A Maryland Halloween

The Dennisons went all-out for Halloween this year. Ella asked to be a Purple Pirate. We are not sure where she got this idea--she just starting talking about being a purple pirate one day. We thought it was more fun than being Joe from Blues Clues or Diego (her previous requests), so we jumped on it. I think my in-laws even had a pirate costume for the dog. Not a bad looking crew if I do say so myself. Ella wasn't really that keen on trick-or treating. Her favorite thing to do was sit on the steps and give out "booty." She told each kid "arrrrgh" before she gave them a treat. It was hilarious.

Choosing a Blog Title

For those of you who are not fans of the title of this blog, I am sorry. It was hard to come up with something both whimsical and clever at 11:30 at night. I had a few other ideas like "Nat's Chats," but that sounded too much like a made-up newspaper column from a bad creative writing assignment. I also thought about "Four Turtles, Three Cats, and a Baby," but that makes us sound a little too eccentric. And nothing as simple as "Dennison's Blog" would do since our surname is not exactly unusual. So News From the Land of Mary it is.

I have generally resisted the idea of a blog--mostly for reasons such as the above titling dilemma--there is just too much pressure to try to sound clever and entertaining. I am not very tech savvy; it took me about 40 minutes to write a Happy Birthday text message to my brother for his 17th birthday. But as I become busier and have less time to catch up on phone calls or send individual emails, I have come to realize that it is time to embrace technology and join the virtual world. So here it goes!