Christmas is coming!

Lest you think that we died, I will post once again. Thank you, Jen N., for your encouragement to continue. :) After trying the blog thing for awhile, I am all the more impressed with those people who can post interesting things every day.

Christmas is upon us and we are gathering presents galore for our Christmas extravaganza with both the Moran and the Hoffman families. I for one am VERY enthused to have more than one day off for Christmas and to be with both families (EVERYONE home!!! hooray!). We continue to be amazed at God's grace and his provision for us in so many ways - above and beyond what we need.

We recently became card-holders at our local library. This is exciting for two reasons: 1. we like to read :) 2. The library gives out passes/discounts to the major (and not so major) museums in the area. Yesterday we took advantage of this for the first time and went to the New England Aquarium at the Boston harbor. Instead of paying the normal $20/person, we only paid $8/person. SHA-BANG! I love a good bargain!

It has been years since either of us have been to an aquarium and we had fun checking out the various species of underwater world. Some fish are craaazy!

Their main exhibit was a penguin exhibit. I have a special place in my heart for penguins due to the fact that they are ultra cute and my friend Allison has worked with them. So, when I see penguins, I think of Allison...and this makes me happy. Here are some pics:

The sting ray and the scary neon green eel:


Aren't these fish HUMONGOUS?!
We also checked out the big Christmas tree at Quincy market. Oddly enough, when we asked a couple to take our picture, they took a picture of us with our camera and then with THEIR camera. Not sure why they wanted a picture of two strangers...
This past Fall we have been working, hanging out, drinking coffee, and doing the church/soul care thing. We really like having Matt's brother Chris nearby. With him we enjoy comparing notes on Seinfeld episodes, talking baseball and the Bills, watching the Bills games, going to church together and hearing Chris' stories of college life- pranks, food points (or lack there of), roommates and intramural dodgeball (to name a few). The Thanksgiving road trip to Buffalo with him was also fun (while also being rather long and exhausting).

In September, my wonderful friend J. B. got married. It was great to be home, to hang out with Mom and Dad and some old high school friends and to see J.B. be very much in love.

My friend Allison from college visited this Fall! Hooray! We walked ALL over the city - downtown, the North End, Mike's Pastry (cannolis!), the business district, the harbor, the Common, Chinatown, Cambridge, Harvard...etc. We really should have bought a map (other than the T map we were using). We wandered around a lot in random neighborhoods, but we definitely 'saw' Boston! - probably more of Boston than normal people would ever need or want to see. :) Thanks for coming, Allison! Oh! Do take note- the "Houghton Library" shown below is located at Harvard University. Very cool. :) Here are some pics:

Hmmm....
Matt has been working ultra hard doing stats this Fall and Winter at Gordon. He is also working on a major paper for class that's due this week. He will also soon be working on a sermon to give at Calvary Gospel (in Utica) after Christmas.

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Buffalo to be with the Morans. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures over the break, but to give you a recap: We ate delicious food, celebrated Matt's birthday, hung out with family, visited Granny's new home, watched UB beat Temple, played some late-night poker games, watched the Bills game, and relaxed.

Hopefully this gives you a much needed update. Here's to a glorious Christmas season!

Apples!

Today was one of those incredible Fall days where everything looks beautiful- and I mean everything. It could be a house in disrepair or a cluttered barn or just a simple brick building- things that you would normally call ugly or boring...Something about this day: the sunlight, the orange and red trees, the blue sky with the puffy white clouds, the green grass and the crisp air just made everything glorious. At different points, I thought to myself "WOW! If only I could capture this in photography" and then I would realize that even the best photographer could not do it justice.


Matt and I went apple picking today and it seemed like the whole North Shore had the same thought. That apple orchard was CROWDED! Seriously, I've never seen so many people at an apple orchard. There were people there with their kids, college students, people looking like models, people all bundled up in their scarves and fleeces... I don't know what it is about apple picking that makes the whole world come out. This place wasn't cheap either! We were thinking we could've gotten cheaper apples at the local 'Stop-n-Shop'. Here is Matt in shock that this dinky bag cost $15.00:


Anyway...this place did it up right. They had pumpkins for sale, hayrides out to the orchards, goats, swans, the BIGGEST pig you ever did see and weird birds that seemed to be cross-bred. I also think I saw guinea-fowl, but I thought they were only in Africa. uh...?? On top of all this, they were selling apple cider and cider donuts- yum!


Apple crisp, here we come!

Happy Times:
Brooke came to visit us at the beginning of August! We packed the weekend full and explored a lot of the North Shore and Boston to hopefully give her a full glimpse of our life here (and more!). First we went to the Fish Tale Diner in Salisbury- a quaint diner right on the bay:

Next we went to Newburyport for their annual summer festival, admired the window boxes (I learned later that Newburyport has actually won awards for their window boxes- no wonder they were so huge!), made purchases at the sidewalk sales and bought books at a used book store. Brooke is quite the book shopper. She somehow manages to go into used book stores and find all of the true gems. Matt has this gift as well. As for me, having this gift is only a dream. Every time I go into a bookstore with either of them I am very much inspired and awed by their skills. After this, we ventured up to Maine, specifically York Beach. At 'Goldenrod Kisses', a candy store and restaurant, we saw salt water taffy being made and bought penny candy. We were disappointed to find that not all of the candy was only 1 cent. Some of them were 3 cents, 5 cents..etc. Gone are the days of TRUE penny candy. :)



Props to anyone who can eat these jawbreakers without truly breaking their jaw. :-/
On Sunday, we went to the North End of Boston (Matt could join us on this day, after completing his elder track weekend away). We ate DELICIOUS cannolis at the famous "Mike's Pastry". I didn't even know what cannolis were exactly, let alone whether I liked them. But after having one at Mike's, I am all out SOLD on cannolis!



At Quincy Market, we saw 2 varieties of street performers- the break dancers...

...and the acrobats:


The next weekend, Chris arrived and set out for his 2 week adventure in the woods for Gordon's Lavida program.


And also around this time, I said my farewells to Georgetown Savings Bank. Here are some scenes from the bank party, my branch/station and a girls' night out party with some of my bank friends:




In mid August I started work on the seminary campus as the cashier in the student accounts office. So far I'm really enjoying both my co-workers and the job itself. I've been getting to know more people in this little GCTS world- both those who pay their bills :) and those who don't. :( This job is great because it changes my commute from 30 minutes to a simple (though steep) walk up a hill. And I don't have any more 'leave for work at 7:05am and get back at 7:00pm' days. phew. Now I have 8-4:30 days with an hour for lunch (which I get to spend with Matt). So...the perks are definitely perks.

Matt also started his new job as the Sports Information Director at Gordon College. It's now his job to keep stats for all the sports teams, do write-ups on the games and organize the sports area of the Gordon College website. He is very busy going to various sporting events while also starting up the Fall baseball season with practices every other day and going to his seminary classes. His juggling skills are incredible!

In August we also attended the wedding of two of our church friends, J. and T. We enjoyed hanging out at the reception with many of our fellow church members, including one of our pastoral couples who moved to Philly at the beginning of the summer to plant a church. Sometimes I wish our various worlds- E-town, Buffalo, Houghton, Utica, MA- could all meet so that everyone could love each other and be loved as we love and are loved.



At the end of August, Matt and I took a weekend and traveled up to Ogunquit, Maine- a big festive beach town. It was our last shabang before the craziness of Fall began. We enjoyed beautiful weather (except for one rainy afternoon) and had a fun time hanging out just the two of us.
While there we discovered a very nic candy store (is there a trend in this blog?) with the most amazing display of jelly beans that I have ever seen. (Side note: Rach, you totally have to visit again and partake in all of the jellybean goodness! And of course, they were ALL jellybellies!) I mean, for real! Have you ever seen a more beautiful jellybean display?
At the end of August, Mom Moran, David and Noelle came up to bring Chris all of his college stuff. We went to the Singing Beach, ate slush, made dribble castles, and attended a chapel service for new students and their families. After seeing Chris in his room and saying our farewells, the rest of us hung out at the hotel pool and played a few rowdy games of Marco Polo.












Over Labor Day weekend, I traveled down to PA to see my family! There were only 2 downers. One was that Matt was unable to come due to his work schedule. He put in approx. 35 hours of work in one weekend while I was gone. yikes! And the second was that my sister Carrie and her family couldn't come due to my brother-in-law David's work schedule. :(

My sister Erin and her family were home from Thailand and it was a great time of reuniting, meeting my nephew Ian for the very first time (he wasn't born yet at our wedding when we last saw them), canoeing, eating yummy camp food, beaching it at the lake, singing and having wonderful wonderful family times. Grandpa and Grandma Hoffman also came for a surprise afternoon visit! As you can see, I went craazzzy with the camera. :)





































Pictures can't quite capture all these memories.