Christmas in Boston! (Pardon the 2 months lateness of this post...)
Christmas Eve was a wonderful family time. Normally we’d go into church on this evening, but it didn’t work out this year. Instead we all stayed-in, played games, and took family pictures. I curled my sister’s hair and Mom then curled mine.
Family photos. Mom & Dad by the tree.
Christmas morning Avery and Kieran came shrieking to wake Karla and me up. We were sleeping in the living room since Mom and Dad had the guest bedroom. Notice those stockings on the floor in the picture below? When the kiddies noticed them on the floor and not up on the fireplace they started asking questions. Opa told them that Santa had left them down there because they were too heavy to hang back up, too many toys I guess. ;)
Reading the Christmas Story from the Bible.
I had put a set of 5 sparkly beaded necklaces in Avery’s stocking. She loved them.
Kieran loved them more. He would barely take them off long enough for me to get this picture taken of the two of them.
I got Kieran a hobby horse for Christmas. This was Shannon’s suggestion and it was the best $15 I ever spent. He was wild for it! (Thanks for the help big sis!)
I also bought him a little ‘conductor’ shirt. I did not know at the time that he was getting the mother of all train sets for Christmas!
Kieran was even wilder for his trains.
Check out the lashes on this 2 year old heartbreaker! ;)
The snow was all but gone on Christmas day. Check out this view! You’d almost think it was warm enough to get swimming in that beautiful blue ocean.
This is another view from the backyard.
This is a view taken off to the left, from the other side of the house. Their house is right on the corner of of a jetty.
This is the front of their house.
They have two floors on the right side of the house.
We all went for a walk along the public beach a 5 minute walk from the house later in the day.
That's Shannon and Colin's house in the back. The public beach really is only a stone's throw away.
Karla and I found more shells. Avery did too. Kieran found rocks. Oh so many rocks and so small pockets to hold all the treasures! ;)
It was so neat to see what the ocean had washed up.
All the shells were so beautiful.
Then we all had to take turns posing by the ocean. It was windy, but the weather was really nice. Above zero for sure.
Later that afternoon Karla and I took another walk along the beach going to the right of Shannon’s house. The first day out we were on the peninsula with Dad and Colin, and Christmas we went left to the public beach. I think we must have stayed out for at least 2 hours. I’m very sure that I could be quite happy living on the coast. :) This was the day I found the muscles in the tide pools. I really wanted to take them home and try to cook them. But I got tired of carrying them around while we beach-combed and threw them back in the ocean. Good thing I did. Shannon told me later that it’s illegal to take sea creatures from the ocean there. I guess you need a special license to fish or something.
Me and my “supper”.
We both found lots of pretty stones and shells on this walk too.
My treasures.
Karla’s treasures.
It was a beautiful day. You would think it was early spring not the end of December. I sat on the big rocks and closed my eyes and just listened to the waves for a long time. I’m currently in the middle of reading through the Anne of Green Gables series and found myself thinking as I sat there that I knew just how she must have felt as she walked along the coast in Anne’s House of Dreams (#5).
Here are some cool shots of the shore that I took when we were walking.
One day we went into Boston on the “T” for a tour of the historical sites. Our guide was totally fabulous man who dressed in period clothing and talked in an old tongue. He was so funny and really knew his stuff. We saw the Granery graveyard were the graves of many famous American’s/Frenchmen were buried. The interesting thing about this graveyard is that all the graves are in straight lines. That doesn’t seem odd to you does it? That’s how it’s usually done, right? Well, back in the day these fine folk passed away it wasn’t common practice. You were buried wherever they found a spot and straight line weren’t often part of the deal. But over the years the graves were straightened, twice, in an effort to pretty-up the place. So now we can’t be sure if the monuments that were erected at the time are actually standing over the sites of their proclaimed deceased.
The tidied-up Granery Graveyard.
But on a cool note, I got to see the graves of famous historical people:
Samuel Adams
Paul Revere; the man whom my sister's town is named after (They just say they're from Boston because no one really knows Revere, and it is part of "Greater Boston" anyway.)
And even John Hancock! (I'm sure you've all at least heard of him!)
Apparently Mr. Hancock was the wealthiest man in town so his grave marker is the biggest.
That second picture is a close-up of the writing just below Mr. Hancock's face in the first photo. And That's our guide off to the left.
We went back into Boston proper on Boxing Day (technically, since America doesn't actually have "Boxing Day", they have "Black Friday" instead) and got to see other cool places. On our way to such places we were walking along the St. Charles (?) River and I got a lovely picture of it frozen solid. I totally wanted to go skate on it. ;)
And there was some interesting story behind this picture about "Smoots" on a bridge which I can't remember right now, but maybe my sister will tell it to me again.
Apparently this bridge measured 364 "Smoots" and 1 ear. Smoot was a guy from the campus I think, who was really short...?
We also passed a few geese. Slightly hungry geese. ;) There was a man off the walking path with a huge cart of old bread feeding them. He gave Karla and I each a loaf which we fed the geese with. The white ones aren’t from around there and he was there to feed them. The Canadian geese and ducks just showed up when they got wind of the free food. ;)
We saw some other cool sites as well, such as M.I.T. (You might know if from the movie “21” if you don’t know it for anything else, sillies.).
And Harvard! (Hahvahd, as the Bostonians pronounce it.) Karla and I posed by the gates and pretended to be sophisticated students. We’re so totally fooling all the real students, yes we are.
We also rubbed the foot of the --- statue for good luck. (Never mind that rumor about the senior students peeing on it because of us tourists for a laugh…)
On Saturday the 27th all us girls, Mom, Shannon, Avery, Karla and I, went into Boston to see the Nutcracker Ballet performed at the Boston Opera Hall. The hall was beautiful, and it was built in 1926. I could just see myself dressed up in a pretty dress and coming to the theater back in the old days. :) I loved both the ballet and the hall. And my older sister for getting me (and the others) the tickets for the ballet as our Christmas presents.
The Nutcraker as presented by the Boston Ballet.
This is the entrance hall as seen facing the exit and facing inwards from the exit.
My attempt to show the whole inside of the theater. Try and push both the pictures together in the center when you look at them. They're taken from my seat. ;) It really was gorgeous inside. But I got scolded by the usher because apparently we weren't supposed to be taking pictures inside the theater proper. Oops.
Karla got a few (illicit!) pictures of the dancers at the end of the show. Too many people were taking pictures when they came out for bows to be stopped I guess. :p~
I was really sad when the week was over and we had to fly back to Canada. I’m hoping I can somehow afford to swing a visit out in the summer this year. Who knows? It could happen.
.
Family photos. Mom & Dad by the tree.
Christmas morning Avery and Kieran came shrieking to wake Karla and me up. We were sleeping in the living room since Mom and Dad had the guest bedroom. Notice those stockings on the floor in the picture below? When the kiddies noticed them on the floor and not up on the fireplace they started asking questions. Opa told them that Santa had left them down there because they were too heavy to hang back up, too many toys I guess. ;)
Reading the Christmas Story from the Bible.
I had put a set of 5 sparkly beaded necklaces in Avery’s stocking. She loved them.
Kieran loved them more. He would barely take them off long enough for me to get this picture taken of the two of them.
I got Kieran a hobby horse for Christmas. This was Shannon’s suggestion and it was the best $15 I ever spent. He was wild for it! (Thanks for the help big sis!)
I also bought him a little ‘conductor’ shirt. I did not know at the time that he was getting the mother of all train sets for Christmas!
Kieran was even wilder for his trains.
Check out the lashes on this 2 year old heartbreaker! ;)
The snow was all but gone on Christmas day. Check out this view! You’d almost think it was warm enough to get swimming in that beautiful blue ocean.
This is another view from the backyard.
This is a view taken off to the left, from the other side of the house. Their house is right on the corner of of a jetty.
This is the front of their house.
They have two floors on the right side of the house.
We all went for a walk along the public beach a 5 minute walk from the house later in the day.
That's Shannon and Colin's house in the back. The public beach really is only a stone's throw away.
Karla and I found more shells. Avery did too. Kieran found rocks. Oh so many rocks and so small pockets to hold all the treasures! ;)
It was so neat to see what the ocean had washed up.
All the shells were so beautiful.
Then we all had to take turns posing by the ocean. It was windy, but the weather was really nice. Above zero for sure.
Later that afternoon Karla and I took another walk along the beach going to the right of Shannon’s house. The first day out we were on the peninsula with Dad and Colin, and Christmas we went left to the public beach. I think we must have stayed out for at least 2 hours. I’m very sure that I could be quite happy living on the coast. :) This was the day I found the muscles in the tide pools. I really wanted to take them home and try to cook them. But I got tired of carrying them around while we beach-combed and threw them back in the ocean. Good thing I did. Shannon told me later that it’s illegal to take sea creatures from the ocean there. I guess you need a special license to fish or something.
Me and my “supper”.
We both found lots of pretty stones and shells on this walk too.
My treasures.
Karla’s treasures.
It was a beautiful day. You would think it was early spring not the end of December. I sat on the big rocks and closed my eyes and just listened to the waves for a long time. I’m currently in the middle of reading through the Anne of Green Gables series and found myself thinking as I sat there that I knew just how she must have felt as she walked along the coast in Anne’s House of Dreams (#5).
Here are some cool shots of the shore that I took when we were walking.
One day we went into Boston on the “T” for a tour of the historical sites. Our guide was totally fabulous man who dressed in period clothing and talked in an old tongue. He was so funny and really knew his stuff. We saw the Granery graveyard were the graves of many famous American’s/Frenchmen were buried. The interesting thing about this graveyard is that all the graves are in straight lines. That doesn’t seem odd to you does it? That’s how it’s usually done, right? Well, back in the day these fine folk passed away it wasn’t common practice. You were buried wherever they found a spot and straight line weren’t often part of the deal. But over the years the graves were straightened, twice, in an effort to pretty-up the place. So now we can’t be sure if the monuments that were erected at the time are actually standing over the sites of their proclaimed deceased.
The tidied-up Granery Graveyard.
But on a cool note, I got to see the graves of famous historical people:
Samuel Adams
Paul Revere; the man whom my sister's town is named after (They just say they're from Boston because no one really knows Revere, and it is part of "Greater Boston" anyway.)
And even John Hancock! (I'm sure you've all at least heard of him!)
Apparently Mr. Hancock was the wealthiest man in town so his grave marker is the biggest.
That second picture is a close-up of the writing just below Mr. Hancock's face in the first photo. And That's our guide off to the left.
We went back into Boston proper on Boxing Day (technically, since America doesn't actually have "Boxing Day", they have "Black Friday" instead) and got to see other cool places. On our way to such places we were walking along the St. Charles (?) River and I got a lovely picture of it frozen solid. I totally wanted to go skate on it. ;)
And there was some interesting story behind this picture about "Smoots" on a bridge which I can't remember right now, but maybe my sister will tell it to me again.
Apparently this bridge measured 364 "Smoots" and 1 ear. Smoot was a guy from the campus I think, who was really short...?
We also passed a few geese. Slightly hungry geese. ;) There was a man off the walking path with a huge cart of old bread feeding them. He gave Karla and I each a loaf which we fed the geese with. The white ones aren’t from around there and he was there to feed them. The Canadian geese and ducks just showed up when they got wind of the free food. ;)
We saw some other cool sites as well, such as M.I.T. (You might know if from the movie “21” if you don’t know it for anything else, sillies.).
And Harvard! (Hahvahd, as the Bostonians pronounce it.) Karla and I posed by the gates and pretended to be sophisticated students. We’re so totally fooling all the real students, yes we are.
We also rubbed the foot of the --- statue for good luck. (Never mind that rumor about the senior students peeing on it because of us tourists for a laugh…)
On Saturday the 27th all us girls, Mom, Shannon, Avery, Karla and I, went into Boston to see the Nutcracker Ballet performed at the Boston Opera Hall. The hall was beautiful, and it was built in 1926. I could just see myself dressed up in a pretty dress and coming to the theater back in the old days. :) I loved both the ballet and the hall. And my older sister for getting me (and the others) the tickets for the ballet as our Christmas presents.
The Nutcraker as presented by the Boston Ballet.
This is the entrance hall as seen facing the exit and facing inwards from the exit.
My attempt to show the whole inside of the theater. Try and push both the pictures together in the center when you look at them. They're taken from my seat. ;) It really was gorgeous inside. But I got scolded by the usher because apparently we weren't supposed to be taking pictures inside the theater proper. Oops.
Karla got a few (illicit!) pictures of the dancers at the end of the show. Too many people were taking pictures when they came out for bows to be stopped I guess. :p~
I was really sad when the week was over and we had to fly back to Canada. I’m hoping I can somehow afford to swing a visit out in the summer this year. Who knows? It could happen.
.