Christmas at the Hilgemann's

My mom does an amazing job with her decorations.  Wow!

 Me & Chris by one of my mom's Christmas tree's :)

 Bryan, Sarah, Nick, Me, Chris, Claire by another tree!

 Making some holiday goodies!

 Time for Presents!

Time to relax!!

We did it! Foot stools are done!

Chris helping me finish my foot stool in our last class.  He only had to spend a few minutes on his to finish it up. 

 Putting the bottom dust cover on.  The final step!

 Chris holding his foot stool  - it turned out so well!!

 Our finished foot stools at home :)

Merry Christmas!

 Hope Everyone has a wonderful Holiday!!

From Twix:

 Pinto (aka Bean)

 and Chris & Steph

Christmas party fun!

We were invited to a Christmas party at Blithewold Manor in Bristol, RI.  It's a beautiful mansion so we took a nice tour.

Christmas trees in every room!

 The food was delicious and included a Risotto bar - made as you like it :)

We visited with lots of good friends  - whom we haven't seen nearly enough this year!

Took some nice photos of ourselves :)

And thoroughly enjoyed our evening!  We partied at Blithewold until 9:30, then kept the party going at DeWolf Tavern.  Love evenings like that!

More Upholstery

We are getting it done!

 Here is my foot stool - cushion on!

 Getting the fabric on!

 Stapled & ready for final stages!  Woo hoo!  I actually brought it home this week and did a couple small updates, so I will get it finished!

 Chris is in the final stages.  Here is Seymour helping him out.

 His foot stool is looking good, huh?!?!

Craig Alexander! 3 x Ironman World Champ!

Yep, 3 time Hawaii Ironman Winner!  He's Australian, but that's ok.  His accent is awesome!  He is one of the best triathletes in the world and will go down in history with Mark Allen & Dave Scott! (multiple Hawaii Ironman winners)

 He has a book out now 'As the Crow flies' - that documents his 2011 triathlon race year.  And he stopped in Boston to give a talk & sign some books!  We were invited & jumped at the opportunity to meet him!

 He won Ironman Coeur d'Alene in 2011 - the year that we did it.  He also won his 3rd Hawaii Ironman title that year too.  He was a great speaker & we enjoyed our evening a lot!

He's also super friendly when you talk to him one on one.   Love Crowie!!

Update on the Upholstery Class

I have missed a couple classes, but there are 2 left, so I should be able to finish my foot stool.

 This last class, I finished tying down my springs & covered the foot stool with burlap.

 Then I had to sew the burlap to the springs, so the springs & burlap don't move.

 Then it was time to cushion the ends, so there wouldn't be hard edges.

 And then it was time to start cushioning the top!  That's where I ended my evening.

 Chris is a little further ahead, since he only missed one class.  His foot stool is covered - first with a thin material

 And then with the material that we picked out.

He just has to do the bottom covering.  (you can kind of see what he still has to do - by looking at the foot stool in the background)
He'll be done by next class, so then he can help me :)

Zurich!

Our trip to Rome started with a direct flight from Boston to Zurich (then a short flight from Zurich to Rome).   On the way home, we had a long lay over in Zurich so we took the train from the airport & enjoyed Zurich for the day!

 It was a little cooler than Rome, but sill a nice day!

 Lots of photo ops :)  on Lake Zurich

 Zurich is one of my favorite cities!

 I love the old part of Zurich.  Quaint side streets with lots of shops & restaurants.

 They still have outside eating & the weather is comparable to New England in winter.  Europeans love their outdoors!

 We hiked up a hill & took some great pictures of Zurich

 Mom & Chris relaxing before we head back to the airport.

 Thanks for  a great quick trip!