Gloucester When it's Cold

Since Brandon didn't have school, we decided to take a day trip up to Gloucester with our neighbors, the Beasleys.
Side note: How do you pronounce Gloucester? After visiting, we're still not exactly sure. We should have asked a local. In my mind, I keep hearing the voices of the Russian sailors from The Russians are Coming while they practiced saying it aloud, and it just got me more confused. As we drove through Gloucester, I kept thinking about how much it didn't look like it did in the movie, and discovered why when I was working on this post--the movie was actually filmed in California. What a bummer.
So, our first stop was the Hammond Castle. Didn't know there were castles in Massachusetts? Neither did we! Unfortunately, it was closed for the season, so we had to admire it from afar.

We drove through town and stopped to see some impressive views of the ocean and statues honoring lost fisherman.

We finagled our way to one of the many lighthouses in town, but opted not to go all the way to the end of the breakwater because it was so cold!

After our excursion, we took the scenic route through Gloucester and ate at a little diner called Charlie's. Brandon ordered their fried cod cheeks, which are exactly what they sound like--the meat of a cod's cheek. They were actually very good! What can top eating cod cheeks while in Gloucester? We'll be sure to let you know.

Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving this year was spent with many friends--the Johnsons, the Beasleys, the missionaries, and a random guy named Trent we happened to know from BYU. Much of our day was spent with Brandon doing homework, Felicia watching the Thanksgiving Day parade, and then preparing food (we made our very first pies and they turned out great!) and rearranging our living room furniture.

Finally, we began our festivities!


It took what seemed like an hour for Jeff to get the whole turkey carving thing figured out, but it was worth the wait!


Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Early Christmas Presents to Ourselves

It all started two weeks ago when our old neighbors, the Morgans, gave us their desktop computer. We were glad to have it, but we didn't have any place to put it. Fast forward to today when we decided to make the hour commute to IKEA to buy ourselves a desk and revel in furniture goodness. Oh how we love the Swedes!
Yes, we found a desk, but we also found a sofa. Brandon went out to our Chevy Malibu to do some quick measuring. It'll fit right? Uh...no. We were all set to go back into IKEA and return our brand new couch without ever bringing it home. Thankfully, our good friend Walter (of IKEA) came to the rescue and helped us strap the couch to the roof of our car.

After another hour commute back to Cambridge, and with some help from our neighbor, Ben Beasley, we finally got our new couch (and our desk) into our apartment. Within moments, our new furniture was assembled! Our first major furniture purchase!

Wicked!

One of the best parts of living where we do is that we enjoy all the amenities of living in a big city, without having to actually live in a big city. Case in point: Yesterday we took the T downtown to go see "Wicked." Although Felicia didn't quite understand all the hype around it (we know several people whose parents have flown them to various parts of the country to see the show) we both thought it was really well done. The only downside is that for the first time in his life, Brandon actually wants to see the "Wizard of Oz." Or maybe even its scary sequel. Maybe after finals . . . ?