CHRISTMAS 2011

Every year my sister and I take turns hosting Christmas Eve at our respective homes. This year was my turn! We were having 26 people in our home for the evening. The preparations began shortly after Thanksgiving. 

Decorate the house inside and out. Put up the tree and decorate it. This year I put tinsel on the tree, I haven’t put tinsel on a tree in over 20 years (way too much work) but I realized my grandkids had never seen a tree with tinsel on it. (Guess what, they never even mentioned it! Oh, well...)

However, the adults LOVED the tinsel. It brought back a lot of memories and STORIES of when we HAD to put tinsel on trees when we were young, so the work was worth it just for the stories it brought out.

I wanted to buy a new Christmas bathroom set - everything matching, shower curtain, towels, rug, and soap dispenser! Just couldn’t justify spending the money. So my hubby tried to help me out.

HUBBY:  Are you going to buy a new set every year?

ME:  No.

HUBBY:  Are you planning on using the set for several Christmases?

ME:  Yes, at least 10.

HUBBY:  Then it will wind up costing you about $14 a year. I think we can afford that.

ME:  Thank you, I love you!

Now, have to make sure to tell the grandkids not to use the towels hanging up (they are strictly for decoration). Use the hand towels set out on the bathroom sink. DON’T MESS UP MY FANCY TOWELS, I’LL LOSE IT!! Really, I’m reduced to this???

Back to the preparations:
Buy christmas presents: 1 husband, 3 adult kids and their 3 spouses, 5 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild, 1 sister, 5 nieces and nephews. What to get? What to get? Wrap all the presents and put bows on the presents (OH NO - not the bows again!). Don’t forget to write checks to our favorite charities.

Before the munchkins hit

My 6 little munchkins

Bake, Bake, Bake. Did I say bake? Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, coconut macaroons, peppermint meltaways, turtle cookies, meringue cookies. (Day after Christmas I divided up the cookies by 4 and gave the kids a "doggie bag" of cookies to take home) Phew, now I don't HAVE to eat them all up before my diet...

Buy, Buy, Buy. Did I say buy? M&Ms plain, peanut butter, and pretzel, Hershey Kisses, Mixed Nuts, Lightly Salted Nuts, Cashews, licorice, Christmas Tree Peeps (set them out real early so they get hard and crusty). Oh No, kids start eating Peeps before Christmas Eve, start freaking out, buy more Christmas Tree Peeps but added Snowman Peeps to the collection. When did Peeps become part of Christmas? They belong with Easter...Oh, but they are soooo good.

I saw an article in a magazine at the doctor’s and tore the page from the magazine. (SHHHH, I don’t want to go to Magazine Destruction Prison). Anyway, everything was done in red and green but everything was separated. Green M&Ms in one bowl, red M&Ms in one bowl, green Kisses in one bowl, red Kisses in one bowl, red licorice, green licorice...So I was on a mission...Me and my sterile gloves went about the task of separating all the candies by color so that everything would look just like the picture I “borrowed” from the doctor’s office. Oh yeah, I went back to the doctor’s to return the page to the magazine but couldn’t find the magazine. Sorry doc...

Christmas Eve is here, everyone brings a dish, so we have baked ham (the one I told you about in an earlier blog that my kids want me to begin selling and compete with the spiral hams), shrimp, fresh and smoked sausage, cheesy potatoes, spinach dip with Hawaiian bread, vegetable tray and dip, ham roll-ups, cheese & crackers, La Toute (family recipe of meat and potato pie), crab dip. Think we have enough? OMG...

Christmas Day. Bake another ham (yes, that is two) (30 lbs. of ham total), scalloped potatoes and LEFTOVERS. Today we had 25 people over throughout the day.

I am exhausted, tired, wiped out, ready for my bed. Hopefully, we'll be invited to eat at other people's homes so I won't have to cook for a while.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

POLAR EXPRESS

My grandson, Zack, is visiting for Christmas.

During the first 4 years of his life I babysat him almost daily. However, in 2008 my son's job took them to New York and then in 2010 they relocated to Ohio. So the quantity of time that Zack and I spend together isn't what it used to be.

Thursday, I decided that we would watch our favorite Christmas movie together, The Polar Express. At first he didn't want to but then changed his mind. Well, as it turns out, I watched the movie while he sat on the floor playing a game and looking up at the movie every now and then.

When he was 3, during the scenes where the train was going up and down the hills, he would climb up and sit on my shoulders and we would rock forward and backward pretending we were on the roller coaster ride as if we were on the top of the train.

Today, when those roller coaster scenes began, he stopped playing and climbed up on the arm of my chair getting ready to climb up onto my shoulders. Well, Grandma had to stop that real quick because he is 7 now.  He may only be 4 years older, but guess what? I am too.

So, here I am watching our favorite movie, thinking that he had forgotten all those times we spent together watching this fantastic movie. Just goes to show how much a 7-year-old remembers...

And so the journey begins...

ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL 2011 CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Last night my husband and I attended our granddaughter’s Christmas concert presented by the Roosevelt High School Vocal Music Department and accompanied by the Orchestra and Symphony Band students.

Our granddaughter, Samantha, performed in the A cappella Choir and we are so very proud of her.

As a side note, her grandpa, my husband, Ed, was in the RHS A cappella Choir 48 years ago, so it was also a trip down memory lane for him.

The program was Directed/Conducted by Ms. Kathleen Kane and Instrumental Director, Mr. Mark D’Angelo.

The evening began with six songs performed by the A cappella Choir, followed by three songs performed by the Vocal Impressions and six songs by the Chorus. This was followed by five performances by the ROVASI and six more songs by the A cappella Choir and a final performance by all Combined Ensembles.

I Googled ROVASI and this is just a part of what I found out:  “Prerequisites: Students MUST be enrolled in at least one other music class and need a background in terminology, basic music theory, and sight reading.  Audition process includes the ability to hold one's own part while singing in a quartet, sight reading in quartet SATB, and a written evaluation, and dance.  Entrance is through audition or assignment by director.”

ROVASI is something that my granddaughter wishes to be in next year. She has been taking dance classes since she was three, so she is not uncomfortable being on stage or in front of a crowd.

I have to say the entire show was phenomenal and on the way home I said to my husband “we should check out the calendars of all the schools around us and go see more Christmas concerts.”

Since I’m new to this blogging thing, I’m not quite sure what I can or can’t say or do for fear of copyright and infringement on others, so I decided not to list any of the songs performed. Just suffice it to say that they were EXCELLENT.

The one disappointing part of the whole evening was when Ms. Kane announced that no one was allowed to video tape or record any of the performance with our own equipment. Wyandotte Cable tapes all the shows at all the schools and has a copyright on them thus preventing parents or grandparents from taping. But, what about the parents who do not carry Wyandotte Cable, or the grandparents who don’t live in Wyandotte or parents who would like to send a clip to grandparents who live far away? We are there to see our children/grandchildren and usually our taping is centered on that one child not the entire show so I really feel Wyandotte Cable is being unfair (but that is my opinion).

Not to end on an unhappy note. The Concert was phenomenal and we are looking forward to attending many more in the future. 

Great job Ms. Kane and Mr. De’Angelo for your outstanding production!

And, more importantly to me, Great Job Samantha!! We love you very much.

HELLO IN THERE. HELLO.

Life is a cycle. We are born and taken care of by our parents. We grow up and go off to start our own family. We become busy with “life” and don’t have time to visit our parents like we want to.

Many of them become lonely and due to lack of involvement or the inability to get out of their homes they become “set in their ways.” And so, we begin to think of them as cranky and unwieldy.  Here are two songs for all of us to listen to.

(It is just a couple minutes out of your busy life)! You can spend a couple minutes...

Frank Sinatra - “It was a very Good Year” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwv-DxOPhSc

When I was seventeen

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for small town girls

And soft summer nights

We'd hide from the lights

On the village green

When I was seventeen

When I was twenty-one

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for city girls

Who lived up the stair

With all that perfumed hair

And it came undone

When I was twenty-one

When I was thirty-five

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for blue-blooded girls 

Of independent means

We'd ride in limousines

Their chauffeurs would drive

When I was thirty-five

But now the days are short

I'm in the autumn of the year

And now I think of my life as vintage wine

From fine old kegs

From the brim to the dregs

It poured sweet and clear

It was a very good year

John Prine - “Hello in There”  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfwGkplB_sY

We had an apartment in the city,

Me and Loretta liked living there.

Well, it’s been years since the kids had grown,

A life of there own left us alone.

John and Linda live in Omaha,

And Joe is somewhere on the road.

We lost Davy in the Korean war,

And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore.

Chorus:

Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,

And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day.

Old people just grow lonesome

Waiting for someone to say, “Hello in the there.” “Hello.”

Me and Loretta, we don’t talk much more.

She sits and stares through the back door screen.

And all the news just repeats itself

Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen.

Some day I’ll go and call up Rudy,

We worked together at the factory.

But what could I say if he asks “What’s new?”

“Nothing, what’s with you? Nothing much to do.”

Chorus:

Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,

And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day.

Old people just grow lonesome.

Waiting for someone to say, “Hello in the there.” “Hello.”

So if you’re walking down the street sometime

And spot some hollow ancient eyes,

Please don’t just pass em by and stare

As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there.” “Hello.”

Just remember:  One day, “WE, TOO” will be there! And the Journey begins...

CAMPING WITH THE GRANDKIDS

Oh, have I got some wonderful memories! I love my grandkids so very, very much (as do all grandmothers). However, I worked for many years and the time that I got to spend with them was not “quantity” but I hope “quality.”

Sam with the wind in her hair

Austin, my hero

I have five grandchildren, right now they are 18, 16, two are 14 and one is 7.

My husband and I have camped with them over the last 12 years.

However, about four years ago I decided to take them ALL camping at ONE time. Just me, no husband, no other adult. Oh No...

So my husband took our camper down to the local campground and helped me set up camp and he left. I had a 14-year-old, 12-year-old, two 10-year-olds and a 3-year-old. ALL in one camper. Thank goodness we had great weather, were never stuck inside and we spent hours at the beach.

All five frolicking in the water

Zack splashing the big kids

One evening I was outside putting water in the camper with the hose when my cell phone rings. One of the 12-year-olds was on the other end:

EM:  Grandma, where are you, I’m scared.

Em & her snowman made from sand

ME:  I’m outside putting water in the camper. 

EM:  But where are you?

ME:  Just look out the side window and you will see me.

EM:  (Looking out the window) Oh, ok, (laughing) I love you.

ME:  Love you too honey.

Another time we ran out of bread and milk. The only way to get it was for me to ride my bike to the local store about a mile or two away. I took the 3-year-old with me in the bike trailer. But first I had to make sure the older ones stayed on the campsite. So I told them I had talked to the neighbors and asked them to keep an eye on the kids and make sure they didn’t fight or leave the campsite. When I returned, everything was fine and no one had left the site. It was then that I told them I hadn’t really spoken to the neighbors, just wanted them to think that I had to make sure they behaved. And they did, what great kids!

Playing in the sand

Casey - taking a break

Two years ago I wanted them to experience camping in a tent, so we left the camper at home. What the h*ll was I thinking, I’m 59-years-old and sleeping on the ground???

Grandma, you're kidding, right?

Really, all in here?

That evening while sitting around the campfire the topic of kids growing up in rural areas doing something called “cow-tipping” came up. (For those who don’t know what this is, it is where they walk up to cows at night and tip them over).

While we were sitting there the rangers came around with a tractor and fork lift and picked up picnic tables and put them on the parking pads of vacant campsites (we assume to make mowing the lawn easier the next day). We got the bright idea of going around, when it turned dark, and putting all the picnic tables back onto the grass (just to confuse the rangers).  Instead we came up with the idea of picnic table tipping and we went around moving tables back onto the grass and then tipping them upside down. We laughed so hard and had so much fun. (I hope the rangers don’t read this and figure out it was us).

This was just two little stories of camping with the grandkids but I will share more later. 

 I know I have great memories of times spent with them and I hope one day they will look back and have great memories of time spent with Grandma. And so the journey begins...

COMPUTER GEEKS (I personally think they are GENIUSES)

To start off, I have to say that I absolutely hate the term “Geek.” I think it is derogatory and mean! We need to come up with something nicer like maybe Geni (like Jedi) and (short for genius).

Anyway, back to my topic.

You know those people who love computers so much that they know their way around a computer so well that it would blow the everyday person’s mind! Some of them spend hours and hours of their time and energy trying to break into websites, trying to spread viruses, etc. just to see if they can.

I have an idea!

When they get caught and many of them do. Why not have the state and federal governments hire them?

Think of what they could do? They could quite possibly wipe out Medicare fraud, Social Security fraud, Welfare fraud, Medicaid fraud, and the list goes on.

We could use their brilliance to find those who are cheating our systems. 

Just read the newspaper or watch the TV stories: Doctor So and So caught, accused of cheating Medicare out of millions. Developing story, Social Security checks being sent to people no longer alive.

My mind just begins to swirl with the possibilities that these “geniuses” could do to clean up the fraud within our various programs.

Now don’t go getting all ACLU on me because if you are a member of the ACLU, you are a citizen of this country and you are paying taxes and thus you are paying into these programs, so we are talking about YOUR tax dollars, too.

I am NOT talking about checking Mr. Smith or Mrs. Jones who gets a monthly check. I am NOT, NO WAY, NO HOW, advocating going after the little guy. I want the BIG FISH, the ones who are raking in huge sums of illegal money.

Just think what these geniuses could do with cross-checking the large sums of money being sent to ONE doctor or ONE address or ONE whatever. The verification of social security numbers (or lack thereof) and the “same address” verification of money from possibly several different agencies being sent to one location that could very well ferret out these multi-million dollar swindles that are being perpetrated on the citizens of this country? 

These computer “geniuses” are awesome at what they do with computers and wouldn’t it be fantastic to have them clean up the fraud and waste that our bureaucratic government can’t or won’t do? We could give them a job with great pay and great benefits and when they catch a BIG FRAUD, give them a big bonus!!!

First, and foremost, I think we would have to ensure that they aren’t put into a governmental box with a 9-5 job, they would need the “mental” freedom that they are accustomed to (maybe something similar to the Google work environment?).

We could have a hotline “Leaks to Geeks” where tips could be turned in and investigated.

As for me, I think that getting these geniuses to work for us instead of against us, or whatever they are against, could reap big rewards. And so the journey begins...

BOB-LO, WONDERLAND PARK, GREENFIELD VILLAGE, & DAREDEVILS, OH MY...

Do you remember going to Bob-Lo? Oh, I remember it as if it were yesterday. Anxiously waiting to get on the Bob-Lo boat, the boat ride, again waiting in line to get ONTO Bob-Lo Island!!

The ferris wheel, the train ride, the roller coaster, the pony rides, the cotton candy....

I was quite young when we would go there and my brother, who was two years older, was forced to go with me on many of the rides because, according to our parents, “I was too young to go alone.” Well, I was a daredevil and I LOVED rocking the seat of the ferris wheel, especially when it stopped at the top.

The way I remember it was that my brother was petrified and I loved the excitement and always trying to scare him. In his defense (he may remember it differently, and I’m sure he will let me know, Ha Ha).

I also remember going to Wonderland Park (it was located at the point where Fort Street, Pennsylvania Road and Trenton Road all come together, a Lincoln dealership is there now.

They had bumper cars, jumping jimminies (trampolines sunk into the ground so no one fell off and hurt themselves), the tilt-a-whirl, ferris wheel, etc.

On one occasion my brother and I spent the day visiting our cousins in Wyandotte and our older brother and his girlfriend picked us up to take us home. But first we stopped off at Wonderland Park and went on the tilt-a-whirl. Unfortunately, my older brother had eaten something (I think it was Spumoni Ice Cream) prior to going to the park and the ride didn’t set well with him and lo and behold it all ended up on my other brother’s lap. Sure glad I was that little daredevil and sat on the outside edge.

When I was in the Fourth Grade our class had an overnight at Greenfield Village (they had dormitories where the girls slept in one dorm and the boys in the other, also, we were allowed to swim in a huge indoor pool and play in a large gymnasium). Well, in order to play in the deep end of the pool you first had to swim the length of the pool to show you were a good swimmer. So I lined up!

My mother was a chaperone on this trip and was in a room with the other parents watching all of us children when she saw me get in line. She said she jumped up to the window and began yelling (but I couldn’t hear her) “Susan, you don’t know how to swim!!!!!!!”

Well, I gave it my best, I made it half the length of the pool before I tired out. So, unfortunately, I had to stay in the shallow end with all the rest of the nine-year-olds.

What I’m curious about is where did that daredevil go? What happened to that little girl who wasn’t afraid? What happened to that little girl who tried things thinking that she could do them, even if it was for the first time? I think I’m going to have to start looking for her and see if I can coax her out.  And so the journey begins...