Boston

Every year we take a trip between Christmas and the start of school.  Cancun, Chicago, Indianapolis, etc.  We've been all over.  Anywhere that isn't home with endless hours of screen time and sibling bickering.  This year we decided to visit Boston.  It was fabulous.

I found a great AirBnb walking distance from Boston Common that was really nice and yet very inexpensive.

The first day we took a walking tour with Ira, a native of Boston, who showed us all around and taught us about the history, architecture, and culture of Boston.  It was so interesting and a great introduction to the city.  It gave us a great overview and ideas of what we wanted to do the rest of the week.

The tour started at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

We walked to the site of the Boston Massacre. 

The church where Paul Revere hung his two lanterns to warn of the British troops' advancement.

Bunker Hill - an early battle site of the Revolutionary War. 

And on and on and on.  We saw Beacon Hill - the ritzy Boston neighborhood, Public Gardens and Boston Commons, Faneuil Hall (now home of stores and restaurants and street performers), the graves of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, the Massachusetts State House, the Boston Public Library, and many more sites.  It was a lot of fun and seemed to end way too quickly although it lasted 3 hours.

Other fun stops during the week included:

A late evening stop for hot chocolate at a café where they serve dark chocolate hot chocolate.  Delicious!

A walk up to the North End for Italian treats.  We found some adorable outdoor swings on the walk.

Eating Boston Cream Pie while looking over the Boston Harbor (site of the Boston Tea Party)

There were a ton of seagulls at the harbor and every time I wanted to take a picture, Peter would run and scare some so they'd fly through my picture.  Kind of a fun action shot.

We also visited the Boston Public Library and saw the beautiful art work and thoughtful details in the McKim building (the original section of the library).  It's amazing how much thought and effort and money went into building a library back then!  Giant murals, ornate statues, chandeliers, massive staircases, and marble throughout! Dating back to 1895. It was connected within to the new section of the library and it was so interesting to walk from one to the other and see how our styles have changed.

The children's department was in the new section.  Peter immediately made himself at home and started playing with the dress-ups.  They also had a puppet show going on which was a fun surprise.

One day we took the subway over to Cambridge to visit Harvard.  I loved walking the paths of the place I had long thought I'd attend.  It was fun to learn about traditions at the school, see things I'd only seen in pictures, and hear interesting stories like, did you know George Washington stayed in the dorms there with his troops during the Revolutionary war?

The Johnson gate.  The oldest gate at Harvard dating to 1889.  Supposedly you're only supposed to go through it twice - on your first day and on your last.

Statue of John Harvard - people rub his foot for good luck - notice how one is gold from all the rubbing?  The kids refused to touch it because our guide, Ira, told us that people urinate on his foot as a prank on those who rub his foot.  True?  Who knows.  Not worth the risk, they figured.

We had to cross Harvard bridge and see the Smoot measurements.  The story goes that some MIT students in 1958 used a pledge to one of their frats named Oliver R. Smoot, Jr. to measure the length of the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge.  They kept picking him up and laying him down and marked off his length all along the bridge and the measurement became official and stands to this day, memorialized with a plaque on the bridge and marks painted on the ground.  I get such a kick out of that story.  Who would ever think that some freshman midnight silliness would become so enduring.  Reminded me of many fun freshman late-night antics in the dorms.  

We also crossed a different bridge (so many bridges in Boston!!) to get to the sports complex and Harvard Business school.  That was also fun to see after hearing so much about the Harvard Business school from Kelly.  The kids had fun playing model in various places around the city.  I'm a pretty lousy photographer but they did a good job of photographing each other.  I just love that my kids like having their picture taken.  So much better than having to coax them to do it all the time!

Sometimes the photo sessions got pretty silly - 

We visited Fenway park - home of the Boston Red Sox.  A tour would have cost us $100 so we just admired it from the outside.  We aren't big enough baseball fans for that.

Boston Public Garden was wonderful.  Would have been even better in Summer but the sunshine was wonderful.  Overall the weather was fantastic - 50s and sunny.  Just one day - the one this picture was taken - the wind kicked up and made things feel a bit chillier.

Nothing like enjoying a hot chocolate from Dunkin in the birthplace of Dunkin Donuts.  We had three Dunkin Donuts within walking distance of our apartment.

Two famous streets in Boston are Newbury Ave, the famous shopping district, and Commonwealth Ave, the famous parkway divided in the center by a wide grassy mall. This greenway, called Commonwealth Avenue Mall, was full of statues and beautiful park areas.  At Christmas time they also light all the trees.  It was a lot of fun to walk it at night.

On Newbury street we had a great day shopping.  The kids all bought something.  Bella and Peter got shoes and Christian got a jacket.  Peter's shoes made him deliriously happy until it came time to learn how to tie them.  Then things turned sour.  Learning to tie shoes is tricky and Peter has a hard time pushing through mistakes.  He's getting there, though.  We've been practicing tying them every day and although every day he screams and kicks and cries during the effort, he always pushes on until he get gets it.  Can't ask for more than that. 

Can't go to Boston without checking out the Cheers bar!  I was the only one who cared, but the kids humored me.  Inside they have the set with cardboard cutouts of the most famous characters so you can sit at the bar and take pictures with them.  No drinks are served there.  The actual bar is in a different part of the building.  

We saw the USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides.  It's the world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat, originally launched in 1797.  It looked so amazing.  Everything was closed, I assume for the winter, but it was fun to see it from the dock.

We also visited Paul Revere's house.

We ate clam chowder, or clam chowda, as the Bostonians say it.  I was a big fan, the kids not so much.

And found a fantastic sushi restaurant just a 2 minute walk from our house that we ate at more than once.  The food was so good that I never thought to take a picture until it was all eaten! 

New Year's Eve was spent in Boston Common where they had a fantastic fireworks display and then in Government Center where they had live bands all night.  The mariachi band was my favorite.  We didn't make it to midnight but we had a great time.  I've never done an outdoor city-run New Year's eve and I really loved all the energy and excitement.

Overall it was an amazing trip.  I'm so glad we went.  I've wanted to see Boston for a long time and it didn't disappoint.  It was so easy to get around with public transportation and every one we met was very friendly.  My only regret was that we didn't have another week to spend there.

All the Festivities 2024

This year has gone so fast.  We definitely made the most of the season.  Things change as the kids grow and especially with Benjamin in Kansas, it felt different, but we did our best to preserve some of the same traditions and make them special for Peter.  Honestly though, it's always Bella that gets the most out of the holidays and I'm so glad she's still around for them because she makes everything more fun.  It won't be the same when she leaves.

The holidays always start with the holiday concerts. Given that my kids play saxophone, and not flute, I usually can't see them at all during the concert, but I at least catch glimpses of them when they're walking on or off stage, or happen to have a solo that they didn't even mention to me!!  I thought she did so well!

Christian's conductor asked all the kids to gather for a group photo after the concert.  What a big group of awesome musicians!

After the plushy, warm, comfortable indoor concert, comes the freezing cold outdoor holiday parade.  The kids have played in the worst of weather and it's been quite miserable some years.  However, this year it was an amazing 50 degrees and absolutely perfect.  Peter and I had a great time.  Just missed seeing Benjamin at the head of the Churchill drumline.  Not sure if that'll ever get easier.

If you can pick Bella out in this photo, you're doing better than I am.  I'm a terrible parent - I have no idea where she is in this huge group of perfectly matching saxophone players, but don't they all look good?!  I put an arrow on my best guess.

There's a group of guys in Livonia that love to dress up as the Ghostbusters, complete with jumpsuit and proton pack, every Halloween and drive their awesome ghost buster mobile around town.  But why stop at Halloween?  They have managed to make it all the way to Christmas too.  Each year they walk the parade, spraying everyone from their proton packs along with a giant stay-puff marshmallow man.  It's a blast - unless you get sprayed!  We were absolutely covered.

After listening to the amazing high school musicians, we had to hear some more - this time the professionals.  We continued our tradition of attending the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's holiday concert. It was fantastic as usual.  Santa was there again too, this time without Mrs. Claus and looking kind of bored in his big throne, unlike in past years where he laughed and joked with folks while standing by the bar.  We still managed to get a picture with him, though - it's tradition!!  Photo credit - Christian.

That same night, Bella and I went to see her friend Madison perform as the snow queen in The Nutcracker.  She was wonderful.  The lighting in the theater made for terrible photos, but everyone was all smiles after that beautiful performance.  So fun that these two are still friends since they met as 3 year olds in preschool!

That weekend we had a blast making and decorating sugar cookies.  I'm a professional cookie decorator - in my head - and I've had to come to terms with the fact that reality never matches my mental image and my aspirations will never be profitable.  Bella, on the other hand, as actual skills.  When combined with my skills at creating delectable homemade buttercream frosting, the picture perfect icing, and all the fancy piping bags and tips and colors I've purchased while nursing my dream of professionally decorating cookies, the results are spectacular.  Blast some Christmas music while doing it, and really, you don't get a better afternoon.

Christian wasn't feeling it.  He was much more interested in the football game.  He did join in for a couple, though, and he stayed in the kitchen to watch the game so he was still with us the whole time.  That was really nice.

So much fun and it wasn't even Christmas yet!  Christmas eve we invited my mom and Thea over and had spoiled ham for dinner.  Not the plan, just the unfortunate fact.  I will be demanding my money back.  Costco did me dirty, as my kids would say.  

Aside from the unfortunate ham, the rest of the dinner was amazing and the rest of the evening too.  We shared our feelings about Jesus Christ and how we've experienced Him in our lives this year.  We read Luke 2 and Matthew 2 while Christian did an impromptu one-man play of it - that was so cute.  We opened 1 present each, and we played some fun group games like Blank Slate.

Christmas morning we got to open presents with Benjamin!  He called and we face timed while he opened his presents from us and then watched us open ours.  It was the best.  Then he sent a picture of himself wearing the tie from my mom and the sweater from me.  Man, I miss that guy, but I'm so happy he's doing well.

Last night I drove Thea home and the news was on - famine amidst civil war in Sudan, war and famine in Palestine and Israel, thousands being killed every week in the war in Ukraine, etc etc.  Then I came home and placed dozens of gifts for my kids on the couch and went to bed warm, safe, healthy, and well fed.  It's crazy. How did I get to be here?

I awoke to a house full of happy people and watched them open countless presents with huge smiles and happy hearts.  My life is amazing and I'm so thankful for it.  I love these people with whom I get to spend every day.  I wouldn't want it any other way.  Merry Christmas!