Monday, January 5, 2009

My Mom.

It's been 5 years since my mom died. I was looking at some of the pictures I have of her and us and it really makes me happy. OK, I admit, it makes me a little sad too. I found a picture I didn't know I had. It's of my mom and I making Patecia, the bread she made every year at Christmas. I still have not perfected making it. I try every year, in fact this year the middle was raw! Well, I have two small loaves in the freezer that I think are OK. She always made some for her dad every year. I've yet to be able to give any as a gift!


I know she was so excited to be a Grandma. I just wish she would have got to do it longer. This is one of the last pictures I have of her with Katie.


Here are a few of my favorite pictures of mom. I wish I had the one of us when I was little, I'm sitting on a giant snow ball in my blue coat with the fur lined hood. It's always been my favorite picture.




Sunday, January 4, 2009

The great treasure hunt!

My dad and his wife, Corinne, stopped by for a visit on their way to winter in Arizona. One of Dad's hobbies is Geocaching, which is using a GPS and the coordinates to find hidden "treasure." The kids always love to go "treasure hunting" with Grandpa. So, Friday afternoon we went treasuring hunting. We found a few caches, but only one had treasure. Some of them just have a place to record that you found it. It's a pretty fun hobby and I'm so glad the kids can share it with their Grandpa. We might just have to invest in our own equipment so we can take advantage of all of the caches we can hunt for in Vegas.








Tuesday, December 30, 2008

My Tea Party by Katie

My tea party was fun. We all had a great time. We played outside and jumped on the trampoline. We drank lemonade and water. We were all dressed Fancy and had crazy hair. We drank tea, dressed up in fancy clothes, and we ate lots of desserts. We had a wonderful time.
Love,
Katie



A note from mom: The kids all looked so cute. It's so fun to see them dressed in their fancy clothes. My favorite part of the day was watching poor Alex be the quintessential little brother. He spilled his cup of tea all over, stepped (barefoot) in dog poo, annoyed the big kids, and tried really hard to fit in. It's always fun to have friends over, especially during a TWO WEEK break from school. We sure are lucky, Katie has a great group of friends.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Happy Birthday, Don!




Don turned 33 yesterday. He got to watch the Patriots game (sorry, they didn't make it to the playoffs) and then have everybody over for the last night of Hanukkah and his birthday dinner. The kids had a blast helping him blow out the trick candles. Since he's 33, I thought I could list 33 reasons that I love him. (Thanks for the idea, Jossie.)

1. He laughs really loud at funny movies and tv shows.
2. He always tells his parents that he loves them.
3. He's always willing to give somebody a helping hand, even help them move into a 2nd floor apartment in the middle of August.
4. He gives the kids their baths 99% of the time.
5. He loves my family.
6. He has really good morals.
7. He doesn't follow cars too close because he knows it worries me.
8. He doesn't complain when I correct his grammar.
9. He kisses me goodbye when I'm sleeping.
10. He unloads the dishwasher.
11. He always takes out the garbage.
12. He's an amazing father and loves to play with his kids.
13. He cried when my mom died.
14. He always does the grilling.
15. He is really handy around the house.
16. He likes to shop.
17. He dances.
18. We have the funniest conversations and always laugh together.
19. He picks up my shoes for me and doesn't complain that I leave them all over the house.
20. He likes neat closets.
21. He falls asleep watching tv with the remote in his hand.
22. He cleans the bathrooms.
23. He gets mad when people treat others badly.
24. He plays with my hair.
25. He gives me massages.
26. He's honest.
27. He always tells me what a good cook I am.
28. He cares about my friends.
29. He watches chick flicks with me.
30. He supports all of my goals and ideas.
31. He puts his family first.
32. He reads business and financial magazines.
33. He makes me feel safe and loved and is my best friend.

I love you, Honey.

lighting the candles

The Eight Nights of Hanukkah

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah. It was a lot of fun celebrating this Holiday this year. The kids really enjoyed getting SO MANY presents and it was great learning about the meaning behind all of the traditional Hanukkah symbols. Last night I made Latkes to have with dinner.(Grammy even said they tasted just like the one's her Grammy used to make.) The reason for making Latkes during Hanukkah is that the oil used to fry them is to remind us of the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days.


Earlier in the week the kids had fun searching for and the EATING Gelt (Chocolate Coins). We learned that when the Maccabees defeated Antiochus, they threw away the coins with his picture on them. They made new coins with Judah Maccabee's picture. The tradition of giving Hanukkah gelt became part of the holiday. At first money was given as a gift only to teachers. Later, children received gelt for Hanukkah.

Playing the dreidel game was lots of fun too. We learned that each side of the dreidel has a Hebrew letter on it which stand for "A Great Miracle Happened There. The letters also stand for the Yiddish words that explain how to play the game.

It was a lot of fun to celebrate Hanukkah this year. I'm really glad that Katie & Alex got to learn about their Grammy's traditions.








Christmas



Wow! We've had a great Christmas so far. I didn't snap that many pictures, guess I was too busy enjoying everything. The kids were both excited to find presents under the Christmas trees in their rooms when they woke up. Santa left each of them a new Fur Real pet. Then it was time to check out their stockings. Alex was excited to find a train whistle just like Mrs. Johnston's. If fact, everytime he opened a present he blew it to show how excited he was.

The kids could hardly wait to dig into the pile of presents under the tree. Too bad I made them eat breakfast first. I thought I kept it pretty simple this year, but there sure were a lot of things to open. Alex was ecstatic to open the one thing on his wish list, Scooby Doo Haunted House game.

Katie was super excited to see that Santa knew that she wanted Barbie from Barbie and the Diamond Castle.


We went to mass at Noon, then came home and played with LOTS of new games. We had a great time putting together Marble Works and playing with Alex's new Hot Wheels set. The kids' favorite toy was Alex's present to Don...a mini air hockey table!

Grammy, Grampy, & Uncle Peter came over for dinner and the kids got to open even more presents. We had a yummy dinner and also lit the Hanukkah candles, the kids got Hanukkah presents too.

Our next Christmas will be when Grandpa & Corinne get here. They plan on leaving Tuesday Morning, so hopefully we'll see them sometime Wednesday.