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I regret that I didn’t pull my camera out when we visited with my Grandmother on Saturday. We had a nice visit with her, my uncle, aunt, and cousin.
After the visit, we drove to Lancaster County to take the Easter Bunny Train at Strasburg Rail Road. Lilia really enjoyed the train and seeing the Easter Bunny engineer.

Yesterday, we dyed eggs at home (again, regret that I didn’t take pics of that!) and then we went to Cloverly Park to hold our own Easter Egg Hunt. Joe hid one dozen eggs throughout the park and playground while Lilia and I waited. She managed to find every one. And then it was her turn to hide the eggs. I convinced her to let me go with her, and I tried to remember where she put them all, but we ended up giving up after we found eleven. We are thinking about putting up a “Lost: Easter Egg” sign in the park, but we aren’t sure what color it was.

A few weeks ago, we tried to go to the Philadelphia Art Museum on a Sunday, thinking it was “Pay what you Wish” day. It turned out that they only have that day on the first Sunday of the month– otherwise it is $20 admission. We left. Yesterday was “Pay what you Wish” day, and we paid less than we planned to the previous visit, for our trouble. Lilia was tired from her egg hunt, but was still a pretty good sport about the museum. We checked out the arms and armor section first– she really liked that, especially since Joe’s parents had explained all about castles when they visited last month. We then went to the section with the Spanish cloister, Chinese Palace, and Japanese Tea House. She started to fade at some points– she did not like any rooms that were too dark– but she enjoyed the video installations that were around– I really liked seeing how they conserved the Chinese Palace– amazing! Then we visited the 19th-20th century European Art, which included many by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, and Mary Cassatt. She had already learned about Monet, Renoir, and Cezanne at the Barnes Museum last month, and we also recently watched Linnea in Monet’s Garden on Netflix, so she was able to recognize the Japanese bridge and the water lilies. Her favorite part of the visit, according to her, was throwing a penny into two fountains in the museum–one in the cloister, and one in European art. For some reason, the lights went off around 4:30, and we took this as a sign that we should leave.

Heading back to our car, we visited with a Phanatic statue near Boathouse Row, and watched drummers and roller skaters dance.

I only have pictures of some of the events described.

Here is the picture we used for our 2009 Christmas Card– the first time I’ve done cards since 2006! Eek! I promise not to let that go another two years.

Thanksgiving 1978: My dad, my sister Maria, my brother Chris, my Grandmother, me and my Grandfather– at my grandparents’ house in Reading. My mom must have taken the picture.

This is how my family spent Thanksgiving almost every year when I was a kid.  Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday. My uncle and his family would come too, and we’d try to arrange the lefties and righties around the table. My grandmother made turkey, potato filling, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, regular corn, Cope’s dried corn, and who knows what else. There’d be a point where my grandmother would realize she forgot to bring something out (usually rolls!). And we’d eat till we were completely stuffed. There were always pies and cool whip for dessert, but as the word’s biggest fan of the potato, they were always an afterthought for me.

Things changed after my brother and sister graduated high school and moved out, my parents got divorced, my grandparents moved to an apartment, my grandfather passed away, and then my mother passed away. Since then, I have spent Thanksgiving pretty much wherever I am invited first. We’ve spent it at home alone, with cornish hens; we’ve spent it in Michigan with a large extended family. We’ve gone out to restaurants with my grandmother, and met my in-laws at the midway point between Michigan and Philadelphia. This year, we weren’t going to spend Thanksgiving in Michigan at all, but we managed to make it back last weekend for a nice short visit, and a Thanksgiving meal. Today, we are going to my dad’s house to spend it with Lilia’s grandparents and their friends. I wish I could also spend it with my grandmother, since Thanksgiving, in my mind, is HER holiday. I wish I could spend Thanksgiving with everyone special to me, but I can’t be two places at once, let alone several. All I can do is wish everyone out there a very Happy Thanksgiving, and hope that you are not as torn between places to celebrate as I am.

Oh my goodness. I have not updated since before I finished school! And now I’ve waited so long that I am feeling pressure (self-imposed!) to make a *great* post (rather than just a simple Facebook Status update!), and I just don’t have a *great* post in me!

This will get me started:
Here’s a re-cap of what we have been doing since I last posted:

• I finished my final assignments and officially graduated! I didn’t attend graduation in Clarion, and I haven’t received my diploma yet, but my transcript shows that I completed all the requirements. I now have a Master of Science in Library Science. I started the program in September 2006, when Lilia was just 6 months old. I started slowly, with just 5 classes in the first 16 months, but I took 7 classes in 2008 in order to finish faster. I *almost* finished with straight A’s, but unfortunately, I missed a weekend of classes when the family had the flu last February, and that is an automatic grade reduction. Oh well! Now I’m starting the job hunt– fun times ahead!
• We celebrated Christmas! My dad joined us at Sheerlund Farms, a great Christmas tree farm in Berks County where we cut our own tree. This was Lilia’s first time having a real tree– we used an artificial tree during her first Christmas and we had appliances in our living room last Christmas (as our kitchen was being redone!). Lilia loved having a tree, and is counting down the days till next Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve and Day in Berks visiting family. A few days later, we met my sister (Lilia’s Aunt Maria) at the Hershey Zoo, where the animals were getting special treats for the holidays. That evening, Joe, Lilia and I toured Hershey Chocolate World and Hershey’s Christmas Candy Lane. It was a chilly night, but Lilia had fun riding on all of the kiddie rides. We also went to Macy’s in Center City Philadelphia to see the Wanamaker Christmas Light Show
• We met Aunt Maria at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware to see the Snow Geese. Boy, are they noisy! I’ll post a video of that in a picture post.
• Lilia finally got a new toddler bed! We are still working on a bedtime, and sleeping more in the toddler bed, but she does sleep there sometimes. We also got Lilia a kid-sized table and chairs so she can work on her projects.
• We participated in the Mid-Winter Bird Census, simply by looking out our back door and counting the birds. (The count: 30+ Sparrows; 6 Juncos; 1 Nuthatch; 3 Chickadees; 1 Downy Woodpecker; 1 Cardinal; 6 Goldfinches; 6 House finches; 6 Robins; 2 Mourning Doves; 11 Starlings; and 2 Crows) We also went for a winter walk in Fairmount Park and saw a few beautiful bluebirds.
• Lilia’s weekly gym class started a couple weeks ago. She loves doing tumbles, walking the balance beam, and swinging from the rings.
• And the most exciting thing we’ve done recently was travel to Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama!! Our friend Karla joined us on Monday, and we drove down to Aunt Maria’s house in Maryland. Aunt Maria was out of town, but she let us stay at her place, bought metro passes for us, and left us great directions. Tuesday morning, we drove to the Metro and joined the crowds heading to D.C. We made it to the National Mall, and stood next to the Washington Monument to witness the swearing in… on a large Jumbotron. Lilia was cold and tired, and had a bit of a rough time before she fell asleep in our arms. But she was very happy to see Barack Obama on the big TV, and was even happier to watch the parade on television when we made it back to Maria’s house.
• Lilia is less than 5 weeks away from turning three years old, and I’m working on planning her birthday. Papa and Gram will be visiting from Michigan, and we’ll have a party for her at her PA grandparent’s house. THREE YEARS OLD!! I can’t believe it!!

Well, now I better start working on a picture post to go along with all these bullet points!

I haven’t posted in nearly a month! I blame school. I have 6 days left– everything is due Monday at midnight. I was going to wait till then to post again, but I had a request for pictures!

Fall Walk

Joe took Lilia to a Chinese Restaurant when I was stuck in school

Lilia and the Panda on the mural at the library

Lilia excited to try out the new chair she built with Daddy

Doesn’t she look like she’s up to something???

This is what she is up to– it’s a peephole for shorties

We went to Michigan to visit Joe’s family for Thanksgiving. It snowed the first morning we were there!
Happy to be near snow

Garden Gnome

Snowman 1

Snowman 2 (Gram gave Lilia a sliced apple for the snowman’s mouth, but she ate it, so they used a stick instead)

Painting

We thought we’d go for a walk, but it was cold!

Molly and Belle, horses at the Christmas Tree Farm

Lilia and her Cousin Stephanie

Lilia admiring the Gingerbread House the family made

And of course, there are TONS more at my gallery!

Hope that satisfies the Lilia fans for a bit!

(PS: If you’ve left a comment in the past and didn’t see it show up within a few hours, let me know. I had over 700 spam comments and deleted them all without looking for non-spam!)