Martin Sez

What? No Christmas card! What is your excuse? Don’t tell me it has to do with moving across the country, starting a new job, moving into a new house, and taking care of Tom and a toddler. You have plenty of time to get ready for the holidays, and get out cards. You spend about a third of your day asleep. Just put that time to a better use.

Things are back to normal around here. The cold weather ended and its been raining like hell. The Holidays are getting more hectic, and I’m glad its approaching the last week. Most of the shopping is done, and I get to spend the afternoon wrapping presents. What fun!. We are heading down to Medford tomorrow to spend Christmas with my mother, brother’s and sister’s families. It will be a working weekend for me. I’ve got work on the way down and back from Medford and work while I’m there. Its somewhat self imposed because I hate sitting around.

Have a great holiday

Eve of Christmas Eve

We find ourselves at dinner in Scituate Harbor, at a restaurant that costs more than it should and whose food could be much better, reminding Christian for the 40,000th time to SIT in his high chair.

What must it be like to be two, with boundless energy and all these useless adult activities controlling your environment. Wouldn't it be better to hurl trucks across the room and shout new words at the top of your voice and see if you really will tip over if you stand up there like that.

Everyone is tired beyond belief. A quiet Christmas is just what we need.

Judy Sez

Merry Christmas from San Juan PR!

We board the ship tomorrow for our winter vacation. It is 80 degrees today and we are loving it!!!

Have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous new year. We send our love, Judith, Charles and Charlie

Massenas at Play

A few times a year we get to spend the night in Auburn, relaxing with family at the old homestead.

For those of you who’ve never been there, my parents’ place is tucked away in an increasingly-neighbored area that was once five-acre parcels a few miles south of town. The place is a farm, of sorts, but many think “menagerie” is a better description. Rounding the bend and coming up the drive, you’ll be greeted by rare French sheep and a few llama, an Egyptian goose, and Aristotle the xx dog. Inside the house the headcount goes down; these days it’s mainly made up of tropical birds, my brother Justin, and my parents, Sharon and Bill.

We got a chance to stay over Friday night, after a long flight from East to West. Our sleep was gentle and deep, if a bit short, and dawn found us organizing ourselves for the next leg of our trip.

Before I was out of the shower, I could hear Christian down the hall sorting through the toy bin, Dad’s voice exclaiming happily as they played together. A few minutes later Mom had joined in, watching the little trooper scatter balls and gadgets all over the family room floor. A bit later Keri came over and Justin rousted, early and welcome.

The morning had a certain rightness to it, a sense of goodness. Can there be anything nicer than listening to your son play with his grandparents, aunt and uncle while you pad around the house in your jammies?

Corinne Sez

Hi there, we are busy changing the computers around and got a new big screen TV so, all our electronics have been disconnected to connected....

Boy. could we pack more stuff in a week of christmas. We are also having an open house on C Eve. So i am preparing the starters today for that.

Our tree has been up for a week or so. Looks cute. I am sending a phot via mail of Tayleigh with one of her many xmas outfits.

I have been on a shoe craze bought three pair. what is up with that one pair is a wedge and in denim, don't know when I will get to wear it but love. the others are flats.

How far are you from Andover. I am some freinds who live there from my old
neighborhood when i was young, i still keep in touch with. Love, C

Lambert Family Fun

Over the weekend the Lambert clan and close friends, a crowd of about 80 despite the threat of winter storms, gathered in Newberg to celebrate the golden anniversary of Gene and Clare. Now, 50 years of togetherness is quite a feat for grown adults, and there were many children and grandchildren to show off, and old friends -- no wait, long time friends -- to catch up with.

Clare was looking lovely in blue, and I believe blushed like a bride when she cut the cake. Gene contributed a great slide show and family T-shirts to the event, and committed to taking Clare on a second honeymoon. Maybe somewhere warm?

The boys gave their parents a beautiful Annie-glass oval plate edged in gold, and etched with the anniversary date. Guests at the party were "framed" for picture taking, gluing their photos into a memory book with hellos and signatures.

Thank you to everyone who helped out -- Aunt Ginny and Dean, Gerri Lynn and Tim and Ted and Denise and Aunt Vi and many others ... your efforts were greatly appreciated! Thanks too for braving the winter weather, we loved seeing you all.

On the Hingham Ferry

I learned this morning that when you spill coffee here in winter (“it’s not even winter yet!” people proclaim, almost proudly) it’s hard to hide because it freezes to your clothes before you can wipe it away.

Feeling a bit “fifty cents short and a half day late”. We’ve accomplished so much but energy waned last night; after dinner we went straight to bed. Slept until seven and could have gone longer. Consequently I barked my shin on a big box of toiletries on my way into the bathroom, forgot to shampoo my hair, cringed at the clutter scattered around the master bedroom (are those my books, is that my suitcase ralphing clothes), couldn’t print the list of window coverers or directions to Quincy (where is the secret box of power cords, our keyboard, our backup drive), couldn’t find a watch (is that on the bedroom floor too), left the car running in the drive for twenty minutes, and experienced a deep sense of dismay as the ferry pulled out just as I stepped onto the ramp. But good news! It was the boat before my boat. So I am actually on time.

Today it was very sweet hearing Christian wake up and start calling from his warm bedroom (does he have a smoke alarm in there). Lance is a bit lost living in the house; he’ll get a little time in the park today (where is our chuck-it).

My seatmate tells me when it gets really cold the sky becomes a particular shade of deep brilliant blue you never see anywhere else. Something to look forward to.

Tidbit

Why people in the East walk so fast: it's so cold, if you stop moving you'll freeze in place.

And, you're probably jaywalking anyway.

Kitchen Reality Bites

From Friday night:

After yesterday’s tidy uncrating of all our household goods the unpackers came today. Their job is to open all the boxes, set everything out on a flat surface, and take away all the shipping material. They had to stop at the kitchen because there were no more surfaces left; we have a little work in front of us.

The kitchen itself has about two cupboards into which we are to settle all our gear. You should have seen both of us looking everywhere for a space big enough to hold a pot or pan. We were still looking and a bit mystified when we left last night. Our new housekeeper blew up the built-in microwave during its initial cleaning. The microwave sits above a rather unattractive electric stove. Not far away is a chintzy tin sink, befriended by an old black dishwasher and unmatched white freezer-top refrigerator. The whole thing is surrounded by the sad sack cupboards that have clearly seen better days.

Actually since our family room furniture takes up most of the kitchen space, you can hardly see the kitchen anyway.

Well the boat driver is either doing some very creative work, or we are nearing Hingham and working our way around a buoy at top speed.

More later.

Blizzard Ahoy

Today’s excitement included Machiavellian turf-protecting exercises inside the office, and a white-out afternoon blizzard that dropped six inches of snow downtown. The storm magically cleared just before the afternoon commute started, leaving bundled-up snow workers to do their jobs: plowing, shoveling, salting and setting out sandwich boards that read: watch for falling ice.

A few small differences between the Northwest and Boston:

• You don't really want to drink the water here
• It's perfectly acceptable to wear your moon boots to work, in fact you may be complimented on them
• Many people don full length down coats that look as if they’re wearing their bedding around town
• A ferry is not a ferry, it’s a "boat"
• If you’re from the north, you say “nawth” and it sounds like a little bark

Tonight will be our first in the Hingham house. From the upstairs bedroom we see planes landing and taking off across Boston Harbor, just far enough away to be pretty and interesting. For six bucks we bought a grate that will tide us over until we can buy good andirons for our rough-hewn fireplace.

What Have We Gotten Ourselves Into!

Here it is now

Today we woke to a lovely snowfall out our hotel window. We’re on the 9th floor of the Boston Harbor Hotel, across from the Boston Fire Department. Buildings are wrapped in red ribbon, wreaths and lights adorn doorways and lobbies and bushes. It feels like something out of “Miracle on 34th Street”.

Though the three of us are never alone (hard to be, in one room, even though it’s a good size), I think we are a bit lonely. The phone isn’t ringing as much. And we’re not in a rhythm. We’ve been to the house a few times but it still feels like it needs “everything” so when we go we are just visiting.

Good things are happening, all the same. The interior paint, chosen in the dark, turned out just fine. The refinished floors gleam (and stink!). Of course we have a fine layer of dust on every surface because of the sanding. As we clean up and put outlet covers back on and oil the woodwork, the place starts to look a little bit like a home.

Christian is acting a bit crazy, just what you would expect from a displaced two year old!

For fun today we picked up our new closet fixins at the Container Store, and had a professional photographer over to take Christian’s two year photos. We loved her (Roxana Perdue, you can google her). Her husband Steve (architecture grad student, MIT) was great too.

Cross your fingers that the furniture arrives soon, and in good shape.

Above ... Tony and Christine at Christian's birthday party!