It's Christmas with the Raz Report

I have to say that as much as I like to have people over and socialize at their homes, I ALSO like staying home with just my little family. So I was very happy that this Christmas it was just Rob, Hannah, Lizzie and I. I was also very happy that NO ONE said I'M BORED for the entire day because then I would have had to put myself in a time out. I think the gifts were all a win -- even though we all discovered on Christmas morning (along with parents across the US) that a Furby doesn't have an off button. So here are a few pictures from our Christmas Day.

This was the scene right after Santa finished his (her) work. You can see some of the amazing wrapping Santa did, employing simple household items like garbage bags! Those big blue things in the front of the picture aren't body bags, by the way, they are the plasma cars that grandpa did not get financed. The big box to the left is the wine refrigerator that the girls and I got Rob. Other stuff is from very generous aunts and uncles and even a few for ME!

 

The girls also selected gifts for us from a holiday shop at their school. Rob got this hat from Hannah and a pen with a similar sentiment from Lizzie. I have to agree with both the hat and the pen!!

The Furbys were a HUGE hit, as were the mp3 players and the gumball machine. In fact, I have to say that they have played with or worn or used every single gift they've gotten. And they were so excited to get so much stuff. And I have to say that two days after Christmas, the Furbys are kind of cute. In moderation!

Lizzie was beyond thrilled when she saw this gift though! (Thanks to help from Santa Terry) I seriously thought my little I-Don't-Believe-In-Santa-Pessimist was going to burst into tears of joy when she took it out of the bag. She was dancing and laughing and hugging it. VERY VERY VERY happy with Santa (and now she's a total believer again since she knows that I would NEVER in a million years give her a dead thing...)
She's taken her mink with her everywhere. EVERYWHERE. As you can see ... even to bed:

I served prime rib for dinner and it was delicious. I'm not a big red meat eater, but once a year I cook roast beef for Rob (the #1 Dad deserves it!) and so while other families are gathering on Christmas Eve to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas or The Polar Express, I am reading Joy of Cooking to remember how to cook the beef! Also on the menu: mashed potatoes, turnip, glop (a family recipe that basically substitutes canned asparagus for the green beans in green bean casserole), rolls and creamed onions. Here's everyone getting ready to dig in:

Then Rob (#1 Dad) cleared the table and cleaned up the kitchen while I relaxed. About an hour or so later we our dessert of cream puffs (store bought, but I dipped them in chocolate!) and pumpkin pie. We also ate some of Aunt Tina's delicious cookies!

And, because they behaved really well during dinner, Rob decided to share his dessert coffee with the Furbys:

Tomorrow (I'm writing this on Friday) the rest of the Rasmussens will visit to distribute even more gifts and eat lasagna!

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas everyone! We have had a great day so far with lots of laughter and excitement and a delicious (if I do say so myself!) prime rib. I'll post pictures later, but for now, here's a little snippet of our Christmas morning ...

Christmas Weekend

Things sure have been busy 'round here as the clock ticks toward Christmas 2012. Here are some pictures of just some of the things we've been doing:

On Friday I went into the girls' school to help out with Hannah's class Christmas (or is it holiday?) party. This is Hannah and her best friend Phoebe. These two met during kindergarten round-up (the spring before kindergarten) and have been good friends ever since:

And here is Hannah playing the "balance the ornament" game. We also did a marshmallow game and a guess how many tootsie rolls are in the jar game. Oh and there was LOTS of food.

Whenever I go into one classroom I usually try to stop by the other girls' class, too, just to say hi. When I stopped by Lizzie's classroom they were getting ready to play some pass the candy cane game (that's not the teacher explaining it, that's my friend Stacie who in real life is an Egyptologist and my card-making buddy!) Lizzie's off to the left of the photo looking very interested in the game (or the candy canes!)

 

On Saturday we went to see "Annie" with the Girl Scouts. It was the local community theater production and really quite good. We all had a great time (even though I can't find the photo I took --  but if you're on facebook you've already seen it!) But before we went to "Annie" Beanie stopped by to do some gift exchanging and share a cup of tea at the St. Peter's bakery. Oh, and to drop off some cookies that are right now sitting on a plate on my island, awaiting Santa!

 On Sunday we went to a Christmas party (didn't take pictures) and drove around looking at the lights. Lots of good displays out there and Lizzie has decided that our house is BORING and next year we are going to have lots and lots of lights. 

Christmas Eve took us to Terry's house for our annual Christmas Eve pizza get together. As you can see a great time was had by all, especially Bob who isn't pictured, but enjoyed nearly an entire pizza all by himself.

We also had crackers ... Hannah helped Shelby pull hers open:

Lizzie's crown was just a smidge too big, I think:

When we got home, it was time to feed the reindeer. And did I mention we had a couple of inches of snow? It happened mostly when the girls and I were at Mass making driving home a little dicey (icy!) but we still managed to make it to Terry's house! Here's Lizzie making sure Santa's reindeer are well taken care of!

We finished off the evening listening to Rob play "Silent Night" on the piano. Then it was off to bed for the girls, Midnight Mass for Rob and wrapping, displaying and cooking for me!

I'll post pictures of the big morning doings tomorrow sometime:

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

This video is from the Garrity Christmas 2010. I found it while looking for something else (and it's on this blog in 2010 if it looks familiar) and thought it would be a good video not only to wish Dad a happy ??? birthday (warning: REALLY BAD SINGING --mostly mine!) but also because it includes an appearance by Mom for those of us who miss hearing her voice (yes, even her singing voice...)

Happy Birthday Dad!!! xoxo

Snowflakes and Solace

It's hard for anyone to know the best way to handle a tragedy like the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary last week.
It's difficult for adults to wrap their brains around it all, much less a group of fourth graders. But the kids want to know what's going on in the world. They hear about it, they worry about it. And as a parent I think it's my responsibility to help them navigate it, even though I'd rather just pretend it never happened -- and never COULD happen.
But my daughters live daily with increased security measures in their school. They practice lockdown drills along with fire drills and weather drills. They can't get into the school office with the daily attendance sheet unless someone buzzes them in and then out again. They know that when a kid wanders too far from the playground everyone has to go inside until the child is found. They know doors get locked, windows stay closed and the police are there to keep them safe.
So I told Hannah and Lizzie about what had happened. And, yes, we discussed the children who died, but we spent more talking about the children -- the hundreds of children -- who lived. We talked about the people who helped them; the people who saved them. We talked about what happens in their school to keep them safe. And we talked about the Snowflake Project.
The local (and now the state) PTSA in Connecticut have asked schools and community groups to show support by making snowflakes. The school that the children are going to be using is a drab building that the PTSA hopes to brighten with hundreds of snowflakes created by children across the country. My guess is that there will be well more than hundreds make -- more like 10s of thousands.
This past Tuesday my Junior troop made 26 to send in.
As a troop we talked a little about what happened, but mostly we talked about how we could help those hundreds of students who escaped safely cope with the changes and sadness around them.
Then we made snowflakes -- one for each angel.

Here's Lizzie and her best friend Keira. It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but Lizzie's snowflake is covered in glitter glue:

And here's Hannah and a bunch of my other scouts working on their snowflakes. This table decided to color the paper before cutting out the flakes. I am always amazed at how creative the girls are AND how differently they express that creativity. I have to say that no two snowflakes were alike:

 A few of my silly scouts working on their project. They all have the best hearts and were really into this project. What might have been sad became a joyful project:

 Here are some of the snowflakes we made. I'm packaging them up and sending them off tomorrow. Nothing will ever diminish the tragedy of what happened, but I am hopeful that the avalanche of snowflakes that I know are making their way to Connecticut will serve to show that while evil cannot be stopped; neither can good.

 I've got two addresses for the Snowflake Project (several friends from Connecticut!) but the most popular seems to the Connecticut PTSA. If you want to participate send your flakes to Connecticut PTSA, 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT 06514, by January 12, 2013
One of the emails I got specified that NO WORDS should be written on the snowflakes (even words of encouragement) because they are supposed to serve just as a happy, sparkly decoration.

Ginger Peachy

I learned a few things this weekend:

1) I am not an engineer
2) I am not an architect
3) I am not a landscaper
4) I am lucky none of these skills are really necessary in building a gingerbread house ... or four

Sunday, after we got home from the Garrity Christmas Weekend, the girls and I decided to put together the little gingerbread house village I bought this year.

I'm going to say that it was because I was tired that I was unable to figure out which pieces were roofs and which were sides. I don't know if it's true, but I wouldn't want me building your house on a good day.

So after Hannah and Lizzie explained to me that my houses did NOT look like the picture on the front of the box I discovered that THERE WERE PICTURES ON THE FRONT OF THE BOX and I took apart the monstrosities that I had constructed and put them together the right way and let Hannah and Lizzie loose on them.
Here Lizzie works very carefully to place the little candies. Lizzie not only decorated the house, she also created some landscaping:

 Hannah was (and this is no surprise to anyone) just as interested in eating the candy as she was in putting it on her houses.

Here's one of Hannah's creations. She wanted to put lights on the trees, but the best we could do was to surround them:

And here is one of Lizzie's houses. As you can see, she created a walkway so people can get into her house:

And here's the whole village. Both girl planned to eat the houses, but when they discovered that the frosting dries practically rock hard they decided to just look at them until they wanted to pull the candy off of them. Which for Hannah has already begun! (And yes, they are going for haircuts soon!!)

Garrity Christmas

There were some changes to Garrity Christmas this year, not the least of which is that we were shunned by missed Aunt and Uncle Anonymous. We carried on without them (and I'm not telling if we talked about them...) and managed to have a great time. I didn't take a whole lot of photos, but I can assure you that Uncle T.A. and Aunt Tina were there, just not in the pictures. :(


Here's the photographic proof of our fun weekend. The most important thing to know is that the delicious meal (turkey AND ham, which almost made up for the brussell sprouts) was prepared and orchestrated by this lovely woman. Contrary to the way she looks in this photo, Aunt Ann had nothing to do with the fact that this snowman has only one arm:

 

The Bentleys were fully represented at dinner. Here they are posing with the 1st course a delicious pasta with vodka cream sauce:

 

We also take this get together as a time to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. Ann went easy on him this year by only placing one candle on the cake but we still kept a bottle of water at the ready in case Grandpa couldn't handle the flame (don't worry -- he was successful!). In the background you can see some of the family singers. We had no talent show this year (Aunt Anonymous makes us do coordinates it) so the singing of "Happy Birthday" and an en masse attempt at "On My Own" from "Les Miz" had to suffice:

 

Here are Lizzie and Tommy in the playroom. I have no idea what they are playing here, but eventually the girls decided to give Tommy a makeover.

 Here's Brenna stealing a candy cane from one of the trees:

 And smiling with her Grandfather.

In fact here are 2/3 of the grandkids smiling with Grandpa (and even Grandpa is smiling, sort of):

 And speaking of smiles, one of the favorite parts of this get together is that the kids get to play and play and play. And as you can tell from this picture of Hannah, Lizzie and Brenna, that's something to really smile about!

Thanks Ann and T.A. for a great Garrity Christmas 2012!

The Week That Was Their Birthday

Hannah and Lizzie have been 10 for a couple of weeks now, but we're still celebrating. In fact, we pretty much celebrate their birthday through Christmas and then we celebrate Christmas through New Year's Day. Needless to say there are LOTS of presents around these parts in NovDecJanber. We do other stuff, too.
Here are the pictures to describe some of it:

The girls had most of Thanksgiving Week off. They had half days on Monday and Tuesday and then vacation through the weekend. So what did I do? I threw a party! I occasionally apply for House Party events and this one was to promote Snapfish photo books. Since I love the books, it was easy for me to talk them up among my friends. And so when I was selected to hold the party (they sent these nifty photo props as well as cookie cutters and lots of coupons!) I decided to make an afternoon event of it. Here's my friend Amy (at least I THINK that's who this is!) using some of the props.

 In fact, here's the whole group. The kids decorated cookies and played "run around the house and scream like girls" for much of the afternoon, but a fun time was had by all.

Here's Hannah getting propped out by Felicia (holding the lips) and Zoe.

We had so much fun with the props (and the cookie decorating) that we did it all over again a couple hours later when my Junior troop came over to meet. Yes, that's TWO parties in one day. (My house only had to be cleaned ONCE though!!)  Here are a couple of my scouts ... I'm not sure which ones:

We celebrated the girls birthday at home on Wednesday (followed by Nutcracker rehearsal) and then got an early start to Grandma's house on Thanksgiving Day. As you can see, Cash was momentarily confused by the pecking order in our car and tried to take my seat! 

We got to Grandma's house in plenty of time to enjoy this delicious turkey. Grandma Connie is a great cook and always makes sure to make me lots of mashed potatoes -- sometimes enough that I even share them:

 Here's the whole gang (and you can see that huge dish of mashed potatoes proudly displayed, can't you?) getting ready to dig in:

After dinner it was time to relax and celebrate birthdays (again). Here are the girls with Aunt Linda:

 And here is Hannah with the starfish that Uncle Dude gave her:

 The starfish was only upstaged by the blowfish that Lizzie got from Uncle Dude. This past summer when we visited Lizzie saw this blowfish and had a FIT when I wouldn't buy it for her. It is now hanging in her bedroom:

 

 Birthday cake time!! (Again!) I love this picture so much. I love that the girls are doing their best to blow out all the candles and Grandma is helping in the background. So sweet!!

After dinner it was time for the Rasmussen family aerobics, which included a walk on the beach. The area was hit by Hurricane Sandy and there was a lot of beach erosion in Stone Harbor. At Reed's Beach, where this picture was taken, whole houses were washed out to sea, leaving just the pylons behind:

Things were a little better in Stone Harbor, where the dunes managed to save much of the island, although the beach (and the gazebo) will need a lot of work before summer starts:

We'll be there though ... same as always:

When Rob, Lizzie and I got back from the beach we saw that Uncle Dude had put Hannah to work taking care of the gazillion leaves that had fallen thanks to the hurricane and, well, fall:

 Hannah was so pooped out that this is what happened about 30 minutes later (and I don't think it was just the turkey!) It was a great way to end a wonderful week:

Simple Woman's Daybook

For December 9, 2012

Outside my window... It's dark (it's 7 p.m. as I am writing this) but it was raining and dreary all day. Kind of perfect weather to get Dad bored enough to bring the Christmas tree up from the basement. It's warm though -- doesn't exactly feel like a couple weeks until Christmas.

I am thinking... that  (so far) we have dodged the family sickness bullet. Lizzie had a virus that turned into bronchitis and kept her home for much of last week, but Hannah just had the virus yesterday and was much better today. So far Rob shows no sign of sickness. Whew!

I am thankful ... for a husband who manages to keep  me sane when I've spent three days pretty much locked in a house with a sick child who does NOT like feeling any discomfort at all and moans and groans about it all. day. long. ALL. DAY. LONG.

From the kitchen... Rob  made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner tonight. Tomorrow I will take inventory of the baking situation and see if we've got everything for plum pudding!

I am wearing... a salmon shirt, black pants and my hunter green slanket for warmth. (Because it is cold in the family room!)

I am creating... our holiday haiku, coming soon (but not too soon) to a mailbox near you!

I am going ... to get my photo gallery up in the dining room before Christmas. Although maybe not Christmas 2012!

I am reading... I just finished Wally Lamb's "Wishin' and Hopin'" which is this month's book club selection. It was a light read, very nostalgic for those of us born in the 50s!

I am hoping... that Lizzie goes to school tomorrow (Hannah, too) because Mrs. Claus is SERIOUSLY behind in the Christmas preparations.

I am hearing... "The Nutcracker" movie version -- a Netflix selection for the girls before bed TV time.

Around the house... the Christmas Tree is up, but not yet decorated. We are awaiting the announcement from Dad that it's time to decorate!

One of my favorite things... my iPad. I thought I'd just use it once in a while when I wasn't near my laptop, but I use it for EVERYTHING except note-taking for interviews. I thought I'd have to buy a new laptop this year, but the iPad has probably delayed that by at least another year (and I got an older, refurbished one and it works great!!)

A few plans for the week ahead... Well, it's the Christmas season so the calendar is pretty full. The girls have their Lions Cub meeting and I'm interviewing psychic Sylvia Brown. I seem to recall there's a science and a math test this week, too. I've got a dentist appointment tomorrow (blech) and the week will be capped off by an exciting trip up north for the Garrity family Christmas. Can't wait!!!

Pictures I am sharing... Anyone who knows Hannah knows how much she loooooves babies (and hamsters) so she was especially excited when my friend Gretchen stopped by with her newborn (and adopted, just like Hannah) son Luca.