Christmas Break and another anniversary

Christmas Break has begun. Our last day was Friday and it was a pretty low key day. No complaints, no restraints (not at least while I was present).

We celebrated the beginning of break with dinner at Ken's with Bucky. Have I mentioned how thrilled we are that he is home for Christmas?

me with two  handsome men

Jack and I spent Saturday cleaning the house, not a fun task but very necessary. We did some Christmas shopping, though we were striking out pretty much everywhere we went. 

On Sunday, we went to mass with Bucky, then had a great lunch at Jenny's Steakhouse, whose owners are cousins or something with Ken's owners. We went to the cemetery and visited Marie and Mike's final resting spots. As we got out of the car, I was struck by the bit of a rainbow in the sky. It was so subtle. In my family, rainbows are such a comfort. In the Bible, rainbows are a covenant or promise from God. My parents often told the story of the rainbow that appeared in the cold December sky the morning after my sister Marcia died in the early 1950s. Friends from miles around called to tell them about the beautiful rainbow, such an unusual sight in winter. And we were blessed with another winter rainbow, albeit a little one. It gave me such assurance.

the lit girder on the building points to the bit of rainbow

Today was my first real day of break, meaning it was a day that I didn't have to go to work. I hosted a birthday breakfast for Mary at Egg Harbor. It was a super fun way to start break. Mary is such a wonderful person, kind, caring and so incredibly generous. 

celebrating Mary

Today was also the fourth anniversary of Marmar's homegoing. Wow. I thought about putting something on facebook  to mark this day (Marmar LOVED facebook!), but I didn't want to be dramatic or attention-seeking. God bless my mom. She loved her family like no other. 

a beautiful sunset

With rainbows in winter, a beautiful sunset and a loving family, God's majesty is ever present. 

Happy Birthday, Bucky!

We were thankful to have Bucky home to celebrate his 87th birthday with us.

We started with a family dinner on Sunday at Bucky's house. We had Thanksgiving dinner, take 2. Bucky missed Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year and we knew we needed to make it up to him. It was a great night. We are a fun group, if I do say so myself. 

selfie stick pic; notice my bossy face

these three were not in the selfie stick pic so they got their own shot

Bucky's actual birthday was Tuesday, December 15th. Jack, Sally and Ellie had lunch with Bucky at Coopers Hawk. I wasn't too jealous. Not much anyway.

Look at them. 4 generations. That is a miracle right there. 

We are so blessed! 

Four Generations

Today we had four generations together. It was a profound experience.

Jack's dad, aka Bucky, returned from Florida on Friday. It is wonderful to have Bucky home for the holidays. 

We told Bucky that we wanted to go to mass with him today. When Sally and Matt heard that, they said they wanted to go as well. Jack and I picked up Bucky and met Sally, Matt and Ellie at church. 

It was beyond touching, meaningful.

Ellie met her great grandfather at the church where Bucky and Grandma had been members for 62 years. So much history there.

Bucky, Jack and Ellie sat in the same pew where Jack's folks have worshiped for all of these years. Matt, Sally and I sat directly behind them.

I am not sure what the highlight of mass was. There were so many, beginning with Bucky meeting Ellie in person (they had already met via Facetime, of course!)

The new pastor at the parish was amazing. The mass was incredibly kid-friendly, including St. Nicholas and chocolate gold coins for everyone. The homily was all about peace and being a peacemaker while acknowledging the fear of what is happening in the world including ISIS. 

It was touching to worship with our granddaughter for the first time.

It was sweet to watch Matt sing Salve Regina to Ellie and to see her smiley reaction. I could not believe that Matt knew all of the lyrics to Salve Regina. That made me cry. 

It was truly the best advent worship experience ever.
Advent is truly the season of hope. 

love

front row seats

singing hymns with dad

Thanksgiving 2015

I am recovering from another fun Thanksgiving.
I was not feeling quite as organized this year. By the time I got home from work around 7 on Tuesday night (a long day of meetings and parent-teacher conferences), I was too tired to do any cooking or cleaning.
Also my hip was killing me. I am just going to say that I am getting older (in the twilight of my years, in the fourth quarter, playing the back nine...that was for you, Sally!). I am going to need a hip replacement sooner rather than later, but that is a story for another day.
On Wednesday, Jack and I did our traditional final Thanksgiving grocery shopping at Kramer's. We love the tradition. We always run into friends and neighbors and it is a festive event.

 

Christy and me by the dairy!

After running errands, I had lunch at Houlihan's with Jenny, Sally, Ellie, Beth, Abbie and Nina. Susie, Jenny and I had just started a new tradition of WBTL (Wednesday before Thanksgiving Lunch) after Marmar died, but it only lasted two years...then Susie died. We couldn't face doing it last year, but decided to try and resurrect it this year. I am glad we did. There is just nothing like being with family.

sweet girlies

I came home from lunch and cooked the rest of the day, into the night. We hit the ground running yesterday and accomplished most of what we wanted to.


On balance, it was a very good day. Sally and Ellie stopped by in the morning to put the turkeys out, answering my question from the end of the last post. We facetimed with Wayne and Julie in Ohio.

Sally watching Macy's parade

It was a blessing to spend time with Lauren, Brendan, Downtown Sue, Jenny, Kjell. Lisa, Jake and Charley and then a bit later, Matt, Sally, Ellie and Otto and Arne, Beth, Abbie and Nina as well.

that's us

Charley (8 months old) and Kjell

Downtown Sue meets Ellie

cuties

Thank God for family.

me and Jen

Thanksgiving Week

I love Thanksgiving week. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. I say that every year. It's true. It's got a different rhythm and feel to it and it's all holidayish.
My work week is shorter. I have my regular schedule of classes tomorrow and on Tuesday I have parent teacher conferences from noon to 7pm. I had to squeeze in another meeting on Tuesday, so I am actually going to start at 10:30.
Once I get home from work on Tuesday night, it'll officially be Thanksgiving.
It will be different this year. I am adjusting to that.
It'll be a smaller group for dinner this year. I think it's only 9 of us. Lauren and Brendan are planning on stopping in on the early end. Paul (Jack's brother) and Bucky will be in Florida, Wayne and Julie are going to her folks in Cleveland, Sally, Matt and Ellie are going to his family's for dinner but are coming over later, Arne, Beth, Abbie and Nina are going to her family's, and the rest of the folks? Well, they are dead. There is no tone of voice in the printed word so I hope you know that I say this with the utmost respect and love and resignation.
At Thanksgiving 2011, four people were here at our house who are no longer on this earth. Mike, Marmar, Marie and Susie.
We are still kinda adjusting to that. Probably always will be as we are still rationalizing Pawp, Dane and Tom's absences.
In terms of Wayne and Sally celebrating with their new families, I really do not have a problem with that. I am thrilled that they both have wonderful in-laws and are creating new traditions with their spouses. That's what it is all about. Both my parents and Jack's parents gave us the freedom to do that and I have never taken that for granted.
We are extremely blessed to have such wonderful people in our family. We feel their love and presence whether they are here in our living room drinking Chandon or whether they are somewhere else on this Earth or in Heaven.
The only question is: who is going to put the chocolate turkeys on the table???

Wedding bells

Mr. and Mrs.

This past Saturday, our family celebrated the marriage of Sue and Don. It was a lovely day. Sue was a beautiful bride and Don was a handsome groom and everything went well. It was extra special to spend time with lots of fun family and friends. We enjoyed seeing Sue's family. After all of those years of family parties for birthdays and sacraments etc, we don't get to see Mary, Diane, Danny, Tim, Julie and the others very often...just wakes and funerals, it seems. They are some really nice, good people and it was an awesome day. I certainly had a great time!

family

Halloween and All Saints Day

What a great weekend. It was a nice mix of productivity and fun, with some rest and a sacrament thrown in.

Friday was a low-key celebration of Halloween with my Friday Friends. Less is more when it comes to Halloween and kids with emotional/behavior issues. I ended my Friday workday trying to get up to speed with the whole process of billing for Medicaid. Yikes. 

 Jack and I had the most glamorous and fun date night on Friday. We went to Steak and Shake for dinner (yum!!!) and then went to Target and bought a new vacuum cleaner. I am always looking for the best deal and I had $50 in gift cards and some of the Sharks were on sale, so we got ourselves a new vacuum!!! Woo hoo! Pretty excited about it, not gonna lie. That meant that I spent most of Saturday morning vacuuming. It was about time. 

Halloween was fun. Jack, Sally, Ellie and I went over to Chuck and Teri's to carry on our trick or treat tradition, now in its second generation. Caylen and Joe were there with Henry (5 months old). It was bad weather, pouring rain and chilly, so we did not actually trick or treat. We sat around and visited and it was so so so much fun. Matt was not there because Otto had a grooming appointment, but he made it to our second stop at Mark and Cath's. So fun again. Another tradition. After Mark and Cathy's, we went back home so Ellie could eat. We had dinner also- some homemade pizza. We fully intended to make it back out to visit Christy and Steve and also to stop in at Mike and Jean's, but we never made it back out. Getting old, I guess.

another generation

grandmothers

grandfathers

Mark and Cath!

We had an extra hour on Sunday since we turned back the clocks and it was the perfect day to have that additional time. Sunday was as beautiful as Saturday was dismal. Jack and I were invited to the baptism of Jack (Christy and Steve's grandson, Matt and Jen's son) at 1pm at St. Isaac, so we went to noon mass there. It was All Saints Day and the homily was all about our personal "saints", not necessarily the canonized ones, but also our loved ones who are in Heaven. The priest talked about how we should be asking for their intercessions, much like we ask family and friends to put in a good word for us here on Earth. That put a smile on my face, thinking of how many saints we have pulling for us up in Heaven!
Jack's baptism was special, too. The new young (30 years old!) priest at St. Isaac was the presider for this sacrament and he did a lovely job. It was very meaningful to be there with this wonderful family.

Mrs. H and Patrick

special family

We ended our social Sunday with a late lunch/early dinner at Gibson's, courtesy of a birthday gift from Lynn. Perfect way to end the day! 

Such a great weekend!!