Sledding at the Hill's hill

...and if you don't have a sled, you can always use your oldest brother...

...but he is usually not as stable as a regular sled.
Oops!
So the other siblings, thought they'd try it also....oldest brother as the sled, how many one, two, three

and fourth one the top...

Were there three or four in that stack?

Oops, they lost Josiah off the side!

Sledding....

What can you do with dented 3o' electrical poles?...

Make them into a sled ramp of course...

Bob started in the garage last night, then the girls and Bob were able to move sections of the "bridge" (as Justin calls it) to the back yard and assemble it. Then we needed extra help to get it connected to the back deck, that is where Nathan and Josh came in (thanks Nathan & Josh!). With lots of bolting and connecting, Bob and Wendy worked, very hard, the entire day. Finally came the packing phase, where they actually got to try out the ramp. So now it is up and ready to be used. Justin thinks it is great. His comments are, "I want to do-ed it again!" and "Faster!"

Sharon, WI's Victorian Christmas

Aunt Laura and Wendy. Thanks Aunt Laura for making the trip and enduring the cold so that you could visit with us!

We Love you Aunt Laura.

Some of us were carolers and some of us were Victorian dancers and some of us just went to watch....and tried to keep warm. The temperature was about 10 or 11 degrees outside. Many people were costumed, which set the atmosphere nicely.

Iler's and the Hill's and Josh

Nathan D., Jonathan, Jessica and Joanna

Sharon WI, Victorian Christmas Celebration

Trimming the tree

We spent the day with all six of us, just hanging around the house, cleaning up some things, cooking and decorating. It was a good day even though the weather was icy, snowy and windy. We pulled out the Christmas decorations and got them all ready to go, popped popcorn (though we never got any strung), Abbey and Daniel made apple dumplings together and then we went to cut our tree down. (We needed to keep Abbey's mind off wanting to run off to Chemung to nurse Josh back to health.) There is a cut your own Christmas tree place just outside our subdivision, so we all pile in the Explorer (we're not sure if Josh or Olivia would fit in there.) and go get the tree. This year we brought the "saw-s'all" for the cutting (I'm sure that is not the picturesque way to do it, but it works well.) We had a lot of fun choosing and cutting and dragging the tree back to the car. Lots of laughing. By the time we got back to the house a snowball fight and whatnot was going to happen. We enjoyed seeing the kids laugh and carry on, even though it was really cold and wet. Later we got the tree in and decorated, (it is not quite as large as last years, but good sized). Then seems we had too much time on our hands or we have driven past the Chrysler plant too many times, but Bob and Daniel got carried away in the decorating ideas...oh well Justin thinks it is great.

A bride, a groom,....

One ring bearer and five precious flower girls...

More of Abbey in MA

A reenactment of "Pilgrim's Progress", completed Thanksgiving Day. This is a reenactment of the journey (call to worship) that took place each day of worship, through Plymouth.

(if I have it correctly.)

Abbey is helping Josh's family put together the lunches for the (entire) historical tour group, which they are all on, in MA.

Josh and Abbey in Boston (I think).

Hill Family (& Allen Family) Thanksgiving Gathering

We had a wonderful time gathered together with family. I think 29 or so gathered together at the Mark & Wendy Kennedy house for turkey, dressing, potatoes, salads, dressing, vegetables, desserts and more dressing :) and just lots of great food and good company. Mark & Wendy invited my brother Rich, his wife Elena and their boys, Sean, Ryan and Jacob to join the Hill gathering. All of the Hill's were there: Grandpa Jack and Lynn; Mark, Wendy & Katy; Kurt & Dedee and their boys, Andrew, Collin and Kyle, plus Jordan brought his girlfriend Leah along; our family minus Abbey and Josh; Mark Andrew, Holly and Quinn; plus Dedee's brother the other Uncle Mark and one of the Kennedy's drivers who is from Lithuania. A good crowd.

Justin, Ryan, Leah and Jordan, Mark H., Sean

Arnie, who was from Lithuania spoke Russian, so he and Elena spent time visiting and chatting in Russian.

Each year we put together a Hill Family calendar, working on it together, usually on or around Thanksgiving. It is great fun as we look through pictures of the past year and do a lot of cropping, clipping and pasteing. Some funny highlights were..."gar...bage" and also pulling photographs off Aunt Wendy's walls, because we needed pictures of certain people.

Turkey trouble

Daniel thought this was so funny, he wanted to put it on the blog. We had a great Thanksgiving meal at the Kennedy's, Uncle Mark fixed the turkey, good thing he didn't have so much trouble.

Game time, November 23, 2007

Wendy, Rachel and Briana helped keep the boys fed; though when the boys are playing computer games, unless it comes out of a bag and is right at hand, not much gets eaten. OK, the home-made peanut butter cups were eaten.

First team, in the (heated) garage: Barney, Falcon, Quick Draw and Silent Death (I prefer to just call him Grant.)

Second team in the school room: Blind Monkey, Master Drake, Captain Jack Sparrow, Fat Erbert and Seahorse. Where was that Killer Midget, they were looking for him.

The girls and Justin watched the highlights of "Singing in the Rain", then when Justin went to bed they watched "Pride and Prejudice", you'll be happy to know, that once again, Mr. Darcy was able to wed Miss Elizabeth. Daniel did spent a lot of time in the other room, with all the girls, keeping up with Mr. Darcy. All in all it seemed to be a good evening, which went smoothly, was not too late and we had polite young men coming and going with their computers in tow. The group definitely wants to do it again very soon, for they were missing a very important player, that being Grant S. (and I'm not sure what his secret name is.)

Betty Brinn Museum with the Strand's, Nov. 20, 2007

Abbey in Plymouth, MA

Abbey in MA, with Joanna and Jessica. Today it is sunny and warm there, where here in Union it is cold and snowy.
We miss her!

The "Friendship of Salem"