Archive | holidays

a few photos from Thanksgiving

December 6, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Here’s a fun batch to begin with!

Before Lena’s Uncle Jonathan proposed to Lena’s soon-to-be Aunt Erika (!!!), he practiced his proposal for Lena. She loved it all, including trying on the diamond ring.

I took some photos of my first completed order for Making Room {Handmade}, a pair of knitted fingerless gloves that my mother-in-law requested for a co-worker.

Lena’s pulling herself up on everything these days. She loved climbing up onto the hearth this Thanksgiving… under careful supervision!

Meanwhile, Jonathan proposed and Erika accepted! Their faces hurt from smiling, but they tried to smile a little more for a loooot of photos at the Garber household. Elliott popped the cork off a bottle of champagne and we toasted to their lives together. Congrats, you two!

They had to smile for many, many photos that evening.

That Thanksgiving weekend Jess had an inflamed tibia after running a half marathon. She tried to stay off it… sometimes more successfully than others…

Thanksgiving Day came at last! The table was set…

… and the guests arrived, all admiring of little Lena.

And we feasted!

The aftermath:

And the parking lot outside the house:

An after-dinner walk to work off some of those calories. Lena is already an avid frisbee “player,” and her daddy rejoices!

More to come soon!

1 :: in family, holidays, home sweet home, knitting business, Virginia

a few photos from Thanksgiving

December 6, 2011 at 11:33 am

Here’s a fun batch to begin with!

Before Lena’s Uncle Jonathan proposed to Lena’s soon-to-be Aunt Erika (!!!), he practiced his proposal for Lena. She loved it all, including trying on the diamond ring.

I took some photos of my first completed order for Making Room {Handmade}, a pair of knitted fingerless gloves that my mother-in-law requested for a co-worker.

Lena’s pulling herself up on everything these days. She loved climbing up onto the hearth this Thanksgiving… under careful supervision!

They had to smile for many, many photos that evening.

That Thanksgiving weekend Jess had an inflamed tibia after running a half marathon. She tried to stay off it… sometimes more successfully than others…

Thanksgiving Day came at last! The table was set…

… and the guests arrived, all admiring of little Lena.

And we feasted!

The aftermath:

And the parking lot outside the house:

An after-dinner walk to work off some of those calories. Lena is already an avid frisbee “player,” and her daddy rejoices!

More to come soon!

1 :: in family, holidays, home sweet home, knitting business, Virginia

headed back to Italy

November 28, 2011 at 5:18 am

Unbelievably, our time in the States has come to a close. Tomorrow morning we fly back to Sicily! I am both thrilled and miserable, realizing that all these happy days (especially those filled with family) are over. Now we’re moving back to a new community, a new home, a new culture, a new life.

This past week has been wonderful and filled with family. So many gatherings around dinner tables, so many games, so much conversation, so many snuggles of a beloved granddaughter/niece/daughter. The big news around here is that the Garber family gained a sister this week… Jonathan proposed to Erika! And tonight our little Lena was baptized at our church on Capitol Hill, a big celebration which many of our dear friends and all of our family attended. There are so many photos to share! But I’ll leave you with one of the best photos from the weekend: an aunt and her niece, both in cozy onesies. Quite indicative of the coziness of our Thanksgiving week.

Internet will be spotty the next few days as we travel and then set up house. I’ll share as I can. Hopefully (… fingers crossed!) I’ll be getting a new iPhone with video capabilities, so we’ll see if that leads to even more fun updates from across the pond. Sicily, we’re coming home!

11 :: in family, friends, holidays, home sweet home, Italy, Sicily, travel, Virginia

headed back to Italy

November 28, 2011 at 4:18 am

5 :: in family, friends, holidays, home sweet home, Italy, Sicily, travel, Virginia

a day to be thankful

November 24, 2011 at 5:18 pm

a visit to Israel with our 2-month-old daughter

This morning I woke up remembering last year. That Thanksgiving was a difficult day in this house. Elliott was on a one-year deployment in Egypt, I was 5 months pregnant with our little Lena, my grandmother died around 2am in Cincinnati, my entire family was with her except me, and I got up at 6:30am to get my dad’s phone call about my grandmother and then went in to work a 12-hour shift in the ICU.

It was a rough Thanksgiving. Although even then Elliott and I sought every reason to be thankful, we were very ready to pass that day by and look to the future.

Now we’re living the future, and we are together. Waking up next to Elliott instead of thousands of miles away from him… can’t ever take that for granted again! And now there’s Lena, too, our snuggle muffin and little joy. Although the difficulties of last year will always be with us (I miss my grandmother so much, I’ll never have a “newlywed year” with Elliott, etc.), God has indeed replaced a lot of our struggles with rich blessings and much joy these days. Take none of it for granted!

Is this Thanksgiving a special one of joy, or one in the middle of a year that you’re ready to see end? Life isn’t always “peachy keen,” I know. I’d love to hear about your joys and your struggles this year, knowing they often come hand in hand.