Merry Christmas!

The inside of our Christmas card. Amy Hall Photography.
My favorite part is the horse racing, jockey Mike Smith and Zenyatta... S insisted on it making his list!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

This song was from my Mom's, and mine, favorite Christmas movie, Meet Me in Saint Louis. We always cried during the scene where Judy Garland sings to Margaret O'Brien. Those huge tears streaming down Margaret face, and ours. This Christmas will be bittersweet, the first without my Mother. But her ornaments are in my house and her recipes will be on my table.
I will be surrounded by family, and appreciate the love of my husband and children, and the health we are blessed with.
I ask everyone to take a family picture this Christmas. Don't put it off. No one will care about extra pounds, braces, hair, or stains. Do it know, you may not get another chance.
Merry Christmas, Gwennie

The Shack

Yesterday we were in the Muscoda area for a memorial. I made sure we stopped my Grandmother's property, which was sold to the DNR after her death. The cottage, or as it was known "The Shack", is gone, but the Wisconsin River and the woods are still there as reminders of what was.

It was this time of year that the entire family, Aunts, Uncles and all the cousins would get together to cut wood. The men would head in the old truck to bring out the fallen trees, cut down the dead ones, and cut them into pieces that would fit into the wood burning stove. They would drive back to the shack, unload the back full of wood and the women and older cousins would use a splitter to make usable pieces, and the young ones would stack it. Enough wood to heat the shack through the winter. The day was filled with hard work, wonderful stories, lots of jumping into leaf piles and ended with a huge bonfire, with roasted weiners and marshmallows.

Taking my boys to the area that holds so many memories makes me miss an easier time, my mom and especially my Grandmother. How I wish Grandma could have met my sons. She would have loved J's adventurous spirit and S's gentle ways. And they would have adored her. Although she would have clobbered them in Scrabble, she showed no mercy.

Ready, set, throw 'em!

Tarpon Springs - OPA!

I had been to Tarpon Springs thirty years ago (that statement makes me feel old!) and I knew I had to take the kids there. First on the agenda -lunch.
and dessert! Oh the problems picking just one.

We picked out sponges and saw the big fish trophies.

And the owner is an adorable man who gave words of advice to my boys, saying "Take care of your mother, because she will take care of you her entire life." His own mother is 93, and he said he always worries that when he calls her, he will get bad news. I told him, given that I recently lost my own mother, I would give anything to be able to call my mom.

The boats filled with sponges.

The town is sort of a tourist trap, but the sponge docks are interesting, given that we don't have anything like it in Wisconsin. And, of course, the baklava makes it all worth while.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was incredibly hard, having lost my own mother not three months ago. I spent the afternoon with my in-laws, and snuggling with my newest niece, E. E helped my heart a lot!

My Mom

Things about my mother:

1. She told me to buy angel hair pasta, it's just prettier than other spaghetti's.

2. She would get dressed up, put on Bing Crosby albums, make special appetizers, and make it a special occasion to decorate the Christmas tree.

3. She thought the rise in divorce could be contributed to what women slept in. She said, "Who wants to go to bed with a woman in a t-shirt and boxers?!" She slept in a negligee every night of her married life... almost 45 years.

4. She would change her clothes, put fresh lipstick and a spray of perfume on every night about 15 minutes before my Dad came home from work. She said she was getting gussied up to impress the love of her life.

5. After dating someone for many years, she asked, casually, if I truly loved him, or I was just comfortable, and unwilling to take a chance by being alone. I broke up with my then boyfriend about a week later.

6. She told me you can never go wrong with cashmere.

7. She told me buy classic pieces, take care of them, and you'll have them forever.

8. She told me to sit up straight, shoulders back, head high.

9. She never would have allowed a plastic tablecloth on her table.

10. She loved Frank Lloyd Wright design.

11. She loved Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.

12. She worked for civil rights as a young woman in Milwaukee.

13. She met Hank Aaron.

14. She saw the Beatles walking into a hotel, and didn't think it was any big deal.

15. She couldn't do toast when she married Dad, but ended up being a fabulous cook.

16. She always said she loved Dad best.

17. She always made us go to Mass on July 4, no matter the day of the week, because we should remember how fortunate we were to live in this country.

18. She cried every time the hymns "Let There Be Peace on Earth" and "On Eagles Wings" were sung at Mass.

19. She had no voice the day after the US beat the USSR in the 1980 Olympics, from screaming so much at the TV.

20. She read everything, always. There was always a book by her side.

21. She loved answering the questions on Jeopardy. She was incredibly smart.

22. She taught me how to do the twist, "Pretend you're putting out a cigarette with one foot and drying off your bum with a towel at the same time." I was ten.

23. She made the BEST Thanksgiving dressing and potato salad. Period.

24. She always made all holidays special.

25. She always said "Put on some lipstick, you'll feel better."

My mom died suddenly on Valentine's Day night. She was a wonderful, complex woman. She was deeply in love with my Dad, and said on every anniversary that she loved him more than she did the year before. She will be missed.