So last weekend we started packing up the indoor Christmas decorations and putting them up in the attic. We had a perfect day to get it done too. Saturday we had another ice storm. Fortunately it was not quite as bad as the last storm. A great day to stay indoors and do paperwork, housecleaning and watch movies.

But not for Scott. He actually headed out on Friday night for a weekend camping trip with the Scouts at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Allison and I dropped him off on Friday evening after he got home from school, finished his homework and ate dinner. The weather was actually rather mild on Friday night. He didn't have anything scheduled at camp, so he spent some time on his computer working on an upcoming school paper.  On Saturday the Troop was up early and off to Merit Badge classes. This program was set up as a STEM event-Science/Technology/Engineering and Math. Scott signed up for two computer Merit Badges. He was fascinated by the Naval Academy's Engineering program, but most importantly he enjoyed their lunch! Unfortunately since the weather turned he was quite miserable since he had to sleep in his tent in the freezing rain. He bundled up with multiple hand warmers and managed to survive but came home Sunday with a horrible cold. After a hot shower he got busy on his paper.

Tom spent Sunday at a Hershey Hockey Game with our college friend Matt Wagner. Matt has fallen on hard times and struggles with recovery from his drug and alcohol abuse. He retired from his business -a partner in an Accounting Firm since his health has deteriorated. He is divorced from our friend Diana. She still lives in their house with their two boys. The boys both work in local restaurants. Tom was happy to have had time to catch up with Matt, give him some moral support as he attempts to recover and enjoy the hockey game. We wish him the best.

Since Tom and Allison were gone on Sunday afternoon, I decided to have Mom B over for dinner with Scott and myself. Afterwards we gave Mom's best friend, Jerry Dugan from Michigan, a phone call to wish her Happy Birthday. It was wonderful catching up with her and their family and letting Mom say hello. Mom is usually out of her apartment so she often misses phone calls. We were looking through some Bozyk family photo albums as well since we recently learned that mom's younger cousin in law on my Dad's side passed away last year. It can be hard to keep up with all the extended family members when everyone is spread throughout the country. I try to update the Family Tree on the computer as much as I can.

Allison had hoped to join Tom at the hockey game Sunday afternoon. Instead she spent her evening visiting with Tyler since Tom went with Matt. Allison

has been enjoying her time off work, visiting with friends and helping her roommate celebrate her 22nd BDay.  But also she has been productive in updating her resume and sending it out for some possible job internships this summer. She even registered for the GRE exam which she has to take as part of the admission process for the Masters Business Program which she is applying to starting next Fall. She is looking to get accepted into the MBA program at Salisbury after graduating with a BS in Business Management this coming May. I have been busy registering Scott for his upcoming SAT exam for college. We have also started to review his classes for his Senior year in High School. Hard to believe we have to start thinking about next year already.

Scott has started  squeezing in a few hours with his Robotics Team. The group has been busy designing their robot and working on a model. Final competition is in March. We also helped out at his Boy Scout meeting  with an Open House. Not a lot of Cub Scouts attended, but it gave Tom some free time to sit in on an Eagle review board meeting. That way we will know the types of questions that Scott has to answer when he is ready for his review board meeting with the council. I mostly enjoyed catching up with the other scout moms while checking in any visiting cub scouts. Scott mostly enjoys visiting with his friends while teaching younger scouts how to tie knots.

So we were back into our usual routine at the start of a New Year last week. I did not realize that for most of the world, the 1st Monday of January was a Holiday. Not for Scott and I. Scott had to go to school as our county was  the only one  in the state that did not give the kids the day off and I went to work. Tom and Allison enjoyed their day off.  Now we have Allison at home on Winter Break which is a treat!  It is so nice to have someone around helping with dinner, dishes, running errands, picking up Scott from school and most importantly, keeping Cookie company during the day and taking her for walks! I even took Allison to my swim aerobics class on Friday morning. She is trying to keep up her with her fitness program in preparation for Spring Ultimate Frisbee. And with that, she has scheduled multiple medical exams to make sure she is on top of things. So she has spent her time off running around to different medical offices. However, we decided this past weekend would be a good time to meet her boyfriend's family. We invited Tyler and his parents, along with his college age sister over to the house for dinner on Saturday night.

I dragged Allison off to the store to shop for groceries on Friday, and Saturday was cleaning and prep day. Tom had already taken down our Christmas lights outside the house, but I asked him to leave the holiday decorations up inside the house one more weekend for our company. Although it was quite chilly outside, with 1-2 inches of snow that morning, we still decided to grill steaks. Dinner turned out well and we really enjoyed chatting with Tyler's family. His parents live near Towson, north of Baltimore and are originally from Maryland. His Dad works in Hydraulics and his Mom is the East Coast Rep. for Scholastic Book Sales in the school systems. Tyler's sister is attending college in Pennsylvania for Business school studying Finance. His older brother lives in Phoenix. We had a wonderful evening and I think they especially enjoyed Cookie and Pika since they are pet people too. Just wish I could have had Cookie's grooming done before the visit. She was looking a bit shaggy, but I dropped her off on Sunday for a Mid Winter trim. She looks so much better now.  Tyler also just moved two large twin black cats into his apartment and his family has a dog and cat also. They are music people too-Tyler originally was a music major and plays guitar and used to sing in the choir in high school.  His sister plays piano and sings in an Acopella group at her college.  They often travel up to Pennsylvania to hear her sing. It was nice to have them all over. Tyler is busy working, so Allison doesn't get to spend too much time visiting(or vice versa) on her Winter Break.

Allison and I did take some time off to go see the new movie "Hidden Figures". Allison was actually interested in seeing the movie and I was coming along for the popcorn. Turns out we both really loved the movie. It involves the black women working for NASA during the start of the space program in the 1960s as Computers. They were the ones(called Computers) that assisted with all the computations by hand for the space flights until the IBMs were set up. And it turns out one of the ladies ended up running the computers. So the history was interesting and the story line was great, especially since it takes place at NASA in Langley, VA.  Meanwhile, Scott was back to his Boy Scout meetings, work schedule with new training sessions and his Robotics Team. Tom is also busy with his new online class and is actually enjoying this term. There is a lot more interaction with the professor and classmates.

Besides taking Cookie to the groomer, I spent Sunday afternoon visiting with Mom. We were busy going through all her jewelry and putting away some summer clothes at her apt to make room for all her new winter clothes.

We also start the New Year with a Happy Birthday to Mom Seitz!  

On the first official day of Winter Break, Monday morning, we packed up our mini van, dropped off the dog to neighbors and picked up Mom B and headed down the road. Tom was in no big hurry to get to Williamsburg VA since we planned on visiting Busch Gardens on Tuesday. We had thought about stopping into the new MGM casino that opened at the National Harbor by DC and maybe getting in a little gambling along our way while taking in the Holiday decorations, but Scott really can't get into the casino being underage, and I reminded Tom that the casino just opened meaning packed with people. So we opted out of that idea. We also thought about visiting the Gaylord Hotel next door to MGM and walking through the carved ICE display. We went many years ago with both my parents-a display of carved ice sculptures, usually with a theme and colored or clear. They actually give you an extra coat to wear while you walk through the indoor displays since it is so cold. So noone felt like walking through a cold display of ICE either, so we just kept on the road. Unfortunately, so did most of the East Coast. The freeway was packed all the way down to Richmond. This is usually a 3.5 hr drive which took us 7 hrs! We tried to see if the traffic would thin out later in the day by stopping for lunch and a visit to Costco to return some of our Christmas items and pick up some replacement items, but no such luck. No matter, we arrived in Williamsburg in the evening and checked into our hotel. All the hotels in the area were Sold Out! Good thing we planned ahead. Tom and the kids picked up some pizza nearby as Mom and I settled into our hotel room for the night.

On Tuesday, Tom and the kids spent the morning shopping at the outlet stores before we headed over to Busch Gardens. The park opened in the afternoon for the Christmas program. We started our day at the park with a few shows including an amazing production of Scrooge and a beautiful songfest of the Nativity called Gloria. We loved all the Christmas lights-they have added so many more in the park from our last visit many, many years ago with Tom's parents. Each section of the park was decorated with pine trees and color coded for each section like blue, purple, green, etc. We enjoyed a train ride around the park to catch all the lights. And Mom was able to get around easily in her power scooter that we packed.  We stopped for a big post Christmas dinner in the park with ham, chicken, ribs, and beef tenderloin along with a dessert buffet including chocolate cake, apple strudel, pumpkin and gingerbread cheesecake. Yum! We also loved shopping in the German Christmas village and Allison tried some warm, German wine, called Gluhwein in a small souvenir stein. The park was getting pretty busy in the evening and crowded. Some of the shows were standing room only. And the weather was actually fairly warm, so much so that they cancelled the outdoor ice skating show! We missed the olympic skaters, but it was time to head out. We were all pretty worn out by 9pm and the park closed at 10. Overall, we had a wonderful day and the weather was perfect.

On Weds we packed up and stopped into a local museum in Yorktown. Allison had recently visited the facility on a school outing to learn about the American Revolution with her roommate Jen, a history major. Yorktown recently opened a brand new museum depicting the history of the battle at Yorktown, the last major battle against the British in the Revolutionary War. Not only did they build a museum, but recreated an outdoor colonial village. It is actually still under construction, so we did not see the entire display, but were fascinated with the colonial houses and watched volunteers dressed in period garb cooking and making candles. There was also a military encampment and we learned about a soldier's life, with 6 to a tent(small tent), playing colonial games, watching a long rifle shooting demonstration and listening to the army surgeon's daily tasks of keeping the men alive(if able). Our favorite was watching the kids chase the ducks and chickens around the grounds(and vice versa). We stopped in the middle of the visit to have lunch at a nearby tavern that Allison discovered on her school tour. After closing down the museum, we headed out to Virginia Beach.

We stayed in the same hotel on the beach that we visited in the summer. Needless to say it was a bit more chilly! Instead of swimmers and sunbathers, they had Christmas lights set up along the beach strand and cars were driving through!  It was a beautiful sight from our hotel balcony. Tom and Kids went out exploring and came back with some nachos to nibble on. On Thursday we woke up to rain and fog. We decided to spend the day indoors at a local Navy museum. We drove to Norfolk to visit the Nauticus. This museum mixes a bit of information on the coast and sealife, along with Naval history. And they have a Battleship berthed at the pier! The Battleship Wisconsin is permanently retired and you can access the ship from the 2nd floor of the building. Mom was able to drive her scooter right onto the ship and cruise around the tremendous, wooden deck. We even ran into some Michigan residents from Bloomfield Hills(MSU baseball cap gave them away). Tom and the kids climbed up and down the different decks to explore the gun turret as well as the dining area and bunks below. Scott and I have slept on several Navy ships before with the Boy Scouts, but nothing of this size. The Wisconsin was active in WWI and WWII as well as reinstated for the Kuwait/Iraq war. Again we closed down the museum and stopped into the Movie Tavern on the way back to the hotel to catch dinner and a viewing of SING(which I really loved!). Quite a full day.

On Friday we packed up and took a stroll down the beach strand before heading out. It was much sunnier, but cold and breezy so we didn't stroll long! We decided to head back through the eastern shore and drop into Salisbury. Usually the traffic is much lighter but the ride is longer. Turns out there was no traffic along the route and we stopped into Allison's condo to drop off some items before stopping for dinner. However, we managed to catch a 4 car accident while crossing the Bay Bridge and we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours while they Medivaced accident victims via helicopter to a nearby hospital. We sat in the dark and watched the helicopters land and take off from the bridge while snacking on pretzels and cookies. So we did not get back home early, but did get home in time to drop Mom off to her apartment.

That left the New Year's Eve weekend free for celebrating! Our neighbors had already planned a Progressive Dinner party Saturday night. We had dessert covered as well as entertainment. So just a bit more cleaning, unpacking the mini van and picking up Cookie from the neighbors. I had already bought the desserts and plates, so we just had to lay out the party and head to our first stop. We had appetizers at one house-very nice. I could have just stayed there and eaten more than enough. But we were on our way to the dinner portion of the party. A wonderful meal of chili and ham. I made a crock pot full of mixed beans to go with the meal. Allison met us for dinner. She had been spending the day at her boyfriend's apartment. Tyler was hosting a guy's video game up all night party. So Allison spent the day playing a few games and helping Tyler set up his party. She was not as interested in participating in an all night guy fest. Instead she enjoyed visiting with one of her friends at the party. Same for Scott. He hung out with our neighbor's son Bryce, also in 11th grade. After dinner we headed to our house for dessert and to swap White Elephant gifts. Afterwards the kids talked us into playing Cards Against Humanity(a really obnoxious form of Apples to Apples). And the next thing you know we were watching the ball drop in New York City and popping off  bottles of champagne and noisemakers for the New Year. Then the bad part of being the last party house is that half of the guests don't leave! We did not clear the house until 2am. Fortunately we were able to sleep in on Sunday.

That was the day I headed over to visit with Mom at her place,  take down all her Christmas decorations and drop off her laundry. I also spent some time paying her bills, although no mail on Monday. Scott spent the day catching up on his Chemistry assignments(no rest for the weary). He even took worked on his assignment while we were traveling. Since the weather was so nice, Tom decided to spend the day taking down all the Christmas lights from the outside of the house. So did most of the neighbors. I miss the lights already-it is a lot darker out.

So Christmas is finally here! I still had some last minute shopping to do, and Christmas cards to send out, and food to purchase and gifts to wrap. I managed to help my mom finish up her Christmas cards on Sunday after our Girl Scout choir program ended. I still had to get my cards in the mail, and a few packages. I also had to squeeze in a trip to the doctor for a quick blood pressure check. Fortunately I got good marks at the doctor's office.

Tom spent a few days in Pittsburgh working on a project, but thought he would be done for the rest of the year. Not sot. He ended up working right up to Friday before Christmas. He also was finishing up an online exam from his PhD program. He wanted to get ahead so he would not have to worry about homework over Christmas break. Scott also had school right up until Friday. He had to turn in his History video that he had been working so hard on these past few months. He also had to turn in all his gifts that he purchased and wrapped for the NHS service project. And he had a few quizzes and tests before the week was over. But he really enjoyed his outing to the UTZ potato chip factory in Pennsylvania with his Engineering class. They went on the trip to see how the mechanics of the factory works. He liked the outing, but it put him back one day in school so he had some work to make up.

We also made some extra goodies, chocolate dipped pretzels and cookies, that we brought to the end of the year Boy Scout Court of Honor ceremony on Weds night. The boys made some crafts, received awards, put on skits and then we had a buffet dinner. Again I was already stuffed since we had a wonderful luncheon at work that day. Last year we had terrific gifts from work, raffled off to employees. I actually won an Ipad last year This year things have been a little tighter in the budget, so everyone received a lottery scratch off ticket and a Walmart gift card. And they skipped the facility wide game-Guess that Holiday Movie or Song. Last time they had the contest I was banned from playing since I kept winning. But lunch was very nice and I won a dollar on my scratch off. Works for me! Our rehab dept also was a bit behind on decorations this year, but we did manage to get something up on our rehab door. We hung a black tablecloth over the door with a red ball in the center and the words "Rudolph In the Dark". Nothing too fancy. And we all traded little goodies with each other. I made up Dessert bags for each of the Rehab staff members which included, of course, chocolate dipped pretzels and cookies(which they loved!) in little, plastic ziploc containers. Which they also loved.

Allison meanwhile was spending the week before Christmas at home fulfilling her jury duty!  She was summoned in the Fall and tried to get out of it by letting them know she was away at school. No matter, they rescheduled her over Winter Break! So she ended up at the court house on Monday morning, but they sent her home. She also showed up on Tuesday and was sent home. By Weds she was dismissed completely with her $15. Perfect! So she did not have to worry about getting stuck on a case over her Holiday break. Thank goodness. Now she could just concentrate on enjoying herself. Instead, she also caught a very bad cold. But not before she spent a day visiting Tyler again with his cats. She did help me run a few errands on Saturday morning-Christmas Eve! I had a few more presents to pick up and errands to run-the bank and post office before picking up Mom B. I also had to pack up Mom's suitcase for our upcoming trip. Tom and Scott were on a mission early in the morning. We bought a new recliner chair for the family room and it was ready for pick up. So Tom and Scott headed over to the warehouse to get our new chair. We 3 girls decided to  take a break and visit the nail salon for a little pampering before heading out to Christmas dinner and church. We love to attend Christmas mass at the Cathedral at Charlestown Retirement Community. We had an early dinner(Chinese of course) before heading to the 7pm mass. Nice thing about Retirement communities is that the majority of the residents  attend the earlier 3pm mass. So the 7pm mass was not crowded at all, the music was incredible, and Allison and I carried up the gifts! I haven't done that since grade school! I even ran into a few of my old patients and their families from my previous workplace. After mass we drove around the neighborhoods to enjoy the Christmas lights before dropping Mom off to her apartment.

On Christmas morning our family opened up our  presents while I made breakfast casserole. Everyone was very happy with Santa's gifts, and then it was time to clean up. I put together a few snacks for a light lunch in the afternoon including pierogies and smoked salmon, and then got started on Christmas dinner. Of course we decided on ham and mashed potatoes. Sadly we caught the Raven's football game prior to dinner and since they lost to the Steelers (boo)we won't be seeing any more of their games this year. I also picked up Mom for Christmas dinner at our house in the afternoon and then we enjoyed cheesecake for dessert while Mom opened her gifts. Before you knew it, we were dropping Mom off back to her place and finishing packing for our scheduled trip to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach the next day.

We are closer to Christmas and I have been busy trying to work on my Christmas cards, Gift purchases and preparing Christmas treats!  My voice was slowly returning-it freaked everyone out at work to hear me in a low, scratchy voice. But I made it to work with lots of cough drops. We had our Rehab Christmas Lunch outing on Weds afternoon. We decided to go out to lunch at a local tavern. We had hoped to get all our patients treated early in the day, and then go out and be done for the day. But our schedule did not work out. We were busy at work so we just took a break during the day. We also decided to exchange Secret Santa gifts which was fun. I got Movie Tickets along with some Walking Dead socks and pens. I was thrilled! My Secret Santa asked for a Target Gift Card, but I threw in some of Tom's homemade Gin and Amaretto. We had a very enjoyable lunch outing, but my celebrating was not over yet.

After I got off work I headed over  to Mom's place for a Christmas Open House. Sunrise sets up Hor s Douevres tables and they had plenty of food! Pastas, Roast Beef, Sausage and Sauerkraut, Quiche, Shrimp, Fruit and Veggie plates along with a dessert bar. And my favorite, a liquor bar! Not only did I have a spiked Egg Nog, the Activity Director introduced me to a whole new drinking experience. A drink called Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It involves mixing RumChata and Fireball Cinnamon Flavored Whiskey. Wow. I still had some Christmas shopping to do that night, so I had to put my drinks in To Go cups. I also got to take home the table decoration-a bottle of Red Wine. I sure do enjoy the events at my Mom's place.

I have also been busy trying to catch up with last minute appointments before the year ends. Mom and I both had dentist appointments. Tom already squeezed in an appointment for Scott, and Allison had an overhaul earlier in the year. She is looking to schedule having her wisdom teeth out sometime next year. I also had to meet with my Mom's broker to review her finances. Last year Tom shared some of his homemade gin with our broker Peter and now he is hooked. So naturally I had to drop off a few more small bottles as Thank Yous. And I dropped off some flowers and a tray of Costco cookies to the Nursing staff at Mom's place. I have been a busy little elf. I also made up gift bags for several of our residents at the nursing home for presents on Christmas day. Many of our residents do not have family or have limited income, so we staff members usually adopt a few people and buy them gifts. .

And Scott was squeezing in his elf work too. We both went shopping for his Adopt A Family as a service project for the National Honor Society. He had to pick up a few gifts for several kids and then wrap them. We had fun in the toy aisle at Walmart. We have not been toy shopping in quite awhile, so it was fun to look at all the kid's stuff and try to figure out what they would like. Scott picked out a huge dump truck for a 2 year old boy, an UNO blaster card game for the 7 yr old girl, and ponies and puppies for the 5 yr old girl. Then Scott was busy buying White Elephant gifts for his school friends. We both enjoyed our shopping experience together late Friday night.

Scott wished he could just concentrate on the fun stuff, but he was still busy with school work. He has been working hard on his History Video, and he also had to read an extra book for English class. He was able to choose the book, so we talked him into reading "The Lord of the Flies". We felt he should not miss out on this traditional high school experience. And his class was also reading about slavery in colonial America. One of the assignments was to reproduce a spiritual song like the ones' the slaves used to sing, but to make it modern and focus on a subject the student's felt strongly about. The assignment was labeled "Slave Song" on the school website. Needless to say, it did not go over well with some of the students and parents that read it and before you knew it, the story was on National News and the teacher was suspended for assigning racist projects!  So the assignment was cancelled, the teacher came back to school and cancelled the book reading on Frederick Douglas, and instead told the kids they all had to write and present a speech on something controversial. Gee. Scott ended up giving a speech on Violence and Video Games. Is There a Connection.  I guess this worked out better than the slave song.

Scott was trying to get as much of his homework done ahead of time. He was also scheduled to work extra hours at the roller rink for extended training sessions. And he had a Holiday Cookie Exchange Party to attend on Sunday afternoon and needed to bake something. Instead, we woke to a terrible ice storm on Saturday morning. I thought they would close the roller rink, but instead they just cancelled the morning training session. I had to send Scott out to scrape the ice off my entire van. I dropped him off about 30 mins late. I still could not believe the rink was open as I passed multiple accidents driving Scott to work. And speaking of accidents, we had a huge 65 car pile up on 1-95 in Baltimore. It was raining, but everything froze when it hit the roads. So basically cars were driving on an ice rink. A oil tanker barreled into a few cars stuck on the freeway, flipped over and exploded. Not surprising, the driver was killed. And the tanker fell off the overpass, hit a car below and killed that driver. Afterwards, truck after truck went sliding and crashing into the burning pile of wreckage. 65 vehicles later, 2 deaths(only). What a mess. And it was all caught on video from a guy stranded on the other side of the freeway. So naturally I thought they would close the roller rink! Nope.

Our family was supposed to spend the morning at breakfast with Tom's student and her family. Nishay had invited us all over before Scott went to work. I was looking forward to seeing them all again and dropping off a gift. I found a book that covers the history of the 1800s house they are renting. It was built by a Pastor who fashioned it after a castle in Germany. He used the house as a school for boys-the family lived on the first two floors and the boys bunked together on the 3rd floor. The book had some amazing photos from the early 1800s of the boys and family on the grounds of the house. Instead, Tom took Nishay out to lunch the following week and Scott and Tom drove over to the house to pick up some homemade chick peas left over from the breakfast.

After Scott got off work, we both got busy in the kitchen making some treats for his upcoming Holiday party on Sunday as well as for Boy Scouts. We decided to make something easy-chocolate covered pretzels and oreo cookies. All the treats were a big hit. On Sunday, Tom headed off to Pittsburgh for work, I headed over to my Mom's place for another Girl Scout choir concert. The residents really seem to enjoy our  mix of holiday songs. Tom dropped off Scott to his party before leaving for Pittsburgh. After our Girl Scout concert, I spent some time helping Mom finish up her Christmas cards before joining Scott at his party. I was also invited and attended last year. His Catholic school friends and their families put on the nicest Holiday party complete with an incredible amount of food as well as tons of cookies to exchange. They even make up gift bags for all the guests, including treat bags for pets! I love attending with Scott-I get so spoiled!

Allison meanwhile finished up her Finals but did not head directly home. Her roommate, Jen was graduating early and the ceremony was held Saturday morning. Allison was invited to attend the ceremony and out to lunch with Jen's family. I am glad she did not try to drive home on Saturday. Instead she headed home Sunday afternoon after dropping in to visit with her boyfriend, Tyler at his apartment.

Only 1 week to go!  Sending out a Big Happy Birthday wish for Linda Seitz!

Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do!  Here is how I spent the month of December(one week at a time!)

So I decided to catch another cold. Looks like I need to have one a month. I had one over my birthday weekend and now in December. Not good timing. I completely lost my voice which makes it a bit difficult to sing with the Girl Scout choir. But I went to the scheduled performances anyway. My first Christmas performance this weekend was Saturday morning downtown in the Baltimore Harbor at the German Christmas Village. They set up a big tent with a stage, lots of shops and food booths, and of course, Santa Claus. Just like they do in Germany. Our GS choir sang for an hour on stage and then I had time for some quick shopping. I love to walk through the German Christmas ornament tent and of course pick up a few items. I also picked up a small Ukrainian gift for Scott for his Interviewee. He is busy working on a project for his World History class due right before Christmas break. The class was assigned to interview someone with a significant experience in a historical event. Not as easy as it sounds, and it doesn't sound easy. After much discussion, I finally convinced Scott to interview our Music school teacher. She fled Ukraine when she was 26 because of political issues. She was being hounded by the KGB as she belonged to a Catholic Youth group supporting Ukrainian culture and traditions. Apparently Russia is not too fond of Catholics. She was trained in piano and worked at a school in Ukraine, but her family convinced her to move to the US. She settled in Iowa and did not speak english although she was able to get a job at a local University teaching music(with her broken arm that she got while bike riding in Ukraine). She joined family members here in Ellicott City and opened her own music school in Olde Town. Now she owns 2 music schools with an extensive staff where Allison had her piano lessons and Scott learned guitar. So Scott has a terrific video that he put together with her phone interview in the background. She did not want to be videotaped. He finished with the background history of the issues between Ukraine and Russia, covering  Reagan and Gorbachev, added in her experiences and finished with  the current status of the country(not great). The class has to present their findings to the entire school early next year. So I picked up a hand painted wooden bell from a Ukraine vendor as a Thank You gift(and of course the vendor knew her).

I did not have much time to spend touring the harbor after our concert. Plus it was very crowded there that day. The Army Navy Football game was going on and President Elect Trump was in town to take in the game. So was ESPN covering the event. They had a stage and tent set up next to the Christmas village, so parking and walking was a bit crazy. Plus lots of military people attending the game at our Ravens stadium and walking around the harbor. Turns out Army won which they haven't done for 14 years. Glad I was gone before the end of the game. I had to get back home to pick up my mom and Tom and head to the US Army Field Jazz Band concert at a local high school. I usually try to pick up free tickets when the group comes to town, which is usually every Christmas. The group puts on an amazing holiday concert here at our local high school for no charge. It is packed and fills up every year. They also invite the school band to play one or two songs with them. Two years ago we caught the Army Field band at the Meyerhoff Theater and they played a completely different concert which was also incredible. And sadly not as many people attending. I would have liked to attend this year, but my schedule was just too busy. After the local concert on Saturday, it was time to head over to our neighbors for a Christmas party! Mom helped me fill some cannolis for dessert and walked over to Dan and Gloria's for a dinner Christmas party. Wonderful food and had a great time chatting to all the neighbors. However, by this time I was sounding pretty bad and had a hard time with my horrible cold so not as much chatting. And the kids that attended were not too happy since I did not prepare a Holiday Trivia game. Looks like I will have to plan ahead for New Years!

By Sunday I  had completely lost my voice. But I still went to the scheduled concert with Mom.  I had already picked up tickets for the Band O Railroad Museum in downtown Baltimore. Our Girl Scout choir has been singing at this venue for the past several years and it is always an enjoyable experience. Plus the acoustics in the Round House are amazing. So we sound pretty good. Mom and I arrived on time, but there was an Inner City Baltimore Dance group that was still performing past their time. So we sat and enjoyed their performance before we got up and sang. So we did not have much time to tour the museum or visit with Santa and take a train ride since the museum closes pretty early and right after our performance. My performance was pretty limited since I could not sing at all. I mostly mouthed the words and jingled my bells! And looked cute in my elf hat. Mom sat and enjoyed the concert on her camp chair that I brought along.

I also stayed busy during the week. I took Mom to a dentist appointment and attended a Community meeting which was discussing the new housing development that has been proposed on some farmland bordering our neighborhood. The county architects were not crazy about the layout and how many structures they plan on building on the land including single family homes, townhouses and condos. Besides discussing our community, they were also discussing rebuilding the shopping complex next to mom's assisted living facility. The committee did not like that project either. They said all the new buildings don't fit in with the current buildings, like Mom's building. Her place has a Victorian look and they want to build a very modern apt complex with shopping and restaurants next door. Not a good fit. Now we have to wait and see if the projects are revamped.