Just catching up with my Blog!
MERRY CHRISTMAS! The presents are unwrapped, the Lego projects have begun along with playing new video games, and there is a light dusting of Christmas snow outside. We are actually under a Winter Storm Watch but most of it is due to arrive Sunday night, and they don't even know if it will blow off the coast and miss us altogether, or clip Baltimore as it travels towards New England. It is actually the same storm that drenched LA. Mike we hope you didn't have to put out sand bags! Looks like San Diego got hit the worst.
The kids were up at 5 am Christmas morning-Allison swears she heard "someone" up on the roof. We made them wait until at least 7am so we could make coffee before sitting down to open the gifts. At least we had a head start on the "prep" time this year. I wasn't up wrapping until 3am on Christmas Eve thank goodness. But I was just as tired.
Scott caught a cold this week and he had a small fever. Tom took him in for his yearly check up and they said he had a fever. I figured they'd skip all the shots, but of course not. Poor kid had a tetanus shot, a meningitis vaccination and his flu shot! I was a bit annoyed that the pediatrician hit him with all that right before Christmas. Although it didn't seem to slow him down too much(yet).
I spent most of Christmas day packing and doing laundry as well as cleaning up. I was actually raking leaves Christmas day! The weather was fairly mild so I also had the chance to vacuum out the van too before I packed it. Neither Tom nor I prepared for Christmas dinner. Tom went out to pick up something to cook for dinner, but came home with presents instead. I was so tired by the end of Christmas day I didn't feel like scrounging around to put together a meal. Tom thought about running out to the grocery store to pick up something to cook, but missed out as the stores closed early(I was surprised anything was open at all!). Instead, we all headed out for a Christmas Story ending and had dinner at a Chinese Buffet. I was so tired, I was falling asleep in my Won Ton soup. But at least I didn't have to cook!
We actually had our big meal on Christmas Eve with our neighbors. I still had a rack of ribs in the freezer that we didn't get to when Tom's brother Mark and family visited at Thanksgiving, so it was an easy dinner to put together. Everything in the crock pot and oven. I did spend Christmas Eve day getting haircuts for myself and Allison and picking up some last minute food items for dinner. I made Tom his favorite crab dip for an appetizer and we had baked potatoes and broccoli salad with our ribs. Tom picked up dessert at Sam's Club including Allison the Red Velvet Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory which Allison and I wanted to try. Tom also picked up a Coconut cake for himself and Scott. We were in a bit of a rush since we were attending the 4pm Christmas Eve mass and Scott was in the Christmas pageant held 20 minutes before mass where the kids put on the story of the nativity and sang. We had to get Scott there by 3pm and the church was already filling up. Of course they also had two other masses at 4pm in the gym and cafeteria. Just getting a parking spot was a miracle! I was also surprised that Scott still wanted to be in the pageant since he wasn't feeling well. Both of his arms hurt so bad and he was still coughing. I couldn't even believe he made it to the dress rehearsal the night before since he had just come from the doctor's office. I was very proud of him. Tom got him a great beard for his costume as a shepherd, and he had a robe from another mom, along with a towel on his head wrapped with rope. To top it off, he carried his boy scout hiking stick. He made a wonderful shepherd, and he even had a small boy dressed as a cotton ball sheep! The kids did a great job. Tom did not even want to attempt the 4pm mass and crowds, but he said it was one of the best masses he had ever been to after all. Turns out they had a great jazz band playing the Christmas music, so it was very upbeat. Worth the crowds. And we really enjoyed having dinner and exchanging gifts with our next door neighbors that evening.
We were pretty busy right up to Christmas Day. Scott had a short week with a Christmas party on Monday and his Christmas pageant on Tuesday. Tom attended the pageant and then brought Scott home. The boys spent a few days doing last minute Christmas shopping. Allison on the other hand was busy with classes and schoolwork/tests right up until Thursday. We were certainly looking forward to a holiday break! The Seitz Family

This certainly has been a crazy week. My schedule was not very consistent at work or at home. First priority was purchasing and installing a dishwasher. Tom and I ended up with a stainless steel Bosch, actually an upgrade from our previous model, but I actually really liked my old dishwasher. No matter now, I needed to get a new one installed since we had a house full of people this weekend coming over for holiday parties. I ended up scheduling an install and delivery on Friday and the guys arrived at noon. By 1pm I was busy loading up the dishes and cleaning the house.
We had all our decorations up, both inside and out. We found a beautiful live Noble fir Christmas tree at Home Depot for a great price a few weeks ago and last weekend Scott got busy and helped me decorate it after Tom put up our lights and the angel. I love the way it makes the house smell. I am also putting the last of my Christmas and Chanukkah cards in the mail this weekend.
So we were trying to get ready for two parties this weekend. I had the girl scouts over on Friday for a holiday party and we earned a candy badge that I found from the New Jersey council. We talked about the history of candy making and chocolate, gum and the candy cane. Did you know the candy cane was a german invention-primarily used to keep the kids quiet during the living nativity. Those germans are so smart! We also talked about candy from around the world and its use for holiday traditions. After nibbling on pizza and taquitos, I had the girls busy making treats, eating chocolate fondue and we topped it all off with a pinata in the garage. I figured they'd enjoy smacking something with a stick! Our only disaster was our attempt at homemade taffy. It seemed to pass the taffy level and reached the rock candy mode. Oh well, we tried. Anyhow, it seems that the girls enjoyed themselves. Tom meanwhile had Scott to his cub scout holiday party at school. They asked the older boys to bring in their pinewood derby cars since the event is going to be early in January again this coming year. Tom got into a heated discussion with a newly appointed scout leader who claimed Scott's cars were illegal due to the width of the tire base. Tom quickly pulled up the BSA guidelines on his Blackberry and pointed out that all Scott's cars were designed and built within the requirements. Then they got into a "discussion" about the amount of work the boys do on the cars vs how much work the parents do for them. As Tom pointed out, some of the work with the radial and circular saws needs to be done by the Dad, but in Scott's case, he came up will all the designs. And he helped sand and paint and put graphite on the wheels to make it go fast. As I said to Tom, I think the idea is that the boys have a project that they can do with their Dads. It is as much the Dads event as it is the boys, and I think that is what makes it special. But of course, some boys get very upset when their cars lose. For several years, Scott was not even trying to win for speed, just looks. But the car designs usually took a winning place for time. This year Scott is going for "cool car" and designed a legomobile. Who knew some people take all this stuff so seriously. Again, what happened to the scout spirit?
On Saturday I was already ahead of myself with a fairly clean and decorated house which made it a bit easier to get ready for our neighbors and our progressive dinner party. The neighbors have been talking about another progressive party(travel from house to house for different phases of the party). As I mentioned, there are alot more kids on our street now and we all decided it was too much strain on the houses and the neighbors to host kids along with adults. So I made an executive decision and decided no kids at the dinner party and there should be a small kids party prior to the adult party. I also decided to nominate one of our neighbors to host the kids party. She was a real trooper and took on the task. As she just took on the role of GS leader for her daughter's Kindergarten Daisy troop, I reminded her that this would be great practice! I also tried to help out by providing some supplies for activities including sugar cookies and frosting and decorations, card making supplies and photo copied coloring pages. She also picked up some small craft items and made even more sugar cookies and one of the other moms provided pizza. I sent Allison down with Scott to help out if she could. I heard it was a bit chaotic, and a lot of kids showed up. I was just glad it wasn't my house! Instead I hosted all the adults for the main meal. Everyone that was able to get a babysitter came, which was surprisingly a decent number. We had about 24 adults that were able to come. I missed the appetizer house since I was busy monitoring the ovens, but most of the appetizers traveled to our house after an hour. We hosted dinner for about 2 hours-I asked everyone to bring a side dish which worked out well since I made a big ham and baked potato casserole along with crab soup in the crock pot. Dinner turned out well, except for my kosher neighbor who could not heat ham or seafood, just salad, and we then walked down the street to our third house for dessert and a white elephant gift exchange. I have been trying to explain this game to everyone for the past several years. It is slowly taking on amongst the neighbors. We swap nice or not so nice gifts, it is all a surprise. You can pick a new gift(wrapped) or steal someone else's gift after they opened it. The gifts can be stolen up to 3 times. Some neighbor's opted out of the game-they just can't handle the stress. Other neighbors only brought one gift per couple(we were happy to share some extra gift items). Anyhow, I ended up with a bottle of Biltmore wine and Tom stole a book that I picked. It was a lot of fun and my donated gift turned out to be the most popular-a box of GS thin mints, liquor chocolates and Godiva chocolate coffee. At the end of the party we all had to go find our kids scattered throughout the neighbor's houses. Allison helped watch 5 other kids. As the party ended we all decided it was a big hit and a great way to visit with each other. We even invited a few new neighbors and people that did not know each other so it was nice to spend the time getting to know someone who lives just around the corner. And the guys added a few new members to their Monday night football group. They especially enjoy sharing new brands of beer.
So today Allison and I went off to sing at my Nursing Home with the girl scout choir. Allison and I had to skip another event last week at a local nursing home next to the girl scout council office. High school has been keeping Allison very busy these last two weeks with midterms. She has school right up to the 23rd, whereas Scott will be done on Tuesday. And that is just a half day with the morning taken up by their Christmas pageant. So he just had a few quizzes to study for, but Allison has had a major test in every subject over the last few weeks. And to top it off, we had our first snowfall on Thursday afternoon. Just enough to shut down school early and close all the evening activities. I was supposed to head to my work Christmas lunch at a local restaurant Thursday afternoon and instead I had to go pick Scott up when school got out since aftercare was canceled. Naturally our boss decided not to cancel the luncheon, so I missed out on another party. How sad. And I even had to work through lunch that day since we were supposed to get off early for our holiday meal. I even had my gift to exchange for my secret santa, so I just sent it on with another therapist. I think I deserve a rain check on the crab cake dinner.
On Friday there was a two hour delay in the morning for school since the roads were very icy. Tom had been putting in late hours at work, so he had to get to work early and I did drop off before the dishwasher came. Naturally Allison forgot supplies for a govt project at home so I had to run back up to her school to drop off the items before running to the grocery store to pick up supplies for the two parties after I dropped Scott off at his school.
I was just elated that I had a car to drive all over town. I noticed a nail sticking in my back tire early in the week and Tom asked me to stop into Mr Tire to have it patched. Everyone was backed up in the evening, so Tom volunteered to take my car in first thing in the morning since his work schedule was a bit more flexible than mine. Not only did we have to have that tire replaced since the nail pierced the sidewall, but they discovered gashes in my other back tire, so I ended up with two new tires-Merry Christmas to me. We have decided that we are single handedly keeping the economy going.
I also left work early on Monday to go to the dentist(yeah no cavities). I was also hoping to take Allison and Scott on a fund raiser walk through our Symphony of Lights display with his school that evening, but the wind chill brought our temperatures down to 10 below! And since traffic was getting heavy, I figured I would not make it to the fund raiser event and then back to Scott's school for his Christmas pageant rehearsal. I decided since we were going to be home for Christmas, that he could help out with the Christmas kids pageant. Practice was at 630 for just 30 mins so they could practice two new songs. Scott is still in the school choir and they have been busy singing at the school masses, and will sing at the upcoming school pageant as well on Tuesday. So we skipped freezing to death Monday night. It was so cold here, a plastic soda bottle exploded all over our back porch. Cookie loved eating frozen ginger ale all week.
We also were planning on attending a few Boy Scout meetings this past week as Scott and his troop will be moving on to the next level in February, but they all rescheduled for open house events in the winter.
So another very busy week and only one more week to Christmas!. Allison has to make up a piano lesson since she missed last Thursday due to the weather. She will be busy right up until Thursday-she is a little frustrated since many of her private school friends are already on Christmas break. Right now she and Tom are off to the indoor field hockey game. Then they will have a break until after the holiday.
5 more shopping days until Christmas! Good luck! Kathleen PS Here are a few more photos from the Festival of Christmas Trees where Allison and I sang with the GS choir.

Yep, the dishwasher was acting up! As a matter of fact, it quit altogether. Tom and I spent Saturday afternoon dishwasher shopping. I had my Bosch dishwasher for 8 years-as long as we have had the kitchen remodeled. I really liked it and would have been happy to just buy the same one. But we couldn't find one. We did get an upgraded model on sale with the stainless steel front. I would have been happy to have the old black front panel again, but they did not have one in stock. We shopped around and ended up getting a good deal at Best Buy. They actually mispriced the unit and we saved an extra $100. We also got free delivery and connection although Tom would have been happy loading a washer into the back of the van and hooking it up himself. However, the dishwasher was at the warehouse so it would have been more running around and we were tight on time Saturday. Tom and the kids figured I needed a dishwasher as soon as possible since the dishes were piling up. They couldn't imagine we could survive another day without a dishwasher. Now I really can't survive without the washing machine, but I would have to haul clothes to a laundromat. And a broken fridge is way too inconvenient. But the family forgot about the old fashioned way of washing dishes. Tom wanted to know what I was going to do for several days without a dishwasher. I introduced everyone to the dish rack and Dawn dishwashing liquid detergent. Oh boy. Certainly, I will also be grateful for a functioning dishwasher. I washed all the silverware and cups before I ran out of dish rack while quizzing Scott on his vocab list Sunday night. Saturday night we were busy attending the Army Jazz Band free holiday concert. The Army bands travel around the US and often plan concerts here in Maryland since most are stationed at Ft Meade MD. We got free tickets along with our neighbors, so we all went out to dinner beforehand. Couldn't even have a relaxing dinner out as an older gentleman started choking near our table. Our neighbor is a nurse, so she jumped right up. But so did about 10 other people. Don't worry, he made it. And we enjoyed the concert at a local high school. Afterwards we all met for coffee and dessert, thanks to Susan Seitz. She sent us a great family gift of cheesecake and a ham. Susan it was all terrific, thanks. We had the ham for dinner on Sunday night which was perfect.
Tom and Allison were off playing indoor field hockey Sunday night so we ate dinner early. Tom made his debut as a field hockey coach. I got him into this volunteer position thinking all he had to do was show up. Little did we know that he had to attend a 3 hour coaching class last week as well as take a concussion on- line test, and turn in paperwork for a background check with references. And we still did not get a completed roster until an hour before the game. The manager who is a coach from a local high school did not obtain all the paperwork from the girls and I was afraid the team would not be able to play. The woman took responsibility and had all the girls meet an hour before the game to fill out the appropriate paperwork. Our team is a bit different since I asked the Parks and Rec. Dept if they could put together a team of odds and ends girls that did not have a full team. This team is made up of several different girls from several different high schools and several different ages. Usually one high school will have a full team, but Allison's fellow team players are all involved in different sports. Being a goalie, Allison was actually in high demand, but she stuck to this mismatched team and it looks like it turned out well. Tom and Allison came back Sunday night saying they had a wonderful time. Tom said Allison was outstanding and even was offered a goalie position with a traveling team, however they play weekly down in Rockville which is just a bit too much traveling for us. Tom said the paperwork all turned out and the girls are all very nice but they have no offense. Just defense and Allison. But Tom said it was fun. So seven more weeks to go, and Tom has a new job listing for his resume. That is if he actually reads the rule book sometime!
Earlier Sunday morning Allison and I were off selling GS cookies at my retirement center. We could not wait until the dinner hour(4pm) since Allison had some studying and homework to do. But we managed to sell several cases of cookies. I was hoping a few girls would show up that did not have the opportunity to work at other booth sales, but no such luck. I am scheduling a holiday badge party for the girls next week, and I am happy that most of them can make it. The girls just have crazy schedules and attend several different schools so it is very difficult to get them all together. We will be working on a candy badge so I have been busy gathering candy supplies and info.
Allison and I were also planning on singing at the mall with the GS choir on Monday night, but Allison had too much homework that night so we skipped it. It seems the public schools love to load up the school work before the holidays.We were also a bit tired since the kids got up early Monday morning to celebrate St Nick's day. St Nick fills our stockings on his special day. The kids look forward to getting hats and mittens, treats and Christmas stuff like their yearly christmas ornament.
On Friday I had my yearly check up in the morning. I was happy to hear I am A.O.K. I was not very happy that I got locked out of an exercise class at the Y beforehand though since I was 10 mins late. Instead I went home and took Cookie for a nice long walk. She loved it. Friday night Allison had to babysit, and I was out trying to get some shopping done. (Mostly for me!). I also had to get home since I was invited to a work dinner with the Home Health staff. I had a wonderful time-a great meal and they even bought me a present! Imagine that! This is the first time I have been able to go in 6 years.
So a very Happy Birthday goes out to Linda Seitz. Happy 28 Linda! (Just kidding).
I think I have to go wash some more dishes. I am starting to get dishwasher hands. Kathleen PS I sent photos of Scott's birthday cake with the photo of him doing the high ropes course.

Wow-I can't believe it is one week after Thanksgiving and now we are getting ready for Christmas. Tom and I attempted to put away the Thanksgiving decorations and put out the Christmas lights and decorations, but it just seemed too early. And too cold. Tom went outside after his brother and family left for their drive back to Indy. He decided it was way too cold and windy, so instead we enjoyed our MSU football game. Although it seems for naught that we won since it does not appear that we are going to the Rose Bowl. That stinks.
Last Sunday we were crazy trying to get our family photo done in the morning. The studio was one hour behind. We opted not to try and take a family photo with the dog, so our picture took less time. It was just the waiting to get our photo taken. Afterwards, Tom and I had to get ready to attend the Ravens football game. St Nick arrived early and Tom and I were sporting new Ravens sweatshirts, but it was plenty cold so we had to layer up(and we were still cold). I even picked up a Raven's santa hat to stay warm(worked great). I was mostly excited to get my photo with our mascot, Poe the Raven(as in Edgar Allen). And we met some cheerleaders and listened to our own drum concert at the tailgate party before the game. Tom had tickets from work so we enjoyed the free tailgate party beforehand. Meanwhile, I had to ask the neighbors to take the kids to church that night since they both were assigned to altar serve at the Sunday night 515 mass. Our neighbors kindly took them to church and attended themselves. Afterwards they took them home and fed them. Great neighbors. And we got home at a decent time.
On Monday, Tom was flying off to LA leaving from the DC Dulles airport. I was running solo and took the kids to Barnes and Noble bookstore Monday night for Scott's school fundraiser. Plus his choir was singing. Of course I managed to put him in the wrong shirt(we hid him in the back). We all bought a little something-Allison had some gift cards to spend on new books, and Scott used his Bday money to buy a Lego set. I also got some Christmas shopping done(and free gift wrap). Then we went to dinner at Pizzaria Uno with a gift card I got from attending camp with the kids and it was the school fundraiser night there too. When we got home it was time to study for the week's tests so we were up a bit late. Of course on Tuesday morning we had a big storm come through in the morning and we lost power at 5am. I wasn't sure if the power was out at the schools, but it came back on around 630 so we had to hurry to get showered and dressed and out the door, avoiding fallen tree limbs and sideways rain storms. The temps were in the 60s but dropped to the 40s by Weds.
On Weds night I had to squeeze in helping the kids with their homework before I headed out the door to my girl scout leadership meeting and holiday party. Thursday night I was invited to a work party but Scott had gymnastics that night, and Allison had piano. And Scott started feeling bad. He seemed to have a sinus headache coming on , so he ended up staying home on Friday. I left him for an hour to run up to the school's Mother's Tea. I usually go since they have coffee and pastries and door prizes at one of our local restaurants put on by the PTA for the moms. I really enjoy catching up with the school moms(and trying to win a door prize-no luck this year). But the pastries are terrific, made by a local bakery. I also had to pick up a few items for Scott to put together his goodie bags for his official kids birthday party scheduled on Sunday. Scott wanted a roller blade party and we all had a great time. I was especially happy to see that their bakery was able to make a birthday cake with the photo of Scott climbing through the trees at Northbay camp. The kids and parents also thought it was amazing.
Tom was able to get home on Thursday night from LA, but he had to go into work on Friday. He had a chance to see my brother Mike out in LA and take him to dinner and talk about job hunting. Mike has a few interviews coming up-Good Luck Mike.
On Saturday, Tom took Scott up to school for breakfast with Santa. Allison and I headed out to our annual White Marsh Christmas parade with the GS choir. At least this year, we did not get snowed, sleeted and rained on. It was cold but dry and we had a fun time. Allison especially liked book shopping at Barnes and Noble while we drank Starbucks and watched the end of the parade. When we got home I completely had forgotten that our old neighbor invited me over to her new house for a jewelry party. One of our neighbors makes her own jewelry-very nice and unique pieces. Especially since her husband travels the world and brings back different gems and stones from each country he visits. So most of the pieces are one of a kind. I decided to bring the kids with me so they could visit with their old neighbors. Scott was missing his buddy Sammy, and they wanted to explore the new woods and farmland behind the new house before it got too dark. Scott and Sammy came back in when they heard shotguns go off. I enjoyed visiting with all the guests and yes I broke down and bought a few pieces of jewelry too. Allison was excited to pick out a ring for herself for Christmas and I got a great bracelet with a wonderful magnetic clip.
And we keep working on the Christmas decorations. After Scott's birthday party on Sunday we stopped at Home Depot and picked up a Christmas tree which Tom set up. We are just waiting for the lights. We also had to pick up a new console for Tom's large screen tv that was delivered on Friday evening. He moved our previous entertainment center to the old garage/play space and set up the new system in the family room. It really makes the room look so much bigger. I just can't believe we fit the console into the back of my van(with a little room left over for the kids). Way too many projects. But I am sure we are not done. I noticed my dishwasher has been acting up.