The other day I found out that my cousin, Steve Gould, passed away. I hadn’t seen him in a really long time, and have gotten re-connected with his sister, Joy, in recent years. He’d been chronically ill with diabetes and complications for some time.

Here he is, playing at the Sarasota Opera House, in November 2007. He was a great musician and he’s playing saxophone with Les Sabler. I hadn’t known him for some time, but still, a tragic life, ended too soon. I know how much Joy must be hurting.

Trish

House of Yum

Yesterday Trish’s friend Rhoda came over for a few hours of knitting. She brought with her this cute, teeny gingerbread house for the kids to play with. Steven is dying to eat it of course, but Trish wanted to get a picture first. Ok, here’s the picture, Steven! Time to dig in!

Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa took the kids to see Santa Claus at our local Garden Center, where they also have a huge display of Christmas trains and villages to capture the imagination. Steven wouldn’t sit on Santa’s lap, so Diana’s lap would have to do in a pinch. as you can see, he has no problem talking with Santa, it just had to be from a safe distance.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for giving our kids another memorable Sunday!

It snowed last night and John stopped to snap this photo in the midst of shoveling. We love snow, but this day was not a snow day. It was pretty at this pre-dawn hour, but the reason why John was up shoveling at that time was because we had to go out in it. Blech.

Diana came home the other day with all sorts of artwork drawn on her hands and arms. This lovely horse, which was unfortunately washed off for supper that night, was created by Mara.

And this one is Steven’s contribution:

This teeny tiny pine cone was given to Steven by Mrs. Arch, his Kindergarten teacher’s assistant. He’s been holding it safe like a treasure. Yes, it’s sitting on a dime. It’s teeny!

Look who lost a tooth!

Steven spent the night at Nonna’s house last night and lost his first tooth in his sleep. Luckily Diana came to the rescue and found his tooth in his bed this morning. Tonight he is sleeping in his own bed and dreaming of the tooth fairy.

Our baby is growing up…. sniff….

Tonight we celebrated Mike’s birthday a little early, given that his birthday falls on Thanksgiving weekend. He’s still recovering from back surgery and sore. But doing well and we hope back to his old self soon. Happy, birthday, bro’!

Ok I don’t love this picture because my eyes are shut but this is me with my mom and Mike. Mom got good news at the doctor this week so she was celebrating too, as were all of us. Phew!

Just had to share….

After Steven went to bed last night John opened his “take home” folder from in his backpack, and found this note that Steven had written. Obviously, all by himself. He frequently writes little love notes and gives them to us, and we have many on our fridge. He often asks us how to spell certain words as he’s writing. (He’s 5, remember…) I love it most though when he writes unaided… we get priceless memories to share.

Thanks for looking!

This is Tegan, our 14-year-old tabby. I don’t know what it is about this cat, but she is extremely hard to photograph. Maybe because of her busy coat pattern I can’t get a good shot in low light without it being blurry? I don’t know. But I hate taking photos of cats with the flash because they get those scary eyes. So, tonight, I got lucky, for the first time, ever, really… and I just had to share. Ciao!