Here are some photos of the WB house. Dad removed all the Cedars in front of the house. They were grown over the sidewalk. Dan and Jack Hezja recommended it. Mom is going to ask Uncle Joe what to plant instead. The outside of the house will be worked on in the spring. Also a shot of our new Media room. The patched ceiling in the mudroom.(needs painted). The sunroom(floor is buckled near the french doors and needs repaired). Also the Christmas EVe party at the Dugan's. Mostly shots of the women(guys would not sit still. But that is Patrick and his daughter standing behind Scott). Scott was not happy having to read The Night Before Christmas with Dugan's grandkids. Mrs Dugan in the back. And lined up, Mrs Dugan, Patrick's wife Monique, Allison, Mattie Dugan(Tim and Marti's daughter), a grandkid I don't know, Kelleigh Dugan and Mom on the couch. Kathleen

So we should be on the road and arriving in Michigan right about now, but the weather had other plans. A lovely blizzard blew in across our western mountain range all the way up to New York. We opted to wait until tomorrow when the roads should be clear for safer travel. Plus it gave me an extra day to get a hair cut and pack the sled(car). And pass out invites to Scott's  upcoming 13th bday party and White Elephant party(before the decorations come down). And there is always something that needs wrapped!

We have been working very hard at getting ready for the holidays. Last Sunday I took the family for their St Nick's Day surprise present, a trip to the Ford theater in DC to see A Christmas Carol. Unfortunately Tom was not able to join us as he had to travel out to LA. He has spent the last two weeks of work in LA, although he probably could have skipped this last week since they cancelled all the meetings. And he could have seen the play with us too! Instead, I invited our good friend John Dutton(moved from LA) to join the kids and I. He was very excited to see a piece of our history. We first enjoyed dinner out with our neighbors Dan and Gloria. They both have seen the play several times in the past, but really enjoy the whole experience. The Ford Theater was shut down for a few years while they remodeled. It now has a very nice museum in the basement. We did not have time to read and see all the displays before the play, so we will have to go back again(and take Tom too). There is also the house where Lincoln was taken after he was shot directly across the street. It also is a museum, but was closed Sunday night. It was amazing to see the box seat where Lincoln was shot, as well as the gun used by Booth. Our own Ellicott City was frequented by John Wilkes Booth as he was an actor and was often seen in plays in our local theater. So plenty of history to go around.

We also spent the day at church with Scott Altar serving, and then Allison and I were off to sing at my workplace in the nursing home. Everyone loves seeing me doing something besides torturing the patients!

And the day before, Tom and I attended a luncheon with the American Legion as they presented Allison with a beautiful plaque from her time spent at the Girls Nation camp this summer. She had to give an impromptu speech and talked about her great experience at the school, and how she wrote about the opportunity in her college essay, which by the way helped her get accepted into Salisbury University! So now we are 2 for 2! And even better, she received a scholarship to attend Salisbury as well! Her last choice is U of Maryland, but she is leaning towards Salisbury and their business school.

She also spent some time last week with her NHS team shopping for gifts for their Adopted FAmily
and afterwards wrapping the presents. She just wished she could have convinced the team to eat chinese food afterwards! She couldn't spend too much time with them anyway as she had to get to work.

Scott unfortunately did not have quite as successful a week. He missed out on his opportunity to join the Jr. NHS. His school raised the GPA, and his B's and A's didn't cut it. He was also rather disappointed in his Lego club competition as his coach allowed the whole team to try programming the robot on the day of the competition regional try outs. Needless to say, it was a disaster as Scott is really the only one who knows how to program the robot! They did get a very nice medal. But now they don't get to go on to the regional finals. SCott did enjoy seeing some of the amazing robot designs. And maybe next year the coach will be better prepared. Tom had to step in for her last year when she broke her ankle while riding horses in Costa Rica, so this was really her first competition.

Scott did spend some time this past week signing up for a new Boy Scout Troop. We joined the new troop for their year end party and I dropped off the paperwork. They are very excited to give him his new patches. And he has been very busy with the school choir. The choir performed at the school Christmas pageant. I was sorry Tom and I missed it. Allison sat through it(twice) since she is doing her internship at the school. She also brought home some wonderful gift cards from all the Kindergarten parents! That was so sweet of them.

I am sure everyone is feeling sad and upset about the event that occurred in the elementary school in Newtown.  Not only that, but we had the whole end of the world thing to deal with on Friday. Looks like we made it, but there were crazy threats here in the Maryland public schools that had parents keeping their kids home. Not mine. Allison had a math test on Friday, and SCott had a half day and went off on a play date with his friend Sammy. Since we did not go to Michigan today, they had an opportunity to go ice skating too. Allison and Scott especially had a great time!  And Allison was able to drive Scott to the rink, so I had lots of time to pack.

Lately I have been busy hosting parties. We had our neighbors over last night to exchange gifts. They have been overly generous, and recently gave me two Snow Baby statues-"To Grandmas's House we Go" and St Nick. (photos above). Last weekend they had all of the neighbor's over to their house. It is just one big party city over here!

I also had my Girl Scouts over for an end of year Holiday party. They played pictionary-guessing Christmas movies. They watch too many movies cause they were really good at it. They also had a cookie exchange, and White Elephant gift exchange.

So we will let you know how our vacation turns out. We plan on going to a Christmas eve party at my parent's friends house-The Dugans. And we'd like to go skiing with our friends, The Hejzas. And Allison wants a tour of MSU(again) if we have time.

So Have a Very Merry Christmas! We will be back before New Years. And a Very Happy Birthday to Linda Seitz!

I also included a photo of Allison's plaque from the American Legion. It was fun hanging out with all the old folks and eating great food at their holiday luncheon(reminded me of work!).And I included the box seats where Lincoln was shot in the Ford Theatre. The seats were right over the stage. You could almost picture JW Booth jumping out of the box seats to the stage below. Also the gun used(a Deringer with one shot only). Now you know why I wanted the family to see the Lincoln movie.

Happy St Nick' s Day and Remember Pearl Harbor!

  Another busy week. Our family enjoyed a visit from St Nick last week,  especially since he brought us all stockings full of great stuff! Including our yearly ornaments. Where would Tom be without his Star Trek collectables. They just put out their 25th Anniversary ornament! Yee Gads! We are getting old! More on that later. And Tom's lottery scratcher card won 20 bucks! So he donated the money to Allison and her National Honor society as they are collecting money to buy food and holiday gifts for our homeless shelter. Each student is expected to collect 40 bucks so she is halfway there.

  And Scott and I had a terrific scouting overnight experience Friday night on board the US Coast Guard ship The Taney. I did not realize that the Coast Guard is commissioned by the Navy in time of war and the TAney is the last surviving CG ship of WII. It was stationed in Hawaii and fought in Pearl Harbor. It was docked on Pier 6 next to a power plant in Hawaii and defended the power plant supplying the whole base. Now it is moored near the old Baltimore power plant on Pier 6! And we got to visit on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. We headed down with the troop on Friday night and had a pizza dinner made in the galley. Pretty good. Then we had a tour of the ship and played a scavenger hunt game as well as learned about how the ship operated and the difference between American and Japanese fighter planes(don't want to shoot down the wrong one!). It was lights out at 10pm after a quick run to our battle stations. Scott had the bridge(funny, not the engine room!).  Then we crawled into our 3 bed high bunks. Myself and one other mom showed up with two Boy Scout troops of about 50 boys and men. So we had the officer's bathrooms and a space all to ourselves. The boys were all cozy in the center of the ship. The only thing that woke us up at night was the noisy heating system as the pipes would bang clear throughout the ship. Then it was on deck at 6am after eggs and bacon breakfast. We learned about the engine room and the big guns that shot down Japanese planes. The ammo weighs 55lbs each. And the boys were assigned to Weapons and Damage control, so they had to learn how to shore up a hole if the ship took a hit. They had to work together to figure out how to use 5 pieces of wood to block off a "leaking" hatch. One team managed to figure it out before we all drowned! All in all, a spacious but tight ship. I don't think I will be signing up for the Coast Guard. I  especially don't think I can get used to the whistle call! We were done by 9am Saturday morning after hoisting the flag, and then headed to Starbucks. Both Scott and I had a really great time.  Don't think Tom would have liked sleeping in the 6ft long bunks with a 3ft clearance. I really felt bad for one of the Dads who was 6'5". Not sure how he did it. But there were a few adults that were creaking and moaning over their breakfast after crawling out of their sleeping bags.

We then had plenty of time to get some homework done during the day while Allison went off to work on Saturday afternoon. When she got home, we all headed out to dinner with our neighbors and then to our very favorite(and free) Army Jazz Band Christmas Concert at a local high school. They always put on such a terrific show.

Sunday morning was wet and rainy, and Tom had to get up early and fly out to LA. Hopefully he will be able to see Mike this week. I spent the day working with Scott on a map of the US study guide. He has to know all the states and their capitals for an upcoming test by memory. Yuck. Allison had to work in the evening, and then run over for her first Indoor Field Hockey game. She could not make the first game of the night, so she had a sub. So I dropped off her goalie gear at the gym. It was certainly a nasty night to be out driving. Allison was miserable by the time she got home(does not like driving in yucky weather).
And their team lost both games so not a good start to her season.

Allison has been so busy with school work, we had to miss the GS choir concerts at the local nursing homes during the week. It is just too hard to drive the beltway too after work and get to the nursing homes on time to sing. So we are saving up our time for the weekend events.

I did have a GS Leader meeting on Weds though and I had to drop off our Troops gift boxes for the Homeless shelter. I also brought a few goodies to share, so I had to heat up some horsdoevres before running off to the meeting. (right after work). And I had to miss the Mom's Ornament Exchange party. I never can seem to get to that party.

But I did manage to get to the Mother's Tea on Friday morning(opted out of aquatics class). I always enjoy this event. One of the school's families owns this restaurant where they host the Mother's Holiday Tea. Also happens to be our new favorite night time dinner restaurant. We ate there on Saturday night-quick service, good food, low cost. What more can you ask for. And I always enjoy a cup of coffee and some pastries at the Mother's Tea. And I just happened to win a door prize too! Plus we always get a little ornament. A nice way to start the day. I also had the opportunity to chat it up with the new Vice Principal(who loves Scott by the way and Disney and sadly just lost her husband to cancer). She was very sweet and we could have talked Disney all day. Especially since the new Test Track ride opened that day at Epcot and not to mention the new Fantasy Land at DisneyWorld. Just have to schedule another trip!

But I had to get going to my Foot doctor appointment(getting old stuff). Seems I developed plantar fasciitis this summer-too much hiking in sandals and my heel has been hurting since. Looks like I am getting fallen arches(getting old). So now I have to do the exercises and look for even more expensive shoes than my LLBeans. (no arch support). Or buy the expensive support and stick it in my expensive shoes. Getting old is expensive! And I so want to be done with sinus problems.

So we all survived another week. Allison is busy putting on presentations to classes on her current research project at the school and her Kindergartners are getting ready for the Holidays. Allison had to read them "The Night Before Christmas". They had it memorized.  They really love having her in the class. Scott loves her giving him a ride home after school. Allison is also building a toothpick bridge for a physics project. Tom loved it since he is the master of toothpick bridge building-Allison is sick of bridges. She is also busy playing Christmas piano music for us (on a half working electric keyboard).

Scott's Lego group is wrapping up the details and will have their robotic tournament next week. 

Here is Allison's Kindergarten class with Allison and the official teacher, Mrs Oltmanns reading The Night Before Christmas.

And here are some photos from our overnight on the Taney. The galley, and the troop on deck. Posing in front of the gun and the ammo. Sleeping quarters and the Officers's board room with our guide Chief Dan(right side), a marine who lives on the ship.

So we are winding down the year. Back to my Christmas cards. Look for them in the mail(just don't watch our Ravens anymore). Kathleen

Wow-Has it been two weeks already? The Holiday season is fast upon us!  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We started out our Turkey day with a mini Turkey Trot in our neighborhood. Allison was up in front running with most of the high school boys track team that live in our neighborhood. Scott and I walked behind with Cookie. It was just such a nice day and a great way to start the holiday weekend. Especially since our neighborhood collected food for the local homeless shelter. And we did not have to prepare the big meal as our neighbors once again invited us to their house. Tom did cook an extra turkey on the grill which came in handy for leftover Seitz casserole that weekend. We even made an extra pan for the neighbors. So we did do a little bit of cooking! After our turkey dinner, we enjoyed the football game and called it a day. Both Allison and I had to work on Friday. Tom got brave and ventured out to the early shopping hours, starting at midnight at Best Buy. I don't think he found anything too interesting.  He also went out early Friday morning. He did manage to get us a very nice artificial tree though. We decided to opt out of the live tree this year since we are going to spend Christmas in Michigan. So we are slowly putting away the Turkey decorations and putting up the Christmas decorations. I also managed to get out and do a little shopping on my own-birthday returns and Christmas shopping.

Meanwhile, Scott couldn't wait to celebrate his birthday so he could get started on the new video games he had on his wish list.  So Friday night when Allison and I got home from work we took him out to dinner and then he opened up his gifts. Minus the cake. We decided to save that for his actual Birthday on Tuesday. He and Tom then spent the weekend putting up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Tom skipped the lights on the roof line since we were not going to be home as much to enjoy them. A random neighbor stopped Allison in the driveway to report that she brings her family by our house every Christmas to enjoy our lights and she wanted to know what was going on. Why did we only have half the lights up this year! Tom said he would be happy to hand her the ladder! I told Tom he needs to keep up with the neighbor's expectations when it comes to decorating.

Allison and I got into the Christmas spirit early by singing with the GS choir at the Festival of the Christmas Trees-a hospital fund raiser for kids. We enjoy that performance especially since  we were on the smaller stage and just had fun singing Holiday songs for an hour. Afterwards Allison and I walked around looking at all the decorated trees and wreaths as well as the gingerbread houses. We also did some shopping at the booths. We had to get Allison to work though that evening, so it was a quick visit.

We also tried to catch some of the new movies that were released over Thanksgiving weekend. Allison and I enjoyed the Twilight movie, and I took Tom and Scott and our neighbors to the Lincoln movie. I wanted the family to see it before we attend a special event in December(more later). Allison had to work though, so she missed it. Tom did not want to see the movie, but ended up enjoying it in spite of himself. He also wanted to catch Skyfall-still on our To Do list. But 2 out of 3 of the top selling movies for the weekend isn't bad!

When Scott's actual Birthday rolled around, we celebrated with awesome cupcakes from Sam's Club. Tom is not a huge dessert guy, but he absolutely fell in love with these cupcakes. So did the rest of the family. I guess because they were more cake than frosting, like these new designer cupcakes are from the bakeries. And the price was good. About a buck a cupcake. They were so good, I picked up two more dozen to take in to work for our volunteer's birthday and for a fellow co worker. Work people loved them too. I actually had staff members following me around campus begging for cupcakes.

Good thing I was able to get to the gym on Friday after all these birthday and holiday desserts! I also survived my yearly physical, although they sent me for a CAT scan since I am still having problems with this sinus stuff.

On Friday night I joined Allison for her End of the Season Field Hockey party. Allison already earned her Varsity letter last year, but we were amazed to hear that the coach picked Allison as The Player of the Year. She chose Allison for her improvement in her goalie skills as well as her dedication to the team and hard work. So she got a nice trophy and I think the news blew the other girls away! The goalie coach wants Allison to try out for a college Field Hockey team, but that certainly is a big commitment.

This weekend the Holiday festivities continued as Allison and I participated in a Christmas Parade with the GS choir on Saturday. On Sunday we sang for an hour at the B and O RAilroad museum. Allison and I then enjoyed our train ride with Santa. I also had to squeeze in our family Christmas photo on Sunday morning. 

On Saturday Allison and I stopped off to pick up a gift card at a chinese restaurant for one of my coworkers. We decided to have lunch and afterwards we walked out to a radio station promotion for the RAvens. WE met McPhee, one of the players and got free autographs, Raven tshirts, lottery scratch off tickets and gift cards just for saying Hi!

The kids of course have also been busy with school. Allison just finished her first semester and is off running on the second semester. Scott's school runs a little later and he finished his first semester at Thanksgiving.  So lots of papers and tests to study for, and Allison had to give a power point presentation on her research project to a class at another high school. We also sent off another college application over Thanksgiving weekend.

Scott's school choir entertained the families at BArnes and Noble on Monday evening with a holiday concert. The school has a fund raiser event at the bookstore every year as well as a restaurant fund raiser so we all ate out at Pizzeria Uno afterwards. Even less cooking for me!

So Happy Birthday to Scott-he turned the big 13!  And a Special Happy Birthday to Sheila Bozyk too! (she is not 13).

Included are photos from the Christmas tree festival where Allison and I sang with the GS choir. I put in my favorite trees, including the Zombie tree and the Everything Balmore tree from my workplace, like Big Hair Hon, Natty Boh beer and Crabs, (that tree won a ribbon), gingerbread row houses in Baltimore with our Domino Sugar factory in the harbor, the Baltimore and Ohio RAilroad museum where Allison and I sang,  as well as Allison's Field Hockey award given to her by the coach and end of the season party. And Turkey Trot with Cookie in her pumpkin costume(not just for Halloween!). And you never know who or what is going to be in our Christmas parade! This year it was a Santa Tortoise!