Jerome Family Girls' Day Out 2010

It took us three years, but the Jerome side of the family finally organized another Girls' Day Out in Pittsburgh. We began our day at Lidia's restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful brunch together. You will notice one male in our crowd....Pap came as our honorary "Grandma"....we really enjoyed having him there. Darrell's side of the family is a little short on females....only four granddaughters out of 13 grandchildren....so they stick together.
I ordered a grilled octopus plate, and Ann-Marie was brave enough to try it...see below! She liked it so much that she kept picking pieces of octopus off of my plate!

Ann-Marie took control of the camera and took a picture of the enormous glass chandelier in the restaurant.....
Next stop was Phipp's conservatory, where we enjoyed the last day of the winter show. Needless to say, we had one last shot of Christmas, as there were many poinsettas, Christmas trees and Christmas music playing.



Ann-Marie has a special gardening relationship with her Aunt Toni, so she spent most of her time talking to Aunt Toni about what flowers and plants she was seeing and enjoying.
We made the four girl cousins endure many photo sessions along the way.....above is my personal favorite. We treasure the times we can get them all together as the oldest, Natalie, is in college and is heading off at the end of the month to study in France for four months.
The last time we all visited the Phipps was when they had the Chihuly glass exhibit and we were pleasantly surprised to see how much glass sculptures they had kept.

Can you spot the snowman and snowwoman in the above picture?
Here's what we would like to say to winter......but I hear we have more of the white stuff coming so I'll just enjoy this picture until Spring.

What a memorable day! Time spent with family is precious!

Date night - Jerome style

Date night at the Jerome residence is on Tuesday night. It came about after a rough move from Maryland almost 4 years ago and 7 months living with Darrell's dad. Needless to say, funds were low, so creativity was high. For the past (almost) four years, Darrell and I have tried to keep Tuesday night open for us. Typically, we don't leave the house and the children don't either. When the kids were younger, we would feed them kid-friendly food, put them to bed (a little early?), and make an adult-only meal. Nowadays, we rent a special movie on Tuesday nights, still feed the kids a kid-friendly meal and let them watch their movie while we eat our meal and catch up with each other. Sometimes we get take-out, but most of the time one of us finds a cool recipe to try and we (o.k., usually Darrell) makes it. We really look forward to our adult-only meals on Tuesday nights. Above was tonight's dish.....Kale Lasagna Diavolo from the magazine Vegetarian Times, January/February 2011 issue. Excellent! The conversation and company was excellent too! We do occasionally get a babysitter and go out for a date night, but this keeps us connected on a weekly basis. How do you and your significant other stay connected during the week?

Christmas in the city of Pittsburgh

We took our annual Christmas trek into downtown Pittsburgh to enjoy the holiday decorations. We always enjoy the PPG Place Wintergarden, with Santas and customs from around the world as well as the gingerbread houses designed and built by many local schools, businesses, and organizations. Above, the kids' favorite gingerbread creation was Heinz field.
I couldn't resist taking Alec's picture with the Heinz ketchup dinosaur, since he's my ketchup kid!
Then we did something new to our family and visited the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. The Nationality Rooms are a must-see, especially during the Holiday season.








We thoroughly enjoyed our family day in Pittsburgh this year and even experienced some new sights. Happy New Year to you and your family!

Snapshots of Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas! We enjoyed our Christmas very much and hope that you and your family did also. Here are some snapshots of our Christmas day....above, opening the stockings.....

all of the gifts were very much appreciated.....

and helping Darrell open his big gift was fun....(an espresso/cappuccino maker)....

Christmas dinner at Uncle Mark and Aunt Joanne's house....

helping Pap play "Santa".....

and almost all of the cousins (Bruce was missing) plus one girlfriend!

Unfortunately, we added one sick child to the mix...can you guess who is wrapped up there?

'Tis the season.....

for making gingerbread houses....this one they all worked on together and showed off the side of the house they completed.....

and for ice skating.....Alec was crazy on the ice once we borrowed this red "ice walker"...it gave him way too much confidence!

Ann-Marie and good friend, Danelle......

and Evan looking not very thrilled....he only went around a couple of times before calling it quits. We all had a good time anyway and many of our friends were there to hang out with. We're loving Christmas break!

Christmas Preparations

Cookie baking and decorating.....

and decking the halls and tree....

Merry Christmas!

Ravioli Day 2010

Ravioli day at the Jerome family means it is getting close to Christmas! Above, two of Darrell's sisters (the expert dough checkers) testing out the rolling machine.
Darrell and his sister making meatballs for Italian wedding soup.
Ann-Marie apprenticed this year on the dough rolling.....Aunt Karen even made a special batch of dough just for Ann-Marie. I think she got a little too involved.....
lovely Analise showing off her dough...
the four beautiful granddaughters in their handmade aprons....a tradition and they all still fit!
The Ravioli and meatballs are made and frozen....the countdown to Christmas begins!