Over the summer, my Aunt Waltraud (in the pink cap) and her friend Gabi visited from Germany, so we took them
to Hershey, PA for a tour of the town and the company, because Waltraud is a big Hershey's fan

The girls had a great time at the county fair (left) and the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival

They also really liked the Maryland Renaissance Festival

In September, we re-did the floors in the kitchen and dining room, which 
required some repainting. I can't help but wonder if, years from now, 
we'll think of "accent walls" as poorly as we do shag carpet today.... 

Beth started her senior year of high school

She and Ally Jane were in the high school homecoming parade. 
Ally Jane does marching band, with a little help from me sometimes

The home team won and Beth performed with 
the rest of the dance team at halftime

She went to the homecoming dance with her boyfriend, Steven.
Joni and I attended the KoC Columbus Day Ball

Halloween! Joni made a googly-faced pumpkin and mine showed the errors of drink
(Idea stolen borrowed from extremepumpkins.com)

Ally Jane with her yellow fairy dragon pumpkin and being "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
for Halloween with her friends Shannon and Delaney

In November, Beth went with Steven on a school field trip to NYC to see a Broadway show.

Joni's brother Drew, his wife Shannon, and their kids Freddy and Mia welcomed
Daniel Ryan Blahut into the world. Soon enough, it was time for the Centreville Christmas parade,
where Ally-Jane played trombone in the marching band and Beth twirled flags

For Joni's birthday, I took her and the girls to Les Foiles, a French restaurant.
Cold weather called for reading  by the fire in the wood stove

As Christmas got closer, we made gingerbread houses...

...decorated the tree...

...and watched an awful lot of football. As we set up the tree, 
our beloved Pittsburgh Steelers made a lot of people in Baltimore 
very, very angry by clinching the division on a cold night

Unfortunately, not everyone at our house 
got into the Christmas spirit

Ally Jane played the winter concert at her school. She's
so short you can pick her out even when you can't see her face.

We did our annual gift exchange with our friends the Eibels and the Wnuk-Finks

Thomas still likes me
best, Joni

We had a very nice pre-Christmas dinner with our 
in-laws the Raybins, who are Russian Orthodox

Our church, St. Christopher's

Our pastor, Fr. Jennings, always puts out his massive collection of Nativity scene figures

We spent Christmas Eve at my folks' house...

...and had lots of relatives and neighbors over on Christmas Day

Ally Jane's favorite present, by far, was this frog hat that her Aunt Alex got her.
Ally Jane wears it every day

A very merry Christmas was had by all. We spent New Year's Eve with the Wnuk-Finks.
Whew! With that and going to Disney World and Pittsburgh, that was enough for one year