Hello February!

Well, if we didn't already have enough snow, we received a beautiful 4 inch coating again this morning.  We have had at least 50 inches/127cm of snow. The kids had another 2 hour delay to the start of the school day.  I actually couldn't wait to get out for a walk this morning and was out the door at 7:30am with Sunnie.  Armed with my GoPro3+ video camera, here is a quick 1min20s video of our street.

My neighbor stopped to tell me there were two constants this winter. #1 Snow, #2 Me and Sunnie out walking.  This is probably the first winter I have enjoyed in awhile and it's definitely because of Sunnie and all our walks.  In January, we walked 158 miles.

I don't have any recent photos of Aba, but I caught all the boys doing a good deed last week, clearing the path to make room for the blizzard snow.

Here is where we get our local weather, in case you are interested.  Atkinson Weather

This song used to come on the radio every night at dinner...without fail! Appropriate theme song for Aba's year here...

"Budapest"

George Ezra

My house in Budapest
My, my hidden treasure chest,
Golden grand piano
My beautiful Castillo...

~Linda

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

There hasn't been too much to report since Christmas.  We had a pretty laid back vacation and I have been sick since New Year's Day.  Aba did make the most of his time off and spent a good deal of it with his friends and had an opportunity to go snowboarding.  I have still not convinced him on a pair of good winter boots...soon, I suspect!

He did get a haircut!  Don't worry...it will grow back! It did change his look!

This past weekend, Aba had a mandatory overnight meeting with his Exchange Group at a resort in the Lakes area of New Hampshire at a place called Steele Hill Resort.

Since it was over an hour away and it looked like a nice getaway, I decided to just get a room there too instead of driving back and forth.  Aba had to be there at 1pm on Saturday and leave at 10 am Sunday.  The resort is quite large.  We stayed in a different section than Aba and his group.

Aba in the red hat.  photo credit ©Linda Coffey 

While Scott stayed home with Sunnie and read his Theta Healing book, my sister and I brought Jack & Tyler to the resort.  We went sledding...

and swimming....

and had a nice big Sunday brunch.

Aba and his friends did basically the same thing, so, although we were not hanging out with him, you get to see some of what he did thru my photos.

Sunday morning, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the lake.  I even jumped outside in my pajamas to grab a couple of shots.

We no sooner got home on Sunday and Aba was off to see his friend Laszlo in Boston.  Lazlo's time here in the USA has come to an end and he will be heading back to Hungary at the end of the week.

Aba is still wrestling and Timberlane HS seems to be having another good season.

~Linda

Christmas!

Sunday, December 21

The Sunday before Christmas, Santa drives thru every street in our town on the firetruck throwing candy to all the kids.  You can always hear the sirens and the kids always look forward to them driving down the street!

After that, Aba and I went shopping.  There are a number of things he wanted to buy but couldn't seem to find exactly what he wanted.  I am going to set him up on Amazon and he can buy online! I'm not sure he believes me that the snow is coming and it will get very cold for a very long time,  and won't warm up until June!


We host Christmas Eve dinner at our house.  This year, my sister, Alicia and husband, Larry, came along with my cousin Paula.  They all had gifts for Aba, which I think surprised him :) We had a nice beef tenderloin dinner with all the trimmings.  Aba had been out shopping with a friend of his earlier in the day and she ended up joining us for dinner too.  When I was taking a couple of photos, they were in the basement watching tv...I was busy cooking and watching Sunnie get to know my sisters 2 dogs so I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked.

On Christmas morning the boys were up at around 6:30am and opened their stockings.  My parents were coming over to see the boys open up their gifts so we let Aba sleep in until they arrived.  Aba got the boys their first snowboards which they thought was pretty cool.  All we need now is snow!

We like to stay home on Christmas Day and relax.  Of course, Sunnie gets a nice walk in the woods and then we watched "Marley & Me" and played with the new games, ate then watched "Titanic" since Jack is learning about that in school.  For dinner, we thought we would try something new and ordered take out Chinese food....ohhh was that good!

The Day After

Well, it looked like a bomb went off here.  We got cleaned up and Aba is now off to Boston for the night with his friend Laszlo.

I'm not sure what we will do all week, the kids do not have school.  I'm sure I will figure something out!

~Linda

Semi-formal dance

Saturday, December 6, 2014

I thought I posted this last week!

Aba had a busy weekend with an all day wrestling match against a bunch of other schools.  When he got home he had to get read for the first semi formal Junior dance at the high school.  He went with a girl named, Giselle.

Scott hurried up to get some dinner ready for Aba before the dance. He just grilled some burgers in the kitchen on the stove top grill. But, wow, did it start to get really smoky...then the fire alarms started going off, the dog was running around like crazy chasing a laser pointer and it was pouting rain outside. Quite a chaotic moment in our house!

Anyway, here comes Gisele amongst the chaos and I did manage to get a couple quick photos of the two of them!

We are getting read for Christmas, just got the tree up yesterday. The kids had been telling me that I better get decorating! They do love all of our traditions. Each decoration has to go in the same exact spot that it has always been before.  Last year, we were traveling so we celebrated Christmas quietly in Santa Barbara, CA.  So since it's been awhile, they are especially excited this year.

~Linda

Wrestling

About a month into his wrestling career Aba is doing quite well.  He had an all day meet over the past weekend, it was more like a scrimmage and didn't count, but was great practice.  With two matches he was 1 and 1, one win, one loss.

Wednesday night was his first official meet.  Scott was there cheering him on and I sent him with my camera and he took these few photos.  Aba was one of a few kids that pinned his opponent in the first period.  Here is some more information on High School Wrestling.

I think his festival bracelets are finally off!!

~Linda

White Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

There is no school for the kids today thru the end of the week in order to celebrate Thanksgiving.  This year, it was a white Thanksgiving with the snow coming down all day today with about 6 inches total.  Many people lost power in the area, we were fortunate and did not.  Although, we have a generator, so when we do lose power, it is of no consequence to us.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day

We went to Scott's brother John's house in Maine for Thanksgiving dinner.  Also joining us were Scott's brothers Mark & Dave and their families.  We had the traditional turkey, a smoked goose and all the trimmings plus the most awesome desserts made by Uncle Dave.  Dave is the Chef of the family and owns a restaurant.

Quite ironic that there was a gang of wild turkeys that passed thru their backyard. 

This was probably one of the first holidays that I didn't take out my camera...I guess I just wanted to take the day off too!

Friday-Sunday, November 28-30, 2014

Aba's friend Laslo took the train up from the Boston area to spend the day/night up here.  We had a nice dinner at home with them and enjoyed getting to know his friend.  I find it very entertaining to have someone new at the dinner table.  

After dinner, one of Aba's friends came to pick them up and they hung out with a large group of kids at another house for most of the evening.  I love knowing that they are having typical American teenage experiences.  

Bright and early on Saturday morning, Aba was off to wrestling practice and Laslo decided to stay here and enjoy a nice breakfast with us, talking and spending some time with the boys. They went out hiking in the snow covered words for awhile, Scott made his delicious pizzas and we convinced Laslo to spend another night so I wouldn't have to drive him home late.

By Sunday afternoon, he was ready to head out.   We enjoyed getting to know him and I hope he knows that he is welcome here anytime.

As you can see, not the easiest shot for me to get, but at least I got it!

~Linda

Varsity Letter!

Way to go, Aba!

He got his Varsity Letter & Letterman Jacket tonight at the end of the season football banquet.  This will be quite a memento to bring home to Hungary!

~Linda