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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Christmas in Ohio!
Here is a brief (not) summary of our Christmas..
We went to Christmas Eve mass. Not midnight...7pm. Well..actually we went at 6:15, because we had been told that there would be carol singing until mass started. We arrived at about 6:20..about 10 minutes after my aunt's family. We filed into the pew behind her. I heard music, but I the only person that was singing was the person that I presumed to be the 50-60yr old vocalist for that church..or something like that. She was standing up at the front of the church singing her heart out with a hymnal in her hands. I leaned forward and whispered into my aunt's ear, "So, I thought this was carol singing..not carol listening." She laughed and solemnly whispered back, "No, That's Carol" She said, pointing to the lady who was still lustily singing away. I just about lost it then, but I regained my composure, and sat back, opened my hymnal and started singing. Believe me, that lady needed all the help she could get.
Anyway, the rest of the mass was pretty normal, except for the priest pointing out my 20-30 extended family members that were all sitting together, by saying, "Do you ever wonder what the heavenly hosts sound like? Well, we have them right here. All of those beautiful children singing right over there." He pointed in my pew's general direction, and I wished I could disappear as the people that hadn't already been staring at us turned and looked my way. (This wasn't many, because apparently that church doesn't get visitors very often, and pretty much everyone was already staring at us.) Oh, but besides all that..mass was pretty normal..well..besides the fact that my 3yr old cousin cried for about 20 min, and my 18mos old cousin shrieked "Whoa!" at the top of her lungs when she slipped off the kneeler.
You probably think I'm done, but no. I want to make you waste as much time reading this as possible. After mass we ran to the car. I REALLY envy boys in the winter..on Sundays..tights are not very warm! So..we drove off down the road towards our cabin, singing Christmas songs.. And we decided that we were going to get a Christmas Tree. To understand where we were going to get it from..we have to back up to the Sunday before Christmas.
We were driving back from church (this is Sunday), and we saw what looked like a Christmas tree farm. But there wasn't anyone selling them..they were all still in the ground. Except for a pile of about 30 trees cut down and wrapped up in netting, in a field on the side of the road.
Back to Christmas Eve. Yes, we stole a Christmas tree.
There we were, coming home from Mass, singing carols, thinking of "Carol" and we decided to STEAL a Christmas tree! We pulled off the country road into the field and turned off our lights. Daddy jumped out of the car and grabbed the enormous flashlight that we just happened to have with us. As he picked out a tree, I began to wonder..why were these trees out here? Were they infested with some type of pest?! When voiced aloud, my thoughts were shot down by some sarcastic remark, about my fear of bugs, from my mother. Mariana turned on her little light. "TURN IT OFF!!" My father said. A car drove by. "I don't think they saw us" I said. "Why don't we want them to see us?" Nastia (10) said. I don't think we bothered to answer that question. My dad finally got the tree tied on the roof next to the roof rack. We slowly backed out and continued on our way. "I think we should make something clear." My dad said, "We're not STEALING this tree. We're appropriating it." Right.
We got home, decorated the tree, I helped my parents get stuff ready for the next day, my aunt and uncle helped us too, I went to bed, I was rudely awakened at about 8:30, we opened presents, I got an ihome (ipod speaker thingy), we had our family over for brunch, and that pretty much sums up my Christmas Eve and day.
Oh, and we had Italian Wedding Soup on Christmas Eve! YUM!!
We went to Christmas Eve mass. Not midnight...7pm. Well..actually we went at 6:15, because we had been told that there would be carol singing until mass started. We arrived at about 6:20..about 10 minutes after my aunt's family. We filed into the pew behind her. I heard music, but I the only person that was singing was the person that I presumed to be the 50-60yr old vocalist for that church..or something like that. She was standing up at the front of the church singing her heart out with a hymnal in her hands. I leaned forward and whispered into my aunt's ear, "So, I thought this was carol singing..not carol listening." She laughed and solemnly whispered back, "No, That's Carol" She said, pointing to the lady who was still lustily singing away. I just about lost it then, but I regained my composure, and sat back, opened my hymnal and started singing. Believe me, that lady needed all the help she could get.
Anyway, the rest of the mass was pretty normal, except for the priest pointing out my 20-30 extended family members that were all sitting together, by saying, "Do you ever wonder what the heavenly hosts sound like? Well, we have them right here. All of those beautiful children singing right over there." He pointed in my pew's general direction, and I wished I could disappear as the people that hadn't already been staring at us turned and looked my way. (This wasn't many, because apparently that church doesn't get visitors very often, and pretty much everyone was already staring at us.) Oh, but besides all that..mass was pretty normal..well..besides the fact that my 3yr old cousin cried for about 20 min, and my 18mos old cousin shrieked "Whoa!" at the top of her lungs when she slipped off the kneeler.
You probably think I'm done, but no. I want to make you waste as much time reading this as possible. After mass we ran to the car. I REALLY envy boys in the winter..on Sundays..tights are not very warm! So..we drove off down the road towards our cabin, singing Christmas songs.. And we decided that we were going to get a Christmas Tree. To understand where we were going to get it from..we have to back up to the Sunday before Christmas.
We were driving back from church (this is Sunday), and we saw what looked like a Christmas tree farm. But there wasn't anyone selling them..they were all still in the ground. Except for a pile of about 30 trees cut down and wrapped up in netting, in a field on the side of the road.
Back to Christmas Eve. Yes, we stole a Christmas tree.
There we were, coming home from Mass, singing carols, thinking of "Carol" and we decided to STEAL a Christmas tree! We pulled off the country road into the field and turned off our lights. Daddy jumped out of the car and grabbed the enormous flashlight that we just happened to have with us. As he picked out a tree, I began to wonder..why were these trees out here? Were they infested with some type of pest?! When voiced aloud, my thoughts were shot down by some sarcastic remark, about my fear of bugs, from my mother. Mariana turned on her little light. "TURN IT OFF!!" My father said. A car drove by. "I don't think they saw us" I said. "Why don't we want them to see us?" Nastia (10) said. I don't think we bothered to answer that question. My dad finally got the tree tied on the roof next to the roof rack. We slowly backed out and continued on our way. "I think we should make something clear." My dad said, "We're not STEALING this tree. We're appropriating it." Right.
We got home, decorated the tree, I helped my parents get stuff ready for the next day, my aunt and uncle helped us too, I went to bed, I was rudely awakened at about 8:30, we opened presents, I got an ihome (ipod speaker thingy), we had our family over for brunch, and that pretty much sums up my Christmas Eve and day.
Oh, and we had Italian Wedding Soup on Christmas Eve! YUM!!
Friday, December 14, 2007
PA!
After Richmond (yes..I'm still blogging about our trip this summer) we drove up to PA to visit Aunt Ali, Uncle, Sean and Sarah Marie. The drive was long, but at least it was cool. It was super hot at Aunt Ali's house. We unpacked some stuff from Emma, and went inside. Sarah Marie immediately started attacking Charlie. I'm not kidding. She attacked him! I have 2 videos from when we were there. One of them has Sarah Marie jumping on Charlie, flipping over him, landing on her head, and starting to cry. The other video has her jumping on top of him, and whacking him so hard that HE started crying!
Unfortunately, the videos take about an hour to load, so I'm not going to put them on here. I already put them on the Vasko Experience. You can come see her live at my house anytime after 4pm today to sometime on Thursday. (Aunt Ali and SM are visiting this week!) We'll be selling tickets at the door. (jk, Aunt Ali! ;-) )
Anyway, we went for a little walk through Aunt Ali's neighborhood and then ate dinner. Or visa versa..I don't remember. I sadly don't remember what dinner was either..It was good. It think that broccoli was the vegetable. Do I even need to mention that Valya and I had to do dishes? Isn't that pretty obvious? After dinner we got the kids to bed..I mean....Daddy put the kids to bed while Aunt Ali, Mommy, and I played cards and ate popcorn...or..knowing the vaskos...it was probably chips. (but hey! I DID TRY to put SM to bed, but she didn't go for it, so Aunt Ali hurriedly nursed her and turned a fan on so that she wouldn't burn up. (I'm just kidding..by this time the air conditioning was on.)
I think I won those card games, but I don't know for sure. Just ask Aunt Ali. It's pretty hard to concentrate on slapping cards in the dark while listening to gypsy moth caterpillars gnaw on the tree just off the deck. And when the wind blew....*shudder* and the pieces of chewed leaf fell into the popcorn bowl..or worse...caterpillars fell into the popcorn bowl. I used to love those little guys, and I still do...in small groups of...uhhh...1 or 2. Luckily, they didn't get into the house.
So, eventually we gave up playing cards on the deck and went inside. About this time Uncle Sean got back from his night shift. (This shows how late we stay up.) We stayed up a little longer and then went to bed. I woke up to a breakfast of eggs, toast, and juice. I DO remember that meal..at least!
After Breakfast we packed up the car and drove to Dingman's ferry falls..I THINK that was the name. Anyway, we took lots of pictures and went for a hike. I posted one of the pictures two posts ago. It was really pretty. (the place..not the picture..though I think the picture's pretty ok too.) We had to say goodbye to Sean then (he had to go to work), but we drove back to the house with Aunt Ali to grab lunch and use the bathroom Then we started our drive to............BOSTON!!!
Sarah Marie attacking Charlie
.
Sarah Marie and Mariana
Nastia with her walking stick from Curran
Some waterfalls at Dingman's Ferry
All of us at Dingman's Ferry (back row l-r Nastia, Valya, Aunt Ali (holding Sarah Marie), Mommy, Me, (front row) Charlie, Jacinta, and Mei mei)
Unfortunately, the videos take about an hour to load, so I'm not going to put them on here. I already put them on the Vasko Experience. You can come see her live at my house anytime after 4pm today to sometime on Thursday. (Aunt Ali and SM are visiting this week!) We'll be selling tickets at the door. (jk, Aunt Ali! ;-) )
Anyway, we went for a little walk through Aunt Ali's neighborhood and then ate dinner. Or visa versa..I don't remember. I sadly don't remember what dinner was either..It was good. It think that broccoli was the vegetable. Do I even need to mention that Valya and I had to do dishes? Isn't that pretty obvious? After dinner we got the kids to bed..I mean....Daddy put the kids to bed while Aunt Ali, Mommy, and I played cards and ate popcorn...or..knowing the vaskos...it was probably chips. (but hey! I DID TRY to put SM to bed, but she didn't go for it, so Aunt Ali hurriedly nursed her and turned a fan on so that she wouldn't burn up. (I'm just kidding..by this time the air conditioning was on.)
I think I won those card games, but I don't know for sure. Just ask Aunt Ali. It's pretty hard to concentrate on slapping cards in the dark while listening to gypsy moth caterpillars gnaw on the tree just off the deck. And when the wind blew....*shudder* and the pieces of chewed leaf fell into the popcorn bowl..or worse...caterpillars fell into the popcorn bowl. I used to love those little guys, and I still do...in small groups of...uhhh...1 or 2. Luckily, they didn't get into the house.
So, eventually we gave up playing cards on the deck and went inside. About this time Uncle Sean got back from his night shift. (This shows how late we stay up.) We stayed up a little longer and then went to bed. I woke up to a breakfast of eggs, toast, and juice. I DO remember that meal..at least!
After Breakfast we packed up the car and drove to Dingman's ferry falls..I THINK that was the name. Anyway, we took lots of pictures and went for a hike. I posted one of the pictures two posts ago. It was really pretty. (the place..not the picture..though I think the picture's pretty ok too.) We had to say goodbye to Sean then (he had to go to work), but we drove back to the house with Aunt Ali to grab lunch and use the bathroom Then we started our drive to............BOSTON!!!
Sarah Marie attacking Charlie
.Sarah Marie and Mariana
Nastia with her walking stick from Curran
Some waterfalls at Dingman's Ferry
All of us at Dingman's Ferry (back row l-r Nastia, Valya, Aunt Ali (holding Sarah Marie), Mommy, Me, (front row) Charlie, Jacinta, and Mei mei)
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Short but Sweet
To my few readers out there, (ie, Sylvia) thank you for reading this blog!!
There. I said it. Now I can post some pics.
Singing in the rain
A waterfall at Dingman's ferry, PA
My friend Mary and me!
There. I said it. Now I can post some pics.
Singing in the rain
A waterfall at Dingman's ferry, PA
My friend Mary and me!
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