Dec 3-Dec 9, 2018

Now I feel like the Holiday Season is in full swing!  Happy St Nick's Day!  I picked up our family Holiday photos last week from the JCPenny Portrait studio. Of course while I was there I just had to do some Christmas shopping! They had some great sales I couldn't resist.

 So I have started filling out my Christmas cards.  I also put up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Tom attempted the project over the weekend, however, every time he went outside it started to rain. Unfortunately, he headed out to California for work on Monday, so it was left up to me. I pulled out lights and strung them all along the bushes in the front of the house as well as placing new batteries in the candles for the windows. However, I was not going to climb up on huge ladders and hang lights from the eaves. Tom was not going to either since we plan on being gone over the holidays. But we wanted a little something festive outside. I also started bringing down other decorations for around the house. Allison decorated a large tree for our foyer and hung all her Hallmark Kittens, as well as various other cat type decorations. Every year Hallmark comes out with a new Kitten for Christmas ornament. Tom always gets the yearly Star Trek Hallmark ornament(two this year!) and I pick up the Hallmark Pony for Christmas(some type of rocking horse) for myself. Hallmark came out with an anniversary Star Trek Enterprise metal ship this year. They were sold out at the store, but I was able to order one online. I wanted it delivered to the store for free pick up, but they cancelled my order for some reason. They said they could not deliver it to the store, but you can pay to have it delivered to the house.  I filled out a pop up survey and complained and they called and said they were sorry! And they shipped it to our house for free! Guess it pays to fill out surveys sometimes!  We all open our stockings on Dec 6th-St Nick's Day. Our family started that tradition so we could use and enjoy our Holiday items before the holidays were over!  This year, only Allison and I were at home on St Nick's Day. Scott received his stocking over Thanksgiving break. Scott is enjoying his "Mario" and Video Game Control ornaments on his little tree at school. So we waited for Tom to return and celebrated on Sunday morning.

Last year, Hallmark had a sale on their Star Wars ornaments with a connecting power cord that plays out the entire Death Star fight scene between young Luke Skywalker and Darth Vadar. I picked it up for Tom and have been waiting all year to see what it does and if it works! It does and it is amazing! You feel like you are watching an enactment of the movie-of course, Tom helped by playing with all the pieces during the audio. And it lights up with different colors! Too cool. Can't wait to add more pieces!  And Tom needs to set up his own tree again this year for all his "space" ornaments-Star Wars and Star Trek.

Just one more week of classes for Scott. He had a paper due this week in Engineering that involved interviewing an Engineer(gee I wonder who he talked to). He also had a few final tests and lab report to do before settling in this past weekend to study for finals. Fortunately he only has 3 finals to worry about. And when he needed a study break, Allison logged onto the computer so they could try out a new online game and chat. They also enjoy logging onto webpages with online fandom drawing and video game production/cartooning. I guess that is the best way to describe it. Scott has been assisting with designs for an online video game programmer and can't wait for more free time to get back at it.

I did not get called into work this past week, so I had extra time, not only to hang up Christmas lights and start putting up decorations, but also to finish raking up the leaves!  They were wet and mushy, but easier to scoop up into bags. However, that was only the piles in the street. The county even sent out two separate trucks to clean out the sewers in front of our house(probably full of leaves!)  I also had quite a bit of leaves hiding under the bushes. And naturally I could not hang lights when there were piles of leaves hiding underneath!  I was glad I also did not have to work this week since I tweaked my hip climbing up and down the attic steps bringing down decorations and was having enough trouble walking!  I did however have to take my mom into an orthopedic appointment for her knee. She only had one knee replaced many years ago, and really needed to have surgery on the other, but she decided not to have it done.  It's too late now, so she has been getting cortisone injections to help with pain control. Last time she saw the MD, he recommended a new, 3 stage injection which basically puts a coating in between your joints. Like cartilage replacement! So I took Mom for her first injection. She did not seem too happy about the shot! Two more to go! I hope she forgets the experience. After her medical appointment, I took her back to the apartment and put an ice bag on her knee while we enjoyed some Mcdonalds for lunch and worked on her Christmas cards.

I also attended my last  free evening class on Mindfulness during the week, as well as continued to work on the orientation classes for my new job. Only one more to go! Allison also had some evening activities scheduled. She volunteered to be on the Girl Scout Gold Award board. The committee decides what projects would be approved for Gold Award recipients. They reviewed about 10 projects, and Allison was not too excited about the fact that one of the projects was approved, but did not seem to be worthy of a gold award. She said most of the women on the board have daughters whose projects were declined and they did not want to discourage anyone else. Allison's first project was declined, but she found a second one that was approved. And so could this girl. Allison was a bit frustrated and felt that the women were a bit wimpy. She will have another meeting next week!

She felt better about her volunteer work on Saturday morning at Northrop. The staff requested assistance putting on Breakfast with Santa at her facility. When the kids were little, Tom and I used to take them to Breakfast with Santa every year at his facility. Allison's facility needed extra help manning the arts and craft tables, so I joined her. We were in charge of the cookie decorating table. They even took a photo of us with Santa! The staff was very sweet and grateful for all our help. And they loved the fact that Allison and I dressed in Holiday clothes. We enjoyed donuts in the morning, and Allison was treated to Pizza Hut for lunch after the event. I had to leave early to attend the Girl Scout choir event at the German Village in downtown Baltimore Harbor. This time we sang on stage in the tent. I always enjoy shopping for German Christmas ornaments after the event and treating myself to a bratwurst with sauerkraut! Yum. I must have looked like I worked there because someone asked me where the latrines were. And another family joined me at the table while I was eating. They were visiting from Florida, so I gave them an update on tourist places here in Baltimore and DC. They were in town for their Great Uncles military funeral at Arlington. His body was transferred from a mass grave at Pearl Harbor. Very interesting. I filled them in on some of our history, including our military ships in the Harbor.

When I got home, Tom and I were invited to our neighbors for dinner. He had wanted to attend a Hershey Bears Hockey game(did you see their newsclip on the Teddy Bear toss. Each year, fans bring Teddy Bears to throw on the ice for collection for kids in hospitals. They had a record amount of Teddy Bears this year!). Anyway, he skipped the game to attend our neighbor's party. Turns out Tom and I were the only ones that could make it. We felt bad since they made so much food! Ribs, Salmon, shredded pork, lots of appetizers and we brought dessert-a delicious carrot cake. We had a great meal and visit. On Sunday, I was singing with the Girl Scout choir again at the Baltimore/Ohio Railroad museum. This time I picked up my mom and brought her with me. I have taken her to the event every year. She especially enjoys watching all the kids run around the trains and through the large Christmas tree with the train tunnel cut out. We also enjoyed walking around the train gardens. And the decorations are always amazing. I was able to take my mom's Christmas photo again!