THE RIVALRY RENEWED...AGAIN!

It's that time of year again...the second meeting of the NFC North rivals from Chicago and Green Bay. Of course the meeting that really mattered, the first one, ended up with a Bears victory. Since today's game doesn't matter to the Bears, they're likely to rest starters, meaning that the Packers should win today in a game that's meaningless to the Bears.

This rug was a Christmas gift from my sister's family and certainly reflects the feelings around our house when it comes to the NFL. So here we go again...

Bear down, Chicago Bears, make every play clear the way to victory;

Bear down, Chicago Bears, put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.

We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation with your T-formation.

Bear down, Chicago Bears, and let them know why you're wearing the crown.

You're the pride and joy of Illinois, Chicago Bears, bear down.

TURKEY INVASION!

Steve walked out the back door this afternoon into a flock of...yes...turkeys! There were 21 turkeys to be exact and they were quite large. As dark figures in the white snow, they were rather imposing in appearance. They were very patient and tolerant of Steve's picture taking though.

Really fellows...we had ham for Thanksgiving! Really! (wink, wink!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We put in a good word with Santa for all of our friends and family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! (...and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

PUMPKIN CARVING

It's the night before Halloween and around here, that means it's pumpkin carving time. Here are the end results of tonights efforts.

You'll never guess who did this one!

Okay...I guess he just confessed!

...and here's Anne's pumpkin...

...and Steve's pumpkin.

Rebecca wasn't able to be here this time, but she wasn't forgotten during the festivities!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

BOO!

Catching Up - Erik's Extended Birthday

With the business of September as back to school time, we can't forget Erik's birthday. This year Erik turned 15 and seeing how he's grown and listening to his voice get lower and lower, it's easy to believe that he's 15. Here Erik's is blowing out the candles on his cake. (We had to go to instant replay to determine whether or not he got the last candle with the first breath. Upon further review, we'll give it to him!) The horses on Erik's cake represented our horseback riding adventure on vacation, the first time that Anne, Rebecca and Erik had ever been on a real horseback ride. (Not counting supervised pony rides as kids!)

One of Erik's gifts was a metal detector. Now all he needs is a pair of bermuda shorts and a bucket hat and he'd fit right in at any beach!

Then a couple of weeks after his actual birthday, Erik and a couple of friends celebrated by visiting the Davis Mega Maze in Sterling, MA. This enormous maze is made up almost entirely of a carved out corn field, with some wooden platforms added in for fun. It's an incredible engineering feat to put this thing together.

Erik and his friends wandered the maze for two hours, playing games inside for clues to where they needed to go. After those two hours, they came out smiling.

So for one last time...HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY ERIK!

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Tuesday, September 7, was the first day of school for North Reading schools, which means that it was also the first day of Erik's Freshman year in high school. Erik has a full load of honors level courses, so he's going to be kept busy, but we're confident that he's going to do a good job. In case you can't tell from the picture, Erik has been doing a lot of growing lately. He's up to 5'6" in height, so he's blown by his Mom and Rebecca. He's excited about high school and among other things, plans to get involved in the school's drama program. (We always knew he was a ham!)

After moving in to her new dorm on Thursday, September 2, Rebecca finally started classes on Wednesday, September 8. She was very ready for classes to begin by the time they actually did start. To celebrate the first day of school, Rebecca and a number of other Northeastern students attended the Red Sox game that night, where they got to see the Red Sox beat up on the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 11-5, including 5 homers for the Red Sox.

Don't forget to keep those cards, letters, etc. coming to Rebecca. Her address is:

Rebecca Hansen

#8382

1155 Tremont St.

Roxbury Crossing, MA 02120