Get your Glam-a-zon Next Friday.

Yep, so my birthday is next Friday and we are going to dance the night away in Nate and McKay's dining room. Nate wants to get an IPOD mixer so he can be DJ N8y N8. I love dancing and haven't had a birthday with my siblings since well, I don't remember the last birthday I had with more than one member of my Larson family maybe 1999 so it should be a goody. A little impromptu but all we really need is a space, a stereo, and some sweet tunes. Of course, I will miss the Cammock Birthday Breakfast spread (and my family will miss seeing the pictures) and Liz's special touch. But I will be trying to compile the wickedest sweetest most groove ready dance playlist so if you have any suggestions please let me know and I can think of you while we dance the night away.

Final few.

I made it back to Vermont last night but landed in a Blizzard in Manchester so Mike and I got a room to give the roads some time to be plowed. He said it was out of control snowy on the way down so we are glad he made ok. We had a nice easy drive back up to Vermont this morning. They got over a foot of snow in Windsor. I will have to get some pictures tomorrow of the piling towers of snow everywhere. I loved my visit with the Hafens and miss them already. I can't wait until they bring Rock Band out here in June for the Larson reunion.

Oscars delight.

Its been another few great days here with my sister and the Hafen family. We've played games, I went to watch Allie at dance class and they performed for me this morning. Tonight was the night we have all been waiting for...the Oscars. We couldn't have really asked for better timing than to be here for Joy's b-day and the Oscars and to us, it is serious business. Joy and I gave the girls a lecture this morning about how tonight was about us and us watching the Oscars with as little interruption as possible. Being little girls who love dress up, they were pretty into watching the red carpet which was cute but they ate all of the treats Joy had set out for us so then Joy went up and made Brownies which she brought down with the icecream after they were in bed. At one point the HD chanel stopped working right before they began and we went into a frenzy to figure out where else to watch them, but it returned, phew. Sure, there is a lot about the whole thing that is way over-the-top, wasteful, superfluous, and fake but for Joy and me, there is also something exciting and glamorous that draws us right into the core and would love to attend ourselves, one day. We are thinking Joy in the category of original screenplay.One day. We have just about settled for a seat in the fan stands outside. It dragged on as usual. I liked Jon Stewart even though he only had 8 days to prepare and there were lots of montages and you could feel the rush in putting it together but it was the Oscars and we enjoyed our evening out, thanks to cable and HD, it was a good one.

More tea parties with Cheerios and water.
A little bit of twister.Look how she is streching her little self across.

S and A have both said, "Aunt Chrissy you take a lot of pictures." True.
M, aka Super Bug, takes a picture. I love 3 yr. old perspective pix.
Super Bug has the most staticky hair ever! I call her Fuzz head.
A little bit from the "Sisters"routine they did for their school talent show.Yeah that's right, we start them out early on the Red Carpet in our family.

The spread.

Joy got her Phish Food Special.This Brownie Mix I brought from the Merc (Stonewall Kitchen) is uh, amazing with a bit of Vanilla icecream. Perfect Oscar companion to get you through that last hour.
AND FOR THE OSCAR MOMENT OF THE NIGHT......

The winning song, 'Falling Slowly' from Once! I was thrilled for them. It was probably my favorite movie of the year and they performed so well and I could feel their joy. I also loved how Jon Stewart brought Mar back on to say her piece since the music cut her off and she was articulate and what she said was awesome. I loved that moment. I love their movie and music. I love them (I feel like a stalker) and it was just awesome.
I love your uber talented lil guts! Congrats! (as if they will read this...)

Note: After watching the the Arrivals, the show itself, and surfing the net for a couple hours to check out the pix up close I have compiled my Oscar thoughts here. A few pix below. Was Red in or what!

A Birthday day.

Today was actually Joys Birthday. I hope she had a good day. She got lots of phone calls, cards, and some cool prezzies too. The Hafens like to decorate for birthdays and Joy's favorite color is purple so she got herself some purple balloons to hang up. She also whipped herself a yummy chocolate cake. The girls scurried around finding things around the house to re-give her but they are so cute in the process. After Miranda gave her an eraser she ran up to her and gave her a big hug as to say, " I am so happy I made you so happy!" It has been so fun being around the girls and chatting with Joy, we have a lot to catch up on. Shannon keeps giving me hugs and saying "I love my aunt chrissy" and Alanah in her more mature way said,"I am glad you are going to be around for a few days" Me too.

Here are a few pix from the past couple days.


The birthday candles. Shannon got a little stressed there that we were going tor burn the house down.Look at those little hands trying to make a chord.
She was singing "Away in a Manger" following along the music with her finger and trying to play with the other hand.Rock Star.
Purple balloons for Joy's birthday!
\
This reminded me of when I was little and hated when mom tried to fuss with it. She kept saying, "Can you please be very very gentle." I don't know that I ever communicated that with so many words.Probably nnot.


Miranda has gotten very steady at pouring out of the teapot. They love having teaparties.
Cheerios, the universal food.
I think they were just tired from all the play that day.

Reunited after nearly 3 years!

This morning when I posted, I was actually waiting in the Manchester Airport for my plane to Chicago. While I was in India I emailed my favorite brother-in-law and told him of a plan I had which was to fly out and suprise me sister for her birthday and boy was he IN! We arranged the ticket and he got the day off work to come and get me and for the months in between we just tried not to let it slip. The plan worked flawlessly and while she was gone to pick the girls up from school, Hafe and I slipped into the house and I waited in the kitchen for her to come in. This is Hafe on the phone checking his messages to make sure she hadn't called and a picture of the clock as we waited and then the million dollar picture I snapped as she walked into the kitchen. It was perfect and she was so excited which made our days as well! My nieces took a few moments to figure out who the heck this new person was as well but they caught on and it was a fun afternoon of hanging out with my cool family in Normal, Illinois which will always hold a special place in my heart as I lived here for 3 different summers with the Hafens.Wealso had a little Rock Band jammin (that game is amazing...I really felt like a Rock star. They are totally bringing it to the reunion in June.) I also gave the girls some bangles that Lucy helped me pick out in India. Miranda was so eager to see what I had for her and Allie and Shannon very diplomatically split them up so both has equal colors. It was a pretty cool day.I will be here for the next 6 days so more pictures and stories to come.

Ads and Articles.

In loo of the springish weather we have experienced the last couple days, the Ad for the Merc this week harks to the Mud that so eagerly accompanies Spring in Vermont. These boots really are cool. Hobo Brig bought a pair when they first came in and if it wasn't for McKay and her generously sharing all of her Vermont Winter Footwear, I might have a pair myself. Although there is another company Bogs that does a few funkier designs of this same sort of Boot. MuckBoots are the real deal, worn by real faaamers in the real muck and having the proper footwear for Vermont winters is essential and I have remembered that now.

On another note, last Sunday we had an editorial in the paper on Sibling Development, the Merc, why all the Larsons moved to Windsor, etc etc. The reported had come in and talked to all of us, called Joy, and tried his darndest to get the story as straight as possible. There is some serious intrigue about why we want to work together but the story mostly gave a bit of a chronology of our lives and how we've ended up here. It was big and we were on the cover of the Business section with 2 color photos and then onto the next full page with 2 more photos. It was a good spread (not a fan of the way I look in the pictures as I didn't shower that morning ;) but it has been incredibly well received and I have already received 2 design jobs straight off the article. Every person who has come into NLWILSON has mentioned it and it has brought a nice vibe to the Merc as well. It's big so I was planning to scan it and post it or something. So hopefully we can ride on that.

Hobo Brig goes to Boston.

Boston is only 2 hours away and a pretty straight shot from Windsor which is really exciting because in just 2 hours we can be in a great city. I mean I have driven longer than 2 hours to get to a movie before (I once drove with Mom and Dad 3 hours one way to see a movie in Tucson but we needed out of Morenci so you can't blame us) We took advantage of Alicia and Phil being here and went down with Chelle and Hobo Brig. According to Wikipedia,

Hobo is a term that refers to a subculture of wandering homeless people,^[1] particularly those who make a habit of hopping freight trains. The iconic image of a hobo is that of a downtrodden, shabbily-dressed and perhaps drunken male, one that was solidified in American culture during the Great Depression. Hoboes differentiate themselves as travelers who are homeless and willing to do work, whereas a tramp travels but will not work and a bum does neither.

Meet Hobo Brig.

We don't know when we are going to see Hobo Brig. Right when we think there is rhythm, say Tuesdays, he becomes unpredictable and we don't see him for awhile and then one day he wanders back into our lives. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by Hobo Brig to Boston.

We parked outside the city and took the T into the Holocaust Monument which is new since I was last in the city and is a very well done installation. We went to Quincy Market for some slices of pizza and Mike tried his first Polska Kielbasa sausage grinder thing. As we were walking towards the Common outside the Market we caught these street performers and if you look closely at the pictures you can see the man jumped over the line of kids....whoa. Hobo Brig liked that.Chelle had Boston down and we followed her around although it is such a manageable city and easy to walk around. It was a bit nippy, however.

After walking around for a bit past some of the sites on the Freedom Trail and where the Boston Tea Party Began, we made our way to the top of the Prudential Building where we took a tour of the city from above. It was clear day and cool to actually be able to see the whole city from above. Later, we went to see 'Jumper' which totally bit in a royal kind of way. Here are some pictures.