Year: 2022

Readers of a New Nill, you are few. And you became even fewer when Blogspot stopped using the feature that sent my posts to peoples’ emails. Alas, I was forced to move to a different platform and I *think* I successfully migrated the whole thing. It’s not going to look the same until I figure all this out but at least the content is here now. So let’s pick up where we left off! The end of the fall, which contains Halloween and Thanksgiving, for the most part.

OCTOBER 31 meant a creepy lurking banana (Ashton’s “drippy” costume, whatever that means but it’s what kids say these days), a werewolf boy, and a grandma in a golfcart. 

We went around with our usual crew and the golf cart was a huge hit. We played Thriller and any other spooky song we had and rolled the streets with flashing lights and Grandpa at the wheel. We were quite the show! And if you’re asking yourself where on earth did you get a golf cart, well the answer is Brae Burn and it came on a truck.

When you’re married to Jason Nill, the wonders never cease.

After Halloween, I turned 42 in a very unexciting way.

We had sushi the night before because on the actual November 12 Jason had to work. Sushi not pictured. But I did get to open presents. This is what I generally look like in the morning and it’s only going to get worse.

But the real big thing was Thanksgiving and for the first time in many years, I don’t have the same pictures to show you because we didn’t host! No we did not, because our house is under construction. We are putting on an addition (about 7-8 weeks from being finished from today, December 8), and our whole property is a mess. I guess I’ll have to blog later about that. But I knew it would be a mess so I told my sister she would just have to host and we packed up the car and headed to Vermont. I actually don’t have many pictures from the weekend but here is our one grownup group shot.

Erik’s friend Cinthya was visiting from Florida so it was fun to meet her, but the surprise hit of the night was Kari’s make ahead gravy. I’d say certain people in the group were a bit nervous because gravy is very important at Thanksgiving and it was AWESOME. It’s Ina’s recipe and will be what we make every year from now on. Big success. Big. HUGE. Thanks Kari and Ben for having us 🙂 We went to a UVM hockey game and had a great visit.

Chugging along, the weekend after that we went with Ashton’s hockey team, Boch Blazers, to a tournament in Waterville Valley, NH. It was honestly SO fun, and they ended up winning the tournament which was an added bonus.

I have a lot to learn on WordPress but hopefully this is the start of a new era for our little family blog. Stay tuned for our sad Christmas tree, addition details, and all the fixings!

Updates from the Nills! It’s been a long time since that summer vacation on my last post, oy. And it’s been a VERY busy fall. 

As a point of orientation, Ashton is in 5th grade at Wilson Middle (age 11) and Alex is in 3rd at Lilja still (age 8). Middle school has been a whole other animal – Ashton is so much more independent, has made all sorts of new friends and is really becoming his own person. A lot of the time that means he is a really annoying silly adolescent but hey. He seems very happy and besides needing extra help with reading, is doing fine. Alex on the other hand thinks school is dull and a complete waste of his time. Not unlike Calvin in fact. Two strips that could just as easily be him:

They even have the same hair.

Next, the boys are each on a new hockey team (Boch Blazers/Dedham for Ashton, Assabet Patriots/Concord for Alex). Records aren’t great so far, not going to lie. But they do love it which is the most important thing, considering the miles we put on our car and the hours Jason spends getting them to their games (like, in other states). 

They also each play football. Ashton is one of the stars on his team (even though I’ve been told a hundred times which position he plays I still couldn’t tell you. There are at least 2, one offense, one defense?)

The biggest news of all though is that the 6 Craft Road Great Improvement Project has begun! I don’t think I ever really shared the full story, but it began when we realized we wanted a garage and we wanted one BAD. We hired an architect last summer (and also looked at the idea of just moving to a house that had one, only to be continually outbid by hundreds of thousands). Despite my many protests to the Natick building inspector and the Zoning Board of Appeals (“Ma’am, just because you want to put a garage on your house doesn’t mean you can. It doesn’t work that way, you don’t meet the setback and we won’t grant you a variance, so, move on”) we knew we had to pivot. At least we could add the spaces we also needed: a gym, an office, and a finished basement for the boys. Here is a link to the plans, if anyone is interested. We went about finding a contractor, waited more than a year, got delayed with stormwater permits and other riff raff, and finally as of today, 10/31, we are ready to pour the foundation. We have a giant hole in the wall and in the ground – I’ll take pics as it goes up. We first had to do some masonry to get ready to add the portico though:

We did add some new landscaping (which ended up all getting torched this summer in the heat with the water ban):

And here we are today, for the most part:

 Well Blogland, it’s been a minute! I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve started, only to get overwhelmed at simply how much there is in our life to share, so I don’t end up sharing any of it hahaha because I just say the heck with it.

BUT, our annual summer vacation this year was back on Block Island (for the first time since 2018) and it was epic. The group was mostly the same, with taller kids and older adults. We were all SO happy to be back that we made sure to get lots of photos of ourselves.

Every year we go we are in a different house and this year was Island Adventure which served us pretty well. There was a huge front lawn that we used to play all kinds of games and the kids even set off rockets. (Tell me this video is not the most joyous children’s voices you’ve ever heard.)

We managed to get to the beach every day, go out to dinner, shop, moped, fish, etc. But first: Bloody Marys on the boat!

And then, all the activities! 

While we mopeded (?), GG took the kids on a walk all the way out to the North Light and I have to post this next one for no other reason than Callie’s face:

And us girls stayed home to do our nails. EQUALLY as exciting if you ask me.

Fun fact: Ashton ended up catching the biggest fluke of the summer at 28.5″. We submitted it to the Block Island Times and they published him!

https://www.blockislandtimes.com/article/letters-editor-huge-fluke/61188

So they caught a porgie, the fluke, and tons of sea bass and we ate it all.

Beach photos – good ol’ Fred Benson!

I had brought the boys speedos to wear under their board shorts and hopefully avoid the chafing issue that usually plagues them. For a time there, it was all Alex wore (and if you know Alex, he loved making a show of it).

Official meeting of the Professional Beach Lunch-eaters Club (PBLC):

We also had some birthdays in the house! Callie turned 8 on 8/2:

And then Ashton turned 11 on 8/3. He got a skimboard so it was breakfast, beach, and then dinner and cake. Of course he will get a whole separate post on turning 11 as is the blog’s tradition. I love to bore everyone with the small details about his shoe size, etc. Muah ha ha. 

Fishing party at the inlet

Out to dinner at the Spring House!

Out to dinner at the Oar for our final night.

Of course, our favorite view.

Ok now, here is something super cool. There are hundreds of handmade glass orbs hidden around the island: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/style/orbivores-block-island.html 

And Erik found one! He’s number 529 on the 2022 list: https://www.blockislandinfo.com/glass-float-project/found-floats

It was the coolest. And of course Ashton was drooling over it, he’s totally into this kind of thing. He and Erik went out at 6 am for a walk the next day to try and find another, and Jason and I took the kids for a few walks to keep looking, but alas. 

The wonders of BI never cease. Of course by the end we were all plotting how we could get a house there someday, it is that magical for us. 

On the last day, it was just us the Nills left until the afternoon. We went to Ballard’s Beach Club, Rebecca’s for lunch, and set sail. 

To GG, Erik, Kari, Ben, Callie, Holden, Grandma and Grandpa: thanks for sharing the sun and sand with us for a week in our favorite place. It is always the BEST!! xoxoxox 

There have certainly been many, many bloggable events since Alex’s birthday. The boys accepted offers for their club hockey teams next year and played in the parity rounds, lacrosse has been going great, we re-did our front walkway and landscaping, the boys got their boosters, Alex had his first communion, and so on. I’ve been super busy with the PTO and am elbow deep in planning the carnival that we are hosting on June 5th. But nothing has stopped me enough to write a blog post until yesterday’s major moment. 

Ashton came home from school yesterday having lost a tooth, for the first time in a few years actually (his 9th, to be precise, and I didn’t even know it was loose!). I said Oooo the tooth fairy is coming tonight! And we moved on with our day.

Cut to bed time. The lights are off and I’m tucking him in. Ashton had the little box with his tooth in it in his hand. I was kissing him goodnight and he said “I’m going to hide my tooth. I’m going to pick a really tricky place and if the tooth fairy is real, she’ll know where it is. She’ll be able to find it no matter what.” 

I have to say, I was a little panicked. What was I going to do – comb through his room in the dark at 11 pm trying to find this little thing? It didn’t seem likely that I would. I didn’t respond right away and Ashton said “Will she be able to find it? She’ll find it if she’s real right?”

“Do you think she’s real? What do you think?”

[pause]

“I think the tooth fairy is you.”

And we just looked at each other and I knew it was the right time. I said, “You’re right honey, I am.” And he responded by hugging me. I could have melted. And then he said “What about the easter bunny? You know there were a lot of things this year that had me wondering. Like, I saw Ariane hiding the eggs for Ainsleigh in her yard. The Easter Bunny is supposed to do that but maybe Ariane is the Easter Bunny for Ainsleigh. Are you the Easter Bunny for us?”

“Yes I am.”

“Okay.” [thinks] “You know, my biggest question is about Santa. And Pete. Are you Santa?”

[pause – ahhhh!]

“Yes honey, me and Daddy are.”

“You move Pete every night?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he right now?”

“Oh, well sweetie he is in the basement with all the Christmas stuff.”

His eyes opened so wide, like he could hardly consider this a possibility.

“All those years, when we weren’t supposed to touch him, I never did Mommy. But I could have?”

“You could have.”

“And nothing would have happened!”

“Nope.”

“WOW…” and he smiled really big. “I can’t wait to hold him! Wow, Pete! Really, wow!”

It was the sweetest conversation. I told him the truth about everything. Surprisingly Pete was the biggest focus. “So Pete doesn’t bring us pajamas, you do?” “The notes Pete left, you wrote those?” “When Pete didn’t move a couple of times, you just forgot?” He’s very beloved in our house 🙂 He asked about how I did this photo from two Christmasses ago: 

And I told him. He smiled. And hugged me again.

“So, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Pete. And Santa. Wow.” and then, “Wait. Thanksgiving is just Thanksgiving right? There’s nothing to know about that is there? That’s just great on its own?” 

“Yes, Thanksgiving is great on its own.”

We kept talking, about how Alex didn’t know and so many other kids don’t know, (meanwhile Alex is SHOUTING from his bedroom that I hadn’t kissed him goodnight yet and what was I DOING in Ashton’s room for so long) and I whispered to Ashton that he was on our team now to keep the secret. He liked this very much. I said there is so much magic, just because Santa isn’t real doesn’t make Christmas any less special. Christmas will still be a wonderful time, and you can help! He said, “Oh I’m going to use Pete to play so many tricks on Alex! I have so many ideas, it’s going to be great!” 

He just kept sighing, and smiling and shaking his head, and telling me a few stories about how he found Santa’s wrapping paper and tags, how he saw a present that Alex ended up getting from Santa, etc. So, he knew in his heart but I think wasn’t ready to truly find out until that moment last night. It was something I will never forget – a rite of passage in every child’s life.

Of course, the tooth fairy did still come. I knew Alex would ask and I didn’t want Ashton to feel entirely grown up. But there are, of course, some secrets parents keep to themselves 😉

My my, Alex is eight years old. He’s got a mouth full of holes, a chipped tooth, and his most defining characteristic continues to be his hair. 

Affectionately known (not by me) as the “mohawk mullet”. 

So what do we say about Alex. For starters, he is probably the smartest person in our family. It does not make him nice. In fact Alex is kind of edgy and has quite the temper and attitude. In the mornings, I never know what side of the bed he is going to get up on (one time he claimed he was up all night. He said “You know, the closest I got to sleeping was blinking, Mommy” and stated that he should probably have a later bedtime. Ha! I don’t think so.). 

How about another example? Sure. So not long ago I stopped and got donuts. They were out of the kind Alex likes (strawberry frosted) so I purchased a regular glazed. When he arrived home from hockey, I gave it to him and held my breath. Here’s what happened.

Anyway, as Alex is more touchy than I would like, I got him a punching bag for his birthday thinking it would help LOL.

Temper aside, he was very excited about the gloves 🙂

When Alex isn’t stomping around, he’s actually quite funny. And sarcastic. He thinks nothing of telling adults what the real deal is and can make a joke out of anything. His teacher is his hero and probably the one person he reveres besides himself and his grandparents. Alex is quite the showman too and for this personality trait I got him a microphone.

Ashton takes it all in stride thankfully. As a brother, Alex does like to use his fists and there is a fair amount of shoving, laughing that turns to crying, indignation, and argument over resources (i.e., parent attention) but overall they are super tight.

Anyway, here are a few more recent photos of Alex as he has hit 8 years old. 

Don’t let this last one fool you. The boy does ZERO chores and I was indulging him because he claimed he was so good at cleaning he was going to start a service. I said, “Well that would be nice to have. What is your rate?” and he said “Obviously, 10 out of 10.”

“I meant, what do you charge?”

“Oh. Probably too much for you to pay actually.” And promptly quit. Sigh. 

(Haha, I looked up last year’s 7 year old post and there is a specific line that says “You might be Alex if ‘your chore chart is empty. You have literally no chores as you’ve decided the money isn’t worth it.’ “

Everything in that 7 year old post is still true.

Up next: His first communion. And he was asked to be the gift bearer at the mass which should be interesting…

Well everyone there is not a better time than March to relive our Christmas spectacular. Although this post hasn’t happened yet because there is not much to relive. SPOILER ALERT:

Letters and cookies and decorating more things. The usual business.

The boys were still very into Pete our elf. Although he’s becoming more high maintenance as they are requesting that Pete maybe do funny things and get into trouble in the letters they leave for him. I guess elves in other houses have made a reputation for themselves SO, the best I could do was have Pete bring a friend over (Cherry Cinnamon from next door). The boys just about had a heart attack when they saw there were two. And of course Cherry brought some kind of magic where you put tic tacks in sugar and they grow into candy canes overnight.

Behold, the following photo with the results:

How many days would that have to sit on the counter, be moved around, spilled and “replanted” before you considered it really annoying? 

That’s rhetorical.

Changing the subject, I very much like to decorate my Christmas card envelopes differently every year. I chose washi tape this time around and WHOA was it a hit with the boys. Yards and yards wasted, but…they spent HOURS “helping”. The holiday season is about making sacrifices isn’t it? Refer to comment above about open glasses of sugar on the counter in a very busy area.

So cute though 🙂

Then cute becomes intense. (Kari show this picture to Callie, it’s her flamingo key chain that Alex spent a lifetime wrapping LOL)

I’m feeling the need to advise the 3 other readers here on the flamingo back story. Which is that Alex went to Hobby Lobby on December tenth, saw this at the checkout, and proclaimed Callie just had to have it. Like, as a present. 

Callie has now duly received said Flamingo so Kari, comment below on its status. Most 7 year olds don’t have keys so…no expectations 😉

Which brings us to Christmas Eve. In addition to wrapping the glorious gift above, Alex also spent a tremendous amount of time making a Lego version of Santa’s sleigh in preparation for Santa’s visit.

One of those creations where you find yourself laughing in surprise at how good it is.

Anyway, here’s the Christmas morning picture.

And the rest is history. Lots of blurry photos and paper everywhere. It was about 11 am that we found out Jason was positive and everything stopped in their tracks. We spent 5 days home as a family (HOME home) and that was a wrap. The boys and I never got it – Jason didn’t isolate from us in the house and we tested repeatedly, so maybe vaccines work after all 😉 I’ll take good health as my Christmas present any day. xoxox

 Hi guys, this post is for me so I can make this note and come back to it later. Ashton had his allergy testing/skin pricks today for the first time in a couple of years. Of note, the cashew allergy seems to have developed and the egg wheal is now bigger than the sesame one! But size does not indicate severity of a reaction, only the certainty that there WILL be a reaction if ingested. Dr. Lee said some kids take until age 16 to grow out of their egg allergy so it could still happen. The sesame and nuts, not likely. Ashton eats walnuts and cashews and his mouth fills with saliva, he pulls at his ears and feels quite sick. The last time he reported his chest tightening and no joke I was thisclose to an epi but the Benadryl kicked in and he was ok. So we are going to start to steadfastly avoid those. He has never liked peas, even super young he claimed they made his mouth itchy but we thought he was just trying to get out of eating them. Fast forward to today, anything with pea protein (which is actually a lot of things, included Reduced Fat Skippy) makes his mouth very itchy. So that’s officially documented now too. The only tree nut he is not allergic to at all is pistachio, and he does seem to tolerate almonds and hazelnuts and he is to keep eating those.

Poor Ashton, he was very uncomfortable this morning. No bloodwork needed as the reactions were clear enough that he is not eligible for any food challenges.