Christmas Eve

Theo's Ballet

After watching her big sister in The Nutcracker Theo got very excited for her own performance, which came a week later. It was a bit less formal and I, Maggie was allowed to take these stunning pictures throughout. Praytell, have you ever seen such artistry with the lens?


Video!



And a curtsey at the end...


Afterwards she and big sister compared notes, just like Ella and I after one of Ella's rugby matches:

The Nutcracker

Boy was this an exciting event! They wouldn't let us take pictures during the performance though. But we did take these during the curtain call.


Elsie was a "Spanish Chocolate" and danced with her group for a few very action packed minutes. She said she wasn't nervous at all. Maggie was nervous though and practiced making that proper ballet bun over and over. But she did it! Afterwards we all went to Burgerville.

The song from Beezus and Ramona

The Tree Hunt

It's become a regular Vining/Bradford tradition (2010, 2009, and 2008), to head out to historic Kirchem farm to smote down a nice Oregon tree for our holiday. This year the Vining/Rocks joined us, as did the Sr. Vinings. They got out of there so fast we could hardly snap a picture of them though.


Fortunately, they left Ida with us, and we had a rollicking good time selecting a tree the old fashioned way: slowly.


Ida took this picture of us:


The girls selected this tree, which was a little too proper-looking for Maggie's taste, but luckily she let it go this time.


They had hay rides at the farm!




back in 2008:

Letter

Thanksgiving Times

The Senior Vinings traveled west this year and we rented a house on the rugged Oregon coast in which to spend Thanksgiving as a group. I forgot our better camera at home so you'll have to put up with these crappy iphone pictures. Pete has some prettier pictures here.

Most of these pictures were taken at lovely Cape Meares, which I later realized is like a West Coast version of Mere Point, where I grew up in Maine.


Here you see Maggie and Pete chasing after the girls as they make a mad dash for the cliff's edge.

Luckily there was a fence and we all enjoyed looking over it.




There's a waterfall behind Elsie.


We hiked around too.


Back at the house we played with clay:


The next day we went to the famous Tillamok Cheese factory! The Oregon Coast is known for its seafood and dairy products.

Crabbin'!

One of our Martins Street neighbors, Walker, declared that he wanted to have a crab fishin' birthday party so we all headed down to lovely Newport, Oregon and spent the weekend throwing crab traps off a dock and eating the crabs which crawled inside them.


Maggie and the girls take a short walk on a long pier in search of crab.


setting the traps!


A red rock crab:



The mighty dungeness crab - good eatin'!


There was also an aquarium in Newport


And a cold beach!





And here's a movie we made about one of Walker's birthday presents:

NYC Cousins

Yes, this was a month ago, but we won't soon forget our visits with the cousins of NYC. Above you see a lovely gathering hosted by Fred and Alexandra Peters. Fred actually knew the precise relationship between everyone there, but suffice to say we were all cousins and there were several babies. Elsie and Theo were the big girls.

And then we went to Brooklyn to see Cousin Erika, Chris, and lil' twins Creston and Ivy! They let Elsie and Theo play with all of their toys.


...and their humidifier...



But best of all Creston did a dance for us. Maggie got down too, as you can see...