Merry Christmas! Just checking in early since I may get brave and tackle the shopping malls tomorrow morning. I was thinking of all those great sales I missed last weekend during our record breaking snow storm. We ended up with about 2 feet of snow in one day. The 7th biggest snow storm in December in Baltimore history. Now it is busy melting under all the rain. Tom spent the entire day last Saturday snowblowing our driveway 3 times and the neighbors two or more times. He had to take a break when the snow blower chewed up the neighbor's christmas light extension cord. But he was back out on Sunday for two more passes. Not to mention all the shoveling I had to do on the sidewalks and patio so Cookie could get out to go to the bathroom! Yes it was a whole lot of snow for use. Sadly Allison and I did not get to enjoy it too much since Allison had a whole bunch of tests to study for and a big paper to write. We spent our time indoors studying and typing. I also took advantage of some of the time to prepare for Christmas, although I was still up late Christmas eve setting everything up.
It turned out we spent a whole lot of time studying for naught. School was cancelled for the rest of the week. The kids now have a two week vacation. They spent the first week home with Tom while I went in to work. It didn't help Tom's schedule very well-he had some errands planned but did not get to keep to his schedule as efficiently as planned. And we really did not know if the kids were having school each day, so we kept up with Allison's studying. As I said, it was all for naught. So Scott managed to squeeze in a sleepover with our neighbor's son. And our neighbor's invited us over Sunday night for dessert, appetizers and champagne. They were heading off to Miami so we decided to try and get together for a pre Christmas visit and gift exchange for the kids.
And Tom was still trying to keep the kids occupied all week, so they ran off to the mall to pick up our family phot0s and caught the Chipmunk movie. (Tom slept and the kids thought the first movie was better). But I got my family Christmas photos and I started sending out the family Christmas cards this week. So if you haven't yet received your card, it is on the way. We were running a bit late this year since I decided I wanted a family photo with the dog. I had to locate a studio that allowed us to bring a dog and then there were only certain days and times allowed to bring in the dog. But it worked out well and the pictures turned out pretty cute. So look for it in the mail(along with my extensive yearly journal). And I still have some more cards to mail out this weekend. Tom was also busy sending out cards and gifts to coworkers this past week.
Our clinic was closed this Friday, but I am usually off anyway. We decided to catch the Christmas mass at the gorgeous chapel at my work site, the retirement community. We attended the beautiful mass on Thursday night at 7pm and had plenty of time to visit with our neighbors Christmas eve for dinner afterwards.
Of course, that meant I was up very late Christmas eve. And along came Christmas Day! The kids were very nice and gave us until 8am before dragging me out of bed to tear open the gifts. We managed to check out our stash and clean up in time to start cooking. I invited several families over to the house for dinner, so we all put together a potluck which turned out to be way too much food but delicious and a lot of fun. The kids even played a round of Scott's new Mario Monopoly game. Some of us would have enjoyed a drive out to historical Hampden for the Christmas lights, but the rain kept us away. Instead we sat down to enjoy Tom's Star Trek video.
So we managed to get in a few phone calls to most of you, unless of course your phone was busy, you weren't answering when we called, or you were busy talking to someone else. But we did dial everyone's phone today except Dan and Sheila who are in Missouri and Laura and DAn who we will hopefully be visiting soon in Detroit.
We will probably head out on Sunday if the roads look good.
So wish me good luck on shopping and my trip to the bank for a last Girl Scout cookie money deposit.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Kathleen and family

Global warming? I think not. At least, not in Baltimore. We hit an all time record for snow fall this past weekend-2 feet! It is insane. Of course, school is closed on Monday. The kids are ecstatic. Especially Allison since she had lots of tests and a paper due over the next 3 days. Scott just had a Christmas party and his school's Christmas pageant, so he is not missing too much. They will probably get to school on Tuesday, but noone has plowed our street at the end of the driveway yet. It started snowing on Friday night at 10pm and did not stop until Sunday morning at 2am. Tom plowed the driveway with our snow blower 3 times on Saturday and once on Sunday. I did the walks and patio so the dog could at least get out to go to the bathroom. They actually closed all the malls on Saturday and the airports too. The Chicago Bears were supposed to fly in on Friday night for the Sunday game, but missed their window of opportunity. Instead they showed up on Sunday morning and the game was pushed back from 1pm to 4pm. And it was to our advantage since the Ravens won! Snow and all covering most of the stadium. So tom will stay home with the kids tomorrow and I will be braving the roads. He did get out briefly Sunday afternoon to pick up a few items. I spent the whole weekend inside doing laundry, dishes and getting ready for Christmas. We finally got the tree and lights up! It sure feels like Christmas now. Even Michigan or Indiana doesn't have all this snow! We will have to go North to warm up!
It is a good thing Tom's parents visited last weekend. They were complaining it was cold last weekend! Ha! We even traveled south to warm up a bit(all the way into the 40s!) in Williamsburg, VA. We spent Saturday night at Busch Gardens for their first version of Christmas town with holiday lights and Christmas shows. It was a bit chilly and unbelievably crowded. It definitely got us into the holiday spirit. Our next door neighbors went down this weekend and said it was empty. I guess we picked the busiest night of the season to attend! And then we had a rainy day all last Sunday. We mostly did some shopping at the outlets. But only at the indoor stores(not many).
Tom's parents headed back to Florida on Monday. Weds night our family drove down to Annapolis to have our family photo taken with the dog included at JC Penney. So my cards will be a bit late this year but I think it is worth the wait. I will pick up the photos this coming Weds.
On Friday Tom and I had our work partys. It was a bit crazy around here since everyone was anticipating the big snowstorm. Baltimorons go crazy and buy out all the milk and toilet paper. And when Allison and I stopped into the grocery store Friday night after her piano lesson, sure enough all the milk was gone. So was all the red meat. I didn't check on the toilet paper(we have plenty since we shop at the club stores). I got a lot of errands run on Friday before my work party, but it was crazy out there. Lots of people, long lines and scary driving. And we still have one more week of shopping to go. I did get some shopping done on line thank goodness. But sadly I still need to stop into the mall. Oh no. I also discovered that Tom and I are hosting Christmas dinner, so I started picking up food items. And I am busy working this week. Tom thank goodness is off with the kids for the next two weeks. Hopefully we will make it up to Detroit next week for a holiday break since we are supposed to get more snow on Christmas Day.
The kids and the dog can't get enough. I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to go to work!
Merry Christmas! (One week early). Kathleen and family

So we survived Scott's birthday party last weekend. I even had time to stop into the mall with Allison so she could get a haircut and pick up a quick Christmas gift too.
We were hoping to pick out our Christmas tree too last weekend, but the weather was still pretty cold and wet. Tom actually picked up a tree for us this past week, we just haven't had the chance to put it up. I was busy running around throwing up a few Christmas decorations in the house. The kids managed to get their little trees decorated in the front foyer, and Tom hung up all his Star Trek/Star Wars collection on his new tree that he got on St Nick's Day last Sunday. We also enjoyed a free Army Band Christmas concert this past week-I picked up tickets for the family as a St Nick's Day gift. Something to get us all in the holiday spirit. The concert was held at the High School at Fort Meade and included the army band and choir together. Overall an enjoyable show(and did I mention free?!). Tom's parents were sorry they missed it. They arrived the next night for a quick weekend visit. We haven't seen them since we visited Florida in the spring.
Friday the kids had school, so Tom and I spent the day with Mom and Dad browsing the antique shops in Olde Ellicott City as well as stopping in for lunch. We did not spend much time outside since it was pretty chilly. Just a quick walk around the neighborhood to take Cookie out in the morning. That evening I dropped Scott off to a Kids in the Kitchen class where he made French Toast and Hot Chocolate for dinner and watched Night at the Museum II with our next door neighbor, Sammy. Allison on the other hand had a piano lesson. I also had to pack up the Girl Scout's goodies that they prepared the weekend before to be delivered to the hospital patients.
Saturday we all headed down to Williamsburg VA. We spent the evening enjoying the Christmas lights and shows at Busch Gardens. Still a bit chilly for the Florida people to be outside, but it got us all in the Christmas spirit. We stayed the night and woke up to a very rainy day(at least a bit warmer). This did not make for good window shopping weather in Historic Williamsburg, so after church, we just made a few stops into the Williamsburg Pottery Factory and the Potomac Mills Outlet on our way home.
Since we were out of town, Allison and I missed singing at the mall with the Girl Scout choir, and Scott missed his Cub Scout Christmas party. Too many activities and too little time! But I think we all rather enjoyed our trip down to Williamsburg. Scott definitely enjoyed the swim in the hotel pool.
Monday Grandma and Grandpa were back home in Florida(a whole lot warmer) after Tom dropped them off at the airport. We made sure to take advantage of Mom Seitz's sewing skills first and had her help us pick out and cut out some fabric to cover our kitchen stools. The old material was wearing off the stools, so we replaced it with a new paisley pattern(much nicer than the original). And we didn't have to buy new stools-they just look new. Thanks Mom! They look beautiful! Tom got them all stapled and put back together again.
We also celebrated two birthdays this past weekend-Linda Seitz had a birthday on Saturday(Happy Birthday Linda!) and our puppy Cookie turned one year old on December 13th! She's a big girl now!
So just two more weeks before Christmas and I still have a billion things to do. So that's all for now! Kathleen and Family

So last Sunday we were in tshirts and shorts, almost 70 outside and today we were freezing our tootsies off from our first snow of the season. Thanks Houston-we got all your snow! And lucky Allison and I got to march in it in a Christmas parade. We started off Saturday morning in a cold rainy downpour which quickly turned to ice and snow before we finished the parade. Thank goodness we were close to the front and only had about a 20 minute walk. But Allison and I were frozen solid along with the other chorus members. We were busy singing "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" while freezing to death. It was a bit festive though! And we got to walk back and see the rest of the parade and wave to Santa and Mrs Claus in their horse drawn sleigh. It did put us in a festive mood, albeit cold. We usually have this parade in Nov. when it is much warmer-there were times we wore tshirts. Not this time. I had hoped Tom and Scott would join us-it really is a nice parade. But since it was so lousy outside they stayed home. And sadly missed Breakfast with Santo since I did not sign Scott up ahead of time, thinking he and Tom would be joining us for the parade.
The drive back home was pretty horrible. I did manage to stop into Target on the way home though since I was already out. It was actually nice since the store wasn't overly crowded. The roads were very slushy and slippery so not alot of people left their homes. Not too great for the economy though. Nice for me however-I had to put together goody bags for Scott's birthday party today. He had a swim party at "Splashdown", a local swimming pool with indoor water tube slides, a rope swing and diving board. He had never been although Allison has been many times with the girl scouts. (Me too). The kids all had a great time today, and I even took Scott and Allison and two friends in early for extra swimming before their party was scheduled. The price included his food(hot dogs, chips, soda) plus a cake(custom picture-Mario of course) and ice cream. So I did not have to clean anything or set up-just show up and man the table and pass out food and goody bags. Besides Scott's party, I had my Girl Scout Holiday party on Friday night. We spent the evening making holiday baked goods for the local psyche patients, swapped holiday gifts and after a quick taco dinner, spent the evening having dessert at a local fondue restaurant, "The Melting Pot". The girls decided we needed to start a new tradition. They really enjoyed dipping brownies, rice krispie treats, cheesecake, pound cake, marshmallows, bananas and strawberries into tubs of chocolate. Who wouldn't love that! Plus it all fit into their cooking badge!
I got to spend some mom time during the day though when I enjoyed a morning out for Mother's Tea with the school moms. The school puts on an outing for all the moms each year at a local restaurant owned by one of the school families. They have coffee, tea and pastries, and bagels along with fruit and my favorite door raffles(although I did not win this year). It is a nice time to chit chat with the school moms. I look forward to it every year-and it is always on my day off! Although it didn't leave me much time to get the house set up for the Friday night meeting and start decorating for Christmas. Tom has the outside lights up but now we are working on the inside.
Actually we enjoyed St Nick's Day this Sunday with a visit from St Nick and stockings full of ornaments, gingerbread cookies and two new artificial trees for Allison and Tom to hang their ornament collections. Tom has a Star Trek/Star Wars/outer space tree and Allison has a cat collection. I get the big tree for my rocking horses and glass Christmas bulbs. Scott gets the kids tree(a collection of kids ornaments including Rudolph, Snoopy, Harry Potter and any other character they enjoyed). We had planned on picking up our live tree this weekend, but it was a bit too nasty last night. A good weekend to stay in and study with the kids(and wrap Christmas ornaments) but I did manage to spend some time outside with Cookie in the snow(which she loved!). She was busy chasing Scott down the small hills while he sledded with our neighbor. I had to give her a bath afterwards though since she had big frozen snowballs on her feet and could barely walk.
I was glad Tom made it home before the big snow. He was down in Charlottesville VA all week so I was juggling both of the kids and their schedules on my own. I had to get Scott to gymnastics and Allison to piano at the same time which as interesting. It made for a lot of driving last week.
I also had my own GS Leader meeting/holiday party on Weds night and had the kids help me out by making a dessert plate for the event. I also had to drop off shoebox gifts that the girls made up for kids at a local shelter for the holidays. Naturally on that night it was pouring rain which made it difficult to keep all the wrapping paper dry. We are almost done with donations. The school always puts on a toy collection as well as work. And we have already had a coat drive at work. Everyone is fussing though that donations are down quite a bit this year. Guess everyone is busy paying off their own debts.
We also had an appraiser stop by today since Tom decided to refinance our house and take advantage of the low rates. We didn't change our monthly mortgage payment, but we did knock off 4 yrs of payments. We are still waiting on our roof guy to replace our skylight-guess he is busy! Too bad we didn't discover the leak in the summer!
So Happy St Nick's Day! (December 6th). I am off to put out a few more Christmas decorations! Kathleen and Family

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend! Hope everyone had a great holiday! I know I especially enjoyed Thanksgiving Day because I did not have to cook and I got to watch the entire Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from start to finish in my pjs without any interruptions! We got to cheer on the Towson University Marching Band from Towson, MD(just north of Baltimore City-they have an OT school there and we often get OT students doing their internships at our clinic. There were also a few kids from Howard County chosen to be in the parade; a few go to Allison's high school. After the parade, the kids and I headed out to our neighborhood park with Cookie and our neighbor's dog Misty. We didn't sign up for a Turkey Trot this year(no Uncle Mark to organize the walk), so we decided to have our own in the neighborhood. We could have gotten up early and headed out to the YMCA in Towson, but it was much nicer to sleep in.
Allison was pet sitting for the weekend, so we decided to take the dogs out for a run in the park even though it was a bit damp. When we arrived at the park, there were two other women out on the field with their big dogs, so we decided to let our pups run around the enclosed tennis courts. They even had tennis balls lying around to keep the dogs happy. By the time we got home it was time to head over to our neighbors, The Zarlengas, for dinner.
Friday morning we got up early(Tom very early). Tom was in line at the Game Stop at 5am to get Scott a new DS video game. They had a special which included game cartridges and the DS video game. They only had 4 in stock, but Tom is a familiar face there so the manager set one aside for him. That was Scott's replacement gift for his birthday. His last DS game was stolen out of Tom's car with all his games. So now he is back on track. Just a few more games to go.
I got up a bit later and headed out for some early morning shopping-some shopping was just for me! I needed some new pants for work and Kohls had great sales. I haven't finished my Christmas shopping, but I was still picking up a few gifts for Scott's Birthday which was also on Friday. So besides shopping at Kohls and Walmart, I also managed to get in a work out at the Y that morning! Pretty good schedule. Friday night we sat down to dinner for Scott's birthday(he requested spaghetti and meatballs, so I also had to run to the grocery store). He also wanted ice cream cake, so I got him an M&M carvel ice cream cake. He loved it, and all his gifts. Including his very own bank/gumball dispenser. Right now it is busy dispensing M&Ms(hmmm-is there a theme developing?). He also got some pjs and long sleeved Nintendo Mario shirts. We watched the video UP that night which was hilarious. Talking dogs and grumpy old people-what's not to love! Scott also has a birthday party scheduled next weekend at a local pool with indoor water tube slides. They let us swim all afternoon and provide all the food and cake and ice cream. We just have to make up the goody bags. Easy party.
On Saturday we had our own Thanksgiving dinner and invited Matt and Di over for the evening. We wanted to have our own turkey leftovers-and of course we are also enjoying Seitz Turkey Casserole for dinner this evening(left over stuffing and turkey mixed with gravy and heated in a casserole dish). Yum! Tom grilled our turkey and I spent Saturday morning preparing the stuffing and baked potatoe casserole. I walked Allison through an apple crumb top pie which turned out wonderful. She wanted to try out my pampered chef apple peeler/slicer so I picked up some delicious Honey Crisp apples and we made pie(yum). Diana brought her sweet potatoe casserole(just like pie) and pumpkin pie, so we had more than enough food. They also brought over their new puppy- a replacement Wisla to take Elvis's place. Elvis died at age 9 this past spring from cancer, so now they have a rescue pup-9 months old named Winston. (They keep calling the dog Elvis). It is a bit more dog than Cookie could handle, but the two got along well enough. Diana took both dogs out for a walk after dinner while Allison checked on the neighbor's dog. She also had to check in on the Zarlenga's dog since they went off to DC for an overnight excursion. There is a new hotel-The Gaylord International-down on the Potomac that has a Christmas holiday program package. They stayed at the hotel and had tickets to see their ice scuplture show, ice skate and see some Christmas shows in the huge hotel lobby. They also have a 30 foot crystal Christmas tree lit up and it snows every night in the atrium. It's a Vegas sized hotel complete with a small town inside the atrium. They said they had a great time.
Allison was busy not only dog sitting but kid sitting as well last week. With the short school and work week, she was in demand for her babysitting services. At least she managed to get in some schoolwork and piano practicing over the long holiday break so she is ahead of schedule. Both kids also got their final report cards this week: both got all As and B+s so things are looking pretty good so far. We stopped into Allison's school on Monday morning to talk to Allison's teachers for her parent teacher conference. Tom took a few days off to stay with the kids since they had half days. Scott needed picked up at noon. In the meantime, Tom was busy patching the wall and ceiling where he discovered the leaking bathtub, however, he managed to locate a new leak. This one happens to be from the skylight over the kids bathtub! Oh great. I quickly managed to convince Tom that this was not the handyman's project for him. Tom was already trying to figure out how he was going to keep from falling off our steep roof while he replaced the skylight. I pointed out the fact that some of our neighbors already had someone experienced in replacing skylights since they also had leaks and they have the same house design as we all had the same builder. We called our neighbors and got the name of the repairman, and he's already been over to the house to check out the work and give us a quote. We can get the whole thing done for only $700! Including sealing up around a vent and the fireplace too. Sounds terrific. Now we just have to wait for him to have some free time and hope the rain stays away! Meanwhile, our play room is still a mess, and Tom has to install the ceiling fan and light, plus patch the ceiling and repaint. I do really love my new french doors-so thank you leaks!
Besides trying to patch our house back together, Tom took advantage of his time off to hang all our Christmas lights outside. He had to put on new hooks under the eaves(twice since one set fell off), but he managed to get all the lights up and then hooked up a synchronized music and light show system I got him for St Nicks Day last year at Sam's Club. The house flashes the Christmas lights in tune to the Christmas music. We can't believe how many cars have stopped in front of our house over the Thanksgiving weekend-we even had a few close call car accidents as people stop or slow down to check out the lights. Of course, some people just don't get it-the neighbors down the street thought we had a short in our lights! We don't run it every night-it is a bit much! But all environmentally friendly(and cheap)LED lights.
I had a hard time putting away the Thanksgiving decorations this weekend-it is Turkey day! So we had fall decorations along with some Christmas decorations. Although we have not yet gotten the tree-we did see quite a few go by on top of the cars this weekend.
We also have been busy getting the house in order for Christmas and Tom's parent's visit in a few weeks. It's nice to get in some Spring cleaning(either I am really early or a bit late!). Allison and I also spent the weekend finishing up her Girl Scout cookie deliveries since the money was due this weekend. And Scott finished his cub scout popcorn delivery too.
I also had to put together some gift boxes for donations for kids in area shelters through girl scouts along with boxes from each of my girls. My troop will be busy making food donations this coming week at our holiday party(cookies and candy), along with thank you cards for the US Troops. I also plan on taking the girls to the Melting Pot Fondue restaurant for a dessert night! Should be chocolatey.
I had Scott and Allison practice making some of the goodies this weekend which helped me out since I needed something to bring to my GS Leader meeting this coming Weds. We learned to make Turtle candies with a small pretzel, rolo candy and a pecan half all heated in the oven. They are addictive! Scott and Allison made me a batch to take to my meeting(if I can keep everyone from eating them!).
So Happy Post Thanksgiving! And a Big Happy Birthday to Sheila Bozyk! I don't think you ate M&M cake and watched the movie UP, or got a DS, but I hope it was just as fun a Birthday as Scott's!
I will be on my own again this week(very busy week) as Tom will be heading out to Charlottesville. Wish me luck! Kathleen and family

Yes, Yes, we know the Colts beat the Ravens this past weekend(at least it wasn't a complete slaughter). I know-scoreboard baby. We still enjoyed watching the game at our old neighbor's house up in Parkton MD. We haven't seen them all summer so we decided to get together for an early Thanksgiving dinner. They are having Thanksgiving dinner with their next door neighbors, and so are we, so an early dinner seemed to work best. We also brought Cookie along for a visit and to enjoy romping in their big yard. As a matter of fact, we didn't see the kids all day. They went off exploring in the woods and the streams and visiting the nearby horse farm. And Tom and our old neighbor Barry enjoyed the football game in peace. We then all sat down to a fantastic dinner and dessert. I don't know if I am going to survive this week with all the dinner parties.
We got ourselves invited to our neighbor's house for dinner(yeah I don't have to cook Thursday). I had offered our house up to all the neighbors to come for dinner but most of them made other plans with family, so it just came down to us and our neighbors Dan and Gloria. So I will have more time to enjoy the Macy Thanksgiving Day parade and then we will have to catch the Lions game.
I didn't get out of cooking completely. We invited Matt and Di over for dinner on Saturday. We want to meet their new dog-Winston-a wisla. Their first dog died earlier this year of cancer, so they have been in mourning. They babysat Cookie a couple of times for us this past year which seemed to be good therapy for them, but now they have a replacement puppy-9 months old. I hope Cookie and Winston get along. Winston already looks pretty big. They are a hunting dog and look a bit like tan colored pointers. I'd like to see if we could all go see the Christmas Carol movie-I heard it was good.
And Friday is Scott's birthday! He will be the big 10 year old. We have a party scheduled for him in two weeks at a local indoor pool. I am not sure what we will do with him on Friday, but it will probably involve opening gifts and eating Egg Nog ice cream(one of Scott's favorite).
Last Friday I had to go into work for a few hours for an out patient Open House program. I was in charge of the food so I had to run to Sam's Club and pick up a designer cake along with cheese and crackers and punch supplies. Sam's bakery makes cakes and prints a logo or photo on your cake so Tom printed up a colored work logo for me and dropped it off last weekend with my order. We had to search out a different Sam's Club than I usually shop at since the local Sam's had a broken camera that takes the photo to put on your cake. Thank goodness another Sam's club was nearby since I promised to bring in the designer cake. It was still so much cheaper than getting catered food from work. So the Open House worked out well and we had some visitors that made our new boss happy. And she was grateful for all our help, including my Martha Stewart skills(flowers on the table matched the colors of the cake, plates, tablecloth, etc). We also had a few raffle prizes which gave it the extra touch. But after finishing up with the open house, I had to run home and empty out my van so I could take Allison out with 5 of her old elementary school friends for a New Moon/Twilight movie night. Everyone told me to get tickets early which I was glad that I did. We had tickets for the 430pm movie and we had great seats and 30 mins to spare to buy popcorn and take potty breaks. By the time we came out of the movie, the theater was packed with women all waiting to see the movie. It looked like a Vera Bradley conference! Since we finished early, we headed out to CiCis pizza buffet which some of the girls had not yet experienced. They thought it was wonderful-and right in their budget. Then Allison had a friend sleep over that night. All in all a very full day. Tom on the other hand got to spend Friday night with a room full of screaming cub scouts at their pack meeting. Scott said the played fooseball inside.
Saturday I finally had time for my haircut! And Allison switched her piano lesson to Saturday afternoon so she would have free time for her Twilight party on Friday afternoon. We also caught the DVD release of Up-very cute. I loved the quad cane with the tennis balls.
And glad to say we are all getting pretty healthy. Scott just had his H1N1 flu shot at school and we all seem to be getting over a cough/cold.
So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Congrats on your hospital nursing externship Stacey! And Congrats on your new home purchase! The house looks great! When will you and Matt be able to move in? We just refinanced our place-taking advantage of low interest rates too. Our house payment did not change, but we knocked off four years on our mortgage. Every bit helps!
We will certainly miss the Seitz Family Thanksgiving this year! Last year we visited Indianapolis for Turkey Day. We walked in a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day and Scott carried a sign that said it was his Birthday since it landed right on Thanksgiving Day last year. Scott was a bit embarassed I think that everyone was paying attention to him and singing Happy Birthday! They even took photos of him and honked their car horns! We all enjoyed a wonderful dinner from Mom and Dad Seitz who came up from Florida, and then we visited with Tom's cousins who live around the corner. It was a fun visit. We will also miss pulling Touch Down Turkey's neck and hearing him gobble! Looks like the Indy Seitz family will be busy entertaining other family members this year.
Tom has already been busy stringing lights(LED of course) all over the house. He is taking advantage of some nice weather. He needed to rehang hooks from the roofline since we had the flashing wrapped this year (no more painting wood trim). The workers took down all Tom's hooks for the icicle lights under the eaves. After he rehooked the lights, he had to pick up a few more strings of LED lights for the shrubs. He is still definitely ahead of the game, but not quite so far ahead as some of our neighbors. We have houses in the neighborhood that already put up all their outdoor Christmas lights and have them turned on, and even put up the Christmas trees! What. no Turkey Day! Oh well, we are at least waiting for SCott's Bday on Friday.
So Happy Thanksgiving and don't eat too much! Kathleen and family

Well I successfully survived another birthday! (Just barely!). Friday was my actually birthday and I was supposed to spend it putting on a girl scout fundraiser dance for my troop. However, due to a lot of other conflicting activities, we did not get enough participants, so we had to cancel. Better for me in some ways. I did not have to spend the day popping popcorn in my air popper(which the kids think is an antique from my college days). Nor did I have to bake cookies for snacks or buy juicey juice boxes. Instead, Tom was home from work and he took me out to the movies. After my yearly medical physical in the morning of course. I am happy to report I am as healthy as a horse and I am also the proud recipient of the H1N1 flu vaccination. They had some doses left at my medical clinic and being a health care worker I am higher on the list. I actually think I had less of a reaction from this shot then the regular flu vaccination. Although I got awful itchy that night. Scott is scheduled to have his vaccination at school this week for H1N1. He doesn't mind shots. But Allison is terrified of shots and declined the offer at school. I do plan on having an echocardiogram though to check for heart murmurs. My mom had to have a heart valve replacement last year, and now my uncle Joe(her younger brother) has to have the same operation, so I just want to see what my odds are since it seems to be running in the family.
Anyhow, besides that everything looks good. So Tom and I went off to see the destruction of the world as we know it in the movie 2012. We mostly went to see John Cusak. But now I know that I will be very healthy when the world ends in two more years. So besides being absolutely impossible, it was an overall enjoyable movie.
But it was long! I had just enough time to run to school and pick up Scott and run home and pick up Allison and get them both to the dentist. Scott had his annual cleaning and Allison had two tiny cavities to fill(her first). They were so small she did not even get novacaine. So I don't think they count.
Then I had to run and pick up something for dinner for Allison's end of the year Field Hockey party. So if we had a girl scout event, we would have missed the dinner. Instead, the whole family went off to one of the player's house(very nice finished basement) which fit all 20 girls and their parents and siblings. The girls got pins and certificates and their field hockey clothing they ordered during the season. The varsity team managed to win county but lost the first game in State. Allison will start as goalie in Indoor field hockey in January with her teammates. Good way to stay in shape.
When we got home I had time to open my presents but we were saving the cake for Sunday night. Tom got me a very nice dress watch and tickets to see Young Frankenstein in January. I also got a pedometer to see how far Cookie and I walk.
Saturday started out early with a trip out to western Maryland just past Frederick with Scott and the cub scouts. We helped plant over 500 trees and shrubs along the Catoctin river to help establish trout beds and protect the nearby park from washing away along the river bank. Fortunately the Save the Bay foundation members had already dug all the holes. We just had to place the trees in the holes, fill them with dirt, stake them and cover the tubes with netting to keep birds from building nests inside the tubes that cover the small trees. Scott loved playing in the woods and the river most of all. And getting very muddy with his boots. The boys even had their picture taken for the local newspaper. I was especially happy it had stopped raining since hurricane Ida went through and we had about 4 days of non stop rain.
I had just enough time to run home and repack my car to set up for a girl scout cookie booth sale at the grocery store. We spent a few hours selling cookies, and then it was home again to shower and go out to a concert and dinner(for my birthday). We heard a local band-electric guitar, bass guitar and drums-a bit rock and blues. The bass player used to be in the jazz group Spyro Gyra for 14 years. The concerts are put on by a local fund raising group and are held in an old stone barn turned into a church. Not alot of space so very cozy. The old stalls in the basement have been turned into offices, complete with the sliding stable doors. We have been going to concerts there for several years. They only have 3 more left this season. The best part is they serve snacks and dessert and play for 3 hours! Long day.
Sunday I was up getting the kids homwork done so I could set up another cookie booth sale in the afternoon. We managed to sell all our cookies we ordered for booth sales-about 160 boxes. People were actually buying cases of cookies! That is a first! Sunday night we decided to go out to dinner as a family. We enjoyed our local Japanese steak house and came home for Birthday cake with our neighbors that went to the concert with us on Saturday night. I even got a present from them. And thanks for sending the card Mom and Dad Seitz. It pays to get old! Mom Bozyk I got your box-thanks so much. Scott and I had fun opening all the little pacakges.
So I did an awful lot on my birthday weekend, except I ran out of time for a haircut! I just had enough time left to pick up Scott's cub scout popcorn, order a cake from Sams Club for an open house scheduled at work this week, and attend my neighbors jewelry party. She makes pieces herself and collects stones from all over the world for her necklaces and bracelets, earrings and rings. Allison had a coupon from a neighbor to buy a piece of jewelry as a graduation present, so we both picked something out for ourselves.
Allison and I actually started off the busy weekend by singing with the girl scout choir at the Green Carpet event on Thursday night. They hold the event each year to honor the girls with the top selling cookie count. This year it was at the Children's museum in Baltimore. The best thing about singing is not paying to get in and eating all the delicious food. They invite different chefs from around Baltimore to come out and cook something using girl scout cookies as an ingredient. The desserts are always wonderful, but the main meals can be interesting. Allison and I were not excited about the shrimp on the lemon chalet cookie with wasabi and melted white chocolate sauce. Nor did I like the crab salad on the shortbread cookie. I may try to make the 7 layer cookie and the chocolate tart though as they post the recipes on the girl scout web site. The only thing missing this year was the guest host Duff Goldman from Ace of CAkes on the Food Network He hosted the last two years and always makes phenomenal looking cakes. The first year the Food Network people showed up and filmed an episode for his show and Allison was on tv. But this year he was off selling his new book. Maybe next year.
And the kids both finished up their first semester of school. Overall they did well with A's and B's, but no slowing down as there are lots of tests and projects before the holidays.
Looks like we will be staying home for Thanksgiving and probably sharing our holiday with the neighbors. Scott has his birthday the day after Thanksgiving, but we are waiting to celebrate with his friends the first week in December.
Tom and I will probably spend our time getting the house organized for Mom and Dad Seitzs visit early in December. Tom also has been busy installing our new french doors and extra lighting in the old garage space. The doors really look terrific and open up the whole space-lots of extra light too. And it will be nice to close the door when the kids are in the room playing video games or watching their movies. I also talked him into adding some lighting. He still needs to run the wiring and then close up all the holes in the wall and ceiling from the leaks he fixed. Hope they stay fixed!
Good luck with your holiday shopping and cooking! Kathleen and Family