Between the holidays and traveling, my blogging took a rather unexpected hiatus. It wasn’t intentional, but I have a few events to record here after the fact. Because the Christmas in Chicago also included two birthdays, I’ll save that for the next post.
The George Eastman Museum hosts an evening with Santa each year, and for the third year in a row, we’ve taken the girls. This year we missed seeing Santa come down the grand staircase (no fault of our own), but we still had a good time. None of the girls is quite sure about an individual chat with Santa so we forego the long line, but Ella expressed an interest as we were leaving, so next year may be the year Grandma hops in line to save their places.
Skylar has enjoyed the Gingerbread House Scavenger Hunt for both of the last two years.
My favorite gingerbread house this year was fashioned after a real home in Canandaigua, New York. The facsimile was remarkable close to the photograph that accompanied it.
Upstairs in the Discovery Room, there are always fun things to explore.
And although, they’re reluctant to visit Santa themselves, both Skylar and Ella enjoy watching Santa talking with other children. This year Skylar had a list for Santa, and the kind volunteer took her list and put it in Santa’s bag for her.
The following weekend, we went to Buffalo with friends to visit the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural Site, followed by a visit to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It was a wonderful visit and we really enjoyed the current exhibit: “Out of Sight! Art of the Senses.” You can see a video on the website here of some of the interactive installations. We had tea in the tea room, listened to music, and had a particularly good time in the room of mirrors. We were lucky that the museum was not crowded the day we visited. Here are some of my favorite photos from the art gallery:
A house made of green fabric.
The room of mirrors; love the second one. I had no idea what I'd captured until I uploaded it!
Light and shadows
We celebrate Christmas three times; twice in Rocheter and once in Chicago. First with Matt, Betsy, and the girls. Although they come for the early part of the Walker Christmas on Christmas Day, the event is too late for the three little girls. This year, Betsy’s family joined us. Karen, her sister, arrived from Boston just in time, and Pam, Nadia, and Betsy’s dad also joined us. These photos are courtesy of Pam, who records every family event faithfully.
Skylar and her beloved cousin, Nadia
Christmas Day is always fun with the Walker crowd. Here are a few faves from that gathering. The first two photos were taken by Skylar who wanted to try out my camera. She captured the only one of me for the day, and one of her dad with his Uncle Greg.
Matt, Ella, and Maddy
When Skylar and Ella came to bake cookies the week before Christmas, Skylar wondered if "the piano lady" was coming this year. We missed Sonora last year, but she was here this year, and entertaining the girls as always.
From the right, my niece Jasmine; her brother Mason; his girlfriend, Molly; Jasmine's husband, Hollis; and Tracy. Jasmine and Hollis had exciting news---they'll be parents
in early May!
And last, my favorite photo of the day: Miss Ella on the stairs before the party began.
If you got to the bottom of this post, thanks for hanging in there! Still frigid weather here; hoping for warmer temperatures tomorrow when I do have to go out.
