Last Post of 2025

 2025 has felt like a blur.  Lots of fun memories were made, but man, we were busy!  Our Christmas season was a delight, despite Susannah and Sarah passing the flu around the week before.  Here are the photos:

Jasper was our holiday houseguest.  A very sweet boy.   

Christmas Eve pj photo

National Lampoon's was this year's theme. 

We hosted our annual Christmas Eve pre-church gathering.  

My Christmas beauties

Of course, we made a double batch of sausage balls in honor of Grandmama and Poppy. 

The girls had Christmas haircuts.  

Jasper and Sally took care of SA while she was sick.  

We made gingerbread houses this year.  A first for us!

Susannah's friends came over to watch Percy Jackson and make cookies.  

And Peter kept a cozy fire going almost every night.  

We are extremely grateful for another year of healthy, happy memories.  We pray that all of you can say the same.  We wish you lots of hope and love as we welcome 2026!

December Catch-Up

The Christmas season is here!  Which means I need to do a blog catch-up.  These photos are in reverse chronological order, of course.  Here are the happenings since our last post.   

We had a guest last weekend, Snufkin.  She brought lots of fun and lots of hair.  :)

I don't know how, but this beauty is 15 years old.  

We had the best time celebrating her with a family birthday party that included cookie cake, sushi take-out, a roaring fire, and a viewing of The Grinch.  

Her actual birthday was spent watching Sarah Avery's middle school chorus concert, but we did squeeze in a late dinner at our favorite Mexican place.  The entire restaurant sang happy birthday, which was so fun!

Sarah's chorus concert was so fun.  She sang beautifully.  

How are these girls so grown up??

Sarah Avery is in the middle on the right side.  

It was a beautiful concert. 

We started Susannah's birthday with blueberry muffins and some new body scrub. 

Our elf, Sam, arrived right on time, on December 1.  He brought Sephora Advent calendars this year.  

We opted for a smaller tree this year, which means it is super full of ornaments.  It was SA's year to put on the star.  

Susannah and Sally decorated the tree together this year.  :)

We bought our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  It was cold and drizzly after church, but we pushed through and came home with a great tree!

Sarah Avery went ice skating with some friends over Thanksgiving.  

We have had lots of cold temps, and Peter is great about keeping a roaring fire in the fireplace.  Sally is a fan.  

Papa came for Thanksgiving, and I was horrible about photos.  This one of our table was the only one I snagged.  We had a lovely steak dinner and a fantastic time catching up with Papa.  

Sarah went to the opening weekend of Wicked for Good with a group of her friends. 

A sad highlight of this season is that we said goodbye to our beloved Honey.  She was such a good and faithful dog, and we loved her very much.   It was very hard to say goodbye, but we found some closure in the little service we had, where we said some words and threw flowers into the Potomac, just like we did with Meadow.   

Halloween beauties.  Belle and Ariel stopped by for some water during their evening of trick-or-treating. 

These cuties had the best Wizard of Oz theme.  

Even my pickleball ladies came to play with some festive gear.  

Peter, SA, and two of her friends did a great job carving our pumpkins.  

SA's fall lacrosse season was a great success.  They won several games and had a blast!

First Homecoming Dance.  

These beauties had a great time!

True Lacrosse after their first fall tournament.

Susannah ended her cross-country season on a high note.  Her JV team won a huge meet, and then she was bumped up to Varsity and ran in the Varsity District meet.  

I just finished finals, and the girls have one week left of school.  Christmas is almost here!  We love and miss you all and send our love from Alexandria!

Fall is here!

Back-to-school season has been charging full speed ahead here in Alexandria.  We celebrated SA's 11th birthday in August, Susannah has been killing it on the cross-country courses, and I preached my first sermons as a seminary intern.  Lots of fun and excitement!  Here are some photos.  

This 11-year-old was delighted by her new sweatshirt that Grammy sent.  

They love each other.  Sometimes. 

We had cookie cake at the family birthday party.  

And traditional birthday cake with her friends, the next day.  

These girls are so sweet and supportive of one another.  

After cake, we headed to the pool for one last swim of summer.  

We celebrated 21 years of marriage at a beautiful Italian restaurant in Georgetown.  

I have a new hobby!!  Pickleball on Friday mornings with these ladies is one of the highlights of my week.  

Susannah and her freshman teammates.  They are doing so well this year!

The Insognas came into town one weekend and took us to a wonderful dinner in Old Town.  

And this girl and I spent a delightful Saturday having brunch and doing a little shopping.

Sephora and Lululemon, of course.  

I preached both services at my internship church, Trinity Presbyterian.  It was such a great morning.  I was so grateful. 

I'm so blessed to have this lady as a mentor.  

Our girl placed 4th in the Alexandria City Championships.  So incredibly proud of her!  

We were so excited to give her hugs at the finish!  

And now we are gearing up for Sarah's fall lacrosse tournaments.  Super busy, but super fun.  We hope all of you are doing well.  We love and miss you all!