Jacque & Bobby spent an amazing week in Paris at Thanksgiving and ate a lot of butter and drank a lot of champagne and went to a lot of museums. After that we had a very low-key Christmas at home, and then Bobby's sister, Nie, and her son Sam came to visit for a week (poor Reggie had to stay in Rhode Island and work). We also enjoyed our first Portland snowstorm, which was very exciting for two California transplants. The demolition is complete at the house, and we're hoping the building will start in the next six weeks!
Adams: I had a great trip to Australia at Thanksgiving, and then I spent Christmas with mom and dad in Phoenix. Then New Year's came around, and for my resolution this year, I decided I was going to trade my Tinder profile for one on match.com. It has been going great so far! I had three dates in the first week of January alone! Date number 1 and 3 were so-so, but I really clicked with date number 2, so we went out again. Her name is Sabine, she's a pharmaceutical rep that also travels a lot, and she loves to snowboard, so we have a lot in common. We went out a few more times the next week, and things were going so well, we took a road trip to Vegas for the long MLK weekend. Well, one thing led to another, there may have been some alcohol involved, and somehow we found ourselves at the Hollywood Wedding Chapel. I can't wait to introduce you all, to the new Mrs. Chimera!! Beat you down the aisle, Jess!
Mario & Jane: Thanksgiving in our new home turned out to be wonderful! We had 16 people for dinner including the Harrisons, the Pavias from KY, the newlyweds, Tim & Janet and Mamanonne, then some of the Spilkers joined us for dessert. The house proved to be big enough, Raquel enjoyed her 1st Thanksgiving in the U.S. and we ate so much turkey there was very little leftover from a 22 pounder! The remainder of the weekend gave us time to do some cookie baking and gave Mario and Mike a chance to put up a backsplash in our new kitchen~cheap labor with excellent results.
December was busy getting ready for Christmas and a small wedding celebration for Matt and Raquel. Both were a great time shared with family and too much delicious food. We had a quiet New Year's Eve at home with take-out Chinese, a bottle of wine and some college football games. Winter has been VERY mild in CLE so we're bracing ourselves for what will most likely come in January, February and March.
The Harrisons spent Christmas in FL with most of Brian's family. While it was difficult without his dad there, it was really nice to relax, swim, fish and soak up lots of sun. Braden and Luke are playing basketball now and Harper is starting gymnastics soon. Brian just got back from the national baseball coaches convention in Nashville where he spoke to over 2000 coaches about hitting. I'm gearing up for the long hall at school and already looking forward to summer!
On Christmas Day, we attended Mass with Mom and Dad and visited relatives. For dinner, we were at the gorgeous house of Uncle Shig and Aunt Janice.
Bringing in the new year was spent with Alisha in Kent, alot of laughs with a very young, loud crowd!!!
May 2016 be a happy and blessed year for all of us!!!
Jess & Pete: Taking gentle care of myself this month. Celebrating my 31st bday, Wedding planning, beauty afternoons and exploring more of LA on the weekends. Pete and I went camping for New Years at Lake Cachuma-- it was exceptionally peaceful! We are ready to 2016....Can't wait to be married next month!!!! Xoxox
The Reusts enjoyed a relaxing Christmas holiday at home this year, who are we kidding....we missed the big Chimera clan! It wasn't the same without all you loud mouths talking over each other. In the words of Elijah, we Chimera's don't talk.......we shout talk!
We did try to keep some of our family traditions the same during the holidays, like pizza on Christmas eve (Chimera) and breakfast sandwiches Christmas day (Reusts). We also did a lot of relaxing which is nice since that never seems to happen when we go back to Ohio for the holidays. We did attempt a trip more then once to the mountains but as you can see the snow was too bad and they closed the pass so we turned around! We are very excited for the new year and the change that is coming our way in 2016. We plan to move back to Ohio in June and will most likely be living with one of our parents until we find a house, which will be a fun experience! Miss and love you all!
Alisha: Hi family! Miss you all!!! Not much has changed in my life! I did turn 24 on jan 4 and had a party at my place! I also bought my own furniture, which i am very excited about!! Other than that iv been working a lot and spending time with my kitty!!! Cant wait for my big sissys wedding !!
Love lish
Tim & Janet: The O'Donnell girls rendezvous in Florida to soak up some warmth and sunshine. Nicole and Janet visited the Kuhn family and had a wonderful time with our precious little Timmy.
Tim and Janet are forced to take a break from outdoor bike riding but will be back on the trail at the first sign of spring thaw. We are enjoying warm fires and cold beverages with a good book. Janet is also learning new quilting techniques and crafting with the help of Pinterest.
Merry Christmas!! Our new address is 606 Lake Talquin Way, Groveland FL 34736.
Nicole & Steve: Nicole visited her mom and sister in Florida and had an amazing time playing with Baby Tim. She made sure to take Timmy grocery shopping and buy him lots of sugary snacks!
The Kentucky Pavia's had a great end to 2015! We enjoyed the holidays with family and friends and of course watching the kids open presents, talking about Jesus's birthday and keeping Davis from ripping down the Christmas tree. We are thankful for all of the blessings we had in 2015 and look forward to a fun and exciting 2016. Happy New Year family!!!!!
Matt and Raquel's First Christmas Season as a Married Couple: My First Thanksgiving was an fab one. I helped mom make Nani's famous pumpkin pie and some other desserts. I have also taken a group photo of the whole dining table and it got tons of likes on instagram!
Christmas was pretty amazeballs too! We spent Christmas Eve with the "Young Once" (get it?) and enjoyed the whole night!
Just before New Year, Matt and I went to see The Transiberian Orchestra at the Q. They were truly fantastic and got our minds blown to pieces!
And on December 27, we had "yet-another" post-wedding celebration/winter lovapalooza! We would like to thank everyone for coming, and for the all the presents and best wishes from you guys. Below are some snippets from the party.
And for those who were not able to come, here is a link to our wedding video. It is only 8-minute long and a lot of people say it is pretty kinda cool to watch so just click away... https://vimeo.com/143945920
And lastly, I am very proud to announce that I have been issued a green card by the United States of America and am now legal to work and travel out of the country! I have been interviewing for some preschool teaching jobs and will let you all know once I start my very first teaching job here in US!
Other fun things that happened are Matt and I getting a lot of awesome christmas pressies from equally awesome people but are fave is the costco membership from Mom and Dad, riding the RTA Train and having lunch at Tower City Mall with the Harrisons, Mom and Aunt Janet, taking in all the christmassy decor around Westlake, Matt being more awesome than me in cooking ASIAN NOODLES (I know, I need to step my game up!), and my first snow since we moved back to OH (my white Christmas is 2 weeks late).
With love,
Matt and Raquel
Janice & Shiggy: Zweigart Thanksgiving was spent in sunny LA at Pete & Jessica's along with Elijah & Vanessa. It was a wonderful visit although we missed the retail queen, Alisha immensely! We did some cooking, baking and wedding dress shopping. In the end Jessica decided on Pete's grandmother's dress from the 1930's, and it is absolutely beautiful!!
Christmas was very low key this year but lovely. Chimera sisters made their traditional cannoli shells while missing mom so very much!!
Bringing in the new year was spent with Alisha in Kent, alot of laughs with a very young, loud crowd!!!
May 2016 be a happy and blessed year for all of us!!!
Jess & Pete: Taking gentle care of myself this month. Celebrating my 31st bday, Wedding planning, beauty afternoons and exploring more of LA on the weekends. Pete and I went camping for New Years at Lake Cachuma-- it was exceptionally peaceful! We are ready to 2016....Can't wait to be married next month!!!! Xoxox
The Reusts enjoyed a relaxing Christmas holiday at home this year, who are we kidding....we missed the big Chimera clan! It wasn't the same without all you loud mouths talking over each other. In the words of Elijah, we Chimera's don't talk.......we shout talk!
We did try to keep some of our family traditions the same during the holidays, like pizza on Christmas eve (Chimera) and breakfast sandwiches Christmas day (Reusts). We also did a lot of relaxing which is nice since that never seems to happen when we go back to Ohio for the holidays. We did attempt a trip more then once to the mountains but as you can see the snow was too bad and they closed the pass so we turned around! We are very excited for the new year and the change that is coming our way in 2016. We plan to move back to Ohio in June and will most likely be living with one of our parents until we find a house, which will be a fun experience! Miss and love you all!
Alisha: Hi family! Miss you all!!! Not much has changed in my life! I did turn 24 on jan 4 and had a party at my place! I also bought my own furniture, which i am very excited about!! Other than that iv been working a lot and spending time with my kitty!!! Cant wait for my big sissys wedding !!
Love lish
Tim & Janet: The O'Donnell girls rendezvous in Florida to soak up some warmth and sunshine. Nicole and Janet visited the Kuhn family and had a wonderful time with our precious little Timmy.
Tim and Janet are forced to take a break from outdoor bike riding but will be back on the trail at the first sign of spring thaw. We are enjoying warm fires and cold beverages with a good book. Janet is also learning new quilting techniques and crafting with the help of Pinterest.
The Kuhn's have enjoyed a busy holiday season and are now settling into our new house. In January, we have loved spending time with family and Timmy ran his second Disney Kids race with the 100m dash this year!!
Nicole & Steve: Nicole visited her mom and sister in Florida and had an amazing time playing with Baby Tim. She made sure to take Timmy grocery shopping and buy him lots of sugary snacks!
Jacque,
ReplyDeleteI think I speak for everyone when I say- We can't thank you enough for this awesome blog idea and the work involved in keeping us Chimera's on our toes. Nani & Nanu would have LOVED reading all the beautiful updates on their family!
With much love and Gratitude,
Aunt Janice
PS. Adams your wedding gift is in the mail...LOL