Thanksgiving 2011

Our wonderful neighbors Marilyn and Ken invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner this year, which was lovely. Maya of course loves visiting them, especially their little dog Minnie:

And as usual she was excited to eat all the delicious food:

Seriously, the table was groaning under the weight of all the food:

There was lasagne, corn, sweet potatoes, asparagus, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, creamed spinach, and more! As always, Marilyn sets a lovely table, including the beautiful place settings:

Maya enjoyed the music so much that she danced away in the living room for a while. And of course, she made sure to give lots of hugs at the end of the night: 

One more Thanksgiving down, and our fridge is still stuffed full of leftovers!

Frysgiving 2011

Our friend Brian and his friend Andrew have created a tradition of cooking some deep fried turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving. He calls this Frysgiving and I think we've been there every year since it started. Last year we didn't have time to stay and sample the turkey, but this year we made sure to stay. Hyder and Maya requested a turkey leg, so they could do this:

Maya had fun playing with her buddy Emmitt, who also accompanied us to The Topsfield Fair last month. She did a good job of sharing her toys with him:

And giving him a hug when he left:

After all that eating, it was only appropriate that Maya and Hyder enjoy some related bedtime reading:

Hilarious! :)

Goats and Sheep and Chickens!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to visit Drumlin Farm with our good friend Helene. There were lots of good opportunities for Maya to hang out with farm animals, and we had good weather too!

First up was the goat:

Maya tried to make some goat noises while she petted it. Not sure how accurate her sound effects are.

Next up were the sheep; they seemed quite happy to be petted, and their wool was very thick:

After that we visited the Poultry House; a hilarious sign greeted us:

We finished our visit at the farm and hung out at Helene's house for snacks; Maya enjoyed her time with Jack:

Lots of fun!

Holiday Card Photo Shoot

Our friend Rachel was kind enough to do a photo shoot with us again this year for our holiday card. It's one of my many insane ideas, and fortunately she humors me. I felt like it was my right as a parent to send out photo holiday cards once Maya joined our family. At any rate, we've done this in years past; here's 2009:

Here's the photo from 2010:

And before I present this year's holiday card photo, here are a few of the outtakes:

These are all beautiful photos, of course - a true testament to Rachel's photography skills and the ability of her husband Joshua and son Zachary to make us all smile and laugh! In the end, I chose this photo for our holiday card - I just loved the fall foliage and the water in the background:

Stay tuned for a holiday card from The Husains in a mailbox near you!

Tiaras and Mustaches

Last weekend we had a ton of fun at Maya's friend Lilia's fourth birthday party. The theme was princesses and princes, which translated into tiaras and mustaches. And of course some pretty princess gowns! Here's the birthday girl Lilia:

We took turns trying on a very princely mustache:

And Maya found a couple different tiaras:

Many thanks to Sharona Jacobs (Lilia's mom) for the photos and the party. She is a great party-thrower and a very talented photographer. After some fun playing with balloons, dancing the limbo, we settled down to eat a delicious birthday cake. A fun and relaxing way to spend a Sunday, especially after all the travel I did during the week.

Happy Diwali!

So in the midst of all the Halloween craziness, it was also Diwali and we decided to do a low-key celebration with friends. We got dressed up in some Indian clothes and went out to an Indian restaurant in Lexington (Khushboo) for dinner:

Then we did a small puja at our friends' house:

We sang a bhajan and helped the kids do aarti:

And we made sure everyone got blessings from the holy fire:

After the kids went to bed the adults enjoyed Diwali sweets! :)

Halloween-palooza!

Halloween became quite the holiday this year, with at least four separate parties PLUS trick-or-treating! Maya's little costume got lots of use.

We started with a party at my office:

Who knew Elmo could type?! She also hung out with a few friends:

Next up was a party at Sheila's daycare, with all of Maya's daycare buddies:

And of course live entertainment from Leo (the monk) on guitar:

Then there was a party at Maya's music class:

Finally there was a party at a friend's house, which involved play doh as part of the entertainment:

Other entertainment included a vigorous dance party to Bruno Mars music, including 'Runaway' and 'Lazy Song' as key selections.

Finally we went trick-or-treating with our friends on Halloween itself, which was in doubt since there was a significant snowstorm here in New England the weekend before Halloween. Since the snowstorm came so early, there were still quite a few leaves on the trees so branches came down all over the state. At one point over 800,000 people in Massachusetts were without power! Several towns postponed trick-or-treating for safety reasons, but we went with our friends in Arlington:

Lots of fun for almost a full week!

Dancing, Painting, and Brunching

I'm catching up now on the past few weekends - life has been busy!

Anyway, after our visit to the farm and corn maze, the next day we decided to take it easy and just go out for brunch with our neighbors. Before we headed out, Maya did some finger painting and dancing - always an entertaining combo. :)

During brunch at Foundry on Elm, we were forced to entertain ourselves for quite a long time while we awaited our entrees. Apparently the kitchen was backed up, which the waitress didn't tell us until we'd been waiting for almost 30 minutes. Obviously, this wasn't an easy wait with a hungry toddler. She did play with stickers, sticking them on Dada and Mr Nick:

She also started pulling stuff out of my purse at one point. In an attempt to reach an item on the floor, I managed to tip out of my chair and knock Maya over as well. Fortunately, nothing was hurt, other than my pride. Finally our food came and we devoured it! Afterward, Maya spent some time cuddling with Aunt Marilyn:

Thankfully the waitress comped us for all the drinks we had during brunch, but it would've been nice if a manager had come over to our table and apologized.