tree

Red Lion Inn

Roller babes

Ski bunnies



Marni doesn't like the roller rink rules





Marni's kooky ski pal, Lisa Asanovic


Friday, January 2, 2015

Are You Ready for Some Football?

On December 21st The Shepards and cousins Marcy and Mitch headed to MetLife Stadium to watch the Jets/Pats game.

This was Stella and Marni's first NFL experience.

The temperature at game time was about 40 degrees, but we were well prepared. We got our snacks and took our seats on the upper level.

I was expecting that the cold and boredom would have us heading home by halftime. But the girls were really enjoying themselves and weren't really bothered by the cold.

The game turned out to be a 17 to 16 squeaker that went right down to the last minute and luckily ended up with a Patriots win.

Marni (the Giants and Jets fan) wasn't happy. But she just needs to stop rooting for losers.