Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all!
We had a great Christmas at Mom's house in Fredericksburg, though we missed seeing many of you. One gift we received from Julia was a beautiful book enclosing the touching letters each of you wrote to Joseph. Thank you all so very much. I am keeping it safe for Joe to read when he's older. Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day. Hopefully Julia will post pictures of Anthony & Kaiya. We have no plans for New Year's Eve, though we are looking forward to seeing Lee & Dottie in the afternoon. I imagine we'll be asleep (Joe willing) when the ball drops. Have a safe and happy New Year!
Love,
Jennifer

All is well!

I thought I'd post some pics from Anthony's birthday party and from his gym class. He's becoming quite the little gymnist!

I hope everyone is all ready for Christmas- I FINALLY finished on Monday. Now on to wrapping and guarding all the wrapped presents from Kaiya! It should be fun... MERRY CHRISTMAS

To make my sister happy

Hello! I figured if I didn't write something soon that I'd never hear the end of it from Laura. :)

Happy Belated Birthday, Aunt Munget!

I am finally getting things moving for Christmas. We got the tree up this weekend and took Oscar and Buster to see Santa Clause! If I ever learn how to master modern technology, I will try to post the picture of "da boys" with Santa. But, don't hold your breath people, I still have every picture I've ever taken on my digital camera because I don't know how to get them off of it... Hey, atleast I have a digital camera, right? I probably shouldn't add that I've had Tivo for 2 years and just hooked it up...

Many Thanks!

Hey Ya'll,
Many Thanks for your kind wishes for a Happy Birthday
for me!! Uh,Missy Laura,where in the world did you get THAT photo
of me? Really,you do NOT need to "fix it later" it is fine just the way
it is.
I had a fine Birthday! Everyone at work wished me a Happy BD and
gave me Godiva chocolates!
My neighbor Jan and neighbor Patti took me out to a place called
City Cafe for dinner. They serve 7 layer cakes!!! (Believe me,I counted
every layer!)
I also saw Chronicals of Narnia. It has been decades- er um,
years,since I last read the book of the Lion ,The Witch and The Wardrobe. I wondered if
I would recall much of it. I did! It was very good and followed the book very well
as my memory serves me.
Now,I am recooping from the weekend and gearing up for a tough week at
work,pray for me over the next two and a half weeks!!!!!
I miss ya'll.
Be good fer Santa!
I love ya too!
Margaret

Happy Birthday Aunt Margaret!!!

Happy Birthday Aunt Margaret, Happy Birthday to You!!! I hope you are having a fabulous birthday!

Dial M for Margaret

I can't seem to get email through to Aunt Margaret - anyone else having the same issue? I'm hoping it's working soon, it's only a couple of days until AuntieM's birthday!

They say we may actually get 5+ inches of snow Thursday night into Friday. I hope it will shut down am rush hour :) but then be clear so I can head out of Dodge. I got most of my decorating done last weekend, and actually most of my wrapping. This weekend I need to tackle cards and cookies. I feel like baking up a storm. Shannon says she has quite a bit to do this weekend to catch up.

What are you up to?

Deck the Halls?

It's hard to believe it's December! It is crisp and sunny outside, that's the view today. This morning I harvested a huge basket of pine cones. Later Andy and I will decorate the tree and I think I'm going to tackle wrapping some Christmas presents. Right now though I'm watching Barefoot Contessa on Food Network. She's whipping up some homemade truffles. I don't think I'll be doing that today, but it's good inspiration.

Catching up!

From Decatur,GA I spent Turkey day at William's wife's(Judy)sister's house(Karen).
She lives just 10 minutes from me. There were just about 40 folks spread throughout the
house,from the elderly(80ish ) to the wee one( 3 weeks old). There were two five year
old twins who stole the show,as we all managed to hold hands for Thanksgiving prayer,the five
year old girl Jeanie,said with great suspense,that she was most grateful for........Dogs! We all
cracked up!
Black Friday,our store did over 1.3 million in sales. I felt like I rang about 1/2 of that!
I survived! ;)
I miss you all so very much,hope to see you soon next year!
Love to all! AuntieM.-Margaret

How To!

I thought I'd decode the magic of posting and actual blog post since there's no clear way to do it from this page. When you signed up for Blogger, you got an account and a "dashboard". You can get there by clicking the Blogger icon in the upper left hand corner of this page or by clicking "Back to Dashboard" in the upper right. There you'll get a familiar text box, just type and click "Publish Post" and you are blogging!

Happy Birthday to Dad/Brother Lee/Uncle Lee...

You say it's your birthday...

Happy Birthday to Dad. This picture cracks me up every time I see it. He looks like he's saying, "Aw, shucks Wally, I just wanted to see what you and Eddie were up to."

Wishing you a happy one!

Florida Thanksgiving

We Thanksgave over at Chris (Suzanne's son) and Jen's this year, about 10 minutes away. Since we now live in Florida, we deep-fried the turkeys. It was amazingly successful in that no houses caught fire and zero trips to the ER were required.

By the next evening, everyone in the neighborhood had their Christmas decorations up, except us. And I mean a LOT of decorations. Our neighbor next door set up huge inflatable snowmen wobbling around head-bobbing, wire-framed reindeer, motorized angels with flapping wings, and 2 or 3 dozen illuminated elves in the front yard, and icicle chaser-lights outlining the house, front and back. They must really love Baby Jesus!

So, today we are joining in the true spirit of Christmas. I'd like to find some illuminated ice-skating penguins we could float in the pool, with little red and white scarves but, amazingly, I've never seen them.

We're so happy to hear that Lee and Dottie have decided to build a beautiful new home in Wimington, NC. They are looking at saying goodbye to the ratrace sometime around July 2006.

So Muuuuch Tuuuuurkey

It is probably not a good thing that I am about to watch CSI, apparently it has a Thanksgiving theme. It was as pretty as a picture here today, yet for some reason I captured this photo of decimated pie. I logged on tonight because I wanted to sneak a peek at the Black Friday sales. Of course, unless I want to leave now, my Black Friday shopping would be limited to Food Lion or Radio Shack. Well, we do need some AA batteries. Is that a good enough reason to get up at 4:30?

Lexi is completely zonked out. She kept laying in her prone position despite my repeated trips into the kitchen in the last hour. I can't believe I'll ever eat again, but I'm making pastries for breakfast maybe lunch or dinner. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

HEY FROM VA BEACH!

Hello! Well, Anthony just finished up his first season of soccer and won his very first trophy!! He is very excited, I think we may try it again in the Spring. Nothing much going on over here- everyone's just bundled up... it was 26 degrees last night.

Jennifer's right... where are you - Margaret, Charlie and David?? Dad- what's up- you need to post something too.

What are everyones plans for Thanksgiving? I am going to mi madre's house to see my little nephew Joe; I CANNOT wait. This year I am bringing a pork roast, you know- trying to throw that whole tradition thing outta whack, lol. Should be an okay change... since we are pretty much all low-carbing; the more meat the better!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

I mean seriously people, it is COLD outside! DC's temps just dropped from the 60's to the 40's. Actually, it's cold inside our house too. Our new old little bungalow uses the dreaded gas heat and all we've heard all year is how astronomical gas heat is going to be this winter. I know they've adjusted that a little but I'm sure the moment we turn the heat on we're going to get a bill in the mail for our first born child.

I have only one regret, and that is that all but one of my warm fleeces are at the river. I think the oatmeal colored fleece that I'm wearing right now will probably be grey by the time I can swap it out next week!

Sooo Popular

Oooh, lookee who's joined! Almost everyone's made it online. I'm psyched to see the pix of the mooshkins too! I have been copying each of the photos posted to my EwingUniverse photo album on Flickr. You should be able to click on the box of animated photos on this screen to see the whole lot.

We had a relaxing three day weekend at the river. This week I am keeping my fingers VERY crossed that we will get a big contract we bid on. We're supposed to hear "early" this week. Friday we're planning to have dinner in Fairfax with Dad & Dottie. But you former Fairfaxers would hardly recognize this far flung part of Ffx. There's a whole huge development out there called Fairfax Corner. It is quite the place. Shannon would like it because there's a PF Chang's. Andy likes it because there's a restaurant that has decadent lobster rolls. Andy is very funny about restaurant food. He won't order fajitas in a restaurant because he thinks they are too much work for the diner. Now you know why he always orders a burrito!

Hello from Julia, Anthony and Kaiya!

Hey Everybody! I really like the idea of the blog; hopefully it will help us all keep in touch a little bit better.

Anyway, we are doing great down here in Virginia Beach. I am posting some pics of the kids. Anthony just wrapped up his 1st soccer season and is continuing his gym classes which have been good fun. He has built up so much confidence and coordination since he started them. He is also counting well over 100 and is starting to read which he is VERY proud of.

Kaiya just had her 2nd birthday and I just got her potty trained last week... Hooray! She is talking about 90% of the time in English- so that is really cool.

I am doing well, I am still runnning the daycare out of my home 24 hours a day and am ACTUALLY starting to enjoy it- a little, lol...no it's cool. I am STILL in school, about 14 months left.

Two of the pics are at the Halloween party we went to, the kids had a blast! The others are the day of Kaiya's bday (10/17)... enjoy!

Take Care.
Julia

Ewing Photos

Jennifer & Julia at Jenn's baby shower June 2005
The Ewing Siblings (David we missed you so!)
Margaret, Laura & Shannon in Florida
Margaret & Charlie (Rick, Shannon & Andy in background)
Shan & Margarita
Laura & Andy - first dance as husband & wife

Laura & Andy's World Update

Hello all! I thought I'd kick this thing off with an update on what's new in our world. We still accidentally have three houses - which is phenomenally less glam than it sounds. Our "old" North Arlington house languished on the market this summer and we have finally decided to take it off the market for the winter and have rented it out to a nice family. They work for the State Department and they're moving to Moscow in May. We put the "old" house on the market because of allegedly insane prices in our neighborhood, but we haven't seen them come to fruition yet.

In any case, we wanted to downsize to a smaller place since it's basically a place for us to hang our hat during the week. (We try to go to the river just about every weekend.) We found a cute bungalow in the 'hood. (Glebe & Columbia Pike if you know South Arlington.) The previous owner even had a picture of the old house allllll alone in a field, not a thing around it. In the background we discovered a car that looks like a Model T.

And of course, we haul out of town on Friday afternoons. Our little river house is all settled. We still have a few things to work on, but we'd be bored if we didn't. Finally we can rest a bit since the house drama is resting until spring. I'm currently in the throws of getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I went into Williams-Sonoma yesterday and thought I was going to faint it smelled so much like Thanksgiving. I will be making all of the traditional fare - as I told Margaret the other day - No innovation for Thanksgiving!!! I think this year I'm going to make the Mountjoy ambrosia salad too. Andy is happy because I make him Nana Taylor's stuffed mushrooms. Should be yummy. One of these days I need to make that recipe for Smashed Potatoes Grandpa wrote about.

Matt, Jennifer & baby Joe - pics included!

Thanks to Laura for starting this blog.

Matt & I are enjoying parenthood thus far. After 13 years of marriage, this has certainly been a life changing experience! We're having so much fun. Joseph is really starting to smile a lot and that makes up for the midnight feedings. He's actually sleeping pretty well now, we can get in 6 hours in a row of sleep some nights! That sounds pathetic, but it's actually terrific. He's still a very little guy. He is about 2 -1/2 mos. old and weighs just 10 lbs. Here are some pictures:

Above: Waiting for Joseph Dominick!

Rockin' Joe just home from hospital

He was an elephant for Halloween!

Last week- Don't you wish you had Pig Shoes too?

Starting Somewhere

Welcome to EwingUniverse! I wanted to create a spot for us to meet online as we are flung to the four corners of the globe -- or at least sprinkled down the East Coast. I'll be working to add more functionality to this blog including a calendar and photo album. Share your news and pix here. Where are those pix of Joseph Dominic? What houses are you seeing in North Carolina? Share. Share. Share. It's as easy as can be. Start by joining the blog and bookmarking this page (above) or http://ewinguniverse.blogspot.com