J(eter)

I am a HUGE Yankees fan. I have seen them play in Montreal, Boston, New York, and Florida. One of the most famous Yankees is Derek Jeter. He is the starting short-stop player, the team's captain, and he wears the #2 jersey. Jeter has been playing in the MLB since 1995, and has been playing on the Yankees since 1996.  He won several MVP awards and has been part of several World Series champion teams. He is a model sportsman for other players, despite what many rival fans think!

This is a picture of Derek Jeter was taken in 2009 at a game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

I(ce Cream)

I love ice cream!  I have several favorite kinds of ice cream: Mint Chocolate Cookie, Coffee, and Vanilla Heath Bar, and vanilla creemees.  There is one kind of ice cream that I think is the absolute best though, that is around in limited quantities.  Friendly's Cotton Candy ice cream.  It is AMAZING! It is made up of pink and blue swirled cotton candy flavored ice cream, with Pop Rocks throughout it that pop in your mouth in each cold bite.  My friends think it's funny that I love this so much, since usually kids only eat blue things, however, if you get past the color, the taste is wonderful.  It's like an explosion of cotton candy in your mouth. 

Friendly's is the place that makes this ice cream.  They have this in their restaurants once every three years or so, and this is the year! 

This picture was taken a few weeks ago to surprise my husband as he worked on our kitchen.

H(anukkah)

Hanukkah, or Chanukah, is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated for 8 nights, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I celebrate this holiday with my husband and his family.  Each year my mother-in-law makes Latkes, which are little fried potato pancakes.  They are delicious! There is other food, but this is the highlight of the meal. 

A menorah has 9 candles on it.  The middle candle is lit each night, and is used to light the other candles.  On night one, the middle candle is lit, with the first candle. On night two, the middle candle is lit, along with the first two candles.  This happens each night until the eighth night.  There is a special prayer that is said as the candles are being lit, and they need to burn for at least half an hour after sundown. This is the menorah that we light for our Hanukkah.  We let the candles burn until they go out.

 

 For Emma's first Hanukkah, she was given an AWESOME sled! Typically there are small gifts on each of the eight nights of Hanukkah. 

G(reen Bay Packers)

My family (myself, my father, brother, and sister) are Green Bay Packers fans. I have no idea why, we were just born that way.  The Green Bay Packers are a professional football team in the NFL, who are housed in Wisconsin. The green and gold's stadium is called Lambeau Field, which built in 1957. It was originally name City Stadium, but was renamed in 1965 after Curly Lambeau, the first coach and founder who had passed away that year. 

My father Gene Nelson, is the biggest Packer's fan in the world.  When the Packers were in the Super Bowl in 1996, my father desperately wanted to be there in person. Since the tickets were so expensive and very limited, he wasn't able to attend.  Vermont and Wisconsin have similar climates, so he decided to watch the game in the snow on our back deck.  He brought one of our little TVs outside, wore all of his green and gold gear (including his cheese head), and watched the entire game, in the snow, in our backyard.  My siblings and I sat in the family room and watched the game in the warmth of our house, while my dad was yelling as he paced back and forth in the large piles of snow.

My father has never been to Lambeau field, despite the fact that he loves the Packers.  For Father's Day and his birthday, he's turning 60 this year, my sister, my brother, and I are going to fly with my father to watch a game at Lambeau Field.  Shhhhh, he doesn't know about it yet! I am so excited!

This is one of my coffee cups to show team pride!

E(ileen) and Her Elephants

Elephants are beautiful creatures that have a rich significance in my family. My grandmother, Eileen, was the much loved matriarch on my dad's side of of the family. She was an amazing woman who passed away too soon in June of 2008. We continue to have an extremely hard time not having her around when we need to share family news, or to simply say hi.

She was not able to attend my wedding that was two months after she passed. She also missed the excitement of her first great-grand child, my daughter Emma Eileen, being born. Eileen was such an influence in my life, that I gave Emma my grandmothers name as a middle name.

Eileen was an avid BINGO player, and with that came superstition. She carried good luck charms with her in her BINGO bag each time she played. She had heard elephants were good luck, so she started carrying a small elephant to help aide her in hitting the jackpot. This led to a family tradition of giving her collectible elephants. Before she passed, her house had a beautiful collection displayed for all to enjoy.

Now, whenever I see an elephant, I immediately think of her. When Emma was born, I inherited a display case with many of my Grandma's elephants. this is proudly displayed in Emma's bedroom. In 2010, I got a small elephant tattoo in memory of my Grandma Eileen. This is pictured below.

Miss you Gram!

F(ashionista)

Emma is (just barely) two years old. Six months ago, everything she wore had to be approved before she would wear it. SHE had to pick out her shoes at the store, SHE helps choose the clothes he wears each day, SHE only puts clothes into the shopping cart that she likes. Emma is a two-year-old fashionista!

I can't blame her. I love shoes; usually the more expensive, the more I HAVE to have them. Now that I have a daughter with the same tastes, I spend the money on her.

Here are just a few pictures of my little fashionista!

C(upcakes)

The little cakes with swirled frosting, known as Cupcakes, Patty Cakes, or Fairy Cakes, are the most amazingly delicious dessert.  This scrumptious cake can be traced back to the late 1790's in England, where they originally were baked in tiny flowering pots.  My favorite place to buy cupcakes is the Quality Bakeshop in Essex.  The vanilla cake is light and fluffy, the white frosting is smooth and creamy.

I do make cupcakes on a semi-regular basis for special events.  This is a sample of a Cookie Monster cupcake that I made for my husband's 30th birthday!

These are cupcakes I made last week for Emma's school birthday celebration.

D(ave Matthews Band)

The Dave Matthews Band is the best band in the world!  Well, that's my opinion anyway.  DMB started out in 1991, in Virgina, with Dave Matthews (singer/guitar), Carter Beauford (drums), and Leroi Moore (saxophone), and Stefan Lessard (bass). They started off playing small gigs, and hit it big when they published their first album in 1993, called Remember Two Things. Since then, they have produced tons of albums, #1 songs, toured hundreds of places, and added, and lost band members.  Leroi passed away in 2008, after he had an accident on an ATV.  It was devastating for fans all over the world, but especially for DMB.  They continued their music in his honor, and have since added a new saxophonist, Jeff Coffin, an amazing trumpet player, Rashawn Ross, and the ever-talented Tim Reynolds continues to play guitar on and off with the band and with Dave during benefit concerts.

I have seen DMB over 30 times, and each show is a unique and amazing experience.  I am currently debating taking my two-year-old daughter, Emma, to see them in June so she can experience the amazing music and talent that I have grown to love!

(Photo from the dmb website photo gallery)

B(oston)

Boston

I lived in Boston for four years.  After going to Antioch College in a little town in Ohio called Yellow Springs for one year, I decided to transfer to be closer to home.  So, I transferred to Emmanuel College in Boston, MA.  This is a small school in the center of Boston; I got the attention I wanted from my professors, and the city lifestyle.  Emmanuel College is on the same street as Fenway Park.  This would be any Red Sox fan's dream, however I am a die-hard YANKEES fan.  I had fun walking through town and attending games sporting my NYY gear.

Some fun things I know about Boston include: The Boston Harbor was the site of the Boston Tea Party in 1773 during the American Revolution.  If you are at the Children's  Museum, you can look out onto the water at the Boston Tea Party Museum, with an original ship on display. The movie, Goodwill Hunting, takes place in Boston; if you drive into Boston on I-93 from the North, you pass the college where Matt Damon's character works.  Fenway Park is an awesome place to watch a concert, especially the Dave Matthews Band! The big park called Boston Common, has a beautiful metal sculpture in it depicting a scene from the children's book Make Way for Ducklings.

A(udrey)

The Letter A in My Family

On my mom's side of the family, I am the oldest grandchild.  My first name is Audrey, named after Audrey Hepburn (a famous actress).  Next came my brother, Anthony.  The tradition continued with my other aunts and uncles had children.  Antoinette, Adrienne, Araminta, Amanda, and Alicia.  There are two ruler breakers: Rachel, and Liza.  I think my parents and my aunt wanted to buck the system with their youngest children and give them non-A names.  If you were counting, that's seven out of nine grandchildren all with a first name that starts with the letter A.

I will not be continuing this tradition with my family.  My two cats have names that starts with a Z, and my daughter's name starts with an E.