Flashback Friday

On January 24, 2020, little did we know what that year would bring. Brad's mom and dad visited and all of Tucson is behind us.

Flashback Friday

 In January of 2015 in St. Louis, we could pretend that 9-year old Allie was friends with a young Sirius.

Flashback Friday

On January 5, 2010 in D.C., Peter was about to start his second semester of his junior year in college. 

Flashback Friday

This weekend Brad and I are off to Pasadena for our third Tournament of Roses Parade together. When Mary was in college, Stanford made the Rose Bowl two years in a row. Since she was in the band, she went too. Here she is (the bell of her saxophone is above the "s" in "just") marching in her second Rose Parade in 2013. (She also marched in 2012.) Stanford's not in the Rose Bowl this year, but we had such a good time we decided to go back.

The Harrison Christmas Cousin Summit

Lloyd, Rosie, and Freddie were here the week before Christmas. It was the first time they'd all been together. We got some sports equipment as an outside activity for Lloyd and Rosie, both of whom showed an interest in future careers as caddies. 

When she wasn't caddying, Rosie spent time getting to know Freddie. It was her first time to be the big cousin and she took the job seriously.

Freddie's specialty is spreading the love. Everybody held him and he charmed us all.

Speaking of charming us all.

The pictures don't lie: Great Grandma was quite popular.

One evening we took a trolley ride to look at Christmas lights in a neighborhood called Winterhaven.

The next day we went to the zoo, where Rosie and her parents looked at the elephants.

And Lloyd fed a giraffe with his mom.

Back at home Rosie kept bonding with Freddie.

I brought this group to visit Aunt Joyce at memory care. 

We had Christmas morning a few days early and no one was the wiser.

Rosie and Freddie are modeling the cousins' matching Christmas pajamas.

All in all the week was exactly what one would expect when seven adults, two toddlers, and an infant are under one smallish roof: a little bit of chaos and an awful lot of fun. Merry Christmas to all!

Flashback Friday

In 2004 we had Christmas at home in Yokohama before we headed to Arizona for the kids' holiday break. If you look closely you can see that Mary's holding everyone's favorite gift that year: a 20gb iPod. Each of them got one with their name engraved on it. I guess in the early years of Apple handheld devices, we thought it was important to differentiate them. I don't remember iPod cases being a thing that early, or if they were we weren't in on it.

Flashback Friday

 Peter, Jessa, and Rosie are coming home for Christmas, and we can't wait to see them on Sunday! It was only four months ago that Rosie had just arrived in Warsaw and began studying for her up on her new life as a Global Baby. So much has happened in the four months since: she's learned to walk, she's learning to talk, she's visited Hungary, she recognizes Polish words, she developed a love of ducks, and of course she goes to Polish daycare where she is acquiring the knowledge needed to be my Polish language tutor. There are so many other accomplishments that she and her parents have made in the short time they've been in Warsaw. Even though we love our video chats, we can't wait to catch up in person!