Christmas Cards

Today was the day when I sat down to do our Christmas cards. It seems like a large task looming ahead, but by the time I actually sit down and do them, its not too bad, maybe even a bit pleasant. We're not ones to put together the dreaded Christmas letter. Mostly I just sign our names, but to a few, I'll jot down a few notes. Letting those few know what we've been up to. Even though we don't have that many people we send cards to, we had three different boxes of cards this year. Ann always gets a box through our church and I always get one or two boxes to send our less religious friends. Once I finally get into the actually signing/addressing/stuffing envelope process, what makes it bearable is the memories each name in the address book draws forth. The first card I do goes to my best friend growing up in Maryland. We lived a few house apart, swam on the same neighborhood summer swim team, went to the same high school, went to the beach together and had more then one crazy drinking escapade together. He still lives not that far away, but we never get together anymore. We just sort of drifted apart. Then there are my two fraternity brothers that I send cards to. I haven't seen them in years, but the good times we shared in school makes me want to still reach out and touch them this time of year. There are our relatives, of course, but also two nannies that lived with us as the kids grew up. They did a wonderful job with the kids and its nice to remember them. They both have families of their own now. I guess the cards kind of symbolize the whole Christmas time of year. The time when we think of those present and past who have touched our lives and made our world better for it.

A Christmas Tradition

Pulling one from the writing prompt of the day, I'll talk about a Christmas tradition we have. It's not really an odd one, but beloved it is. Every Christmas Eve we'll gather around the TV and watch "One Magic Christmas". I can't really remember when we started watching this particular movie. It came out in 1985 and stars Mary Steenburgen, Gary Basaraba, Harry Dean Stanton and Elisabeth Harnois as Abbie. I'm not sure the movie did all that well when it was released as it was over shadowed by another holiday movie released at the same time - "Santa Claus", which starred Dudley Moore. It was a bigger budget movie and was marketed much more heavily. I originally discovered the film based on a review in the Washington Post that gave it high marks. As anyone in my family will attest, I'm a sucker for a Christmas movie. A brief summary from IMDB:

Gideon, a Christmas angel, is sent, by Santa, to help Ginny Grainger. Ginny is a cynic, and she hates Christmas. She and her family (husband, Jack and two kids, Caleb and Abbie) have fallen on hard times, making it even harder to believe in anything that can't be seen. With help from Abbie, and a trip to see Santa Claus himself, can Gideon find a way to make Ginny believe again?

What I particularly like about the film it employs the "if one things changes, then the future changes along with it". Ginny gets to change a series of catastrophic events, by the mere purchase of a camp stove. It's hard to go into much detail without getting into spoilers, but if you're looking for a movie to help you get into the spirit of Christmas, then this is a movie I highly recommend. And know come Christmas Eve, I'll be along with Gideon as he gets his assignment from Santa Claus to go help bring the spirit of Christmas to the Graingers. Merry Christmas!

Decorating for the Season

I never know whether to hate or to love holiday decorating. I usually love when it's all finished, but just thinking about it drives me to despair. It just seems like a task that will take forever. At some point though you just have to bite the bullet and get it done. First to go up are our outside lights. Putting up the outside lights has gotten considerably easier over the years with the introduction of the net lights. Much quicker then trying to put up individual strings of lights and they look better too. I do have a problem with my particular house though. Except for the major appliances like the hot water heater and the furnace, I swear the rest of the house is all wired on one circuit. And this one circuit seems to be a bit of a princess and will trip the circuit breaker fairly easily. Over the years I've been able to figure out what I can do and can't do, but it can be touchy. Another complaint with my house is there are no outside outlets on the front of the house. Bad planning there. This means I have to run extension cords from the back of the house or from the garage. It takes me about 2 hours to complete and in the end it looks like this:

Next up is to tackle the tree. We always opt for a real tree. In my mind no artificial tree can measure up. We buy our tree at a local nursery. Very different from my youth when I use to trudge into the woods and cut down a tree for our family. Over the years we've had a variety of trees from Scotch pines, to Douglas firs to our current Frazier fir. We've had that these last two years and we've been quite happy with them. Decorating the tree use to be a big family event. I would put on the lights and the kids would put on the bulbs and other decorations. Each child was designated a certain section for their ornaments. You know like the ones they make is school with their picture on it. We still have them and hang them up every year. Since the kids are grown now, its hard getting any help at all. This year I got the lights out to put on the tree only to find out that two of the strings were burned out. Not exactly the kind of start to get one motivated. As it happened it was the day we were having our first snowfall so out into the snow I went. I was considering switching to LED lights this year since they are cheaper to run and last forever, or so they say. My burned out lights gave me the push to do it or would have if they had had any more in stock. Oh well maybe next year. I did manage to get 450 new regular lights for $12 so all wasn't lost. I finally got the lights on the tree and called it a day so I could go watch some college football. A man has to have his priorities. The following day the tree was completed. Ann helped a bit in the morning and the The Son and I finished it off. So there was a bit of help. The Son decorating the tree:

Here I am trying to detangle something or other. It's not Christmas if you don't have to detangle lights or snowflakes or whatever.

The final touch is putting up some garland consisting of popcorn and cranberries. I'd like to tell you they were real, but such is not the case. We're not that crafty or crazy.

We also out up some lighted garland on our fireplace mantel and hung up a lighted wreath. I'll try to get a picture of that up soon.

What do you do to decorate for the holidays?

TSO

Last night Ann, The Son and I headed downtown to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Verizon Center. Its been a concert I had been looking forward to since their tour was announced. Not only that, but I believed I had scored some seats close to the stage. The evening started out somewhat auspiciously, however. The plan was for Ann and I to take the Metro from Springfield and meet up with The Son in Crystal City. As we pulled into the Crystal City station, however, two gentlemen with suitcases rose to exit the train in front of us and took their sweet time in doing so, so as I reached the door, I heard the familiar refrain "Doors Closing". That's right, the doors closed before we could get off and the train pulled away. We got off at the next station and managed to contact The Son who got on the next train and we hooked up at Pentagon City. Once we were all together, the rest of the trip downtown was uneventful. Once we got downtown, we began to look for somewhere to eat. I had gotten a few suggestions from a fellow blogger (thanks Zan), but didn't have time to research her suggestions. Right across from the Verizon Center was a Legal Seafood. That sounded good to everyone so we headed on in. We were seated promptly and began looking over the menu. It all sounded good to me and since this an outing of sorts for us, I decided we could do it right and get appetizers and deserts as well. The Son ordered mussels and I ordered 1/2 dozen oysters. James, our server, brought me an assortment, 2 from Oregon, 2 from NJ and 2 from Cape Cod. The Cape Cods were the best of the lot. Its been a while since I've had oysters and man were they good. I finished off those and followed with a seafood casserole and Boston Creme Pie for desert. With dinner over, we headed across the street to the arena. There was an incredibly long line to get in. They didn't seem to have but 2 doors open, which seemed pretty dumb given the large number of people waiting to get inside. Once we were inside, we had no idea which direction to head. Our seats were on the floor so all the permanent signs for seat sections were of no use to us. We had to ask an usher for help and she got us heading in the right direction. Our seats were as good as I had hoped. Maybe 8 to 10 rows back. Settling in, we overheard others talking about how many times they had seen TSO. Seems someone behind us had seem them 7 times over the years. The show was a little late getting started as most shows do it would seem, but it was definitely worth the wait. TSO puts on one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen. We were close enough to the stage that when the pyros went off, we could feel the heat. The first half of the show was their holiday music, which was as good as ever. The second half was some of the music from their new Night Castle CD, which turned out better then I had been expecting. They finished up with with Christmas Cannon, which I think is about my favorite piece that they do. To you give you a bit of the flavor of the event I'll leave you with two videos I shot during the concert. First up, the Wizard in Winter:

Well maybe not. The video wouldn't upload. Instead a picture of the The Son enjoying his mussels.

Concert Week

Well Bah! Humbug! Here it is and I missed the second day of posting for Holidailes. What a way to start. Just plum forgot about it. Obviously my memory isn't what it use to be or at least not that I remember. :-)

This week is concert week for Ann and I. Monday night we saw "Jersey Boys" down at the National Theatre and tonight we will make our way down to the Verizon Center with The Son to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

I've been wanting to see "Jersey Boys" for a while now. I've been a fan of the 4 Seasons for a long time dating back to the days when I was a Jersey Boy myself. Not enough of a fan to spend hundreds of dollars to go to NY to see it on Broadway, but a fan. I finally saw that a touring company was bringing the show to Washington and I couldn't wait to buy tickets. That is until I saw the prices. Not that they were outrageous by theatre standards, but theatre tickets do not come cheap. So I hem and hawed and didn't buy tickets when they first were available. I procrastinated some more and it wasn't to a few weeks ago that I finally bit the bullet and got us tickets. As Monday approached. we couldn't decide either how to get down to the theatre. Take the Metro? Drive? As it turned out, a person in our vanpool had just been down to the National a few days before, loved the show, but told us how it took an hour just to get out of the parking garage after the show. I wanted to take the Metro based on that, but Ann wanted us to drive so drive we did. Getting in was not a problem, A little traffic getting over the 14th Street bridge was all. Right before turning onto Pennsylvania Ave, we saw a presidential motorcade roar on by. That was kind of neat. So we parked down on level 4 of the nearest parking garage and walked about a block to the theatre. Our tickets were in the very last row of the orchestra, but the National isn't a big theatre so we had an excellent view of the stage. I wanted to reserve drinks for us at intermission, but when I approached the bar I discovered I had no wallet. I remember taking it out of my pants to pay for parking but then I couldn't remember if I had laid it on the seat between my legs or put it somewhere else in the car while I attempted to park (Backed in). My biggest fear was leaving it on the seat between my legs meaning it would have fallen out of the car when I got out. The idea of my wallet going missing and/or stolen kind of freaked me out. But the show itself was great. All their great songs and a little background on the group, how they came to be and the stories behind the songs etc. Very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone. My wallet turned up in the car so the evening ended well. And we zoomed right out of the garage, No waiting at all. We were home in no time.

We will definitely be taking Metro to the Verizon Center tonight though. The plan is to meet up with The Son at the Crystal City stop, take Metro down to the Verizon Center, have dinner somewhere in Chinatown and then go to the concert. We saw TSO about three years ago as a gift from Daughter#2. The show was incredible. I've been wanting to see them again ever since. Ann has balked so we haven't gone, but this year I was really up for it. Now that I have pushed it, I am sure the bulk of the concert will be from their new CD just out - Night Castle. From what I can gather, it is not Christmas related as their first couple of CDs were. That and the music is very dark so we shall see. I've always thought of them (TSO) as being Christmas related and given the time of year what I want to hear, but I'll withhold judgement until afterward. Either way it should be a fun night.

Holidailes 2009

This is my third year to participate in Holidailes where bloggers are asked to update their blog every day for a month. I'm looking forward to joining in again this year for two reasons. I usually find some new blogs every year that I didn't know existed and look forward to following as we start the new year. The second is a bit more selfish in that it exposes my blog to a much larger audience then I could ever hope to drum up on my own. I typically get a big jump in readers in December over the rest of the year.

I don't have a Cast of Characters listed on my blog so let me introduce everyone that you might run across on these pages. I'm Frank, author and creator of Ready.....Row. I'm a 50ish Federal Worker who resides in Virginia and works in southern Maryland. I have been reading blogs for quite a while and it seemed like fun so with a little encouragement, mostly from Beth of So the Fish Said, I set up this blog. This is my third year of writing this blog. As the title of my blog might indicate, my main hobby is rowing. I belong to two rowing clubs in the northern Virginia area. I've been rowing since 1995. I got into rowing via my oldest daughter, who was a coxswain on her high school and college teams and still coxes occasionally for a rowing club in CT. I row in 8+s and 4+s primarily when racing in Masters events and I also row a single for fun and exercise although this year I raced a single for the first time. When not rowing, I also like to bike and I have been know to brew my own beer from time to time.

Others you will run into here:

Ann - Wife of 33 years who puts up with me.

Daughter#1 - Our oldest child currently living in CT with her husband. Currently working on a nursing degree. She graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Journalism, which to date hasn't quite produced a paying job. hence the work on the nursing degree.

The Twins:

The Son - Twenty something IT Geek. Graduate of Radford University. Only one still living close to home. Video gamer obsessed.

Daughter#2 - Twenty something VA Tech grad living out in the Shenandoah valley with her husband also named Matt and their dog Gracie, known as the Black Demon. She is an environmental planner and current University of Florida grad student. Former soccer player extraordinarie.

Rosie - Our 15 year old mini schnauzer mix. Obtained through a schnauzer rescue organization when she was 9. Bottomless pit when it comes to eating.

If you're reading this, I hope you take the opportunity to come back over the next month and see what this crew is up to.

What I Have Been Up To

Well it has certainly been a while since I have updated. I'd like to say I have been way to busy, but in fact I have not. Not any more so then usual anyway. With Holidailes coming up (starts Dec 7), I need to get back into the swing of things here. So what have I been up to? I'm glad you asked. Lets get to it.

On November 14, Daughter#2 and her husband, otherwise known as Wookie, traveled up from their home in the Valley to go with us to the VA Tech vs Maryland football game. The game was played at Maryland. Daughter#2 whipped up a vegetarian chili for us to eat while tailgating. It was cold and drizzled on and off as we partied in the parking lot so hot chili was the perfect choice. It was quite tasty and this from a non-vegetarian. Ann chipped in the a five-level Mexican dip, which was also very good. When it comes to presentation at tailgates, we're not much. We just ate out of the back of our van, but it was all good.

Mmmmmm...the chili was so good. Thanks Daughter#2! Excellent choice! Ann, Daughter#2 and Wookie dig in.

There was, of course, beer. I had picked up a Sam Adams variety 12 pak for us to partake of. My favorite was the Irish Red. I wish I could find it just by itself. Very hard to find though. Part of the 12 pak was a Cherry Wheat, which Daughter#2 shows off here. It sounded interesting, but tasted more like cherry flavored cough medicine. Daughter#2 liked it though.

By game time, the drizzle had stopped and it warmed up a bit. There were as many Hokie fans in the stands as there were Terrapin fans. Given the season the two teams have had (VA Tech - good/Maryland - terrible) and the large number of VA Tech alumni in the Washington area, it's wasn't that surprising. As I'm a fan of both teams, it was hard to decide who to root for. I shot this picture from our seats, Maryland is in black and VA Tech in white. I wasn't a fan of VA Tech's new white helmets.


Next up in November was Thanksgiving. Since the daughters are now married, we do have to share them with the In-Laws for the major holidays. This year we have the Daughters for Thanksgiving and the In-Laws have them for Christmas Day. We'll see them the day after Christmas, which means two Christmases for us. It will be weird just having Christmas Day with just Ann and The Son though. Back to Thanksgiving, it was great having everyone home. Lo the kids (The Son, Daughter#1 and Daughter#2). We are very proud of all three.

There is nothing I enjoy more then a turkey dinner with all the fixings. The leftovers are almost as good. Nothing like a good turkey sandwich the day after. This year we had a 22 lb Butterball.

Daughter#1 is big on appetizers while we catch up with everyone. She fixed us up with some hot cider. Very tasty.

Daughter#1 also made us some zucchini flat bread, which was also very good. She made a regular and a vegetarian version. Sort of like pizza.

We do put The Son to work in the kitchen. We tried a new to us oyster dressing this year, which he put together and which came out great. Definitely a keeper. We also put him in charge of the garlic mashed potatoes. I peel the 5 lbs of potatoes and cube them. Ann cooks them and then The Son does the rest. They come out amazingly good. He'll have this job forever.

We also make accommodation for daughter#2 our vegetarian. We picked up a Tofurky for her. It comes in a box with sides. Having tried it, its really pretty good.

We serve ourselves sort of buffet style. We place all the food on the kitchen table and let everyone help themselves. Except for Gracie, Daughter#2's dog. She doesn't get anything except what her Grandma and Grandpa can slip to her on the side. From left to right: Wookie, Son In Law#2 (married to Daughter#1), me, The Son, Daughter#2 and Daughter#1.


We actually eat Thanksgiving dinner in our dining room. We almost never eat in this room. Just Thanksgiving and Christmas really. From left to right: Wookie, Daughter#2, The Son, Ann, Son In Law #2 and Daughter#1.

On Black Friday rather then fight crowds at the mall, we headed south along I-95 to visit the newest member of our clan (we're Scottish). My Cousin's wife had given birth to their first child - a boy, Cameron Duncan [last name] just 4 weeks ago. We all took turns holding him and giving baby presents to the new parents. Here Daughter#2 takes her turn



As did Daughter#1

I took a turn as well. It's been quite a while since I've held a baby.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. I am certainly grateful for my family and the joy they bring me. Now its time to cue up the Christmas music and get in the Christmas spirit. Joy to the World!