It has been 19 years since my family last reunited for Thanksgiving in Minnesota where my brother Mark and his family reside. We missed my sister Mayela and her husband Stephen who were not able to make the trip from North Carolina. Joining us for the gathering was Jeff, Rory’s tennis coach, who would have otherwise celebrated the holiday alone. To know my brother is to understand that the Thanksgiving meal would be something to remember for years to come. The feast lived up to our highest expectations and then some. Most enjoyable for me was watching the 9 cousins interacting. The boys all look like men now and the girls are all going to break hearts. Here are a few portraits of the young beauties.

Dinner was preceded by an assortment of cheese, sopressata, home made pate and pesto, with freshly baked bread. The 22 pound turkey just barely fit in the oven with wings just touching the sides. Mark insisted it rest for 40 minutes before serving. While this no doubt produced a more succulent result, it caused near mutiny in the kitchen as the aroma tortured us with the promise of what was to come.

Maya had her hair done today. I am not sure exactly what the process entails but I believe at some point her head is placed inside a vice. I like the new look and enticed Maya to sit for me. She got the idea to throw her hair about and I have 2 dozen photos, each better than the last. We both had a lot of fun and enjoyed reviewing the results.

It has been a few days since Kyle returned home from college and I have been delinquent in posting a photo of him. He reports that he is enjoying his classes and doing well scholastically. His various injuries have healed to the point where he is running and lifting regularly. He looks very trim and healthy again which is helping to motivate me to get back in the gym where I could stand to shed more than a few pounds. His sleeping schedule is still quite shifted from ours, a combination of the three hour time zone difference and the three hour college lifestyle difference. Last night I tried to repair his computer which is no longer functioning after he attempted to water it (more beneficial for plant life, as a future reference) and he is experiencing withdrawal symptoms from Facebook. Fortunately, he did not water his phone which is now his only lifeline into his social network.

About this time each year, our home is visited (invaded) by legions of Ladybugs. They gravitate to the top corners of our highest ceilings where they huddlle together for the winter in a state of diapause. As day length in spring increases, they are among the first insects to return to the gardens where they provide a very helpful function by feeding on aphids and spider mites. Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 5,000 species of which more than 450 are native to North America alone. I have a live and let live policy with respect to Ladybugs. Our cleaning ladies take a different view.

I generally wake up every day at 5AM so leaving the house at that hour to retrieve Kyle from the airport was perfect. He spent a good portion of the remainder of the day making up for the sleep he lost on the red-eye from California. Running and lifting have left him fit and trim and ostensibly rehabilitated from his various muscle injuries.

I spent the bulk of the day completing a project to refit the house with LED light bulbs. This latest generation of lighting technology consumes 1/5 of the energy of conventional incandescent bulbs of the same brightness, start instantly, have a pleasing color temperature and are advertised to last for more than twenty years. The downside is that they cost more than $10 a pop and with close to 100 fixtures and lamps throughout the house it was quite an expensive undertaking. Reaching the nine fixtures in our vaulted master bedroom ceiling required me to set up a crude scaffolding which was the most time consuming part of the project.

After a delicious welcome home Sunday dinner, Jeanine took Kyle and visiting cousin Johnnie to see the new Lincoln movie. I spent the evening assisting Maya in my wood shop. She is constructing a miniature bookshop from plywood for her French class. Here she is seen laying out the patterns to be cut for the door and windows. Under my supervision, she used the table saw for the first time. It is the most daunting of wood-cutting tools and her first attempt resulted in a kickback. Fortunately, she was not hurt at all and the incident left her with profound respect for the power of this tool.

Nicolai gave what is likely to be his last interview regarding the amazing goal he scored this season and the video of it which went viral. The segment will air next April in the United Kingdom on a television show produced by October Films. His publicity manager (yours truly) was able to negotiate a $500 appearance fee for his efforts. I think we are all ready to put this chapter of Nico’s fame behind us now. One can only imagine what he will do next.

This evening after work I joined several colleagues at Waxy O’Connor’s Irish Pub to bid farewell to a pair of long time iRobot employees who are leaving the company. The setting did not afford an opportunity to make any speeches but I did have an opportunity to personally thank both guys for their fine work at the company and to wish them well in the future.

With the winter months approaching I have been giving serious thought to my next solo trekking adventure. The Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile has long been on my bucket list. This morning, Jeanine suggested I invite Kyle to join me. I loved the idea but didn’t expect him to want to spend 2 weeks of his winter break climbing through the Andes with his father. To my great surprise and delight, he said yes. It has been 7 years since Kyle and I traveled to Belize for his Coming of Age Adventure and I am really looking forward to adding another chapter to our story. Perhaps this will mark the beginning of a new tradition.

From the time they were mere toddlers, I have cut the hair of my boys. Motivated initially by a desire to save money, I long ago came to enjoy the father-son intimacy it offered. I still have fond memories of my mother cutting my hair as a child. During their early teen years each haircut would end with a tirade about my total incompetence as a barber if even 4 or 5 hairs were cut too short. Now, I am more likely to be asked to make another pass because I have not cut the hair short enough. Despite my purported total lack of ability, I am pleased that my only two clients have remained with me all these years and look forward to cutting their hair for years to come.

We just learned that Nicolai has been nominated as one of four finalist for Disabled Athlete of the Year by U.S. Soccer. You can vote for Nico at this Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/officialussoccer/app_347627388581014). Be careful to select the correct button (upper left corner relative to Nico’s photo)

Voting ends on Friday, so there is little time to get the word out. Online voting counts for 50% of the total votes. The other 50% will be cast by members of the national media and U.S. Soccer representatives. Being nominated is a great honor for Nicolai but winning will be a function of getting out the vote. And just when you thought the election was behind us 🙂

There are times as a parent when you feel like strangling a child. Fortunately for Kyle, he has 3000 miles working in his favor in this circumstance. Before returning to college this fall, he decided to sell his Ford F150 truck and the box trailer he purchased for his landscaping business. Procrastinating until the last week of his vacation, the truck and trailer remained unsold, the former parked in our driveway and the latter stored miles away on a friend’s horse farm. Unable to control her motherly instincts, Jeanine volunteered to assist Kyle with the sale. I made it clear that I wanted no part of the endeavor. After numerous flakes and no-shows responded to the Craig’s List advertisement, Jeanine was contacted by a hot prospect who was in dire need of a trailer and wanted to drive up from Brockton to check it and the truck out. The buyer arrived with his brother at 10 PM. This is generally the hour at which I begin looking forward to a good night’s sleep rather than the beginning of a 2 1/2 hour negotiation.

All-in-all not my idea of late-night fun on the evening before I am scheduled to appear before the Board of Directors. In addition to a loving welcome, delicious food, and the comfort of his old room, Kyle can look forward to a significant “make good” assignment when he returns from California this Sunday for the Thanksgiving break.

Nicolai is now a veteran of the CCHS Varsity Soccer team whose season came to an end this evening with a loss to North Andover in the state cup quarter-finals contested at Lynn’s Manning Field. The team amassed an impressive 14-3-2 record and Nicolai became the first one-legged soccer player to score a goal in varsity high school competition. With his “shot seen round the world” Nicolai earned the respect of soccer players from every corner of the globe and will have a fond memory to look back upon for the rest of his life. Of the team’s 19 games this season, I attended 18 and photographed 17. I estimate I took roughly 8000 pictures and posted some 1500 which can be seen HERE. While I would have liked to have seen the boys make it to the finals, my camera is happy for the rest.

Although my soccer season has ended, most members of my team continue to knock the ball around on Sunday mornings. I played for an hour before tweaking my right calf muscle and deciding it was time to take a break. I used the balance of the day to do a little painting around the house and to continue with the massive task of organizing my digital photo collection (tagging with metadata, ranking, editing). Applying myself to the task for an hour a day should allow me to complete the project in about half a year. Even though most of the leaves are down now, there are still pretty landscapes to be found in the area.

Nicolai saw action today against Pentucket in the state championship tournament. The 4-0 victory advanced CCHS to the round of eight, securing the third of six matches needed to win the state title. Nico played for twenty minutes and managed a powerful shot on goal which sailed just over the bar. Meanwhile, Jeanine is having a great time in NYC. She visited Rockefeller Center, had lunch at a French Provencal restaurant, enjoyed a Manhattan at a famous NY bar, and took in Cougars The Musical and Mama Mia. On the home front, my brother Mark and his son Mario are here visiting Northeastern University. The new Bond film proved to be the perfect catalyst for a boy’s night out which ended with a couple of pints of ice cream back at the ranch.

My nephew Mario arrived today from his home in Minnesota. He will be visiting Northeastern University tomorrow and we have the benefit of his company for a couple of days. Anticipating his arrival, Jeanine prepared enough baked ziti to feed a normal family for a week. I predict it will be gone before 24 hours have passed given that we will also be joined by my nephew Johnie and my brother Mark who is flying in later this evening. The three cousins can pack away more food than any three humans I know. How they remain skinny as rails is a mystery to me.