THE
LOWE FAMILY NEWSLETTER VOLUME : 119 FEBRUARY
2018
Dear Readers,
As you may recall I mentioned in my
last letter that Leslee-Ann was very much hoping that Ray would find
entering Grandma's house akin to experiencing the Magic Kingdom of
Disneyland: thus I had Christmas decorations hanging where nothing
but cobwebs had hung before. Upon his arrival Ray definitely thought
Grandma had created a wonderful play-scape for him as he pulled down
a bow with six feet of ribbon trailing down some garland decorating
the entryway to the dinning room and took apart a centerpiece I had
created out of baubles and candles .However it was my Christmas tree
that proved to be the piece de resistance: he was drawn like a magnet
to it and the glorious fun he found in pulling off all the ornaments
he could reach and throwing them as far as possible, causing some of
them to break. His parents would sternly admonish this behavior and
sit him on the bottom stair for a time out – saying he could join
us again once he could behave. Of course he would immediately return,
stand himself in front of the tree and start his game all over again!
After three days of Ray being constantly sent to time out and my
trying to restore my tree to it's former glory every time he napped I
decided on the 27th that the tree was going to come down
as nothing seemed to dissuade him from undressing the tree – I even
gave him a whole container of fake apples to throw as he insisted on
calling my Christmas balls “ apples” but they did not have the
cache of my shiny balls!
I was so desperate to get my tree away
from Ray that I enlisted Marc's help (?) to accomplish this task. On
Wednesday December 27th,the Remsburgs had bundled
themselves up against the sub zero temperatures so that Ray could
ride the two story carousel and use the indoor childrens' play area
at the Oak Park Mall so conveniently located up the street!
It had taken me three days to get the
tree decorated and less than three hours to take it all down and
stored away in the basement. Marc complained the entire time that he
was allergic to my artificial tree and wasn't too thrilled about
having to box the ornaments up by color but over the years I have
learned that it is better to do this for ease of decorating next
year. That task completed we pulled of all the lights, bagged them up
and started pulling the tree apart into four sections .I climbed the
ladder and pulled off the top section – Marc as we all know cannot
put a foot on the rung of a ladder – and hoped that Marc could pull
off the next section. Despite spending $150.00 a month on a gym
membership to stay in shape it was his mother( who of course has
never been in a gym, leave alone done a work-out) who was able to
pull it off. The last two sections were the hardest so we turned the
tree on it's side and had a tug of war – I am sure it was my
tugging that eventually pulled the sections apart. Thankfully Marc
was able to carry the tree down to the basement storage room piece
by piece without falling down the stairs.
The Remsbergs were surprised to see the
tree was gone when they returned but I said it was better for all the
children to have more room to play because the tree took up a lot of
space and now Ray would not be spending so much of his Christmas
vacation in time- outs! They did point out that I have a huge
playroom downstairs but Grandma likes her grand babies to feel
comfortable in every room of her house.
Leslee-Ann had outfitted us all in
Christmas Pajamas hoping to get a family picture but we had to settle
for one without the Logues as they spent Christmas Day with Jeremy's
family but the following day we did get the three youngest kids
together in their pajamas for a picture. We spent most of the 25th
thus dressed – frankly I was relieved when we were given the all
clear to change into clothes that afternoon as I could not imagine
cooking in pajamas. Jeans and an apron are required for this gourmet
cook to open some cans and boxes!
I have to say that Bryn would have
feasted his eyes on the piles of presents under the tree, a sight he
has loved since he was a small child. In fact we ended up having two
Christmases this year as Sean, Sarah, Josh , Leslee-Ann , Craig and
Ray spent the actual day with me and then the Logues arived the
following day with presents for everyone and we all had presents for
them too so twice the fun.
I received a very unusual gift this
year from Lori and Ming-Lee. As I opened their present I pulled out a
handful of plush purple fabric and expected to be holding up a
bathrobe. But as I continued to pull I found a head and a tail!
Knowing that Ava Claire and Owen are very into dinosaurs they thought
it would be so much fun if Grandma could turn into one to entertain
them so I have them to thank for my winged dinosaur costume, complete
with horns and a spiky tail. They also sent costumes for the kids too
so I think we will be quite the talk of the neighborhood when we
venture out to the community mailbox in our costumes! I did earn a
lecture from Ava Claire over my less than enthusiastic response to my
present. Hands on hips she informed me that I should be more grateful
for my present that people had spent time shopping for and spending a
lot of money on. She had been listening to Coryn and me when we were
giving her a lesson on the gracious acceptance of a present that was
not to ones liking. Of course Grandma had to tell her that she was
quite right and I immediately hustled off to pull it on to all the
big and little kids delight .Cameras were out as I am sure the
siblings not there to witness mother as a dinosaur got a picture
instantly.
I was very excited to have so many of
my family here for the holidays so for Christmas dinner I roasted a
turkey and baked a ham and fixed all the sides myself, except for the
green beans which Josh prepared . We decided to have a light lunch
and feast on a much later than usual Christmas dinner. There is no
way Norm would ever have been able to wait so long – remember how
he use to sit the turkey in the oven Christmas Eve and set the timer
so that it would start cooking in the middle of the night and be
ready to eat by noon at the latest! He definitely didn't worry about
bacteria breeding in the turkey as it sat in the oven for hours
before the heat came on. Thankfully we all survived every year!
Once Christmas dinner was over I
started clearing the table and was amazed when my children announced
that they were so full that they felt the need to walk outside in the
dark of a freezing, sub zero night. I suggested that it was far too
cold to take Ray out but Leslee-Ann said he would be fine all bundled
up in his snowsuit, hat, hood and mittens plus a blanket. Marc did
not join them of course as he felt it would be detrimental to his
sinuses and eczema – which I had to look at daily to evaluate
whether it had spread or not. He disappeared and left me in the
kitchen with piles of dishes and left-overs to deal with! The kids
were back within ten minutes, frozen to the bone, ready for hot
drinks and desserts. They claimed they enjoyed looking at the
neighborhood Christmas decorations despite the wind chill. I shook my
head and kept scrubbing. When I mentioned to Coryn the following day
that my children had fled the house to take a stroll in the
neighborhood after dinner while I cleaned up their dishes she
retorted that I had no one to blame but myself since I had brought
them up! She of course was cleaning up in my kitchen to show me who
was the dutiful, caring child out of the bunch!
Before the holidays Leslee-Ann
suggested to Coryn that we girls have a night out at a wine and
painting party; she herself had been to a couple of such events and
found it very enjoyable and thought we would like it too. Coryn
looked into it and found an event one night taking place at a bar
right up the street from me but nearer to Sarah and Sean's house. I
have never considered myself to be an artist, although I do love faux
finishing with paint, so I was quite nervous about how my lack of
skills was going to hold up alongside my daughters who are both good
drawers. Sarah was also sure she was going to be very challenged but
we decided we would spend more time drinking wine than painting if it
was too challenging! By the time we were on our second glass we
probably wouldn't care anyway.
With the dads babysitting their kids
for the evening we met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant - my Asian
children's definite preference and then headed to the painting venue.
We were seated at a table in front of an upright canvas with five
blobs of paint on a paper plate in front of us and three brushes. We
were to copy a winter landscape of a forest of trees covered in snow
with a sunset behind them. The pace seemed rushed to me, I had barely
covered the bottom half of my canvas as instructed when we were
moving onto the next section. However every gulp of wine increased my
speed and by the time the instructor reached our table I was the only
one to receive a compliment on the highlighting of my snow drifts
which I inadvertently created whilst blotting up dripping paint with
a tissue! Sarah and I were certainly painting with far more abandon
than Coryn and Leslee-Ann whose works were definitely more in keeping
with the demonstration painting. Looking around I noticed that many
of the other would-be-artists were producing work far better than the
instructors. I wondered why they came - maybe for the company? It
was certainly well attended, not an empty easel in sight.
Once we were home we ended up with
three paintings at my house - only Sarah took hers home to display
on the mantelpiece! Leslee-Ann lined up the three remaining pictures
in my family room and had the boys guess who the painter of each one
was and to pick a winner. Craig and Marc picked mine as being the
best while Josh said he would have picked mine if I had not added
snowflakes to it and they all thought my painting was the work of
Coryn. Just think another glass or two of wine and I might produce a
masterpiece! It was definitely something I would do again.
We did have a white Christmas with
about a half inch of snow covering the ground but Ray did not seem
very impressed by his first sight of snow – certainly not as
enthralling as the Christmas tree! Sean picked Marc up about midnight
on Monday December 18th, Josh picked up the Remsbergs on
the 24th and I took them all back to the airport on the
afternoon of the 29th. It was a tight squeeze in my Ford
Focus for five with a baby seat in the back! But I was the only
available driver as Josh was working and Sean and Sarah were in
Minneapolis for a couple of days. Kay missed out on all the family
fun as she went home to Washington DC for the holidays and then onto
San Francisco to visit friends and celebrate the New Year
As you may recall Bryn has been in
Mexico for awhile now and was joined in late January by Josh , Sarah
and Sean. Josh elected to spend a month there with his brother whilst
Sean and Sarah returned home after five days of vacation to their
full time jobs. Apparently Bryn is returning to Los Angeles sometime
in February. So Marc prepare to host your brother - while he lays on
your sofa, takes over your TV, eats all your food,drains your hot
water tank and contemplates the possibility of working again. Could
take weeks!
We celebrated Sean's 30th
Birthday the weekend after his birthday party in Mexico- instead of
tequila we had sparkling grape juice and a Troll themed birthday cake
made by Ava Claire with help from her mommy. I made Lasagna instead
of our usual pizza as the kids all felt they had eaten it too much
recently. Ava arrived in her sparkling party dress with a troll
bucket filled with party favors with boxes of games to play and once
again Owen had fallen asleep on the car ride from his house to mine
and slept right through our celebration! Ava Claire was happy to have
the spotlight all to herself!
As I create this newsletter I am
listening to classical music on my newest technological gift from
Josh and Sean: an Amazon Alexa, so between her and Siri I have
someone to boss around all day! I also was given Joshua's computer as
an upgrade over my very slow lap top -initially Sean was planning to
give me his work computer as he was getting a new one but Josh
decided to buy it from his brother and give me his instead. I was
typing away on it one day when it started talking to me – I must
have inadvertently hit a voice command button! Another voice in outer
space with which to commune! Took me awhile to figure out how to shut
this one up!
Evelyn, Sherry and I recently planned a
trip to visit Becky in Savannah this April, so we managed to all book
flights into Atlanta so that we could fly from there to Savannah on
the same flight to save Becky having to make a couple of pick-up runs
to the airport. Since we will be staying there for three nights I
suggested that it might be cheaper to find an airbnb over a hotel,
plus we would have a lot more space. We decided to try it and have
found a character home in the Historic District within easy walking
distance of all the major attractions. It even has a private
courtyard, just perfect for our endless cups of tea or glasses of
wine!Several of my children have had great success with staying in
airbnb's over hotels so we Grandma's are very proud of our
adventurous spirits! Becky also undertook a walking tour of our
final selections just to make sure that they were in safe
neighborhoods and not virtually derelict!
Since this winter has been so much
colder than the last couple of years mild ones I almost look forward
to putting on my dinosaur onesie - complete with a rear zipper across
my butt for bathroom visits! Snuggling up on the couch with my two
little dinosaurs and a pile of books is a great way to spend part of
a freezing winter's day! I am sure that many of my children think it
a very fitting costume since they seem to consider that much of the
verbiage that comes out of my mouth is from the dinosaur age!
Who knows maybe I could rent myself out
for children's birthday parties- I can certainly dance as well as
Barney! Love from your horny dinosaur of a mother who's tail is
always in a spin!
