Anna Grows

Giant snowman by the lake  Today marked the first significant snowfall in two years.  What constitutes a significant snowfall?  So far....3 inches.  That's right - the most snow we had at one time over the past two years occurred today with 3 inches.  It was enough to allow for a little sledding and some snowman building.  Actually, some neighbors made a HUGE snowman near the lake (check out the photos).  It was quite the conversation piece.  Anna got to hang out with her friend Ellie foe some sledding - a welcome change.  There may be a little more snow tomorrow, but nothing compared to what our family in New York and Massachusetts are about to get (enjoy). Saturday was a sad day as we attended the funeral of our neighbor, Matt Latimer.  Matt and his mom, Jackie, live across the street from us.  We got to know him better under unfortunate circumstances when they stayed with us following the fire at their house.  Matt was on th...

Italian food for dinner  This week was cause for lots of celebration.  This year Joe's birthday was a national holiday!  While in our family we agree that January 18 should always be a holiday for Joe, this year it also happened to be Martin Luther King Day.  So, how does one celebrate MLK day and a birthday during a pandemic?   While we considered giant birthday signs in the yard or organizing a drive-by birthday parade, we decided to do something more Joe's speed an opted for a walk at a nearby park (Storm joined that one) and an Italian take-out dinner from Maggiano's (always a treat).  There was cake and homemade ice cream for dessert (we decided not to put all of the candles on the cake).  Joe birthday gifts included an air fryer and air fryer cookbook as well as a cool gadget to prevent your cell phone from falling between the seats of the car (this was Anna's gift).  It was a low key day...but where else would we go? The other big even...

The Potomac from the Maryland side After being locked down for so long, you begin to notice changes in once ordinary things.  Joe has noticed a significant decrease in quality of his sandwich bread of choice:  Arnold's Oatnut Bread. For at least 20 years, Joe has been a loyal customer of Arnold's Oatnut Bread.  On occasion, Theresa has tried a different brand, but all have been unsatisfactory (slices are too thick, too many nuts, too few nuts, etc....).  Over the past few weeks, Joe has noticed some slices of the bread are burned.  At first he thought it was just a bad batch, but it has been a consistent problem.  It has reached the point of lodging a complaint with Arnold (Theresa and Anna can attest to the emotional distress that is caused when Joe's lunches are ruined by burned bread).  Perhaps Arnold is experience a reduction in quality control due to the pandemic.  Will Joe at last be forced to switch to a different brand of bread?  Only...

Anna ready for the swim meet  This may be the most memorable week of the pandemic thus far - and not in a positive way.  Like the rest of the world, we watched in horror as a mob descended on the capitol January 6 as Congress was certifying the electoral college vote.  Words cannot express the sadness and anger over what happened.  No matter where you were, the images were startling.  When you live in the Washington area, it is close to home as we recall just a few weeks ago we were strolling around the Capitol before the holidays looking at the tree and the construction of the stands for the inauguration.  Theresa was very grateful to be working from home that day, but many others were  downtown.  Everyone is on edge with concerns about security - both from internal and external threats - as we countdown to January 20.  It has been our nightly dinner conversation.  One can only imagine what Anna will recall when she reflects on this tim...

We made it to 2021!  Like everything else about the holidays this year, it was quiet.....and we stayed home.  It was the last week of the holiday break for Anna and Theresa managed to take a few hours off here and there.  Here are the highlights of the week: Enjoying a hike at Riverbend Park Enjoyed a hike at Riverbend park along the Potomac on Wednesday before the rain rolled in (well Joe and Theresa enjoyed it...Anna was as thrilled as she usually is when going on a hike with her parents. Enjoyed some of the new Christmas Games (family members should take note - we will bring Exploding Kittens  to our next family gathering).  We also enjoyed Yahtzee . Read Dave Barry's annual Year in Review  (you can find it  here )  Theresa's favorite quote from the review:  In the past, writing these annual reviews, we have said harsh things about previous years. We owe those years an apology. Compared to 2020, all previous years, even the Disco Era, were...