Merry Christmas!

Although we were missing my brother and his family, my sister was determined to get a family picture taken, which has not been done in years.

The Pavone crew on Christmas Day!

My dad and two of his brothers enjoying the company.

Christmas Eve

All the gifts were laid down late Christmas Eve for the Christmas morning surprise.

Winter Freeze

All of our trees and shrubs are covered in thick ice from this mornings freeze.

A Message from Santa

Today Audrey received a message from Santa. At first she did not want to listen to what he had to say but soon he captured her attention and was very interested in what he had to say to her.

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/t8Q6wyK4rNzU0cuYyHzV2g

Let it Snow!

It has been snowing here in Syracuse for five days straight. I took this picture today because I can no longer open up our kitchen door out to the deck because of all the snow. It just keeps piling and piling up. I don't know if I am quite ready for winter yet.

It's Beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Audrey and I decorated the Christmas tree today. A loved tradition that I had done with my mom. Now that I have a daughter, daughters, I hope to carry that tradition on with them. We put on Christmas music. Avery hung the lights as he would call it, "the contractor supervised" (thats me of course) and we began to place all the ornaments on the tree. Audrey carefully placed the less fragile items on the lower section as I tacked the top half of the tree. As one ornament came out after the other Audrey would say, "Oh this one is even more beautiful!"

Oh where, oh where could my Christmas tree be?

Today we were off to the tree farm to cut our Christmas tree. Audrey was so excited. We dressed her in her warm winter attire and headed off. She loved the tracker ride from the car to the farm. She kept saying, "those tires are really, really big". Once off the tractor, Audrey was thrilled to get her boots in the snow. She walked in the snow for a while until mom was taking too long to find just the right tree, so she then asked daddy for a piggy-back. As I went on my quest, Audrey and Avery stayed behind. When I finally called them to come look at a tree I was bombarded with snowballs. How was I to know they were devising a snowball ambush on mom.

Photo Finish

Audrey has been celebrating that she has mastered the working of my camera. She goes around the house taking pictures of everything; the cabinets, the carpet, her feet, my nose. Today, she took a vivid picture of Francesca. What a pro!