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December Highlights (part 1)

A Weekend of Harrington Traditions:

We love having people over. It is such treat to be with friends and an even bigger treat to introduce them to our world in this city called Twinsburg. At the beginning of December we had the privilege of doing just that with our friends JB & Bethany Ward, Joel, Erica, & Collette Momper, AND Jason Spanogle---AEX friends... for those of you who do not know, AEX was Chris's housing group at Grove City. We spent the weekend celebrating some of the Christmas traditions Chris and I have started here in Twinsburg AND (of course...) playing Settlers of Catan. Here's our weekend itinerary...

Friday night: The Wards arrive during the craziness of what is called our "Adult Ministry Team Meeting". We work with the middle school youth group. Our meetings may or may not include messy Gingerbread House competitions. :-)

Saturday Morning: We enjoyed a little R & R as we awaited the arrival of the Mompers. Upon their arrival, we all bundled up and headed to our 1st tradition: breakfast at Yours Truly in Chagrin Falls... our fav!!

Mark enjoys some play time with Uncle JB

The Christmas tree Farm: After breakfast it was time to get our Christmas tree. We love Sugar Pines Farm in Chesterland. We tried a few "cut your own" Christmas tree farms but have found this place has the best selection in the best location for us.

Collete and Mark tour the Christmas Tree Farm in Luxury

Mark's Christmas Tree Pick

Bethany picked "The One"

Chris's Chili & a Fun Filled Evening

For dinner we feasted on Chris's award winning chili. (Yes, my husband won "People's choice" for Nestle's Supply Chain chili cook-off 2 years in a row!! When all bellies were fed we strung popcorn and cranberries for our tree while playing Settlers of Catan. I must say I have a love-hate relationship with this tradition. I love the way the popcorn strings look on the tree, but DESPISE stringing them. Playing Settlers and having friends to share the load made the experience much more palatable. The rest of the evening was filled with Christmas music (thanks to Spanogle), decorating (thanks to Bethany's eye beauty), and many laughs. It was one of those days you wish you could relive.

Here come the tree!!

Great shot, Spanogle! You're a natural with the camera!

Collete & Mark - 2nd generation friends

Isn't this a great pic (minus the spit up)??

November 2009 Highlights

Aunt Beth Visits:

Aunt Beth drove out from NJ to visit and to help paint the nursery. Long story short we painted it 3 times. But 3rd time is a charm because I LOVE the new color! Beth was super patient with me and she's excellent with the paint brush. Thanks Aunt Beth!

Mark Crawls (11-8-2009):

During Aunt Beth's Visit, Mark crawled for the first time. Beth and I were out for the big event, but Chris was there to witness and video tape.

Aunt Molly's Grove City College Interview Weekend:

Mimi, Papa, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Molly stayed with us the weekend Molly had her interview for Grove City. We did a lot of dreaming. "If Molly gets in..." I love reminiscing when your know how the story unfolds... Aunt Molly was accepted to Grove City College and will be attending in the fall!!! Congratulations Molly!! We couldn't be happier for you (and us...to have you so close is a dream!).

Papa feeds Mark

Uncle Ben's #1 Fan

Thanksgiving:

The Hanlons came out to OH the week leading up to Thanksgiving. We were like kids on Christmas Eve as we waited for their arrival. They loved the house (it was their first introduction to it). My dad went right to work (as usual). He installed wonderful cabinets in our laundry room and child safety latches in our kitchen. I might add-- neither one of the jobs was easy. Thank you Dad!! After their visit we drove out to NJ for Thanksgiving. My Aunt Gwen hosted a fabulous dinner. A good time was had by all. Mark seemed to enjoy his first Thanksgiving, although he definitely did NOT enjoy turkey. I was kinda bummed. Oh well.

We took a break from the festivities for a family photo shoot. photographer: my Uncle Bill (it's such a gift to have some photography talent in the family!)

Katie, the youngest of the Hanlon kids, celebrated her sweet 16 during our visit. I can't believe it---my baby sister is 16!! Katie, I admire your servant's heart. You consistently look for how you can help and don't seem to ever think twice about it. My prayer for you is to see your servant's heart bring people to Christ. Happy Sweet 16!! I love you!

Ice Skate Christmas Ornaments

November and December highlights will be coming at a later date. In the meantime I had to share these skate ornaments I made with my Harrington sisters and Kari (my mom-in-law). We had such a great time putting these together!

The background: We needed ice skate ornaments for the children at church to help them remember a story my father-in-law will be reading to them on Christmas Eve.

The problem: We couldn't find them anywhere!

The solution: Make our own!!

We found the basic idea on the following website, but tweaked it to our liking

http://www.bhg.com/holidays/christmas/ornaments/make-a-felt-mitten-and-ice-skate-ornament/?page=2

Here's what you need:

• felt
• large paper clips
• tissues/ cotton balls (to use as stuffing)
• needle and thread
• silver cord string (or any thick thread you'd like to use for the laces)
• ribbon (for hanging the ornament)
• fancy ribbon (for the top of the skate)

Step 1: Use the stencil on the website above to cut out the felt skate.

Step 2: Begin sewing the skate closed starting from the lower left corner of the skate pictured above. When you get to the top, loop the "fancy ribbon" around the top of the boot and place the ends in between the two pieces of felt. Also place the two ends of the "hanging ribbon" in between the two pieces of felt. Sew the top shut.

Step 3: Stuff the skate with tissue (or any other stuffing of your choice), then sew the skate shut.

Step 4: Slide a paper clip in the bottom of the skate, then finish closing up the skate. Be sure to secure the paper clip in place with a stitch or two.

Almost done!!

Step 5: Use the silver cord string to stitch laces.

"Ta da!!" A Skate ornament! Aren't they lovely???

Highlights from October 2009

Since the downfall of our computer keyboard, blogging has been a little more time consuming. (For those of you who don't know, our "n" and "b" keys no longer work because Mark spit up on the keyboard. A skype catastrophe. So... we have to copy and paste all n's and b's. It's actually quite comical--- at times.) The point is I'm behind in documenting our lives. I guess for the vast majority of you this is not a big deal (or even a deal at all). However, I'm having a hard time with the thought of skipping over these fun tid bits of our lives in order to catch up, so I won't. Here they are.

Chris gets his grill. (a birthday present from pretty much every family member) His first meal: pork chops. YUM! :-)

We had a pumpkin carving party with the 8th grade girls from youth group. What a blast! They are so much fun to be around!

Mark's Great Poppie (my grandfather) and Loie came to visit and see our new home for the first time. Great Poppie made the dinner--He's my favorite cook :-) It was a real treat!

My cute Purdue fans :-)

Mark's 7 month picture

Mark's favorite pastime...hoodie strings!

In October I surprised my family with a trip to new Jersey. We had an awesome time! Here are some pictures to document the festivities...

All the Hanlon women & Mark

3 generations

Finally, at the very end of October (halloween), we spent the day with 2 of my roommates from college and their husbands. It was a blast!!

Mark's First Food...Yum!!

Sept 24th, 2009- Mark eats his first bite of food at 6 months old (well, aside from rice cereal). What was it??? I know, the suspense it killing you... it was CARROTS Here's the video. Enjoy :-)

Our First House!!

Getting the Keys... Sept 15th, 2009

A week and a half after we got back from Japan, we signed the papers for our first home!! We had youth group the night we got the keys, so after youth group a group of us leaders went to our new home. Chris carried me over the threshold and we had a photo shoot in the kitchen with all our friends. The following evening we brought over some chairs, pizza and a couple of pack and plays and played Settlers of Catan with the Grays. I couldn't imagine a better way to celebrate the purchase of our first home!

Moving In... Sept 19th, 2009

We were so blessed when it came to the process of moving. Our wonderful friends and family watched Mark while we packed, lent us boxes, made us meals, and gave up a beautiful Saturday morning to move us. Thank you everyone for all your help!!!

All of our stuff fit in one truck...one very large truck!!

Mark and his uncle ben get some much needed rest after a busy day