Bringing the Blog BACK with our Yuletide Season

Ok all – I admit when I moved on over here to WordPress I got super intimidated by all the functionality. I couldn’t even figure out how to upload a picture SO, I quit. And it haunts me. Because we have SO much amazingness to share and I would be devastated if I came this far only to stop documenting when things REALLY get good. The boys are 9 and 11 and changing by the day. The last time I left them with you, they were a banana and a werewolf. Next notable holiday was Christmas, where one was still a Santa believer and one was not. Let’s dive in.
Here we have our annual family tree selection photo. You’ll notice Ashton comes up to my nose, thereabouts. He also wears bigger shoes than I do.

• 

  Now, for the first time ever, we did not wake up at our house on Christmas. Instead we traveled on Christmas Eve, probably THE MOST terrifying ferry ride we’ve ever been on to Hampton Bays. At one point the captain got on the loudspeaker and said “IF you are not sitting down, sit down. And hold on, this is going to get bad.” No joke Alex started praying to Santa.

  Spoiler alert: we made it across, went out to dinner and managed to have a nice day with Grandma and Grandpa (COVID hit the other family members, it was so sad we couldn’t see them) and then on the 26th, Ashton woke up puking sooo we headed home a day early. Merry merry! Haha. It was not funny at the time though. Anyway we still got a tree and decorated it and overall the holiday was festive!

  

  

  

  

  

  Ashton’s grown a bit in 11 christmasses.

  

  PRIME is the new cool sports drink

  

  

  

  

  Jason passed down his special Christmas tie to Ashton!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Okay those aren’t in order but again with this new website I have to figure out the functionality and frankly I’m ready to move on. We have a lot to cover! It was a very Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa!!

  
  

Here we are now, at the end of the fall, which contains Halloween and Thanksgiving, for the most part.
OCTOBER 31 meant a creepy lurking banana (Ashton’s “drippy” costume, whatever that means but it’s what kids say these days), a werewolf boy, and a grandma in a golfcart. 

• 

  

  

  

  

  

  We went around with our usual crew and the golf cart was a huge hit. We played Thriller and any other spooky song we had and rolled the streets with flashing lights and Grandpa at the wheel. We were quite the show! And if you’re asking yourself where on earth did you get a golf cart, well the answer is Brae Burn and it came on a truck.

  

  

  When you’re married to Jason Nill, the wonders never cease.

  After Halloween, I turned 42 in a very unexciting way.

  

  We had sushi the night before because on the actual November 12 Jason had to work. Sushi not pictured. But I did get to open presents. This is what I generally look like in the morning and it’s only going to get worse.

  

  

  But the real big thing was Thanksgiving and for the first time in many years, I don’t have the same pictures to show you because we didn’t host! No we did not, because our house is under construction. We are putting on an addition (about 7-8 weeks from being finished from today, December 8), and our whole property is a mess. I guess I’ll have to blog later about that. But I knew it would be a mess so I told my sister she would just have to host and we packed up the car and headed to Vermont. I actually don’t have many pictures from the weekend but here is our one grownup group shot.

  

  Erik’s friend Cinthya was visiting from Florida so it was fun to meet her, but the surprise hit of the night was Kari’s make ahead gravy. I’d say certain people in the group were a bit nervous because gravy is very important at Thanksgiving and it was AWESOME. It’s Ina’s recipe and will be what we make every year from now on. Big success. Big. HUGE. Thanks Kari and Ben for having us  We went to a UVM hockey game and had a great visit.

  Chugging along, the weekend after that we went with Ashton’s hockey team, Boch Blazers, to a tournament in Waterville Valley, NH. It was honestly SO fun, and they ended up winning the tournament which was an added bonus.

  

  

  I have a lot to learn on WordPress but hopefully this is the start of a new era for our little family blog. Stay tuned for our sad Christmas tree, addition details, and all the fixings!

It's Fall Ya'll

Updates from the Nills! It's been a long time since that summer vacation on my last post, oy. And it's been a VERY busy fall. 

As a point of orientation, Ashton is in 5th grade at Wilson Middle (age 11) and Alex is in 3rd at Lilja still (age 8). Middle school has been a whole other animal - Ashton is so much more independent, has made all sorts of new friends and is really becoming his own person. A lot of the time that means he is a really annoying silly adolescent but hey. He seems very happy and besides needing extra help with reading, is doing fine. Alex on the other hand thinks school is dull and a complete waste of his time. Not unlike Calvin in fact. Two strips that could just as easily be him:

They even have the same hair.

Next, the boys are each on a new hockey team (Boch Blazers/Dedham for Ashton, Assabet Patriots/Concord for Alex). Records aren't great so far, not going to lie. But they do love it which is the most important thing, considering the miles we put on our car and the hours Jason spends getting them to their games (like, in other states). 

They also each play football. Ashton is one of the stars on his team (even though I've been told a hundred times which position he plays I still couldn't tell you. There are at least 2, one offense, one defense?)

And Alex, wellllll, Alex's age group is a combined 3/4 team so on the roster, he is probably in the 10th percentile in terms of age and size. He does not like it one bit and definitely won't play next year. Still looks the part though (this was on a professional photographer's instagram page, someone recognized him and sent it to me!)

The biggest news of all though is that the 6 Craft Road Great Improvement Project has begun! I don't think I ever really shared the full story, but it began when we realized we wanted a garage and we wanted one BAD. We hired an architect last summer (and also looked at the idea of just moving to a house that had one, only to be continually outbid by hundreds of thousands). Despite my many protests to the Natick building inspector and the Zoning Board of Appeals ("Ma'am, just because you want to put a garage on your house doesn't mean you can. It doesn't work that way, you don't meet the setback and we won't grant you a variance, so, move on") we knew we had to pivot. At least we could add the spaces we also needed: a gym, an office, and a finished basement for the boys. Here is a link to the plans, if anyone is interested. We went about finding a contractor, waited more than a year, got delayed with stormwater permits and other riff raff, and finally as of today, 10/31, we are ready to pour the foundation. We have a giant hole in the wall and in the ground - I'll take pics as it goes up. We first had to do some masonry to get ready to add the portico though:

Before, red brick and big bushes:

Kind of after:

We did add some new landscaping (which ended up all getting torched this summer in the heat with the water ban):

And here we are today, for the most part:

This project also involved a new front door, new side door, and all new trim on the windows and the mud room. They did a gorgeous job!

So, small improvements so far. Much bigger impact to follow, as well as Halloween of course (tonight!). The fall has been great, we have had so many family visits and fun events as we march towards my 42nd birthday - eeeek! --- and the holidays. It is my sincere intent to post more frequently and this post is dedicated to KK for reminding me I have readers who are patiently waiting!! ;)