Merry Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas my darling grandchildren!!  How much I love you both and wish I could give you lots of prezzies and tons of kisses.  These are pictures from the last two Christmases at my house when you lived with me!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Made some very cute gifts for Thanksgiving this year.  Will share with all my friends and the relatives who will be at Thanksgiving dinner.  Does it make you hungry?

Love you both and miss you on the Holidays more than ever.  This is your mom and me in Thanksgiving 2004 (before you were even born!!)

Grandma Nici

Back From Florida!!

Back from Florida!!  The surgery was very successful and I'm already walking in a real shoe.  It will take a while for everything to be normal, but I knew it before I started.  I will start physical therapy to work on walking in a week or so.  Going to go back to Florida again next month just to get a checkup.

Meanwhile...it's Halloween!!!   What will you be this year?  A pirate, a princess, a witch, a Jedi?  That's it....a Jedi!!  I love Star Wars and all the movies are so much fun to watch.  I am usually a sailor because I have a real sailor uniform and a hat - so it is easy to dress up!!  See the wreath I made for my door below!!  Spooky!

It is slowly starting to feel like fall although summer just got here!!  I like spring better because it is getting warmer.  I DO NOT like the cold at all....So why am I living in the north???  So silly isn't it.

Love you and miss you both like crazy

Grandma Nici

Happy Groundhog Day

It's not really Groundhog Day, but I went to see a live play, made from the Chevy Chase movie "Groundhog Day" and it was WONDERFUL!  It was so much fun.

In other news, August 31, 2017 was my official day of retirement.  I no longer have to go to work every day and it is very wonderful.  Now I can spend my time writing, playing the piano, catching up on a million different projects, visiting friends, and updating the genealogy I started a couple of years ago.  Someday you may be interested in where you came from so I hope you will let me know when you want to see it.  We had some very interesting relatives.

Since I'm not working, I am going to Florida for 4 whole weeks this time to have surgery on my left toe.  It has been giving me trouble for years and is very painful, so fixing it on the 21st of September.  I'm quite exciting about having it done so I can go dancing again.  It was been several years since I could dance because of the pain in both feet.  If this one is successful, I will have the other one done in January.

Also am fortunate to see Sir Paul McCartney in concert this evening.  I can't wait - it is the first time I've ever seen him and this may be his last tour.

School will be, or just was, starting for you both this month.  I know school can be challenging but I really hope you will take the time and energy to apply yourselves to your studies.  I'm sure you are in a very good school so you are learning important information.  It is only for a few years (although it seems like a lifetime at your age) but everything you learn will be used afterwards.  Even the math!!
Spend the time now to learn all you can because once you grow up and start working there is a lot less time until you get to my age and can retire!!

Love you both very much, and miss you as always.

Eclipse of the Sun

It was very exciting on August 21, 2017 here in New York City.  There was an almost total eclipse of the sun.  Everyone left work and stood out in the street with all the homemade devices to be able to see the eclipse without damaging your eyes (I used a long mailing tube with a pinhole in one end, and cutout to view, and white paper at the other end.  It was amazing seeing all the people on the street enjoying the experience.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR

Today is your birthday, and you are eleven years old.  That is quite an advanced age for a young man.  Hopefully you are learning a lot of very cool things in school and enjoying your trips around Europe.  It is quite an accomplishment to be able to see all the things we "Americans" dream of seeing  once in our lives, and for you it is just a car ride away!
I am enjoying my new apartment.  There is a lot less work to do than there was in a house.  No lawn mowing for one thing, and no shoveling the snow!  There are people that do that for the whole complex.  All I will have to do is clean off my car when it snows.  And I can walk to the grocery if I need to.
I went to Florida again early this month with my friend for the 4th of July and the fireworks were wonderful.  I often wonder if there are any fireworks in Monaco for anything?
The outdoor theater in Central Park did a play called "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare and it was really wonderful.  It was a very hot night but I still had a lot of fun seeing it performed live.  This month is also Restaurant Week in New York City, which means you can get a 3 course meal for just $39 at some of the finest eating places in the city.  It is quite a lot of fun to try new places.
Love to you and Emmerson.  I miss you very much.

Grandma Nici

Neil Diamond Concert

Wow, we went to the Neil Diamond concert on the 17th.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was worth it.  He sang for 2 hours straight - talking very little - and did all the songs I wanted to hear.

It was very nostalgic for me.  Your mom got me tickets to a Neil Diamond concert for Christmas on December 11, 1985.  It was in St. Louis, and we lived in Edwardsville.  I drove to the concert at the Arena, where the Blues hockey team played.  I had 8-tracks of all his songs that I had played for years on the stereo, and had cassettes I played on the player in my car.

The concert was very crowded and it was close to Christmas so everyone was very cheery!  It was wonderful, he did every song everyone wanted to hear.  There were no cell phones then - on the slow songs people held up cigarette lighters to show appreciation.  He did a Christmas medley and asked us to take out our car keys and jingle them.  Imagine 19,000 people jingling keys, laughing and cheering and singing along.  When we left, there were so many cars we couldn't move for a good long while.  I put the cassette in my car, cranked up the volume, and everyone close all sang along with our windows rolled down.

When we got home Shellee looked at me and said with eyes wide "I knew every song!!!"

It was no wonder, she had heard them played in the house almost since she was born!

Love you TWO

Grandma Nici

Spring has NOT Arrived!

It is almost Memorial Day and we still haven't had any spring.  There were two warm days so far, but the days still aren't above 60 and the nights are in the 40's and 50's.  I think Spring got stuck somewhere!

We will be back in Florida for Memorial Day.  I really do like it there.  It is a nice condo - really big, and has a lovely pool to swim in that is very warm.  Which is good, because I hate to be cold!

This month has been very quiet, not much going on.  There was a delightful ballet "Don Quixote" that I really enjoyed but I don't have any more tickets until next month.  Broadway gets very quiet until the summer season starts - can't wait to see who wins the Tony Awards.

Love you!

Grandma Nici

British Virgin Islands Trip

Well, I was wrong a few months ago when I said I would never have another amazing trip.  I just had one.

My friend rented a 60-foot catamaran in the British Virgins Islands.  We sailed from Beef Island, Tortola and spent 10 days sailing all around from island to island.  We snorkled, paddle-boarded, kayaked, surfed the waves, spent days laying on the beach, and sailing.  We had a cook and a captin to make things easy.  There were six cabins - both of his daughters, their husbands, and their children (2 each) were along.  So there was a 10 yr old boy, a 9 yr old girl, a 6 yr old boy, and a 5 yr old boy.  The 10 yr old and 6 yr old are the same age as you and Emmerson.  He really likes to fish, and they caught lots of fish which the captain cleaned and the cook cooked.  We all ate them up!

I didn't want to come back!  It was the most relaxing vacation I have ever had and would do it again and again if it didn't cost so darn much!!  Well, there is always sailing on the little lakes in New Jersey and a lot of the small tropical places off Florida or in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico often have small Hobie Cats to rent.  Grandma owned a Hobie for many years, sailing and racing it around Washington DC and Virginia.

I got a great suntan too!!

Love and kisses,

Grandma Nici

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMERSON

Happy birthday Emmerson!!  I hope your birthday was just grand!!  Mine is tomorrow - we are almost twinsies in our birthdays (I actually encourage your mom to wait JUST A LITTLE WHILE LONGER so we would have the same date).  I'll tell you the story of when you were born.

I was working in New York City.  Your mom brought Taylor to the city in a stroller to go to the doctor to check and see how you were doing.  Your birthday was supposed to be a little bit later, but not by much.  Well, when she got to the doctor, the doctor took one look and said - we are calling an ambulance and taking you to the hospital, you are going to have the baby!!!  But wait, Taylor was there, what to do with him?  So the doctor called me, and I raced over to pick up Taylor.  But I couldn't leave the office yet.  Taylor came back to my office and played there until I could go home - about 3 hours.  He drew pictures, looked at a movie on the computer, and ran around introducing himself to everyone on the floor.  He was beloved by all!!  Meanwhile, by the time I got home there was a phone call that Emmerson had arrived.  Unlike Taylor, I wasn't there for your birth, but I got to see you the next day and you were adorable....well, as adorable as newborn babies can be.  Don't worry - you got really cute really fast and that's all that counts!

So that's the story!

Love you TWO

Grandma Nici

Happy Valentines' Day

Happy Heart Day from New York/New Jersey!!

My friend's best friend passed away the first of this month.  It was very hard on everyone, but he was never going to recover and I think he may not have minded going on to whatever comes after this life.  I hope when I go that it is quick, and without months of debilitation and hospitalization.  There won't be anyone to help me, and if I can't help myself it is better to pass onto a better place.

There was a wonderful Masquerade party this month with amazing Cirque du soleil type acrobats, lots of costumes from the French Revolution (think Marie Antoinette).  I was all dressed up too - I love costume parties where everyone is wearing a mask.  There is another one coming up - it will be a recreation of the Black and White Ball that the author Truman Capote held in New York City.  It will be a benefit for the West Palm Beach theater, so we will be going down to West Palm twice this month.  It's a good time to go, warmer there than here, that's for sure!!  I posted photos on Facebook so you can see them if you go look!  It was February 11, and the Black and White Ball will be March 11.

Love you kiddos!

Grandma Nici

President What's His Name

*sigh*, well our new president has been installed in office.  We will see what happens.  I predict a long series of one disaster after another because he really doesn't know anything about politics.  He is used to sitting in his office and telling people how things are going to be.  You can't do that in American politics.

The best friend of my friend is very sick and has been in the hospital since Thanksgiving.  I'm not sure he will come home.  I guess I have been surprised at how unemotional my friend is.  That is sort of telling, as I have noticed the same thing about our relationship as well.  No one wants a person who fawns all over them, but hand-holding in times of stress is always very nice.  Never been afraid to hold someone's hand and ask them "Is there anything I can do to help?"  Even if there isn't, you have asked, and it is a kind a beautiful thing to do for a friend or loved one.

We finally got snow.  It was a late winter, but it arrived at last.  I wonder if spring will be like last year - there wasn't one.  It just went from cold to hot, nothing in between.

Do you remember when you played with Thomas the Train.  You had all the names of all the cars memorized and would build tracks all over the floor.  One of my fondest memories.

I love you TWO

Grandma Nici