A busy month!

December began with a trip to Virginia for Sofia's fourth birthday. My only granddaughter, she is just adorable! It was a great trip, visiting with Kristinn and Tim and Sofia's big brother, Gabriel, who is 6. We left San Antonio amid reports of a very possible snow in San Antonio, which of course is very rare, and didn't happen- of course. But, the day after it was supposed to snow at home, it actually did snow in Virginia! It was lovely, and just enough to enjoy without getting stranded or stuck. We had Fia's birthday party at Chucky Cheese, with a great time had by all. She was definitely the princess of the party, crown and all! Despite the cold weather, we all got out to the Native American Museum and the Botanical Center, all decked out for the holidays. We also were able to just relax, which is always nice when on vacation. Gabe read to me and is doing very well with that and school in general. He has a very funny sense of humor- so does Sofia for that matter!

Upon returning home, it was back to work to get ready for our Chanukah play- a short revue using 40's music with Chanukah-ish lyrics. With only a few rehearsals, we were able to pull that off at the Latke Cook-off and then were asked for an encore performance at the Chanukah dinner at Temple. It's a pretty silly little show, but we had fun, and the audiences enjoyed it- that's good enough for me.

Eli's high school bowling team remains undefeated, and the biggest news there is that during a match against MacArthur High School, Eli bowled a perfect game- a 300! I'd never seen that happen before, and I have to say, it was pretty exciting. Everyone cheered- even the other team and their coach, and their were hugs all around. Just today at Eli's Saturday youth league, his team got their first place trophies for the first bowling season, and now they have two weeks off until they begin anew. At this moment, he's at the award party for his travel league, and I believe there's another award party on Monday night for the scholarship league. Yes, I spend a lot of time in bowling alleys!

I've got the annual holiday poem finished but am waiting for Alan to add the pictures, so I can send it out. Looking forward to a great year. Happy holidays everyone!

Fun with the Boys

Rachel and the boys were over yesterday, and we had the radio on- playing oldies. Aden wanted us all to dance, so we each had a partner: Alana and Aden, Rachel and Khalil, and Abram with me. We danced a slow song, twirling and moving around the living room; and then a fast song came on, so someone said, "With this kind of music, you have to shake your booty," so we did. Aden and Abram were hilarious- shaking booties and laughing. We all got to laughing so hard it's a wonder nobody had an accident. Later, Aden asked me to sing the "Tree Song." Remember it from Captain Kangaroo? Grandpop used to get us singing it in the car, too. "...the hole in the ground and the green grass grew all around, all around, and the green grass grew all around." Over the years, we've added our own verses, so that now it goes all the way to the "prettiest dandruff that you ever did see..." (after the hair on the wart, and the wart on the flea, and the flea on the feather, and the feather on the wing, and the wing on the bird, and the bird in the egg, and the egg in the nest, and the nest on the twig, and the twig on the branch, and the branch on the tree, and the tree on the root, and the root in the hole, and the hole in the ground...") And we always have to sing it twice. Once that was over, Aden said, "Sing the WART song, Bubbe," and I said I didn't know the WART song, but he insisted because he knows if he insists, I'll make up a silly song, so we sang a song about Aunt Alana with a wart on her butt who had to go to the doctor to get the wart cut, cut right off her butt butt. Rachel loves it when I do this, by the way...haha. I can't think of anything more fun than dancing and singing songs with my grandchildren. I am one lucky Bubbe!

Poor Neptune!

It was bound to happen. Neptune, the Boston terrier, loves to chase Sazoo, the 25 pound cat. Usually Sazoo runs from him and goes through the kitty door into the garage, but about two years ago, Neptune cornered him, and Sazoo swiped him, tearing his left eye. Surgery followed that, and Tune has since had limited vision in that eye. Well, the Tunester is a slow learner and has continued to torment the big fat cat. Saturday night I got home and noticed his OTHER eye was squinty. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was very red, but he seemed to be doing ok- until Aden threw a ball to me, Neptune got in the way, and the ball hit him in the eye. Needless to say, there was a trip to the vet today, and it looks like his eye will be saved but most likely his sight will not. Dr. Hill says the other eye is developing a cataract and that he will soon be blind in both eyes, but that blind dogs do very well since they don't have the psychological issues we people have. Now, how can anyone know that? Maybe at this very moment, Neptune is sitting in his kennel at the vet's office saying, "Damn- I can't see a thing, and this really sucks." I felt terrible leaving him because he hates to stay at the vet's, but there was no choice. I'll pick him up tomorrow to the "tune" of $450.00. Sazoo, in the meantime, is walking around like he owns the place. I wonder how he'll feel about his new job as a seeing eye cat.

Smarties!

I spent the morning with Aden and Khalil while Rachel took Abram to his music class. Aden loves to "play school," so Rachel makes flashcards for him, and while I was there, he got out his flashcards and asked me to "do them" with him. He whizzed through all of the words until he came to "PHONE," at which time he stopped and said, "Bubbe, did you know that a p and an h together make a sound like f? P-h-o-n-e spells phone!" He also has words like "tizzy" and "wailing," and he knows them all. Then he got out his magnadoodle and wanted me to spell "ambulance" for him, which he promptly wrote down. Khalil, in the meantime, at 3 months old is rolling over and trying to crawl. He didn't fuss at all- this was the first time ever Rachel's left him, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I shouldn't have been worried. He is interested in everything around him and just squeals with delight when Aden or I interact with him. When Abram and Rachel got back, Abram told me all about a little roach he saw and how "cool" it was...he likes to capture bugs, examine them and then let them go. Wonder who he takes after???? :)

L'shanah Tovah!

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, is right around the corner, and it's a time for us to reflect on the past year and think about what we'll do differently in the new. I've been feeling like good things are coming for some time now, and that's intensifying as the high holy days get closer. Last weekend was S'lichot, the official beginning of these days of awe, and I had the distinct pleasure of putting my play, Ben's Gift, on for the congregation at Temple Beth-El. I was also one of the actors, and I've noticed as I get older, it's more and more difficult to learn lines- especially when there are so many of them! Thank goodness for a patient director! Thankfully also, the play went over very well. Rabbi Block held a question/answer session afterwards. He asked, "What was Ben's gift?" and I was shocked and delighted by the numerous responses- some I hadn't even thought of myself! I received a very meaningful e-mail from Rabbi the next day, so it seems the show was a success.

Yesterday, I spent a good part of the afternoon with Aden and Abram. We went to Barnes and Noble to hear a storyteller, and I let them each pick out a book to buy. Abram went straight to the shelf with the teenager books on it and took the biggest Harry Potter book he could find. He's TWO. I convinced him that that particular book was probably one that needed to wait a few years, so he ended up finding a large Harry Potter coloring book. Alana bought both boys wands awhile back, so Abram runs around the house with his Harry Potter sweater on, pointing the wand and saying, "Expeliarmus!" Aden is much more laid back and found a Sesame Street book to buy. Then one of them spotted some stuffed dragons, so of course we bought those too. From there- off to McDonald's to play and home with two tired out little guys.

The following is a very short poem inspired by the play:

Bubbe

The fireflies of her memories
light and dim the way
I was her mother yesterday
today, her granddaughter
once she called me Tootie,
a long ago friend
flickers of her life that was
as it fades slowly away

Summer ends once again

What a summer I've had! Khalil Isaiah was born on June 25- another beautiful little boy to add to our growing family. For the first time in years, the boys outnumber the girls in our gang. Grandchildren continue to amaze and delight me.


In July, my theatre group had the opportunity to perform Darfur Calls once again and it was so wonderful to be back with the cast- great friends and actors who give their time to the cause. It's such an amazing feeling. I spent much of the rest of the month writing another play, Ben's Gift for the holiday, Selichot, and we've started rehearsals now on that.





Just last week, Eli, Alana, and I were in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, visiting my sister Jane and her husband Rich. They were the best hosts- taking us hiking and to all of the beautiful sites. We even got to go out on a boat where we saw some whales, an otter, some Puffins (they are SO cute!), jumping salmon, and bald eagles- not to mention waterfalls and scenery like we've never seen before. It also just happens that Rich is the chef at the hotel there, and I don't remember ever having more delectable food in my life. He kept us spoiled the entire trip- even serving up bananas foster on our final night there. Thank you so much Jane and Rich for a truly fabulous vacation.








Eli goes back to school tomorrow- a sophomore, and though he really wanted to stay in Alaska for a year, I think he's getting used to the idea of another school year here at home. He and his friends have been burning up the phone lines, and he got all of his school supplies in order last night. Here I am- for the first time in 28 years, I won't be going back to school with the kids. It's a bittersweet feeling- I will miss the daily interaction with my students and my colleagues- my friends at Bush. I will miss "talking teacher" with them and my other friends in the profession. Yet, I feel really good about my decision to retire. I have this overwhelming sense that new things are coming soon, and I can't wait to find out what they are.

Seeing Barack

I picked up Aden and Abram today to give Rachel a little break, and we went to the Play Place at MacDonald's. Now those of you who know me KNOW I don't do MacDonalds, but when that happens to be one of my grandsons' favorite places, what can I do? We have a little routine- the boys eat their Happy Meal McNuggets with fruit and milk, and then they play for awhile. Last, we eat an ice cream cone (don't tell Rachel!!) :) and we go home. So today, we were sitting in a booth eating our ice cream- Abram was next to me, and Aden across from us, and there was a large group of African Americans in a couple of booths next to us. Suddenly, Aden stops eating and says, "Look, Bubbe- it's Barack Obama." My initial reaction was "Oh crap," but then I noticed one of the young black men looking at me and pointing over my head, so I turned and looked up, and there on the TV screen was none other than Barack Obama himself. The young man looked at Aden and gave him a thumbs up.

On the way home in the car, Aden was playing and talking to his stuffed bear (from the Happy Meal) when Abram piped up with, "Aden, you are a one man show!" And Aden said, "Bubbe, tell Abram not to call me a one man show." I thought I'd wet my pants laughing. I told Rachel about it, and she said neither she nor Greg have ever said that, and then Greg remembered it's a line in the movie Madagascar. But how amazing that a 2 year old would not only remember the line but also use it completely appropriately. I texted all this to Alan, and he said, "We've got a genius and a comedian!" Of course we have a couple of other genius comedians in Gabriel and Sofia, too! Read Kristinn's blog and you'll know what I mean! And we can't forget Khalil, who at 6 weeks, already laughs and coos and we could swear he's starting to talk sometimes!

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I got to be so lucky.