Happy Birthday Linda Seitz! Happy Birthday Cookie Seitz! Two very special somebodies celebrated their birthdays this past weekend. One got a cake, the other a bone. Although Cookie also got into Tom's St Nick's Day stocking and ate up his peanut/yogurt mix. She is such a garbage hound! We celebrated her big day with a long walk. And then she tried to mooch food off Grandma. My favorite was when she kept trying to jump up on Grandma's lap when mom was taking her newly rented power scooter out for a test drive on the driveway. Cookie does love her car rides! No matter how small. Cookie turned 7 this year. I won't say what birthday Linda celebrated. (more than 7).

Mom seems to have taken to the scooter quite easily(although she still wants a car). I feel so bad. I took mom to the ortho MD last Thursday for a cortisone injection in her arthritic knee. Since we are going on a big trip, I wanted her to be in tip top shape(if that is possible for anyone). She has been going to PT 2x/wk which helps, but the cortisone shot can really  help with pain and swelling. She really had no idea what they were going to do. I did. I hear the injection is very painful. The MD told her she would hate him at first and then love him. It was true. She said her knee feels wonderful! And we were even able to go out to dinner afterwards.   On Friday I was busy meeting with her broker for end of the year business. On Saturday I took her to get her hair done, and then she joined us and our neighbors for a wonderful Holiday party at their house. I also picked her up on Sunday afternoon and took her to our GS choir performance at the B and O Railroad museum. She got to meet Santa and Mrs Claus and enjoy all the Holiday decorations. Afterwards I brought her home for a steak dinner.

Most of us here on the East coast are experiencing a heat wave! It feels like Miami! We hit temps in the low 70s this past weekend. Which made for a very nice party at our neighbor's house on Saturday. The food was incredible, the company terrific and the weather beautiful. It got cool enough in the evening to sit around their new fire pit on the patio,  chatting the night away with drinks and dessert. I felt like I was in an LLBean commercial. Our neighbors spent a lot of time putting up beautiful decorations both inside and out for the party. And of course I supplied the entertainment. We played Christmas Trivia. Boy are we a competitive bunch. I treated them all to candy bars for their efforts.

On Friday I had two parties to attend, but could only be at one. I picked the Bunco Holiday party. We had a white elephant gift exchange. I got a nice Margarita set complete with glasses and mix. I had picked the tupperware set, but being with a group of mom's with single college aged kids living in their first apts and needing gift ideas, it disappeared. (Still a little young for the margarita gift set). Next year Allison! I skipped the cookie exchange party. I was not ready to bake and besides, I have a cookie exchange party coming up this weekend with Scott!

He is winding down at school. Of course the teachers are cramming in lots of tests and assignments. He will be in school right up to Christmas. And he is getting ready for his school Holiday concert next week. Not to mention getting in some work hours over the weekend. And driving lessons when he and Tom have the chance. Plus he ran another successful boy scout meeting with a plumbing theme(yes there is a plumbing merit badge).

And Allison can't wait to get through finals! She will be done next week and then head home. She took a study break and made cookies and decorated a Christmas stocking. Very cute.

I am running around like a crazy person getting ready for our trip to Florida and getting ready for Christmas. I hope I make it!

Mom B and Mrs Claus

 Mom B has been a very good girl this year Santa!

 Mom B meets the North Pole!

 B and O Railroad at Christmas

 Neighborhood Party

Happy St Nick's Day! Tom and Scott and I enjoyed our annual ritual of opening our Christmas stockings on Sunday morning. St Nick brings our stockings early so that if we get any Christmas socks, tshirts, ornaments or jewelry we can wear it or display it before Christmas.  Everyone was very happy with their loot. Allison had her stocking early when she visited over Thanksgiving weekend. St Nick stocked her up with lots of goodies to help her through the upcoming Finals week. She will start with one of her tests this coming week and then finish up next week. She managed to get in a bit of celebrating at a formal party with her Ultimate Frisbee team this past weekend in between all the studying, and even got to wear her new dress.


My St Nick's Day gift was an evening out with our neighbors to see our favorite group, Straight No Chaser. They are the acoppella group from Indiana. They were in town for just one night at a sold out concert(again). Tom bought the tickets months ago. Sadly, one of their main singers was out on Paternity leave. We noticed. Although we really enjoy the group, having one member missing seemed to really affect the quality of the concert. We thought last year's event was much better. Although the concert was very good, it seemed a bit subdued. We felt like we should have been given a discount. But our neighbors really enjoyed it since they had never seen them before. And we all enjoyed dinner out beforehand. And I got a new tshirt, although no concert schedule on the back this time?

My weekend was also jam packed with scout activities. On Saturday morning, Scott and I got up early to volunteer at the Jingle Bell 5K Arthritis Fundraiser run. Scott decided to run again this year, so we signed him up at the walk up registration table. He seems to keep a consistent time of 34 mins. The run is a bit tough since it is around our local lake, very hilly and slippery as the path was very frosty in the early morning. Scott and I both helped direct traffic before the event. Mainly I just like checking out all the costumes (on both the people and the dogs!). And getting a free shirt for volunteering! Afterwards, Scott went off to assist one of the scouts with his Eagle project. By the time Scott arrived, all the boys that volunteered earlier in the morning had already completed all the work. So instead, Scott and Tom spent the afternoon practicing driving. Scott was almost run over by our neighbor's daughter as she was backing out of their driveway. And right after that, a mailman ran the stop sign on our street. Scott is learning at the Driving School of Hard Knocks.

After volunteering at the Jingle Run, I went off to the Baltimore Harbor to sing with the Girl Scout choir at the German Christmas Village. Our choir sings Christmas songs on stage for about an hour. I mostly enjoy shopping at all the booths and especially the tent full of German Christmas decorations. On Sunday I sang with the choir in the Baltimore Mayor's Parade. It makes for a long day-the parade is two hours long. You have to arrive an hour before the parade starts to line up. And then the parade starts at 1, but we don't actually start moving until 130 because of all the different entries. It is not my favorite parade, but they always need extra voices for the crowds.

Again I spent my Friday off work helping out my mom. This past Friday we started off with a PT appointment. Afterwards, I dropped into a medical supply company with mom. We are looking at getting a portable scooter to rent/purchase to help her get around this coming holiday trip to Florida. We were able to rent a scooter for now and are sending in paperwork to the insurance company to see if it will be covered. Then we were off to the bank, lunch and dessert at the mall, Christmas shopping and back to her apt where I spent 2 hours decorating for Christmas. I finally sent mom down to dinner and headed home quite exhausted. I still had enough energy in me to get in some Christmas shopping of my own at Kohls. Wow, what a jam packed weekend. We ended it off having dinner with our friends at their house. Of course Cookie was invited to spend time with their Cavachon, Ripley and we celebrated both of our boy's 16th Birthday party with a big ice cream cake.

I was just as busy during the week. Tom was off working in DC for the week. Scott and I had to throw together a boy scout meeting last Weds. His guest speaker got sick at the last minute, so Scott and I had to come up with a new plan. Scott asked one of the counselors to present the Art Merit Badge. She agreed and after her presentation we had a drawing contest. The boys loved it. When they were done and the awards given out, we asked the boys to make some Holiday cards. They also loved that! Overall, a very successful scout meeting which is Scott's current role as Sr Assistant Patrol Leader.

Scott in the Jingle Bell Run

 Waiting for the Baltimore Mayor's Christmas Parade/Hanging out with the Charm City Rollers

 Scott and Bryce celebrate their 16th Birthdays

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful holiday with all the family and guest. Allison came home from school on Tuesday night and enjoyed a long weekend with all of us. She had to drop off her roommate and boyfriend first, so she got home late. Plus she had a test in Finance that morning to get through and had to pack up her fish. Only 2 more weeks left for her in this semester!  I picked up my mom for dinner on Thursday and we invited our good friend John over for Thanksgiving dinner as well. The meal was a family project. Tom did the honors of cooking the 25lb turkey on the rotisserie grill. I got the stuffing put together on Weds night after work, and Allison cooked the loaded baked potato casserole on Thursday morning. Scott had salad and rolls. Grandma opened the cranberry sauce! John brought the wine. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake courtesy of Costco for dessert.  All in all a very good meal and good company!  And it was the warmest Thanksgiving day I could remember. I ate dinner in shorts and my Turkey trot tshirt.

Allison, Scott and I started our Thursday morning by participating in the YMCA Turkey trot. Scott ended up running in the event and Allison and I took up the back of the pack with Cookie in tow. Cookie was sporting her pumpkin outfit while Allison and I had our turkey hats on! We brought a wagon for Cookie-she still has issues with her torn ACL in the knee(very much like our Joe Flacco, Ravens Qback). We tried pulling Cookie some of the way, especially up the hills, but she was not interested. She kept whining and jumping out. She desperately wanted to walk with us. Now she is paying for it since she is limping around the house.

Just like poor Scott too. He wore himself out this weekend with the race as well as rollerblading at work every day since Weds. And he got a whole year older this Friday. Happy 16th Birthday to Scott! We brought my mom over for his Bday dinner after picking him up from work. Allison made him a chocolate coconut cream pie(his request). It tasted just like a Girl Scout Samoa cookie. And  he was very excited to get a hoverboard,  It is basically a Segway without the handle, and he seems to have mastered it.  I am making him wear a helmet though, and he wants to see if he can ride it at the rink at work(not sure about that). He also wants to see if he can ride it to school(not sure about that either) The thing weighs a ton. He would have to haul it in to his locker. I am sure someone would think he was trying to smuggle in a bomb if he put it in a duffle bag to carry it around. And we think you need to be licensed to use one. At least he is covered with his driver's permit! We really don't want all the kids in the neighborhood asking to try it(don't want to be responsible for broken legs or clunked heads!) It takes some getting used to and good ankle strength!

We spent the rest of the weekend getting in some shopping. The family was off school and work on Weds, although Scott had to work at the roller rink and I was in at the nursing home. Allison did some dress shopping for an upcoming party next weekend at school with her roommate after dropping Scott off. And Tom treated everyone to a Hershey Bears Hockey game Weds night. They had a great time and enjoyed the overtime win. They did not enjoy the new high security screening before the game as they missed the first quarter standing in a very long line. Not sure how many terrroists have made their way to Hershey PA at this time. I stayed home and made stuffing after work as well as putting in my eye drops for pink eye and now rubbing on lotion to avoid getting scabies! We had a lovely scabies outbreak at our facility before the holidays. Never a dull moment!

Allison also spent the weekend getting caught up on some homework, and I put her to work helping me organize a computer photo slide show for my Dad for his memorial service this coming Christmas. Scott also had some homework to finish up this weekend, and even Tom had been on the computer completing online homework. Tom was recently in Chicago on business(glad he got home before the snow up there!). Now he will be traveling down to DC for the upcoming week for work.

On Saturday I enjoyed a special day with the family taking our Christmas photo. Afterwards we went out to lunch and to see the movie ending of The Hunger Games. In the evening, Scott went into work and Allison visited with her boyfriend Tyler and his family at his house. His family  put on a surprise  graduation party for him since he is a Senior and not interested in attending his school ceremony at the end of this winter semester.

On Sunday, Allison spent the morning working on her resume with Tom. She wants to send it in to Northrop for a possible internship next summer. She headed back to school after picking up her passengers for the return trip. I sent her off with an early St Nicks Day stocking as well as a few for her roommates. She also packed up a few holiday decorations for their condo. Scott was off to work in the afternoon after finishing up his homework. I dropped him off and then ran some errands, including having my new tires torque checked at Costco. Tom set up a few outdoor Christmas lights. Nothing too extravagant this year since we will be out of town. I also took down our Thanksgiving decorations. I was putting the candles in all the windows and noticed that a small lamp was left on in our spare bedroom. We had moved a pile of blankets off the guest bed to take it up to Allison's school condo and the blankets landed on the lamp. And they started burning! Along with the lampshade. Thank God I did not burn down our house!

Turkey Trot!

 We made it!

 Thanksgiving Dinner

 Happy 16th Bday Scott!

Unique gifts:
 Scotty O'Hotty Hot Sauce

 Hover Board

Later in the evening, we picked up Scott from work and then Tom and I enjoyed an evening out with our friend John and my fellow co worker, Ann. We headed to DC for dinner at a chinese buffet along with our neighbors and afterwards attended the Christmas Carol Dickens play at the historic Ford Theater where Lincoln was shot. John and I  attended the play several years ago along with Scott and Allison and thought it was an amazing experience. Tom was not able to come since he was traveling for business, So I thought he would enjoy this special program. I also gave our group a quick tour of the Lincoln museum in the basement during the intermission. They have the actual pistol that John Wilkes Booth used to kill Lincoln. And this time I noticed they have the suit Lincoln was wearing when he was killed, along with a blood stained pillow his head was lying on. They also had Lincoln's custom made size 14 shoes! And the actual theatre door to the balcony that Booth shimmied shut when he slipped in behind Lincoln.  And we got home in time for me to watch my recorded mid season finale of the Walking Dead.

All in all, a wonderful Holiday weekend. A big  Happy Birthday to sister in law Sheila Bozyk  who also celebrated her big day this past weekend.