Thanksgiving Weekend

Just a few more pictures from Thanksgiving Weekend...

Tara and I at dinner on Friday night.

Mom and Dad at dinner on Friday.

My dad trying on a dapper hat at O'Hurley's in Shepherdstown.

Colin used his own money to buy this nifty walking stick at O'Hurley's.

We took Ava (Tara and Jeff's dog) down to the Potomac and she dashed right in. She didn't even hesitate. Here she is coming out...

...before heading back in.

Colin down by the river.

We took in more of the sights and activities of Christmas in Shepherdstown, which included free face-painting for the kids (and maybe adults, too, if they wanted?) and a visit with Santa.

Friday Visit to Erin and Eric's

On Friday, we drove into Arlington to see Erin, Eric, and baby Krista. Tara, Jeff, and the kids hadn't met her yet, so it was extra-special for them.

Tara and the kids.

Colin.

 Cousins.

Waking up...

 Olivia and Krista.

Tante Tara and Krista.

Tara, Jeff, and Krista.

Opa and Krista.

Jeff and Colin.

The happy (if tired) parents.

Krista and Oma.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving 2012 was a good one! I had seven family members in town for the weekend and hosted dinner on Thursday.

 

Me and Colin.

 Me and Olivia.

 Olivia.

 Colin and Ryan.

 Ryan and Olivia.

 Dad and Jeff. (They actually were having a better time than this picture indicates!) And notice Olivia trying to photobomb into this one.

Mom, Olivia, and Tara.

Ready for Thanksgiving

 
Having just finished my grading (like 5 minutes ago!), I am now ready for the holiday. A special shout-out to Buffy, Season 5, which provided the background entertainment for much of my grading. In fact, I also just finished "The Gift," which still gets to me every time.

Anyway, here comes Thanksgiving. I am hosting this year, which is kind of exciting. Tomorrow I've got some cooking to start (my opa's famous cheesecake, for instance), some cleaning to finish (almost done!), and some last-minute shopping to do (beer for the adults and juice for the kids).

Maybe just a bit of chair-dancing to celebrate knocking out one substantial "to do" list of work-related tasks for the break. This will do...

Baby Krista

My new niece arrived on November 11. I love the kid already for her rather impeccable timing.

1) She waited to arrive until Erin finished at work (her last day was Friday, November 9).
2) She waited to arrive until I got back from my conference in North Carolina.
3) She waited to arrive until a Sunday, which was awesome because A) I can easily visit on a Sunday, B) I can take I-66 to get there on a Sunday, which has HOV-only restrictions Monday-Friday, and C) the hospital has free parking on Sundays.

Perfect!

And she's pretty cute, too.

The challenges of grading papers at home...

...represented in picture. Please notice that the cat is between the papers. Quite a feat.

Long time, no post...

First of all, it's just mind boggling and heart-breaking to see what's going on up in New York and New Jersey. Words fail. I am not even going to attempt to be eloquent.

It's been a long time since my last post. No great excuses: just busy, busy, busy. I turned in the big binder, which actually morphed into two binders. I went to the SSAWW conference in Denver (which was awesome). I sent off final final final (I think they are final) revisions to that Poe article and the Winnemucca/Mann article. I taught my section of the Intro to Women's Studies course. And now I am just about ready to present another paper at SAMLA (the Fanny Fern paper). Life in the fast lane, right?

Now that I can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel, I have a strange feeling...something about being without any "you've gotta do A, B, and C before so you can graduate/so that you can get a job/so that you can get through third year review/so that you can get tenure and promotion" pressure for the first time since...maybe 2001? It's a strange but kind of cool feeling. Now I want to catch my breath a bit and then focus on some projects, but without that "you've gotta do this!" pressure. Sounds good to me.

And here's another bit of happy anticipation: my new niece should be here any day now. Can't wait to meet her.