Busy...Busy...Busy...

I've been really really busy the past few days. The kids have all been home making for a full house what with the two daughters also bringing their spouses and Daughter#2 her dog Gracie. As I mentioned in my previous post, Daughter#1 has to fill the days and has she ever. Lets get a run down:

1. Day After Christmas and the two daughters arrive in the morning from out of town and The Son leaves his cave to join us for a day after Christmas breakfast prepared by yours truly.

2. Next up was opening presents. Here Daughter#1 does the honors while her husband looks on and takes her picture.

3. Then there was Christmas dinner to prepare. Here The Son works on his oyster dressing.

4. The next day (Sunday) we were down at The Son's place painting his living room and hallway of his condo. Here The Son paints around his balcony door.

Guests were not exempt. Here M#1 and Daughter#1 paint a portion of the hallway. Welcome to the family!

5. For Monday we were off to the Air and Space Museum Annex out by Dulles Airport. Here they have some of their larger aircraft/spacecraft that would never fit in the downtown museum. A look down just one third of the exhibit hall.

They have some really famous aircraft there. Like the Concorde. Oh if they could just make supersonic air travel economically feasible.

I think everyones favorite from our group was the SR-71 Blackbird. On its final flight from LA to Washington, the pilots made it in 1 hour 4 minutes. Average speed was over 2,000 mph. Amazing.

Probably the most famous bomber in the world. The Enola Gay. It had been in storage for decades before they finally had the space to display it. It wasn't as big a plane as I had envisioned from seeing pictures of B-29s.

My favorite fighter of all time. The plane that Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards made famous. The F-14 Tomcat. "Talk to me Goose".

All that walking around not to mention two big meals, left me wiped out. Hence no entry yesterday. Just too tired.

6. After sleeping 10 hours, we headed down to southern Maryland today to look at the Naval Air Station and the surrounding area. Daughter#1 and M#1 are considering relocating there. After touring the base, lunch was in order - crab cakes!

After a day of running around touring the base, Saint Mary's College, Solomon's Island, visiting a dear friend that lives down there and a last stop at Leonardtown and Breton Bay in the background, we headed home. Daughter#1 and M#1 pose for a final photo.

Its time for another long winter's nap.

Rembrant or Michelangelo?

Every since The Son bought a place of his own about two years ago, he has wanted to change the look of it by painting the place. The previous owner had had the place painted when he put it on the market. To make it more buyer friendly, he had painted it all white - everywhere. It's a two bedroom condo so its not all that big and it had the sterile rental property feel to it. Now The Son has wanted to paint it, but he hasn't been much on the action part of it. In particular he hem and hawed a lot about what color to paint what rooms. Enter in Daughter#1. Daughter#1 is like that old axiom about nature abhors a vacuum. To her every day has to be filled with some activity or another. A day laying around is a day wasted to her. So today we had nothing planned and there was a condo that needed painting - in her mind we had a match. In the weeks leading up to her visit many e-mails and phone calls ensued to nail down colors that would please not only The Son, but also the females in the family (Ann and the two daughters). A consensus was finally achieved and a game plan developed and the battle was on. After a breakfast of waffles (made from a dairy free and gluten free mix for our lactose intolerant guests), I took The Son and M#1 (Daughter#1's husband) and headed to his condo to begin taping while the Ann and Daughter#1 headed off to buy the paint and painting supplies. Daughter#2 and M#2 (Daughter#2's husband) also joined us. M#1 and 2 proceeded to remove all the outlet switch plates and register covers while I taped. M#2 joined in on the taping and ended up doing about twice as much as me. He is fast and I am slow. Once Ann and Daughter#1 arrived, the painting began. The plan was to do the living room area and the hallway. Most was a color called "Silver Setting" with an accent wall painted in "Bayside". They are Behr paints and you're welcome to go to their web site to look at the colors. I'll try to get pictures up shortly. It took us about four hours to get everything done including a break for some pizza. It turned out rather well and everyone seemed satisfied with the results. There is some debate on whether a second coat is required, but by the time we finished up it was starting to get dark and we thought it best to check back when the light would be better. Definitely a busy day, but with something concrete to show for our efforts.

Late Christmas

So today we finally got to celebrate Christmas as the kids filed in one by one. Daughter#2 and her husband were the first to arrive around 10:30 this morning followed by The Son and finally Daughter#1 and her husband who had been on the road since about 530 this morning. We knew everyone would be hungry after driving, I made a vegetarian friendly egg casserole so Daughter32 could have something to eat to. I made it with some fake sausage and no-dairy shredded cheese. Everyone liked it so it wasn't a big deal making it vegetarian friendly. After our brunch of sorts, we retired to the living room to exchanges gifts. We a one gift at a time type family when it comes to opening gifts. It takes longer, but its fun seeing who got what from whom. Socks were the most abundant gifts as everyone got some. Some of the highlights: Daughter#1 got a rain jacket. The son got a winter coat. Ann got some cookware, Daughter#2 got a blender, her husband got a lot of drum equipment, Daughter#1's husband got a tour book and a gift card, and i got some home made charcoal made by Daughter#2's husband and a picture of myself rowing during the head of the Occoquan. By the time we were down, the living room was a mess and everyone seemed pretty happy.

After the gift exchanged, I headed into our family room to watch Ohio take on Marshall in the Little Cesar Bowl. Ohio got blown out early, but made a nice comeback before finally losing 21-17. The rest of the day it was all about the big Christmas meal. I was put to work peeling 5lbs of potatoes and then carving the turkey. The Son made oyster dressing again and the mashed potatoes while Ann did the remained. We got another Tofurkey for daughter#2, which she prepared. It was a glorious a feast as we had on Thanksgiving. We manage to save room for desert of which there was a selection of three different pies - Apple, Pumpkin and Pecan. There was also Vanilla Ice cream and some non-dairy Vanilla Ice Cream. After that we all just crashed in the family room. We watch "Angels and Demons" and then most of us headed to bed. At least those that didn't have Holidailies post to deliver. That was our special day. I hope you had one as memorable.

Waiting for Christmas

My Christmas Day was like your Christmas Eve. Presents still sit under the tree waiting to be opened. We are awaiting the arrival of Daughters#1 and #2 and their husbands before we celebrate the Day. Both couples were with their respective In Law families for the day. Each couple will be driving home to visit tomorrow morning. Tomorrow then will be our Christmas day. A day for spending time with family and enjoying each others company. A time to share our gifts with each other.

So how did we spend our day? Mostly getting ready for tomorrow. We attended Mass. We baked two pies - a pumpkin and an apple. We also watched a movie or two (Miracle on 34th Street) plus two Lifetime movies that we sort of got sucked into while wait for the pies to cook. The Son did drop by. I suggested opening one gift each, but that was shot down by him and Ann so we will wait until tomorrow. We enjoyed a spiral cut glazed ham for our Christmas meal. Something we haven't had in quite some time. With some pecan pie for desert, it worked out quite well. Our dog Rosie helping out with the pie making:

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas and I know I'm looking forward to ours.

Christmas Eve in Virginia

I'm going to keep it short and sweet tonight. I still have presents to wrap, Christmas carols to listen to and Christmas movies to watch. There is snow on the ground and we will have our first white Christmas in many many years. I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and I'll leave you with a few Christmas quotes - the ones I used for the past last two years and which I love.

"Perhaps Christmas doesn't come from a store. Perhaps Christmas means a little bit more." - How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess. '

From "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. The meaning of Christmas as told by Scrooge's nephew Fred:

There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,' returned the nephew. 'Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!'

And from Dr Suess and the Whos, the lyric from the song "Welcome, Christmas" from the TV version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas":

Welcome, Welcome
Fah who rah-moose
Welcome, Welcome
Dah who dah-moose
Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Come this way!

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Christmas Day.

Welcome, Welcome
Fah who rah-moose
Welcome, Welcome
Dah who dah-moose
Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas
Bring your cheer
Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome all Who's
Far and near

Welcome Christmas, fah who rah-moose
Welcome Christmas, dah who dah-moose
Christmas day will always be
Just so long as we have we

Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome Christmas
Bring your light

Welcome Christmas
Fah who rah-moose!
Welcome Christmas
Dah who dah-moose!
Welcome Christmas
While we stand
Heart to heart
And hand in hand

Fah who for-aze
Dah who dor-aze
Welcome welcome
Christmas
Christmas
Day

So to one and all a Very Merry Christmas and God Bless Us every one.

All About Christmas

Because I'm a follower and coming up with new things to write about is hard for me, I present to you the Christmas meme that someone started and I'm happy to copy.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. I can't say that I developed a taste for eggnog, but I've only ha it when i was young. With some booze in it, it might be a whole different story.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Of course Santa wraps the presents.

Colored lights on a tree or white? Colored lights for the tree. White lights for the bushes outside.

Do you hang mistletoe? No, but only because we never buy any. Nothing against it personally.

When do you put your decorations up? It varies. usually the outside lights go up the weekend after the Thanksgiving weekend. The tree might go up that same weekend or the following weekend depending on when we get around to buying it.

What is your favorite holiday dish? The turkey! Mmmmmmm.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No. We wait until Christmas Morning to open presents.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Colored lights - non-blinking. We have a mixture of ornaments. Some of the traditional glass bulbs, ornaments from the various colleges represented in our house - Auburn, Ohio, VA Tech and Radford. We also have some ornaments that mark important dates, like baby's first Christmas (1980 and 1982), the Atlanta Olympics courtesy of my sister, the new Millennium, some of religious nature and some crafty ones, a dog one, a Harpers Ferry (from a Girl Scout visit by Daughter#2) one and then a few made by the kids in school over the years. We have an Angel that sits on the top of the tree and we finish off with some garland of popcorn and cranberries.

Snow: love it or hate it? I love snow - in moderation, of course. I love watching ti fall and how quiet everything is. Makes everything look beautiful. Hate to shovel it, of course.

Can you ice skate? I can although not that well anymore. When I was younger and lived in the wilds of New Jersey (yes NJ has some gorgeous undeveloped areas in the north), I use to ice skate a lot. Not in any fancy rink, but on frozen ponds and reservoirs. There was a Girl Scout camp not far from us where we use to go to skate most of the time. Of course it wasn't open during the winter so only the locals went there. I remember we use to go there without any parental supervision whatsoever. It was left to us (mostly preteens) to test to make sure the pond was frozen enough to hold us. Our usual testing methodology was to find the biggest rock we could find and hurl it out onto the ice. If it didn't go through, we figured we were could to go. Can you picture that happening these days?

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Give me that Apple Pie, warmed up with Vanilla Ice cream on top.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? We watch "One Magic Christmas" every Christmas Eve.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? They're not bad, but take to long to eat. I get tired of them about a third of the way through. I don't usually buy any.

Favorite Christmas show? A Christmas Carol. Oh that we could all be visited by the three ghosts and s the benefit from the lessons they can teach us.

Today's Prompt - Holiday Movie Scenes

There is no one in the world, as my kids will attest, who loves a good holiday movie more then yours truly. I'll start watching them on Thanksgiving Day (Miracle on 34th Street) right on through New Years. I love them all. Lets face it, they all come out for the good in the end and whats not to like about that? Lets go to the video tape and look at some of my favorite scenes:

Love Actually

Favorite scene has to be Jamie (Colin Firth) proposing to Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) in the restaurant where she is working. I could watch that scene over and over. Very magical and from the heart. Second favorite scene is the school pageant and Joanna Anderson (Olivia Olson) singing "All I Want for Christmas". That girl can sing. If you ever watched the movie with the Directors comments on he said that she was so good that they had to dub in breath sounds to make it more believable that a 10 yr old (I think that was her age) actually sang the song.

One Magic Christmas

Favorite scene is where Ginny Grainger (Mary Steenburgen as the Mom) finds the letter that Abbie (Elisabeth Harnois as the Grainger daughter) has brought back from the North Pole given to her by Santa Claus. He tells Abbie that the letter will help her Mom make her dad all better (The dad had been shot and killed). The letter was written to Santa by Ginny when she was Abbie's age (6) and still believed in things like Santa Claus. Gets me every time. The list of toys in the letter are from a much simpler time. A Mister Potato Head was one and it always makes me smile.

The Polar Express

It took me a while to finally watch this movie. The whole digital capture/re-skin the characters took a while to get use to. The scene I like the best is at the end, where the narrator (The Hero Boy) explains that only true believers can hear the bell (a gift off of Santa's sleigh that was given to the boy as a gift from Santa) and how over time all his friends and eventually even his younger sister, could no longer hear the bell. Oh that we could all still hear the bell.

Miracle on 34th Street

The 1947 version with Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara and Edmund Gwen is my favorite version. There are two scenes that I love in this movie (actually more, but I'll limit myself to two). The first is where Santa first directs a Macy's shopper to another store to find that hard to find toy - a fire engine for her son. His talk to his Mother about where to find the fire engine and for how much and how Christmas was about making the children happy and not who makes the sale is priceless. The second is at the hearing into Santa's sanity (oh so politically incorrect these days) and the scene where Santa's lawyer is reading about the U.S. Postal Service and how big and efficient it is. That always brings a laugh and even more so when the judge tells him to bring in all the evidence and the bailiffs bring in bag after bag of letters (21 in all according to IMDb) to Santa that were in the NYC dead letter office. Love it.

Prancer

Another Christmas movie that I came late too. Your heart just goes out to this little girl who has lost her mother and her father is on the verge of losing their farm. My favorite scenes in this one is where the Minister reads an editorial from the local paper about her (Jessica Riggs played by Rebecca Harrell) and her belief in Santa Claus and her idea to get the injured Prancer back to him. The second is when her Dad reads to her from a book the article entitled "Yes Virginia There is A Santa Claus". Ok I'll throw in a third, but its a given when they release Prancer and he hooks back up with Santa (after thinking he jumped to his death - yikes) is always a tear jerker.

A Christmas Carol

I own the George C. Scott version of this classic although I always try to catch the 1938 version as well with Reginald Owen as Scrooge. It also stars practically the whole Lockhart family including a 16 yr old June Lockhart of "Lassie" and "Lost in Space" fame. Her father Gene, who play Cratchit also plays the judge in the 1947 Miracle on 34th Street. Actually my favorite scene comes early in the film when Scrooge's nephew Fred visits Scrooge at his office and gives a short speech on what Christmas means to him and mankind in general. I always use it in my Christmas Eve post.

That was fun reliving those memories and thanks to IMDb for help on dates and names. I hope some of you will jump in with some of your favorite scenes.