Christmas Recap - What a Blast!

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Our Christmas holiday with the family was wonderful and filled with four generations and lots of food and love. Here are a few of my favorite moments of memories we made.

One of Great Grandpa's annual duties is managing the trash bag for everyone's wrapping paper scraps. Here we see him in a classic pose in his signature green pants and shirt awaiting Katy's next trip to the trash bag with scraps. We had to watch her . . . she sometimes threw away instructions and receipts and other pieces of paper that weren't destined for the garbage!


The "hands-down" hit of the family celebration were the two push toys that Great-Granny got for Gabe and Katy to ride. Besides playing music and having other sound effects, Uncle Neil provided the propulsion to take the babes on a few exciting runs across the entire length of the house. Emily got a video of this, which is a scream. I hope she posts it on Katydid!

Here we see Katy and Oma exploring the land of "Puff, the Magic Dragon" with one of her new books. Oma is continuing her push to get Katy interested in music. (I think it's working.) "Singing" books are a favorite right now.

Christmas Eve Morning . . . . Katy got some tiny gloves in her stocking. Brian tried to get the fingers in the right holes. We all remember the drill, right?

Aunt Melanie is all smiles . . . there has been a camera on her Christmas list for at least three years. Santa has been working on it. :-)

Buckeye Katy enjoys her new kid-sized rocker. She needs a good place to sit when she watches those Dora videos!

Opa, the tool using animal, investigates his pocket auto tool kit. Katy is quite interested in the pretty, red toys in Opa's kit, too.

Mama and Katy relax after all the packages are open. It is a nice morning for being lazy and just enjoying being together. Merry Christmas!

Christmas is Almost Here!

It was a really ssslllloooowwww week at work! I thought Friday would never get here . . . and every day there were fewer and fewer people to be found when you needed an answer for some question. Well, we finally made it to the weekend!

Greg and I enjoyed our usual Saturday waffles this morning and have been wrapping the last of the gifts and thinking of little things to do at the last minute.

Melanie called last night to catch me up on her identity theft crisis. (Melanie's apartment was burglarized last weekend within 24 hours of the time the roommates dispersed to go home for the weekend.) One of the things the thieves stole was her fire box with her birth certificate, passport, title to her car, and social security card. This week for her has been an all out panic of bank visits, credit bureau alerts, long phone interactions with auto attendants to get information, and such. With her Dad's help and a lot of support from friends and family, she seems to have cancelled accounts and turned on all the necessary credit alerts. Last Monday morning, I called Montgomery County to order another copy of Melanie's birth certificate because I knew she was going to need it. I dropped the letter requesting the birth certificate and the money order in the mail at the post office on Monday evening. Melanie called yesterday to say that she RECEIVED the birth certificate on Friday! Hurray for Montgomery County! It's great to see a service-oriented government agency! Great work! It has also been very comforting how many people have stepped in to help Melanie replace things and help her clean up. In spite of how much this situation stinks, it really demonstrates the love of the season that there were a number of people "standing in the gap" for her. She is truly rich in this area.

I sent my Christmas cards and letter this week, so I hope many of you have found this sight and will check in occasionally to see what's happening. I hope to have some more pictures after we get together with family and friends over the next few days, so check back.

Be sure to check out Katydid for the latest of Katy's dance videos!



And have a very Merry Christmas!

I think I'm done . . . or maybe I've just HAD it!

Well, I ventured out this afternoon to go to TWO STORES . . . both of them within about three or four miles of the house. The first stop was TSC to get some bird seed for my chilly little feathered friends. That stop wasn't too bad, but it had started snowing by the time I left. I headed south on Route 19 toward the "Cranberry Mall" area. The traffic down there was ridiculous! The snow was making it worse . . . but it was bumper to bumper and practically crawling. I got what I needed and patiently worked my way home. That's it! I'm done! No more shopping for this year!

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on my Christmas letter. If I get the stamps tomorrow on the way home from church, these should be on their way by Monday.

Tomorrow is the contata presentation of "One of Us" at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Sewickley. I'm looking forward to making music and enjoying the telling of the Christmas story.

Merry Christmas!

OSU Does Pittsburgh!


Melanie brought three friends from Ohio State to visit for the weekend, and it has been a lot of fun "hanging out" with them. The group included Melanie's boyfriend, Drew, and their friends Nick and Beth. Drew and Nick are room-mates and also members of the drum line of the OSU marching band. Melanie and Beth have similar majors and have taken a few classes together. And the whole group is part of the Mosaic church on campus. They all arrived Friday night around dinner time, and we ate Bonnie's famous Spinach and Artichoke Dip while we waited for the pot roast to cook. Those potatoes looked a lot like "O's" with their red skins and all. So Drew just had to get creative before finishing off his meal. I wonder if this one will end up on the Buckeye web site. One never knows.

On Saturday we made a trip to Target. I think this is part of "hanging out", or maybe it just made the students feel at home because Target is their favorite store in Columbus. Whatever . . . . We headed into the city in the afternoon to go to the Carnegie Science Center to see the Bodies Exhibit. (The exhibit was very interesting; it makes you appreciate how miraculous it is that everything works so well.) The Sports Works part of the museum is right across from Heinz Field . . . home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Since Nick is a sports fan, we took this picture to prove that they were actually in Pittsburgh and nowhere else. It's pretty cool, don't you think?

When we finished at the museum, we crossed the Allegheny River into downtown Pittsburgh and drove through the cultural district on our way to the South Side where we parked at the foot of the Duquesne Incline. We rode the incline to the top of Mount Washington for dinner overlooking the skyline at the Georgetowne Inn. This ride up the side of Mount Washington with dinner overlooking the place where the Allegheny and Monongahela River form the mighty Ohio River is one of the best views in the country. And we had good food and great company talking about our day and enjoying the scene.

After dinner, we rode back down the incline and drove through Oakland so that these grateful Buckeyes could see the home of the Pittsburgh Panthers, who toppled WVU in football to give OSU a shot at the national championship in January. The Buckeyes were impressed with the college and especially the Peterson Events Center. While they didn't get out and shake hands with any of the Panthers, they did verbally "bless" them for their victory over WVU.

This morning we visited the Worship Cafe at Northway before Melanie and company headed back to Columbus. It was an awesome time together. I'm hoping they come back again later so Greg can join us on another excursion. He had to work this weekend, so I was hostess by myself.

This afternoon, I decided to attend a music rehearsal for a musical presentation I was invited to play for at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Sewickley. It was the first time since I have had the Chevy HHR that I needed to transport my bass. As you can see from the picture, it fits BEAUTIFULLY! And it was so easy to get in and out of the car. I'm really happy! Now the car has passed all the tests. I has the LATCH things for Katy's car seat and has worked for that. We have travelled with up to five passengers in relative comfort. And now it has passed the test for musical transportation. I think we're there.

Oh, and I found the Hallmark Christmas ornaments that I bought for 2007! Things are looking up for the rest of the month. Only 16 days until Christmas!

Christmas Decorations! We're Cookin'!

It is time to get going on the decorations, and we got our tree on Sunday and started the festivities! I am slowly getting things pulled out, and here are some pictures of the two most important elements of Christmas . . . the tree and the stockings.

As you can see from the mantle, all the stockings and hangers are on display. I even found an itty bitty stocking with musical notes on it for "Little David" . . . even though he won't officially be opening presents until next year. Emily, Melanie and David's stockings are on the left; Katy, Brian, Greg and my stockings are on the right. If you look closely, you will also notice that the Christmas plate that Melanie and I painted at Mud Pies is on display on the mantal. This definitely sets the mood.

We went back to our standard Christmas tree place down at Safari Sams' parking lot to get this Frazer Fir. It was trimmed to be a lovely shape, and it smells great! I stuck with the "Red Hat Society" colors from last year and added candy canes this year. I also bought dated Hallmark ornaments a couple of weeks ago at the mall. Sure hope I find them before Christmas. Maybe I will come upon them when I start wrapping gifts . . . they might be in a bag with something else.

Hope your holidays are shaping up to be glorious. The snow certainly might put us in the mood. I also bought a new book of Christmas songs to play on the piano. It has Silver Bells in it, which is one of my favorite Christmas songs.