Another Capricorn Birthday

Happy Birthday yesterday to my "3rd son", Kara's Sean. Many times Kara has said to me "I can't believe I married someone like my own father"!! She certainly did. They are both true Capricorns! Sean is hardworking and serious about his work. His family is very important to him. Most of the time he would rather be with his family than anywhere else. They are both "tool guys" and have a sort-of reverence for wrenches, pliers, drills, saws and all things in the gadget and tool world. Neither of them are very happy, at all, when they find out that their wives bought a pound of hamburger a week ago, stored it in the dark recesses of the refrigerator and forgot all about it. Oh no, not AT ALL pleased. (Isn't it funny that they both married women who have that "failing"!) They are both perfectionists and think it would be pretty nice if everyone around them were that way too. But perfection is a necessity in both of their careers, which is probably why they are so good at what they do.

The Capricorns I know all have a stubborn streak and a need to be right that can make you want to bang your head (and sometimes theirs!) against a wall. I know Kara will say that Sean is no exception. But it is this unique trait that sprinkles your life with wonderful unforgettable memories and humor. Will we ever forget Sean's "giant" Christmas tree or Paul's "short cuts" (one hour from Boston to Cambridge)? These are stories that will be lovingly told for many years. So thank you all for making our lives so much richer.

Sean has our admiration for having the courage to give up a secure job in order to persue a job where he felt he might be able to make a difference in someone's life. I couldn't ask for a better father for my precious grandchildren. And I am sure they feel that way too.

Happy Birthday, Sean, a day late. I'm glad you came into our lives.

New pictures

Posted some new pictures under "Celebrating Christmas" in the Cortesi Christmas Season album. Have fun!

Birthday boy

Happy birthday, a day late, to my sweet Brett. It was 31 years ago yesterday that he lit up my life. I can't imagine life without him. He was such a good baby. He just ate and slept, ate and slept. By the time he was two he began doing other things besides eat and sleep, like getting into EVERYTHING. He would climb where no child had ever climbed in my house before. He was guns and holsters and cowboys and cowboy hats and superheroes and Big Wheels and jumping and running and digging in the sand and getting dirty and eating mothballs, laundry detergent and goat droppings and taking syrup of ipecac and dropping socks in his milk and making explosive noises and brrrmmm brrmmm sounds. Welcome to the world of boys, mother! But he was also sweet and kind and considerate and generous and loved to read and laugh. He has always been sensitive about the feelings of others. He was never a bully or a tease and I am so proud of him for that.

In two months he will be a father himself to two boys. The circle of life. The best is yet to come, Brett.

Christmas Past

Our happy "Christmas Present" of yesterday has now become our "Christmas Past". It was a beautiful Christmas. Different from other years in that there were only 3 of us; Paul, Damon and I. Instead of the usual noise and chaos and hustle and bustle and intensity it was quite quiet and low key. After all the pre-Christmas busyness it was a nice change. We got up late and had a lazy breakfast. We slowly opened presents and then cooked a delicious ham dinner. Sat by our fire, slept by our fire, enjoyed Christmas music, prayed for snow (or at least some cold, un-Easter like weather) and enjoyed each other. Brett and Preggie Meggie arrived in the evening. Brett, Paul and Damon had to immediately network 3 computers so that they all could play a fast-paced, frightening, violent and gory computer game together. Brett and Megan spent the night and left this afternoon. Shortly after they left Henry showed up for a quick visit. Tomorrow Damon and I are driving to the Boston area to visit Kara. Yesterday we celebrated Paul's birthday (oh oh...big 65) and today we celebrated Brett's. It's been a wonderful holiday but is going by much too fast. I have some holiday pictures to post but tonight I need to get some sleep for our Boston trip tomorrow.

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

My favorite night

It's 11:48 on Christmas eve and I just finished wrapping the final gift half an hour ago. I have been so far behind on everything this Christmas but now it is all done. After I finished the last gift I made myself a cup of tea, switched on my lovely gas fireplace and my music and sat in the semi-darkness enjoying my tree and the quiet. Christmas eve has to be my very favorite day of the whole year. There is no other day like it. I love the peace of Christmas eve. I much prefer that to the chaos of Christmas day. There is no traffic on the road on Christmas eve. Nothing is open, except maybe the occasional convenience store. Most people are snuggled in their homes. My house is so quiet with just the sound of gentle Christmas carols. I love to think of the little ones cuddled in bed with their ears open listening for the sounds of Santa. How I used to love that feeling. The house felt so different on that night. I was so intent on listening for Santa sounds that I noticed every creak the house made. My mother would call up the stairs every once in a while with a travel report of where Santa had been sighted. It seems like the whole world feels gentler and softer on Christmas eve.

Which is your favorite, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day??

Home for the holidays

Today we drove up to Kara and Sean's to deliver Christmas presents. It is so very nice to be living close enough to drive up and back in one day. Paul and I baby-sat (gladly) while Sean and Kara looked at a house that was on the market. We sat in front of their GIANT Christmas tree and I read to my little Christmas elves. Elizabeth said she wanted me to read the "baby Jesus book" (and Grammie did not prompt her to pick this one.....honest) so I did and then they wanted me to read it over and over and over and over again.

We had to leave a bit early so that I could get home to start dinner while Paul went to the airport to pick up Damon who was arriving at 7:30. We hit some traffic tie-ups at one of the toll booths and then Paul(!), not MIdge, took a wrong turn which set us back a bit so we got home a bit later than expected. Damon is now home safe and sound, although he fell asleep at the Seattle airport and almost missed his flight. He got on the plane with about a minute to spare. It's so nice to have him around.

After dinner I sat for a while in front of my fire and tree, sipped my tea, listened to my Christmas carols and now I'm relaxed and ready for bed. Still waiting for snow but it looks like we are getting Easter weather for Christmas. How dull.

Christmas stress and spirit

Well, MOST of the Christmas presents are wrapped. I'm usually doing them on Christmas eve so I guess I am ahead of schedule, somewhat. I feel like this Christmas I am farther behind than usual. I don't know why. It seems like the weekends, which are the only time I can do anything, just aren't long enough. I guess it is all just "too much to do and too little time". I have my Christmas cards but haven't sent them out yet. I think that will have to wait until after Christmas. Anyone who knows me will know that this is "common operating procedure" for me.

Amid all the hustle and bustle I have been trying to notice evidence of the real Christmas spirit. Today in the library I came to the aid of a student needing some help. Before he left the library he gave me a huge smile and said "Merry Christmas". That got me to thinking that this year I have noticed so many more people saying Merry Christmas instead of that awful generic "Happy Holidays". There is a happiness to their voices that has been missing for the past few years. It makes me feel like I have gone back in time to the 40's and 50's when people were gentler and kinder. And maybe even happier. I love the feeling. I hope we keep our retro-Christmas.

.........and I am snoozing at this computer. Off to bed.

Simply Christmas

Okay okay. I have recovered from my little hissy fit of last night. That is SO frustrating when that happens. Tonight I am doing it the safe way.

So........as I was saying before my world caved in.....This weekend I did a shopping marathon. I started shopping on Saturday morning at 9am and didn't get back until almost 6:30 pm and went out again after supper. I didn't even take time to stop for lunch and was pretty much dragging by the time I got home. I felt a strange disconnect when I was shopping this year. The weather was so very oddly strange for Christmas. We were pushing 60 and I didn't like it at all. Usually people are scrurrying in and out of the stores bundled up in their heavy coats and scraves and mittens, feeling quite Christmas like and cheery. On Saturday they were strolling slowly, sitting on benches in the sun and buying take-out food and eating it outside like a picnic. It felt much more like Easter. I do not like it.

I did get 9/10 of my shopping done. It is that last 1/10 that is so difficult. I spent 4 hours in Barnes and Noble. Book stores are very dangerous places. Just CAN"T_STOP_BUYING. Once I was through with that book store I went to another, Borders. At Barnes and Noble I didn't have to wait in line at all but at Borders....oh help.......the line went all the way to the back of the store. I don't know what the difference is as they both had the same number of cashiers.

Sunday I did all the laundry and housecleaning that I couldn't do on Saturday (with a UCONN break, of course). At 4 o'clock came my sweet reward. I lit the gas fire in my beautiful beautiful new Belly Acres room, poured a nice cold glass of sherry, put on my new Christmas album, took a deep breath and did what I have been wanting to do all season. I was in heaven. The album was one that I got on sale at Barnes and Noble, "Simply Christmas" and it is one of the best Christmas albums (ooops, does that date me? I guess they're not albums anymore...they are CD's) I have listened to. If you want one that is totally removed from that horrible jingle jangle computer genereated Wal-Mart type music then buy this one. It is so peaceful and satisfying. It is as it's name says...........simply Christmas. It takes me into another world.

Back to reality on Monday. Girl fight right in the main office at school. Must have been pretty fierce because there was a hunk of hair left on the floor when the wrestling was over. It's the second girl fight in one week. What is wrong with people today?? Is there any civility left? A father had just walked into the office to pick up his little girl when the fight erupted. He must have thought he walked into a state reformatory by mistake. Went to get extra postage for a letter after school but the line at the post office was out the door and spilling onto the sidewalk. FORGET THAT. Drove to the next town and didn't even wait in line at all.

Christmas breakfast at school tomorrow. Get together with our breakfast club on Thursday night. Lots of presents to wrap. Last minute gifts to get. House to clean. But I am taking time each evening for my Simply Christmas.

Okay..........that's it. I give up. I will never use the "Blog This" feature on Picasa2 again. I'm going back to my old way of doing it. I HAVE HAD IT. I spent 1/2 hour writing my blog only to have it disappear again somewhere in cyberspace when I clicked "publish". I lost the whole thing. NEVER AGAIN. If I could only copy and paste what I wrote so that I could save it in case something like this happened, but it won't let you do that. It HAD to have been a man who designed this program...............

Almost done

Did Marathon Shopping yesterday from 9 to 6:30 and then after dinner again. Almost done. Why is it always "almost"? Need sleep. Going to bed....NOW.

Christmas Spirit

Every Friday morning I meet with 6 other women from school for breakfast. With our busy schedules in school we have very little time to get together and share what is going on in our lives. This weekly breakfast get-together gives us a chance to do that. One of our science teachers, Rick, is often there grabbing a quick bite at the same time. But more often than not he is out in the kitchen making himself at home because he loves to cook.......and they let him. This morning we enjoyed our breakfast as usual and as we began putting on our coats the waitress came over to us and said, "Girls, Rick payed for your breakfasts this morning". Oh wow! What a nice thing to do. Really nice. When I saw him in school and thanked him he simply said, "Merry Christmas".

He is Mr. Spirit of Christmas. This is how Christmas should be celebrated. Not with gobs of gifts and a plethora of parties. Not with endless days of running here and there trying to search for perfection. Christmas should be made of simple acts of kindness, sharing and unselfishness. A simple gift like that touches the heart and will be long remembered. How nice if everyone could be so thoughtful and generous.

Kara and Jen T........you know this man! I'm sure you can guess who it is.

Bah Humbug

Bah Humbug! Christmas stress!

All I really want to do is light a candle, make a hot cup of tea, put on my Christmas music and sit in front of my tree. But I have NO Christmas shopping done. I have been trying for two nights to make my Christmas cards online with a computer that we just had upgraded to a higher speed which actually means that we are now running at the same speed as a dial-up modem. What the heck is going on there?? Paul has spent two days on the phone with our provider being passed off from one person to the other, the only response being "hmmmm, you're right. It is slow". My house needs deep cleaning. We had a lock-down in school yesterday because of a rumor that two students had drugs and a weapon in school. A search was done which found the drugs but no weapon. Did they not have a weapon or did they just hide it really well?? So I had to spend an hour and a half locked up in our tiny, hot AV room with 10 students, several of whom "had to go to the bathroom". And my only thought in there was "what in the world would I do if one of these children threw up?" That certainly would have started a nasty chain reaction.

But this weekend I am determined to get EVERYTHING done so that I can relax next week. Actually, the long range forecast calls for sleet showers next Friday, Sat and Sunday. Maybe we will have a snow day on the last day of school. That would be JUST WHAT I NEED. OH YES.

I'm going to take a hot shower to destress!

Powdered Christmas trees

I love Christmas trees, live Christmas trees. I don't know if I could ever be satisfied with the plastic, put-the-branch-in-the-hole kind of tree. It all seems too, well, plastic. The whole hunt-and-gather process of getting a tree was so much a part of my young life that I still need it to be a part of my old life.

This year we have our big tree in the "Belly Acres Room". But I still needed something with little lights in the living room. I have a potted Norfolk Pine that was on the porch so I brought it into the living room, strung it with lights and now I have Christmas atmosphere in my living room too.

Seeing that little tree sitting there reminds me of a little tree I had in my bedroom when I was young. One year when my father cut the big tree for our living room, he also cut a little mini tree for Lauri and I to put in our bedroom. We were overjoyed to think that we could have our own personal tree. I don't remember what we used for decorations. The one thing I do remember is the baby powder. This must sound really REALLY pathetic but Lauri and I exuberantly and gleefully sprinkled baby powder ALL OVER that tree. We thought it looked like snow. We thought it was the most beautiful thing we had ever set sight on. We invited the rest of the family in to see our glorious tree and they all acted duly impressed.

As I think back on that time, the thing that impresses me the most is not the little powder covered tree, but the fact that NEVER EVER EVER NOT EVEN ONCE did my mother get upset about the powder we had sprinkled all over the floor. She never said "clean up that mess" or "I wish you wouldn't do that" or "you're going to have to clean that up and then put a cloth down under your tree" or "how could you do such a stupid thing". She only told us how beautiful our tree was (even though it was pretty pitiful). She must have realized that floors can be cleaned up but little feelings need to be treated with care and tenderness. We were so happy with our little tree and she never once did anything to ruin that beautiful memory. But my mother was like that. People were more important to her than "things". I guess she was the true spirit of Christmas. There should be more "spirits" like that.

On another note: I posted some pictures of our weekend with Kara and Sean and Brett and Megan. They are in my Gallery under "Cookies and Big Trees". Enjoy.

Happy weekend

What a weekend! I am so tired but a good tired. Kara and Sean and their family and Brett and Megan came to visit. We had a great time. The one thing Kara really wanted to do was to decorate cookies and paint ornaments. She is a born project manager! She was always the organizer of parties and spaghetti dinners at our house when she was in high school and hasn't lost her touch. Everyone really got into the decorating mode, even me, the art-klutz. Kara made sugar cookies which are totally and wonderfully delicious. They are as good as my piano teacher's special sugar cookies, and that is saying something.




Before everyone left today they chose a tree from our old tree farm. Sean's selection has earned him the nickname "Sparky". Those of you who have seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation will understand. Here they are with it loaded on their car. I was concerned that they wouldn't make the height requirement at the toll booths.

I think they had plans to decorate it tonight, but at the last report they were trying to keep it from toppling over! I know that Kara is at least as tired as I am tonight, so I am thinking that they will hold off on the decorating until tomorrow..........as long as the tree stays upright.

I have lots more pictures to post of our great weekend, but I will have to hold that until tomorrow because I am falling asleep at the keyboard and need to get to bed. 5:30 comes awfully fast.  

Weekend guests.

I sat down at my computer to post a blog last night but I was so tired that I kept falling asleep in my chair. I woke up once and reallized that I had finished and needed to post my blog, quickly before I fell asleep again. So I clicked fast..........................on "discard" instead of "publish". Oooooops. Everything I had written was all gone. I was much too tired to do it all over again so I just closed my computer down and went to bed.



We did get our tree up last night.......in our new porch. Just as we were putting it up a cold front came through with a little snow and lots of wind. Our little fire kept us cozy and warm. It was the perfect atmosphere for decorating a tree.

Kara and Sean and the little ones arrived tonight for the weekend. They drove in at about 8:30. The little ones had fallen asleep in the car so Sean and Kara popped them right in their beds. Then the four of us settled down to a nice, quiet dinner. Tomorrow Sean and Kara are going to pick a tree from our little lot. Brett and Megan may be here too. Kara, our recreation director, has a whole day of activites planned for us! Baking cookies, decorating gingerbread men, painting tree ornaments. I can't wait for Eamon and Elizabeth to wake up tomorrow so I can play with them!

I'm going to bed now before I fall asleep again........................

Oh Christmas tree....................

Today was cold with on and off snow showers. It was a good day to think about a Christmas tree. So I bundled up and took a brisk walk through our dwindling selection of Christmas trees that we planted several years ago. Sometimes this can be an endless process, especially when Paul and I do it together. But this year, with just myself to make the decision, I found one within minutes. I tied a bright ribbon on it so I wouldn't forget which one I chose. That is a problem I have when we go back out to cut it........"it was over here, no wait wait this is it, uh no I don't think it was that one, maybe it was over that way".

Tonight I tried to find a picture of the very first Christmas tree that Paul and I had. I wasn't successful. We have an old super-8 movie of the tree, but I couldn't seem to find any pictures. We almost didn't have a Christmas tree that year. We had only been married 6 months and had NO money. I mean NO money.......none. Things were much different then. We lived in a basement apartment for $110 a month, we spent $25 a week on groceries, our electric bill was $7 every two months and gas was twenty-five cents a gallon. I worked in a doctor's office and made $60 a week. We decided that we would forgo a Christmas tree that year. It was just too expensive.....and besides, once you buy the tree you have to buy the decorations. And that means more money. But the closer Christmas came the more I wanted a tree. Especially after driving past homes and looking at the cozy Christmas lights in the windows. Really........how can you have Christmas without a tree?????

Afer much "should-we-shoudn't-we" discussion we finally decided, two days before Christmas, that we just had to make the big splurge. We could do without something that week so that we could bring the spirit of Christmas into our little apartment. We got into our old clunker of a car and drove down the hill to the center of Ithaca. We pulled up to a gas station where the Boy Scouts were selling trees. By this time the selection was pretty meager, but it didn't matter. We were getting a real tree. We found the "perfect" one and counted out our precious cash. $5.00!!! That is all a tree cost 38 years ago. But that $5.00 was so hard to come by.

After we bought our tree we drove to Jamesway, a 1968 version of Walmart, and bought some trim for the tree. We bought a box of 12 red glass bulbs. That was it. We put those bulbs on the tree and I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. I had my tree, my home and my man. Life was good.

We still have a few of those bulbs and the original box that they came in. I look at it each Christmas when we unpack our decorations and it reminds me of how far we have come and how lucky I am. And I still have my tree, my home and my man. How good can it get??!

From shorts to scarves

Were people really wearing shorts only a few days ago? It hardly seems possible. It was so warm and today it is SO_COLD. Winter is here. I wore my long winter coat for the first time today but not my scarf, ear muffs or mittens. I wish I had worm my scarf, ear muffs and mittens. It was windy and nasty cold during bus duty this afternoon. But I want the snow so badly.

Score another victory for Craig's List. We had a response today from the ad we placed in Craig's List and they took the stove in a heartbeat. They were a young couple who had just moved into an apartment with no stove and were using a hot plate to cook on. The landlord told them he would put a stove in the apartment if they would agree to pay an extra $25 a month on their rent for a year. So..........$300 for a stove that they wouldn't own vs $75 for ours (which was in very good condition) that they could call their own. Not a hard decision. They came equipped with a pick-up truck and backed it up to the house, loaded the stove on in record time and took off to probably cook a good dinner in their new apartment. The young man happened to know Brett and was in Brett's class in high school. Small world.

Cabinet fever.

Finally, at 3 o'clock this afternoon, I got my head out of my kitchen cabinets. What a project that was. It took me 3 long days. I have a couple boxes of "stuff" that I have decided that I don't need. There were things just hanging around in my cabinets that I never used. Why would anyone need 6 colanders??? I guess they were just a product of those Tupperware parties that you go to and feel like you HAVE to buy SOMETHING...ANYTHING. Such as the lettuce keeper bowl with a spike in the bottom to spear the lettuce, which I NEVER use. A ziploc bag is so much easier. Now my cabinets are fresh and clean with new shelf paper and much more space. I don't have to worry about things falling out of the cupboard before I can close the door. My cabinets have spent far too long looking like we still had 5 people living in this house.

We have put our old electric range on Craig's List. I hope it sells. It is too good to just throw out.

Last night we did take a break to go to a dinner movie theatre, The Gilson, to have a cinemeal. We saw "The Departed". It was one of Martin Scorsese's typical weird, strange, odd, creepy movies. By the time the end of the movie came you wondered if there was anyone left to kill. Much more a Paul movie than a Midge movie.

We're having a little bit of snow tomorrow.......just a very little bit. It doesn't look like we are having any significant snow for the next week. I find that to be such a downer at this time of the year.

I really do love our new porch. Tonight we ate dinner on the porch in front of our new gas stove. It reminded me of the Little House In The Big Woods books. After dinner we turned out all the lights and listened to the wind blowing against the windows as we watched the lightening from an approaching thunder storm. It can't get much better than that.

Paul had minor surgery on his sinus this morning so we were up at 4am to get him to the hospital on time. Since I took the day off from school to take him back and forth from the hospital I had some idle time this afternoon. A luxury that very rarely happens to me. I used the time to shuffle things around in my kitchen cabinets. Our new stove has a second oven where the pot and pan drawer was in the old stove. That meant I had to find a place in my very congested cabinets for my pots and pans. I decided that as long as I was in there and creating a mess I might as well finish the job I started this summer..............getting rid of junk and putting new shelf paper down. What a job. The old shelf paper has been in the cabinets since we moved into this house 28 years ago and it had no intention of leaving. What a job it was to pull that off. I did lots of "minimalizing" which means I tossed lots of junk. I found boxes of rice mix that expired in 1992! Ouch. It seems like only yesterday that I bought them. It makes me realize how quickly time passes.

I worked from 1pm until 10:30pm. And I'm only halfway through. And I am really really tired. It's been a long long day. I'm going to bed before I fall asleep at this computer........................