beantown.

aidan: "mom, christmas day is jesus' birthday."

me: "sure is! do you know where he was born? 

i'll give you a hint...it starts with a b."

aidan: "boston."

{1st row: dim sum on day 1, boston as we drove in}
{2nd row: snowy chinatown, boston common}
{3rd row: the view of downtown boston from our hotel room, dim sum on day 2}
{4th row: malia & aidan with their new bogs boots, a random chinatown pic}

with an impending blizzard creeping up the east coast, we decided to go full-speed with our post-christmas vacation plans and visit my sister who lives in boston, massachusetts.  originally, we were going to leave on sunday, december 26th, but after hearing that boston was expecting up to two feet of snow we decided to get on the road.  the kids & i packed up and loaded up my parents' van.  the five of us were on the road by 8:30pm on christmas day.  adam & frisco stayed behind.

it was already starting to snow as we were leaving virginia {virginia beach got over a foot of snow while we were gone!}.  fortunately, there was no traffic...i mean, who would be road trippin' on christmas?  only us.  we stopped for the night somewhere in new jersey after driving on the jersey turnpike for a while.  we all needed sleep.  sleep & a yummy cracker barrel breakfast.

although the drive was fairly uneventful, the weather quickly deteriorated once we hit the new york-connecticut line on sunday.  as we approached the city limits of hartford, we knew the rest of our journey would be slow & pretty damn difficult {in a front wheel drive vehicle}.  there's nothing like having a two hour commute {the normal distance between hartford & boston} turn into a five hour fiasco that involved:
1. unplowed highways {the plows were out but they were barely keeping up with the snow!}
2. numerous stops to beat ice off of the windshield wipers
3. driving at the top speed of 30mph on a stretch of road that has a normal speed limit of 65mph
4. witnessing several cars on the side of the road with their front ends totaled because they thought they could go 65mph
5. answering the question "are we there yet?" about fifty gazillion times

but, we made it. and boston was so beautiful as we drove across the charles river.  the city was quiet.  there was no traffic.  just snow.  praise the lord there was a whole foods behind our hotel because we were starving!  my sister met us at our hotel on her way home from work {she is a pathologist at boston children's hospital*}.  and, so, our three day adventure in boston had begun!

we spent our time eating dim sum in chinatown, riding the t, walking in blizzard-like conditions, wearing dirty jeans thanks to slushy snow, shopping at copley place & prudential center, chillaxin' in my sister's apartment in fenway & just loving every minute of each other's company.

aidan told me that he wanted to move to boston.  he is in love with riding the t.  he also said he wants to be closer to his auntie monica.  bless his heart.

after three days in boston, we loaded my sister in the van and drove to andover, new hampshire to visit with her husband, do a little more shopping, eat more food & play in the snow.

{tomorrow's installment will be about our time in new hampshire...}

---

*remember how i mentioned that my sissy works at boston children's hospital?  well, a few days before christmas we were g-chattin' and she said, "i just heard joey mcintyre singing with the boston pops here at work!"

seriously.

check it:


{source}

the newest member of the family.

My sister & brother-in-law {who just celebrated their first wedding anniversary yesterday} are the proud new parents of:

Bruin the Newfoundland

Bruin the Newfie joins big sister, Moxie the Bernese Mountain Dog. From what I've heard, Moxie is a bit apprehensive around Bruin. I've also heard that Bruin is quite the little beast...he's 17 pounds and only nine weeks old.

I cannot wait to meet the lil' guy!

Sissy's where?!

My son had a pretty interesting conversation with my mother last week. Lately, he's been very curious about when he and his sister were babies and also when I was a baby...basically, he's infatuated with the fact that everyone around him (who is older than him) was his age at one point.

The conversation was initiated by my son who asked my mother where he was when I was a little girl. To be more specific, he asked if he was in my tummy when I was a little girl. Not wanting to get into uncharted territory with a 5 year old, my mom simply replied, "No."

"Well, was sissy in mommy's tummy?"

"No."

"What about daddy's tummy? Was sissy in daddy's tummy then?"

Again, my mother replied, "No."

What was my son's response?

"Well, I think daddy has a sissy in his tummy. He's got a big tummy, you know."

Great, my son thinks he's going to have another sissy, but this time sissy will come from daddy and not mommy. It's time for Adam to start doing sit-ups and switch to light beer! Oh, the mind of a 5 year old...