Frag'n Friday

Friday already? No! That means that school vacation week is almost over and I am not ready for that. I am sure the girls would second (and third) that, too.

*I am not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions because they never seem to last beyond the 3rd week of January. I can handle goals though, so my goal for the new year is to get "it" together and concentrate on my blog and the blogs around me more. Now I just have to figure out what "it" is and how exactly to get "it" together....

*We recently went and checked out the Boston Aquarium and Quincy Market (aka Fanueil Hall). It was a very fun day doing something completely different. However, we were all a little disappointed in the Aquarium. It should have cost about $24 a person, but we used the passes from our library so it only cost $8 a person. Thank goodness, because we would have been really disappointed to spend so much money otherwise!

*I call my girls "bunnies" (don't let that get out, OK?) and for Christmas they got me the cutest necklace with a Mom bunny and 2 baby bunnies from Red Envelope. Check it out here. I love that catalog!

*Speaking of catalogs, because I have moved a few times in the past year, my catalogs have not caught up with me. HOWEVER, my email inbox has been inundated with "catalogs" for the past month. I will admit it.... I had over 700 unopened emails sitting in my box this morning! I erased about 250 so far... I think I can, I think I can.... It would be nice to start the new year with nothing in my inbox.....

*My friend (and boss), Lisa Genova, has her second book release on January 4th! It is called Left Neglected and will be the feature book at all Borders Bookstores in January!!! Her first book was Still Alice. Both are amazing!!!!

*If you are in Chatham at 3 today, you can come see the Lightfoots perform their jump rope skills as part of the First Night celebrations at the Community Center!

*HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Sundays in My City

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day scenes...

Happy Sunday!

Frag'n Friday

Wanted to sneak in a quick Friday Fragments before all hell breaks loose, I mean the celebrating begins!




*I can't even describe the last few months, but it is evident that they were crazy busy by my lack of posting.
Sorry about that faithful fans.

*I would like to publicly thank my Secret Santa (done thru Georgie's blog, Decisionally Challenged). MegRyansMom sent me the most wonderful package of Christmas goodies featuring pink snowmen and Christmas M&Ms. You know the way to my heart <3 .

*My email inbox is littered with last minute sales, however I did get the first "after Christmas sale" today from Olympia Sports. Yup, you heard it here first. There will be a big sale there Dec 26th. This means if you are not done with your shopping today, you may as well give the person a rain check and tell them you will bring it to them on the 26th after you hit the major sales.

*We had our first big snow of the season earlier this week which allowed us to make our first snowman!

*Oh, and Unknown Mami won the Hallmark card promotion. That is the second thing she has won on my blog. I think she has some magical powers!

*Please enjoy your Christmas time with your family and friends! I am truly grateful to have you all in my life (whether real or blogworld)! xoxo

Sundays in My City

I do not often get to see my brother and soon to be sister-in-law's house around Christmas time, but I did this week. It was so cute and cozy!

This is the collection of Eskimo ornaments from Hallmark that my Mom collected for years and gave to Tommy. I love that they hung them on their own little tree.

Evidently the storm troopers have something to do with their Christmas card. Jenn told me Tommy almost burned the tree down by trying to light sparklers with them or something like that.

Tommy loves legos.... nuff said.

Maybe there are some of you out there that haven't gotten around to ordering your holiday cards yet, so I am here to help. Hallmark has offered you all 30% off holiday cards at Hallmark.com with the code BLOGHER30. Also, I am giving away $40 worth of holiday cards to one lucky commenter. Just leave me a comment and I will pick a name on Tuesday. I do not think that they have to be Christmas cards, so don't worry if you have already sent yours out!

Happy Sunday!

HoHoHo

Thanks to Georgie and her joy for Christmas, I am part of a Secret Santa Blog swap for the 2nd year. Georgie has an inumerable amount of patience for crazy bloggers trying to get just the right gift out to their recipients (on time!).

My blog person lives in one of those middle of the country states that I don't know a lot about. Her life is pretty opposite of mine in the fact that she
has boys, I have girls,
she hunts, guns scare me to death
she scrapbooks, I wish I scrapbooked

but....
we both blog,
we both are proud moms,
we both love chocolate and
we both love Target

so it actually wasn't too hard to shop for her.

I sent her some scrapbooking pens, a $10 gc to Target, some camo duct tape, a Cape Cod ornament, a starfish shaped soap (made by a friend of mine), and I copied her the Glee Christmas CD off of my itunes account. Of course, I added some chocolate and candy canes, just to make things festive.

So my secret blog friend, expect your package by the end of the week. I tried to mail it yesterday, but everytime I went to the PO, everyone else in the town was trying to mail 15 packages.

Merry HoHoHo!

Sundays in My City

It has not snowed more than a few flakes on Cape Cod so far this winter. My mom, B and I stopped by Skaket Beach to say hi yesterday and this is what we saw. It was like a scene out of Rudolph where Yukon Cornelious cuts the iceberg and floats away with Herbie and Rudolph.

I would love to give you the scientific reasoning behind big ice flow blocks on the beach, but I do not have one. So you will just have to enjoy an interesting part of nature!

Happy Sunday!

Bye-Bye Knot In My Back!

I didn't realize how much stress I had been under the last month or so until this morning when I lept out of bed with a skip to my step. (OK, maybe I rolled out of bed, but I did have a smile on my face).

Two Cape Cod towns have been struggling with the question of regionalizing their school systems for the past year and a half. Things really started to get heated in the past month when the regionalization study committee recommended regionalizing the two districts. Last night was a special town meeting vote.

Both sides of the question were passionate in their pleas. It is hard to envision your small town joining forces with a town that was at one time your arch rival. However, the reality of Cape Cod is that it is becoming smaller. It is expensive to live in other people's summer paradise. There are no big corporations on Cape Cod, so most year rounders are teachers, landscapers, fishermen/women, Realtors or retail/restaurant workers. Winters can be bleak financially and environmentally. That being said, Cape Cod is a great place to raise a family. It is nice to live in a community where you bump into someone you know in the grocery store every other aisle, not every other visit. How many people can say that they live in the same town as their parents, sister/brother in law, in laws, brother/sister in law and your sister's in laws?

So the vote on regionalization became personal. I dreaded going to the dump or the grocery store because inevitably I was going to run into someone who was going to bring up regionalization. I accept the fact that I am an elected official myself and it is my job to listen to the people of the town, but when people start sending you hate mail, you begin to wonder what you got yourself into.

The vote was closer in one town than the other which was expected. The Patriots helped us out by creaming the Jets, so when the score was broadcast at the meeting every touch down, I think, more people felt OK to be exercising their right to vote instead of wondering how the vote would turn out while they were sitting on their couch watching the game.

The goal now is to move together as one system and do whatever we can to give our children the best education possible. There are endless opportunities for these children and I am excited to watch my girls be a part of this change. There will be bumps along the way, but as long as we keep the goal of giving the students the best education and extra curricular choices, this new district will succeed!

And maybe now I can concentrate on my Christmas shopping....


Please do not take my italicized sarcastic comments as not caring, for I did and do care exponentially. For you new comers, I like to add humor (sarcastic or otherwise) to everything. 

Frag'n Friday

Fridays are days for fragments. With all the road construction beeping going on outside my house (still!), I am not sure it is possible for me to have a complete thought.

*Thank you for all the birthday wishes for B yesterday! She had a great, albeit busy, day! And the partying continues through the weekend.

*My niece is adorable.

Just sayin'.

*This is the first week I babysat little dude (3) AND his 3 month old sister. Yes, I was tired by the time I left yesterday. Thank goodness I have Fridays off!

*Thanksgiving was delicious and it was fun to be around the family! Even my Uncle Dick came and spent the night! (Hi Uncle Dick! B was excited to get a card from you!)

*Two of the funniest lines that we have been repeating happened in Thanksgiving shows. One was from Mike and Molly when the Senegalese cook said, "You won't eat monkey brains, but you will eat stale bread from a turkey's ass?"
And the other came from Better With You when they turned the last name "Putney" into a swear. "Son of a Putney" is our new swear line now.

*The Glee Christmas CD is excellent and Lee DeWyze's (American Idol winner) first album is good, too. Lee's album took listening to a few times, but now we really like it.

*Anyone get any great Black Friday deals? I went with my friend Lisa at 5:45 am! We were back with a full car and empty stomachs by 1! It is hard to stop and eat when you are busy getting deals!

Have a great weekend!

Someone is 12 Today!

B,
You came into the world 12 years ago at 6:12 am to a beautiful sunrise.

Everyday you are like a beautiful sunrise. 

Your smile, your energy, your determination,

Your enthusiasm, your laughter,

Your eagerness to try something new,

Your compassion toward others,

Your leadership,

All like a beautiful sunrise.
Happy Birthday Sweetie! Love you millions :)

Once Upon a Time Wednesday

Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun!  Play along if you want!

Once upon a time,  I went to the greatest elementary school. It was a K-6 school in the suburbs of Boston. This was a time when holiday parties were Christmas parties. I am pretty sure that there may have been a few Jewish kids in my school, but I couldn't tell you who they were. There was one parent every year who would come in and teach us about Hanukkah. We would sing the Dreidel song, play the Dreidel game and learn what the markings on each side of the dreidel meant. There was more than one jealous kid thinking that getting presents for 8 days sounded better than getting presents on one day.

The best thing of all though...... the potato latkes.

I can still smell them if I think back to the halls of my elementary school. We would cook them in the classroom in one of those plug in pans. Then we would eat them with apple sauce. They were absolutely delicious!

Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends! And if you want to swing by with some potato latkes, I will supply the applesauce and sing you the dreidel song!