Boston

The week after Christmas I headed down to Boston to visit everyone. I basically saw friends from all aspects of my life, with the exception of Wanakee. I spent my first day in the city hanging out with Reada and Dave, which was so much fun. It was a little crazy to be hanging out with my Lima friends in Boston! But it was so great to see them. I had dinner Thursday night with Karen and Rosemary, my friends from Berlin. It was fun to catch up with them and just be reminded how lucky I was to make such fabulous friends while I was in Berlin. I also had dinner one night with my friend Marc, who is originally from Manchester. He and I met at music camp in high school (he is a percussionist too) and we've known each other for something like 15 years. We've kept in touch all these years and it is always great to see him. And he usually takes me to yummy Thai restaurants, so that makes me very happy! I spent the rest of the weekend with Nicole and her husband Joshua. Nicole and I have been friends since first grade and have kept in touch through years of living in different places. She is a wonderful friend and I love that we can always just pick up wherever we are, regardless of how much time has gone by.

However, I was having such a good time with everyone that I didn't take very many pictures. Reada, Dave and I played tourist on Thursday afternoon, so here are some pictures from our day of wandering around Boston.


Wagamama is coming to Boston!! I am so excited. I love this restaurant - it is a great noodle place that I've only seen in Europe.







Reada and Dave, looking cute in Boston.


We checked out the cemetery where Sam Adams is buried. I love old New England cemeteries.


Reada and I made Dave go into Victoria's Secret so we could shop their sale. It was Dave and about 25 women fighting over low price underwear and bras. He was a good sport.

New Years Eve

I spent New Years Eve in Epping with my brother Marc and his girlfriend Megan. Our favorite restaurant in town is called Zampas and they had an amazing dinner on New Years. It was just one seating, so there were about 35 of us at the restaurant, and the food was amazing. Good food and good wine makes me very happy! After the dinner, we went to the house of the owners of the restaurant (they are from town and have a huge house with apartments where Marc used to live) and had some drinks and hung out, then set off fireworks in the field at midnight. It was a pretty low-key night, but I had a great time.

My piano

When I was 5 years old, my parents bought me a piano so I could start taking lessons. They bought my piano from this old man who owned a piano barn in Wells, Maine and the piano they ended up getting was an old player piano. The piano guy gave them the old player part, which wasn't actually inside the piano at this point. For years and years the player piece sat in our attic and was never put back into the piano. My parents even moved the player piece when we left the house in Epping, though my dad and my brother were tempted to get rid of it at many points. When Mom and Dad got to Maine, a man in Mom's church told her about a piano restorer who could restore the piano AND put the player part back in AND get it to work. Two years ago, he took the piano and we just got it back 2 days after Christmas. It was the best Christmas gift I received! My piano was originally black and in okay shape, but nothing fabulous. Little did we know that under the black lacquer there was mahogoney! This piano is now absolutely gorgeous. And the player piece is back in int for the first time in who knows how many years and it works perfectly. It was so neat to hear and see it playing on its own for the first time. You have to move pedals at the bottom of the piano to get the roll going so it can play and it is really a lot of work to get it going. It is so amazing!


The inside of the piano with all the player parts in it. How neat is that?

The piano in all it's beautiful glory. I can't believe this is my piano! I think I am going to have a hard time getting it back from Mom when I am ready to have it in my own house. :) She loves it now.

Christmas

After an insanely long day of traveling from Lima (23 hours!!), I arrived at my parents house in Maine and spent the week around Christmas hanging out with them and enjoying the quiet Maine life.


My adorable parents - Mom wanted me to take some pictures for them to possibly use for Christmas cards next year. This one is just too cute. My parents have been married for 36 years and it is nice to see how much they still love each other.


On the Wednesday after Christmas we went to Bar Harbor for the day. It is always fun to be there in the winter and see how different it is from the Bar Harbor I am used to in the summer. And only in Maine would you see a Christmas tree made out of lobster traps. This one is put up every year at this lobster shack right before the brige to Mount Desert Island. I love it!