How To Be Ninja

Didn't think I'd get a chance to write today but just couldn't sleep, have been up since 4:30 am and after tossing and turning for almost an hour I just got out of bed. There are so many nights lately that I wake up early and keep trying to get back to sleep when I should just get up and out of bed. Read, watch TV, work on my computer, I'm not sleeping anyway, just more twisting and turning and super pissed that I can't fall back to sleep. I'll either be napping this afternoon and up again all night or make it through the day and out like a light long before the stroke of midnight.

The How To Be Ninja video I'm sharing today was created by my nephews Robert and Jojo (my brother Joey's boys) and their friend Nick. They are so funny and creative. I am still amazed at what these kids can do with computers, video games, cell phones. They were born in the age of super technology and it just comes naturally to them.

Jojo is always borrowing his father's iphone, either playing video games or taking pictures and filming short videos. He's really good. I love the pictures he takes of himself, I call this one Jojo Pretending to Think. I tell Jojo as many times as I can about photography, filming, directing, computer animation, designing video games, so many jobs he could have that he just doesn't know about. I believe this kid has got an eye and the talent for some kind of creative work.




I look forward to seeing Jojo's photos.


I'm impressed.





I laugh.








He's a funny kid.


A week ago Robert and Jojo wanted to set up blogs. They have read a few of my pages and they wanted to do the same, mostly just to share this video. They both told me they knew what they were doing and were setting up on two separate computers. They didn't know what they were doing. One of them would call me over to help them set something up and then the other one would be talking over and I was so dizzy. I couldn't help either one of them, they were confusing me. Easy to do!

After running around in circles trying to help them set up a page they moved on to something else and forgot about the blog. But Jojo had started writing before he gave up and the first thing he wrote was "sup". I loved it!

Sup. Too cool Jojo.

Here's a little taste of the humor I'm exposed to on a pretty much daily basis. My nephews are hoping to become a Youtube sensation with this video, hopefully I can give them a few hits on their video through my blog.

Sup.

I hope this gives you a little chuckle to start your day!

And again Happy New Year!

What I Dreamed...

One more big holiday to go and then we start our new year. Seems like only yesterday I was a kid thinking that the Year 2000 sounded so far away and weird, that we would have flying cars and people would live on Mars, and of course I would be a famous movie star, on every planet, and everyone would know my name. And here we are in 2012, so different than what I dreamed.

We will all look back at the year gone by, what we did right, what we did wrong and we will look forward to what we can do, what we shouldn't do. Some of us will stick to our resolutions made on New Year's Day but most of us wont. I myself stopped making resolutions years ago, I just try to do, or not to do, certain things all year round.

My birthday is also very close to New Year's and that has always been my soul searching, look back and look forward time. I'm a year older, a year wiser, a year farther away from that child that thought the Year 2000 sounded like a future so far off, weird and different. Oh what I dreamed.

Well it is weird in some ways and it's surely different. For me this past year has been a surprise. I never dreamed I would be writing a blog, and a blog that people read and like! I never knew this person existed inside of me! I wonder what else, who else is inside of me?

That kid all those years ago who thought she was put here on this Earth to be a superstar, having at least three Oscars by now, has finally realized that the world is a much bigger place than she knew. That the dreams she has today may be her life tomorrow and can also lead to dreams never imagined.

What I dreamed didn't matter. That I dreamed mattered. That I continue to dream matters.

And I also know that I've been a superstar my whole life and the people who know my name are the people that matter.

This picture of me with the gorilla is from my 50th birthday party and the video is from my 40th surprise birthday party, both events shared with so many of the wonderful loving people that this superstar has been blessed with!

I don't know what tomorrow will bring but I will continue to dream and dream big, and I hope you all do the same.

Happy New Year to all, be healthy and dream!

Oscar Madison Here...

Did you ever see the play, movie or television series The Odd Couple? Great movie and TV series, I never saw the play, but The Odd Couple was written by Neil Simon, who is an awesome playwright. I've seen a few of his shows on Broadway and I think all the movies that were then made from his plays. He won the Tony Award for Best Author for The Odd Couple.

Walter Matthau played Oscar Madison in both the Broadway play and the movie, also received a Tony for Best Actor for his Broadway performance. Jack Klugman replaced Matthau later on Broadway and then played Madison on the television series. On Broadway Art Carney had the role of Felix Unger (Norton from The Honeymooners TV series as well, in case you don't know) and in the television series Tony Randall played Felix.

Obviously it's about an odd couple. Oscar is a slob, carefree, and a sports writer for a newspaper. Felix is super neat, super annoying and needy and works as a photographer. I had to look up that Felix was a photographer. For some reason in my mind I totally remember Oscar doing his work and couldn't remember at all what Felix did for a living.

In any case they were an odd couple.

But I'd like today to try and be a bit more like Oscar Madison. A bit more I say, because honestly I'm already kind of a slob. Not dirty. No bugs or food lying around anywhere in my apartment, but I leave my dresser drawers open after pulling out clothes and messing up the folded stuff in there when I'm searching. I leave kitchen cabinets open after taking out a cup or a dish. I pile up the sink until it's too full to put anything in there and then do the dishes. That's not too bad, it's not like I leave dirty dishes for days, another problem is I use too many utensils while I'm cooking. Instead of using a knife to cut the carrots, potatoes and meat, I'll use three, same with stirring sauce and pasta while cooking, two spoons. So I fill up the sink pretty quickly! Just not organized, somewhat like Oscar Madison.

Now at work, I'm organized. I can't stand a messy desk, need a clean workspace and if it's not I can't get my work done, I guess I have little Felix inside me, very very little though. I'd rather dress more in the style of Oscar than Felix too, if I were a man, and as a woman, I prefer sneakers and sweats to jeans and heels. I like comfort. I still love a pretty dress and fancy shoes going to a special occasion but as daily wear no, I'm Oscarish! There's my Oscar, I always dreamed and wished I'd get one, guess I didn't specify exactly which Oscar huh!?

So what I'd like to do that is Oscarish today is write about sports. Yes you heard me. If you know me you are like, what can this girl possibly have to say about sports! Well not much. I do know a few things about sports, some from playing video games, most from the sports fanatics that have been in my life forever. My mom, my father Bo, my brothers, even my sister Linda. And I ended up with so many friends in my life who are also sports fans, some fanatical. I even dated the most sports fanatical guy. People would think he had a bet on a game because of his intensity watching and screaming at the television. He wasn't betting, he was just nuts! Too much. I came home from work one day and he had two TVs in the living room, watching sports on both and flipping back and forth from channel to channel on both TVs, all for sports!

Seeing two TVs in the living room was not a shocker for me. My family had already done it bigger. Came home one time to three TVs in the living room. I don't know what was on, but three sports crossing over, who knows, I just know I had absolutely no interest. Walked in the house, saw all the sports fans surrounded by the TVs and went up to my room to get away from them all.

I did have a short period in time where I could not get enough of watching basketball on TV. My brother Joey turned me on to Michael Jordan and after watching him play once, I was hooked. I couldn't help but be entertained by his amazing talent. For me it was like watching a great TV show or movie. I would actually look in the paper in the TV guide to see when The Bulls were playing. Loved Scotty Pippen too, but Michael Jordan was the man and since he left the game I haven't really enjoyed watching. I always ask my brother is there anyone out there now who reminds him of Jordan's talent and he says sometimes, some player, a little, but still no one is just like Michael Jordan when it comes to basketball, he should be the definition of a basketball player.

I've learned a little bit more about the sporting community in the last few years. My brother Joey has three kids and has them involved in lots of sports, they all started young, my nephews Robert and Jojo and my niece Bella. Joey is divorced from his wife and when they were married I agreed with her that my brother was just too much with the sports, again because I'm not into them, don't think it's such a big deal, can't understand how sports fans can discuss a game to death. Kids who know stats when they don't remember their homework, fail a test. How can that be!? Sports fans knows stats like no body's business. So much, it's scary! No, but they really do know so much and talk and talk about it. But I'm off track, I wanted to talk about the sporting community. So I was saying I agreed with my brother's wife at the time, it was just too much.

Jojo was never really into sports. He always preferred TV and video games but Joey pushed and pushed and Jojo is a basketball phenom. Okay, not a phenom but for Jojo and his past attitude and aptitude for sports, we are way impressed with how far he has come. Even my brother is shocked when Jojo's coach is talking about Jojo. He's like wait a minute. Jojo? You're talking about my son? This year Joey thought Jojo would make the C Team in basketball at the sports community they are involved in. Then all of a sudden the people in charge say no, he's B Team material and my brother was so happy and Jojo, even better, was so proud and excited. He was playing well, he could be a peer with his older brother. Turns out he made the A Team! He's awesome, so into the game and I've heard him having those sport discussions, stats flying all over, terms I don't understand, mostly because I don't want to, but he's got the sports bug in him now our Jojo! Robert and Bella both play really well and have enjoyed playing from very young.

I've gone to a lot of games and practices over the last few years since Joey got divorced. At the start still believing that it was too much. There's always a game, there's always a practice. Sometimes two games a day, traveling, just crazy busy. But then I started noticing something, feeling something. I was part of this community now. Not like all these people are my friends and we socialize, but we're part of a community.

So the best thing about local sports, to me, a non-sportsman, is the community. It's strong. There may be a pain in the butt, loud-mouthed parent (or two or three) who just gets your goat, but for the most part I see these people bringing their children because they want their kids to be involved in something fun, that keeps them busy, keeps them out of trouble, makes them feel like they belong. And belonging is so much more important these days than when I was growing up.

I watch my nephews and niece enjoy this community more than the games they play. They belong, it's a safe place, a home away from home, surrounded by people that really care about each other, brought together by sports, even when you're not a sports fan like me!

Over the last few days I've heard from another sports community. On Facebook there's a Knute Rockne Alumni Page and I was invited to join and am now a proud member. Why? Well, I've gotten some pictures and messages from a friend of mine on Facebook, Danny. Danny and his brother Tommy both went to grammar school with me and lived in the same neighborhood, Bay Ridge Brooklyn. I think Danny may have switched to PS104 at some point, maybe both he and Tommy did, I can't remember, but again, they were part of my neighborhood, my community, I saw them often growing up. They both also played for the Knute Rockne Football League in our neighborhood which my three older brothers played in years before Danny and Tommy. Danny sent me a picture the other day and my brother Michael is in the picture.

My brother Michael unfortunately died in 1988, only 33 years old, way too young and I believe at a time in his life when he was truly on a road to a good place. Seeing the picture of Michael meant so much to me and I thanked Danny but I don't know if my "thank you" expressed how much it meant to me and I can't wait for his daughter to see the picture, I think she will really love it.



When I shared the picture on my Facebook page I wrote that I thought my brother's number was "12". My cousin Doug (disguised on Facebook as his wife Tracey) commented that he thought it was "24" and then my sister Linda, who is one of those sports fans in my family, added in her sports expertise:

"Yeah Trish - Low #'s are for the quarterback's, it's 42"

Michael was an awesome football player (I've heard). Never cared remember! And my mom loved football which she got hooked on because of my oldest brother Jimmy. My brother Jimmy was given the first sports scholarship ever from Poly Prep which was a big deal, an expensive school. Someone came to see my mom from the school and said they wanted Jimmy to play for them. My mom told them, no I can't afford Poly Prep. They told her, no, no, we will pay his way, we want him, he's that good, you should watch him play and she did. Jimmy (again from what I've heard) was really great, amazing agility. But my mom loved the game and especially loved watching her sons play. I blogged before about a football game where my brothers' Michael and Bobby were on opposing teams. Whenever anyone asked my mom who she wanted to win, she said I want a tie and a tie she got. When I posted that blog, Spelunker, I got a comment back from my niece Irene, Michael's beautiful daughter. Irene's comment:

Great picture of dad! There is more to the football story with the 'tie'. Dad got Uncle Bob kicked out of the game, because dad hit Uncle Bob (but the ref didn't see), when Uncle Bob hit dad back the ref did see, and kicked Uncle Bob out. It was the one and only game Uncle Bob ever got kicked out of.

I talked to my brother Bob after reading Irene's comment because I didn't know Bobby was thrown out of the game because of Michael. Bobby told me, yeah, but we weren't throwing punches, Michael bit me! Oh my brother Michael! Though you were loved by so many, you really had a way of getting under people's skin, and in the tie game used your teeth to get there!

And not only was I invited to join this sport community alumni, Danny made a special picture and sent that to me. Thanks again Danny! I will proudly represent my brother for the Knute Rockne Alumni page on Facebook. Will apologize for him in case he bit any of the alumni or got anyone besides my brother Bob thrown out of a game.

Danny's brother Tommy had the same number as Michael. Yeah 24 I know now, low numbers are for the quarterbacks, but Danny told me that when he, his brother and friends played for the Knute Rockne league they loved the older guys who played before them, looked up to them, wanted to keep their numbers in the game.

That's the sports community, it's a nice play to be, even if you don't like sports!



So there's my sports story.

Here's Oscar Madisonish Trish signing off...


[By the way, if you live in New York or New Jersey, there's a radio station, WKXW New Jersey 101.5, and one of the news announcers on the show is Walter Matthau's son, David. It's so funny when I hear him sign off on one of his news stories, you can hear his dad's tone in his voice. Great station to listen to Monday through Thursday from 9pm to 11pm, The Late Show. It's a call in radio program and they talk about relationships, life, weird stuff, great show, listen if you get a chance and when the news comes on, listen for David Matthau's sign off.]

What Do You See?

Hello all, I hope you had a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrated! Sorry to have been away longer than just the weekend but I needed a break. Not that I needed a break or wanted a break from writing my blog, I look forward to sitting down and telling a story or sharing a crafty idea, but I needed to recharge my battery.

The holidays are a wonderful time and I so enjoy celebrating them with my family, but by Christmas night I was exhausted. I even fell asleep after Christmas dinner. The only reason I woke up was because my family started taking decorations off the tree and decorating me. They were laughing and woke me up. Obviously taking pictures too, otherwise I could have slept on that couch until Monday morning!

The night before, I slept over my brother Joey's house, sharing the absolute joy and magic of watching his kids, Robert, Jojo and Bella, wake up Christmas morning after Santa came to visit. That's my favorite part of Christmas and over the years I've been lucky enough to have shared those special mornings with some of my other nieces and nephews when they were the young ones in the family.

Bella woke us up at 2:30 am, seeing that Santa had already been there. As sleepy as she was, she just wanted to wake everyone up and dive into those presents. Her dad told her to go back to bed, that it was way too early, and I crawled in bed with her. She was out cold in about a minute, but oh how beautiful her face looked seconds before she fell asleep, she was just filled with wonder, her face was absolutely glowing.

Christmas morning was madness times three! The kids were so happy and there is just nothing better than watching them in the moment. Then of course they bring your head down when they say, and they always do, "that's it?".

That's it!?!

I understand. I was that way too when I was a kid. You get yourself in a frenzy unwrapping and it's an addiction, you just want more and more, not even enjoying or really looking closely at one of the gifts you just opened, moving to the next box to open, and the next. Then after the unwrapping madness, you open every toy and gadget, pull pieces out of the boxes, throw instructions all over, can't figure out how to work something and move to the next toy or gadget to pull apart. It's a process. Normal. But madness all the same!

Then we headed to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner and more presents! Pure magic and I love it but it wears me out.

Today I finally feel back to normal. I can actually think. Function. I still forget where things are, what I was doing, trip going up the stairs, ask myself why did I walk into the kitchen, etc., but for me that is normal!

The first picture above is my nephew Robert in one of his Christmas gifts. I saw him open the present on Christmas morning, saw him in the shirt all day and never thought it was anything but a cool design on a shirt. Maybe I was just too tired.

But it's not just squiggly lines and shapes. Maybe you saw it right away but I needed it pointed out to me. Again, by Christmas day I was in a fog, so tired, so full, content. I tried to avoid sitting on that couch. I knew I would fall asleep and I avoided it all day, sat on a hardback chair or stood but after dinner it was empty and looked so inviting, I just had to sit and rest my eyes for a moment.

Okay, so my moment was an hour!

During that little nap of mine, my nieces, Gracie and Bella, wrote up and then handed out report cards to everyone who was there. I got a Sleepy. I wonder where they got that?! Aunt Tracey got a Good; Aunt Janet Careing (and I know I spelled "caring" wrong, but these days that's what they teach them in school, write what you hear, we'll worry about how to spell it correctly later); Uncle Dennis to Bella and dad to Gracie got a Silly; Aunt Chrissy (Gracie's mom) got a Good Cooking [and she most certainly deserved that!]; Gracie's grandma, her dad's mom, got a Nice; my brother Bob got an Uncle Boob the Tong [tongue] Sticker Terrible Behavior; Joey, uncle to Gracie, dad to Bella, got a Good Being You; their big cousin Jess got a Joyful; Gracies grandparents, her mom's parents and Bella's Great Aunt Libby and Great Uncle Richie got Loving and Peaceful, respectfully. But the best one, I think, was for my cousin Doug, uncle to Gracie and Bella as well as Bella's godfather. Doug got a Cool and a PS Love Your Baldness! Bella was rubbing his head all night!

With all their presents to play with, their dolls, video games and movies, the girls spent their time making report cards for their family, how special is that. They are already leaning to give back, that's what I see!

So what do you see? Hopefully a family enjoying being together for the holidays and always. How lucky am I?


And what do you see in the picture of my nephew above? Just squiggly lines like me?

*************
************
***********
**********
*********
********
*******
******
*****
****
***
**
*

Or did you see Michael Jordan? Now I can't see anything but Michael Jordan when looking at the shirt and think maybe you all will see it right away.

In any case, it was a gift that my nephew loved and made him happy. Just a small piece of the magic of my Christmas.

Until tomorrow...

Have Yourself A Molly Little Trishmas

I am the biggest Christmas movie and Christmas music sap ever. I can't get enough of it and have been like that ever since I can remember. I live in New York and one of the radio stations here, Soft Rock 106.7, plays Christmas music which starts up just about Thanksgiving time until Christmas Day. I listen as much as I can. It brings me back to being a kid, my mom getting the house all ready for the holidays and playing her Christmas music while cleaning, prepping, cooking, baking. Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and one of my most favorites, Holiday Sing-Along with Mitch Miller, which had the song Must Be Santa and for the sing-along, there was a list of the lyrics inside the album cover. There I go again tawking about one of my old fashioned contraptions! I wonder now if they make Mitch sing-along CDs? Are the lyric sheets so tiny that you can't see them so you can sing-along?! No they probably link you to the computer and you can see it there! How times have changed and keep on changing, right before my very eyes!

Here is Must Be Santa, along with the lyrics. Sing-along with Mitch! Remember those days, some of you had to have sung along with Mitch?! Teach it to yourself, your kids, your grand kids! It's such a fun Christmas song! No bouncing ball rolling over the words either. Anyone remember that?!



So again, this music and all the movies on TV bring me back to the magic of Christmas time when I was a kid. As the years pass by and I learn more of life's hard lessons, at this time of the year I forget about the hard lessons and remember so many magical wonderful times, super happy feelings. Watching these movies and listening to the music overloads my senses, I get a natural high. I can see, smell and hear those days, like a movie playing in my head with extra special effects no movie could ever create.

At Christmas time my mom was baking cookies for days. The smell coming home from school was amazing. She made so many, she was able to give us all a big batch to bring into our teachers as a gift, at that time 5 of us were in school. We had boxes of cookies in the house and as much as we ate them, there were still some more, another box hid away in the closet. We were all big cookie fans in our house, cookies and milk, dunkers and non-dunkers. Christmas cookies lasted weeks after Christmas time, just extending those magic moments in my heart.

Then remembering all the baking mom did, I also remember begging for the store-bought treats. We wanted all those fun foods and snacks we saw on the TV commercials too. We wanted Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles. We had Carvel Flying Saucers on special nights, but mostly, poor us, my mom baked a cake, cupcakes, cookies, pastries all from scratch. Waffles and ice cream too, hot off the old fashioned awesome waffle grill my mom used, with ice cream from the Beyers' Candy and Soda Shop. The ice cream was packed in a container like you would get rice in at a Chinese restaurant. They would pack it into the container, ice cream overflowing and then they put a piece of waxed paper over it to keep it from falling out. I loved sitting at the counter top, sitting on the old fashioned stools that spun around, and spin I did. The entire time from finding out we were having ice cream, to picking it up and bringing it home and then enjoying our treat was a big deal, more special moments, and I'm so glad they pop up in my heart at this time of the year because I also have my sad moments.

Christmas is a hard time of the year for so many people and as much as I have, and I have so so much, I am truly blessed, I still get a little out of sorts this time of the year and I also feel so much empathy for the people that feel even sadder than me at this time of the year, I just maybe understand a little more of how they must feel. I shouldn't be sad, but again I can't help it. This song I've shared below, Judy Garland singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas from the wonderful movie Meet Me In St. Louis, is a Christmas song that makes me feel happy and sad. But it's one of my favorites, no matter who sings it but I think Judy may have done it best.

So you may cry, I do, but in the end, I think about the line "if the fates allow" and I remember that all year round, I live for each day, I love for each day, so far "the fates" have allowed me to be here, with a wonderful family, awesome friends. I gotta say It's A Wonderful Life!!!

I'm taking the weekend off blogging to be with my family for Christmas as I hope all of you are too (or for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Family Time, whatever). If the fates allow you to be here, BE HERE!

LIVE AND LOVE

AND HAVE YOURSELF A MOLLY LITTLE TRISHMAS NOW!

Family Photo Time!

It's hard for my family to get a family picture, especially these days. There's quite a few of us in the Tri-State area which is great, but then there are a few who live too far to travel either north, south, east or west to come together for any holiday party or family get together. I takes tons of pictures of the family but we don't usually get a group shot. It's always such a big production, we try and then forget and it never happens.

It's rare that we're all together and I miss that. Even as kids though, there were so many of us, someone was always missing for one reason or another and my mom never had a picture of all seven of her kids together. I bet even if we were all together it was also just a big production, we tried, and it never happened.

One year we decided to give our parents that gift for their wedding anniversary, a picture of the seven of us. Well, there were more than the seven of us by that time. My brothers, Michael and Bob, were married and Michael and his wife Debbie (big sister Deb) had their daughter Irene who was about a year old at this time. So there were ten of us getting ready for a picture. At one point Michael went off and we were waiting and waiting so Jimmy or Bobby or both of them went out looking for him, Michael came back and now Bobby or Jimmy or both of them is missing. By the time we were all together, Irene was all cranky and crying. The final shot Irene's crying, but the rest of us are smiling, all together. Best of all my parents, especially my mom, loved it.

This past weekend my sister Linda and her husband Bob hosted their annual family Christmas party. It's been a tradition in our family for over ten years now and it's a time we can get as many of our family to celebrate together as close to Christmas time as we can. Some years there are more of us, sometimes less, but with a family my size even the less is a large crowd.

We had a nice crowd this past weekend and decided to take a group photo of the family that was there. We're getting ready and calling the kids to take a break from playing whatever they were playing to come and take a family photo. Jojo refused. He wouldn't come up from the basement, couldn't tear himself away from his video game for five minutes. His dad, my brother Joe brought him up, I think he had to carry him up and sat him down on the couch, telling him to smile, it will take five minutes, you can go back to your game, etc. Jojo had a grumpy look on his face. Poor kid, probably going through the hardest time in his life, leaving a video game for five minutes. Yeah right!

My camera has a "sports mode" setting. Takes like 30 pictures in just a second just while pressing down on the button longer than the usual "click". It's great for taking pictures of the kids, they constantly are moving even when it has nothing to do with sports. The pictures aren't as clear as "portrait mode" or other settings, but not bad either. And again, with the kids, I get the picture, otherwise I just get blurry photos!

So I've put together a short video of us just sitting down for a family group shot December 2011. Jojo, again, has absolutely no interest in this photo being taken and is Mr. Grumpers and it shows. My sister-in-law Janet is turning her head watching him, cracking up at his attitude and his pouty lips, beautiful pouty lips I have to say. Jojo's dad, my brother Joey, is trying to force him to smile. Having no luck, Joey gets the smile the only way he could figure out. I didn't know any of this was going on until I downloaded the pictures. I had a good laugh!

Also, one of my sister's dogs, Scout, sweet dog, she is trying to find room to sit down with all of us and everyone is screaming at her to sit or move, she's trying to sit but can't find room!

So much going on in just a few seconds.

I will print the final photo for my family and for myself, but when I look at it, feelings about Jojo will overpower all the rest. I will think about my poor Jojo being pulled away from a video game to take a family picture. My poor Jojo having to smile. How rotten we were to him that day, making him sit with the family, making him smile.

You might want to report us!!!

Ho ho ho!!! Merry Christmas! Especially from Jojo!!!

FYI: JOJO IS SITTING ON THE RIGHT CORNER OF THE COUCH

Sleepless in Staten Island

I'm watching Sleepless in Seattle for the gazillionth time this morning. I love this movie. Love the music, love the cast, the scenery, the rain! I just love the movie. I went out and bought the CD as soon as it was released and seriously if it's on, I watch it. I never grow tired of it.

The music in movies is so important. I mean think about the movie Rocky, that music makes you think you can run up those stairs with Rocky doesn't it? From the start of the movie Sleepless in Seattle, the music captured me, Jimmy Durante singing As Time Goes By. Every scene the music is set to either tug at your heart and make you cry, pump your heart with happiness, fill it with hope. Ah, the movies, the magic of movies.

Could you imagine the times in your life having music accompanying those moments? When I was in high school we had a fun English class for a term. I think it was a public speaking class? It was one of my favorite classes. My punishment for acting up in class would be that I wouldn't be able to get up and do my speech. No way, I behaved. And I was never nervous about getting up in front of a crowd and tawking, singing or just being goofy, not shy was I. But one assignment we had was to get a story across without words and using music. My friend Barbara and I chose Elton John's Funeral for a Friend from the Yellow Brick Road album. Yes album, we had albums then and I still say album when tawking about music more than CD, even though I haven't played an album in so many many years!! Barbara and I did a cool scene and I think our class enjoyed it but what I really loved was one of the girls in my class, so sorry I can't remember her name at all, but she was on the money for that assignment. She played the piano and just put all kinds of different music together, taped it on a tape recorder. Again yes! A tape recorder. And she brought that into class. She acted out a baby being born, growing up, growing old and dying. The music fit all the times of her life. We were all blown away, so impressed. The music was so fitting.

I create DVDs for my family and friends using photos from our past and our now, and add music and some minor special effects. It's a lot of work but I have so much fun working on my projects. I get lost for hours. Sleepless in Staten Island! I love deciding what music will I pick, more what's the theme here. I recently made a 60th Birthday DVD of photos for my friend Maria, to give as a gift for the 60th birthday girl. Maria collected all the pictures from the birthday girl's family and gave me carte blanche on the music. She knows me, knows what kind of music I like and as much as we both enjoy certain music and artists, we have different tastes. But she had faith in me to choose the right music for the DVD. Of course I choose songs that I love but more I try to look for songs that really mean what the pictures are saying. Kind of backwards from my school assignment.

I've used the song Make 'Em Laugh from Singing in the Rain many times. It fits so many people's lives in pictures. We all have those wonderful funny, silly, zany pictures that just do make you laugh. The song fits. Looking at those photos with that music playing makes you feel the pictures more. And of course I don't have to download the music, I have the album. Oops CD.

I used to love the TV show Laverne & Shirley, debuted in 1976, so I was in high school, lots of my friends liked the show at that time too. Even the opening song, led you right into the feel of the show! But there was an episode, I've searched on YouTube to find it but cannot, but the episode takes place when the girls have already moved to Los Angeles, later in the series and Laverne sings throughout the episode. I can't remember exactly what songs, they were real current songs of the time period of the series, when she woke up she sang a song about the sun, she dropped something, sang a song about that, sang about love, losing love, etc., an old time musical satire, I loved it. I know I've done that, sang about something that happened, not all day, but there have been moments. My mom was famous for singing one line from a song from My Fair Lady. Show Me. That's what she would sing if we were sorry for driving her crazy or doing something wrong. Show Me. Right to the point.

This short video below is from my niece Bella's school assembly. It's just the ending, the best part. My brother Joey, Bella's dad, filmed it on his iphone and if I know my brother he had tears in his eyes from the start and that might be the reason for the shaking of the film. He downloaded a bunch of pictures and videos on my computer a few weeks ago so I watched this without him. I couldn't find Bella. The first time I watched it, the girl I thought was Bella was not, and was not sitting anywhere near Bella. I still loved it, listening to these children sing We Are The World, it's real life with music. They are the world. They are our future. For me yes it's more, it was my niece up there, but there is one voice singing loud and it's not my niece and whoever that child was, he or she, I couldn't tell, crawled right into my heart. I had tears in my eyes. But the best part is the end when the kids come off the stage into the audience and Bella sees her dad. Her eyes light up and she smiles. Now that moment in itself was perfect but come on, that music, the kids singing, magic, absolutely real life magic!

My UNICEF Experience

So many years ago, I heard about UNICEF way more than I do today.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its name was shortened from the original United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund but it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on this old name. Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. It is one of the members of the United Nations Development Group and its Executive Committee.

Since 1950, when a group of children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, donated $17 they received on Halloween to help post-World War II victims, the Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box has become a tradition in North America during the haunting season. These small orange boxes are handed to children at schools and at various locations (such as Hallmark Gold Crown Stores) prior to October 31. To date, the box has collected approximately $91 million (CAD) in Canada and over $132 million (USD) in the USA.

I remember those little orange boxes and going out on Halloween getting all my treats and holding out the orange box for just a few pennies, all those pennies added up, they helped so many people.



Toys For Tots seems to be the charity of choice in schools and offices these days, I see donation boxes everywhere and have heard my nieces and nephews talk about it going on in their schools. Again a wonderful charity.

The mission of Toys For Tots "is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to needy children in the community in which the campaign is conducted."
The stated goal is to "deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens."

I think both charities are so wonderful, any charity. A penny may not be a big deal, but a penny from so many children all over the world adds up and these children make a difference. One more gift to buy for Toys For Tots adds up in those Christmas sacks. It's just the best feeling in the world to give something to someone in need, especially at this time of the year. Even your family, friends and neighbors, remember just the smallest good deed goes a long way.

As a kid I knew that the money was going to the poor, the less fortunate, but I didn't see any of that close up, I heard, I saw short films about it but I lived in my bubble, I had so much, rich and spoiled compared to the children that needed our pennies, but I never thought about them in any real way, they were just poor, I never stopped and thought about what poor truly meant for these people.

When I was in my 20s, UNICEF was still a big charity going on in a lot of the offices I worked in. One year I volunteered at my job to work the program, sending out flyers to co-workers, collecting what they had collected in their little orange boxes and pooling it together with the many other orange boxes from wonderful giving people, donating just a little to make a big difference. It felt good helping out, but the best part of it was visiting a senior citizens home in Manhattan. We were going there during lunch time and at first I was a little uncomfortable, what do I talk to these people about. Not normally at a loss for words, but what would I say to these strangers, what could I bring to the table.

I ended up sitting next to an old man who was all alone, he looked so sad. The wrinkles on his face made his face look like a caricature drawing. I've looked at the picture many times, tracing the wrinkles with my finger, realizing each one was a mark from his life, good and bad, lines from smiling by his mouth, lines from worrying on his forehead and the best wrinkles on his eye brows from the times he opened his eyes in wonder to look upon something wonderful, that's what I see in his face.

He too felt a little uncomfortable that day, probably thinking what does girl want with me, a photo opportunity? What will I say to her? I didn't have anything to offer him that day but my time and a greeting. The camera man wasn't following me, but when this man smiled just because I said hello and asked him if he was enjoying his soup, the photographer saw magic and captured this moment. Even the director of the home (standing to the left of us in the picture) had to smile because this man was happy. I got through, with a smile and a hello, I gave this man something, I brought something to the table that day!

Look at this man's face above. He lived a long life, I'm sure he worked hard and provided for a family, who again, I don't know, may or may not have come to visit him, maybe they were all gone at that time. But there are those out there who do help, who give their money and more, their time, their love.

Remember those who are less fortunate at this time of year, not just the ones without money and things, remember the ones without family and friends, the ones who find the holidays so difficult, only remembering what they don't have, what they may have lost, or just depressed at this time of the year and need just a friendly hello, it can make a difference. Lift up your head and say hello to the harried shopper next to you in line, just hello, it goes a long way. That person may get home at the end of the day facing more stress and for a moment will smile, remembering that stranger who took the time to just say hello.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Three Dog Day

This was a t-shirt design I created years ago, at least ten or more, and unfortunately these three dogs from that three dog day have passed on to a place in heaven called Rainbow Bridge. But I still have my t-shirt, faded as it is, it reminds me of that three dog day.


Duffy, Fred and Moose (left to right), three more of my nephews, not brothers, even though they do look alike, were cousins. Moose was the oldest and he was my sister Linda and husband Bob's first baby. Linda picked Moose's name from one of Dean Koonz' books, one of my favorite authors, a little on the Steven King side, but less spooky and creepy, depends what you like. I'm not a Steven King fan, I have nightmares when I read his books. To each his own as they say. But if you love dogs, Dean Koonz always has a dog in his stories and sometimes his dogs are the main characters. Koonz' love of dogs is so obvious, he has a great way of explaining what they feel and think, I find it so believable. But you know me, I believe, it may be silly, but I believe!.

Read Watchers, the first book by Koonz I read, you will fall in love with a dog named Einstein.

Our Fred came next. Fred belonged to my sister Deb and her husband Mike and Mike was constantly putting a voice to every look on Fred's face. I can't think of Fred without hearing Mike's silly imitation of him. And Fred was from Boston, so of course he had a Boston accent and pooped by a pahked cah in Hahvid yahd. One time, when Deb, Mike and Fred were visiting, Mike was searching all over the house for his car keys, couldn't find them and was making everyone dizzy watching him.

Whatcha looking for Mike, someone finally asked. My cockies, he said. Can't find my cockies.

Your cockies? You're looking for your cockies? Did you have an accident? Is there something we need to talk about Mike? Do you usually leave your cockies anywhere other than the bathroom? From that day forward, whenever my Aunt Libby and Uncle Richie walked their dog Schmidty, they always picked up his leash and asked him if he wanted to go out and do his cockies!

And Duffy, Duffy was not the baby of his family, I believe Annie and Steve's first was their son Ryan and Duffy followed. Duffy was a New Yorker, so he tawked the same way I do.

That three dog day, well, again, I'm a New Yorker, it really should have said three dawg day, was a great family BBQ, one of those summer days where sometimes I just take a step back and enjoy watching my family all hanging out together, yapping away, laughing, loving. Even my three, four-legged nephews were part of of that day.

I've heard that a three dog night is a night so cold you need to cuddle up to three dogs to keep warm. A three dog day, for me, is a perfect day because you have three dogs to cuddle up with.

The Pajama Game

I don't know about you, but I pretty much get pajamas every Christmas. I love that. No complaints. And growing up, my sister Linda and I, two years apart, always got our Christmas pajamas a week or so before, had to have them on for Christmas Eve. We even have an old family 8mm movie, transferred to video, and I still have to transfer it to DVD since it's been too long since I've seen it, but it's Christmas Eve and though Linda was just a baby, still wearing those little "onesies" my brothers and I all had our Christmas pajamas on. The boys all matched exactly and mine weren't far off.

I know so many families do that, matching PJs or not, kids in their Christmas pajamas has been a tradition for a long time. Pajamas, socks and underwear too, though not what you're looking for under the Christmas tree, are great simple gifts and you usually end up much happier about those gifts when you open your dresser drawers looking for clean undergarments!

This past weekend, my sister Linda and her husband Bob hosted their annual family Christmas Party. It started out because their daughter Hannah and our niece Irene both share the same birthday, today, December 18th, so it was a birthdays and Christmas celebration for our family. Born 10 years apart, Irene hit one of life's milestones, 30 years young, and Hannah will be marking one of the milestones in her life next year, the magical 21. Oh 21, what a wonderful time. Many more wonderful birthdays and milestones to come for sure, but at 21, I think, you really find yourself, kind of figure out what you want, where you're going, and are actually able to do it too. And it sure was a fun age!

The week before is also easier for us all to get together because there's been a lot of young kids in my family now for years. Irene and Hannah may be 30 and 20, but the youngest in my large group of nieces and nephews is only six, they want to be home on Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa and the same on Christmas Day, when they want to play with their gifts. Some of us do get together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but only with family that live close by, less than a half hour's drive, no kid wants to be stuck in traffic on those days.

So this past Saturday was the day of our party and it was a great time for all my family that was able to attend, especially the kids. You never see my nephews, except if they're looking for cookies, chips (Shane is the "chipser" man!), something to drink, in need of something, never to greet whoever has arrived, just "can I have..."! They disappear, having so much fun we have to drag them away to get them to sit for dinner. We took a family group photo this year and Jojo wanted to stay downstairs playing a video game, my brother had to drag him up, was trying to get the frown off his face while we were getting ready for the shot and had to actually hold Jojo's cheeks up in a smile (still can tell he's not smiling) but it's a funny picture.

The girls, on the other hand, hang around, want you to join in their activities, play with them, TALK! Girls can talk, and I know I am guilty myself! We were lucky this year, my niece Jessie who is a young adult, 24, was there, and the girls were having Jess do their hair as she is a hairdresser and of course they look up to their older cousin, just the way it goes. Jess also let them do her hair, she looked funky, beautiful but funky!

And this year my nieces, Ashley (10), Gracie (8) and Bella (2 weeks away from 7), all got matching Christmas pajamas. They looked adorable (and they knew it). But my Ashley is dying to be a part of my blog. She loved the Mug Shots blog I posted a while back and decided to make her own. It's in this short video I made from the little Pajama Party these three cutie pies had, but just in case you can't read her sign, it says "Ashers, NYPD, wanted for eating too much cake, if seen call 911 immediately". She's too funny that girl!

Ashley was born an actress, so smart, she makes me think about how old she really is when she comes out with some of the opinions and thoughts she has. She gave me attitude when she was a one year old. She knew she had me wrapped around her little finger, would ignore me, she just knew she could snap her fingers and I'd come running to snuggle her and give her lovin'.

The girls had fun posing for their Christmas Pajama pictures and after a while started charging the rest of the family one dollar to have their picture taken with the Pajama Gang, made a sign and all! For hours, I keep hearing them calling me back into the TV room, saying, come take our picture. I asked them, teasing of course, what do I get out of this, I'm taking the pictures and you're making money!

They bring magic to our holidays these kids. I hope you are lucky enough to have at least one around this season, their enthusiasm, happiness and belief in magic is contagious, you can't help but feel good watching them love life!

Enjoy my nieces little Pajama Game! Oh, and I couldn't leave Scout and Casper out, they are just too cute and Casper is always making a bed out of his big sister Scout.

Goodnight John Boy

The Waltons was one of my favorite TV shows when I was younger and the show usually ended with the family saying goodnight. Goodnight a dozen or so times. All of them going through the family name by name, but goodnight John Boy is the most quoted and known.

The Waltons television series was created by Earl Hamner, Jr., also based on his book. It was about a sappy happy family, but was set during the depression and war time and there were serious story lines. I know I cried every episode, either being so happy or being so sad. The Walton family was close, a bond that couldn't be broken even during hard times. I've written how blessed I am to have been born into a wonderful, loving family, I've gone on and on in fact. It's just the truth and I know I'm just one of the lucky ones. My family has gone through some tough times ourselves and may face some hard times in our future, but we have each other, that's always a given in my family.

After first getting to know my family, my sister Debbie's husband Mike said we made The Waltons look dysfunctional. What a compliment! Mike loved our family right away and we loved him right back, we're just those kind of people. Again, I'm just lucky (and blessed).

I was born in Brooklyn but three months after that my family moved out to Deer Park, Long Island. We didn't live there very long, I was only a few months shy of turning five by the time we were back in Brooklyn, but again, one of my beliefs, I think we were meant to be there, we met the Young's.



The Young's were our neighbors. When we first moved to Deer Park I was the youngest of 4 children in my family and Laura was the youngest of 3 children in the Young family, but over the years both families grew to 7 children each, and we all became family. They became my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom, my cousins Tommy, Steven, Laura, Elizabeth, Anthony, Theresa and Susan. And Aunt Ruth is my sister Linda's godmother and to be honest, I was always a little jealous of that!

There was pretty much a match up for everyone in our family to have a buddy in the Young family who was our age or close to it. My three older brothers and my cousins Tommy and Steven were all about the same age and my sister Linda and Elizabeth are only 3 months apart and they were always best friends. Aunt Ruth told me that Linda taught Elizabeth how to climb out of her crib, something I'm sure Aunt Ruth wasn't too happy about having three kids running around and now Elizabeth is popping out of bed whenever she wants. Laura, who is 2 years older than me, might have found me to be a bit of a pest at certain ages, but at other times we too were the best of friends and when Laura thought she was too old and too cool to hang with me, Anthony, though probably 3 or 4 years younger than me, became my buddy. Even the Oniskeys, the Young's cousins, became our family. I remember Barbara and Helen Oniskey coming to our house in Brooklyn to stay with us too. More kids in the house, just what my parents wanted right? Yeah, actually they did. When we had the Youngs or Oniskeys around, or if we were at the Young's house, we left our parents alone, we didn't need anything, we were too occupied having fun.

The Young family really makes the Walton family look dysfunctional. They are an amazing family and having them in my life, I know, has made me a better person.

I don't remember living next door to them, but both our families always visited back and forth from Brooklyn to Long Island and their home is forever etched in my mind. We were always told on our way out to their house not to ask to sleep over, just as they were told when they were heading into Brooklyn to see us. No one was staying and no one was coming back. It never turned out that way. We begged and begged and they always gave in, we got to stay, someone came home with us, our parents could never win on that one.

I remember having dinners in the Young's kitchen. Our parents would set up a card table in the living room and eat in there and leave us in the kitchen. At that time Anthony Young was the baby, both our families still didn't have the two new additions to our family's as yet, so there were nine kids at the table and Anthony in his highchair. Anthony was Superbaby. The boys started that with him, my older brothers and cousins. They told Anthony he could do anything, he was Superbaby! One dinner there was spaghetti everywhere! Superbaby was egged on by the boys and it got out of hand, we all joined in and my parents, aunt and uncle never came in, they just ignored us. With that many kids, unless there was blood they just sat and enjoyed their dinner and figured whatever we did could be fixed (including our behinds!) or cleaned later.

To this day, Tommy, Steven and Laura all tease me about how when the ice cream man would come (close to dinner time of course) and we would all run inside and ask for money for ice cream. We were told no, it's dinner time or there's ice cream in the fridge for later. I would sit on the stoop and cry and the ice cream man felt so bad he would give me free ice cream. I don't remember at all, but they have told me so many times. I really must have drove them crazy sitting there having my ice cream and their tears couldn't do a thing. There's that actress in me, I started young!

My first time to a drive-in movie was with the Young's, my first samore (toasted marshmellow in between graham crackers with a chuck of chocolate...mmmm), my first time to McDonalds, my first time camping out (the shed in the Young's backyard where we lasted an hour or so until the boys, again starting trouble, would scare us out of there). Reading. Laura was into reading before I was. I remember begging her to play while she was reading a book one day and she told me to read. I idolized Laura. If she said read, I was going to read. Laura opened up a wonderful world for me which I'm sure I would have gotten to eventually, as my mom was a big reader too, but Laura started me young and I was hooked. It was one of the Nancy Drew books and after one, I had to read them all.

We sang in the car when we drove with the Young family, always. No radio. Those were the best rides, even ones that took ten minutes. There's a song by John Denver, Grandma's Feather Bed. We loved to sing that one and I remember Aunt Ruth got a kick out that song.

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom actually got us all hooked on Billy Joel's music. It was during the eight track days and they bought the tape thinking it was just nice piano music, no singing. I don't think they disliked Billy Joel's music, but knew we would probably like it more than they did. And we did!

Laura had dolls, her aunt bought them for her and they were meant to be for show, but oh I loved to play with those dolls. I'm sure I ruined them. They were dressed in outfits from all different countries and I would be lost for hours playing with them, and if not the dolls, Laura's costumes. Laura went to dancing school and was in so many recitals and had tons and tons of costumes. I would try them on and dance and sing all day. I remember Aunt Ruth telling me not to make a mess, to put the dresses back, but a mess I made and Aunt Ruth never yelled, never got angry, just told me the next time, don't make a mess.

Eventually the Young's moved from Long Island to the Catskills upstate and visiting them there was even more fun. They lived in the mountains, by a stream. Lots of land. We had an adventure every day when we were there. Hide and seek would last for hours. Our walks by the stream always ended with us falling in on purpose and even on the hottest summer day the stream was icy cold. There was a big hotel within walking distance, The Pines, and we would go up there and use the pool in the summer, ice skate and sleigh rides in the winter. Riding a bike up there, you really got a work out going up those hills but going down, whoosh, so fast, catching a high and getting energized for the ride back up the hill.

At that time Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom owned a restaurant and we would help out in the kitchen from time to time, washing dishes and doing little things around the kitchen and eating something all the while we were there. On the nights we weren't at the restaurant we'd be hanging out watching old movies on TV and would call whoever was closing the restaurant that night and ask that they bring us a pizza. If we were still up we had hot pizza and if we fell asleep cold pizza the next morning was a great treat. And the cheesecake, they made the best cheesecake. We have a great recipe in our family and I really love it too, but in my memory, the Young's is my favorite. It was totally different than the recipe in my family, I'll have to get their recipe and try it now, it's been years since I've had it. Or better yet, I'll get my sister Linda to do it as she's a much better baker -- or cousin Chrissy too. When I was at the restaurant I was always going into the walk-in fridge to slice off a piece of that cheesecake.

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom volunteered at a home for mentally disabled adults when they lived up in the Catskills and about once a month they would invite a few of the patients over for a Sunday BBQ with the family. Just good people, so far from rich, but always giving everything they had, things, their time and especially love.

Aunt Ruth's Aunt Teddie was great too, I remember visiting her house in the Bronx and she would make these little cheese hors d'oeuvres, so simple, but we all couldn't wait til they came out of the oven and they would fly off the plate as fast as she was serving them.

Aunt Ruth eventually went back to school, I don't know maybe in her late 40s/early 50s and she got a nursing degree. She's one of those people that was meant to be a nurse. Smart and more, so compassionate. Even after she retired, which she really didn't want to do, she continued to volunteer and would go to the hospital and spread her love. Aunt Ruth is a grandma and great grandma now, those lucky little ones getting all that love from her beautiful heart.

Uncle Tom unfortunately passed away, quite a few years ago, but even his funeral was filled with the Young family love touch. Steven built his father's coffin. My uncle was laid to rest in a cradle of love. When I walked in to the funeral parlor, the back room was filled with kids coloring, the grandchildren were all there and when anyone went to pay their last respects and pray by Uncle Tom, Steven was there and he asked each of us to tell him something about his father that he might not know. I told him his dad called me a little Pocahontas because of my long dark hair hanging down when I was a kid. As sad as that day was, it was a celebration of his life and the love he spread.

The Young's all live in Rhode Island now and their family has grown way bigger than mine and that's pretty big! If you know them, your life is better for it. If you meet them, hang around, you wont believe how good they can make you feel. They just climb right into your heart.

The picture I doctored up above to look like The Waltons is from one of the reunions we've had with the Young family. There's been a few reunions since that picture was taken, but this picture means so much to me because it's basically the originals, the start of this family always connected in heart. It's also the last time some very special family members were with us.

Goodnight Mom.
Goodnight Bo, my Poppy.
Goodnight Michael.
Goodnight Aunt Teddie and goodnight Uncle Tom.

Always in my heart.

Yes Everyone, There is a Santa Claus!

There's a famous true story of a little girl named Virginia who wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun in 1897, I've copied it below in case you've never read the full article and in case you don't know the story at all.

Virginia believes in Santa Claus, but she is confused by what her friends are telling her and Francis Pharcellus Church, who replied to Virginia's letter, tells her yes, yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and he tells her why. His words are really beautiful and I think Mr. Church was really responding to the adults who were reading his article. All those "grown ups" who forgot about Santa, forgot about believing and magic. One of my blogs was called "Love = Magic", it does. Like Santa, you can't see him, but he's there all the same. In another blog, I quoted a line from the movie Miracle on 34th Street, "I believe, I believe, it may be silly, but I believe." Call me silly, I don't mind, I'm happy being silly. I just believe.

I've always believed. I truly believed in Santa and my parents never told me otherwise and I never asked. My older brothers told us they believed and though I searched for a lie on their faces, I only saw belief. They were Santa when they answered my questions, he can live in all of us.

I remember one night they told my sister Linda and I how we just missed Santa running out the back porch door because he heard us sneaking down. I believed that night that I actually saw his boot as he was running out the door. My imagination and my pure belief in magic. My brothers helped my parents wrapping presents, hiding them and the excitement they felt knowing what Christmas morning would be for us filled them with happiness, they loved us, magic was running through their veins. The magic of Santa Claus. As I got older, I too became Santa. Like my brothers, I got to help my parents do some wrapping, hiding and the best part, telling my younger siblings, Debbie and Joey, how Santa was coming to visit on Christmas Eve, that they had to get to bed before he would come to our house.

One year, my brother Joey was about 5 and was beside himself with excitement. It was difficult getting him to go to bed that night. I don't know who told him to put on his PJs and get ready for bed, but I do remember seeing him Christmas morning in his PJs but his clothes from the day before were underneath, he never got undressed, just put the PJs on top of his clothes and got into bed. By Christmas morning his pants were hanging down from the bottom of his PJ pants as well as his shirt underneath making his PJ top look too tight and all bunched up. The way Joey looked and acted that morning is forever etched in my memory, it was one of my favorite Christmas's, just watching him "in the moment". Santa was there, the night before and that morning too.

Santa Claus is about giving a gift without receiving a gift in return. But there is a gift in return, bigger and better than whatever we give. Santa is in me now, as he lives in so many others.

A good friend of mine, Phil, told me a beautiful story about his son Danny. Danny got older and asked the question we all don't want our children to ask, he asked, dad, is there really a Santa Claus. Phil, and I know so many more parents, go through absolute torture on how to handle this question, I'm hearing my family and friends heartaches about this lately. Some feel a terrible guilt, like they lied and now have to fess up. I wouldn't look at it as fessing up as much as passing along a magical, loving tradition, handing down the Santa suit. When Phil answered Danny's question, Danny said you bought me all those presents, thank you dad. Danny became Santa that day.

Read this article, print it, save it for the day your child asks that question, save it for when you feel like you can't believe in anything. Magic is real.

Believe in Santa Claus!

Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

She'll Thank Me Later

You know how you sing along to a song on your ipod or the radio and you think you sound absolutely fabulous? I do it all the time. The only thing is I know I don't sound fabulous, but it's so much fun and I feel good and I sing out loud, really loud!

When I was younger I would sing in front of the mirror for hours, using my brush as my microphone, taping myself on my little tape recorder and then hearing how awful I sounded when playing it back. Is that me? Do I really sound like that? I sounded so good singing along with the record. What happened?

I wish we had the technology today when I was growing up. I would have tons of videos to watch and laugh at and more just enjoy, watching myself being so innocent, so real, singing my little heart out.

Here's my niece Bella singing along to Bruno Mars' song Grenade, acting it out and just having fun, pure innocence, nothing more beautiful! She's a star that brightens my life every day.

Someday Bella might be furious that I posted this, I don't care, I captured a wonderful moment in her life.

She'll thank me later.

The Alpha?

Here's a couple more of my Christmas cards with Molly that I sent out years ago. Molly as the alpha, being Rudolph, leading the way for Santa's sleigh. And the other card I just love the look on Molly's face. I think her expression seems like the elves are really there on her back, bothering her while she's trying to take a nap. She probably was taking a nap and I bothered her to take a picture.

Molly was the alpha in our relationship in so many ways. I took her for a walk sure, but she led, we went where she wanted to go and went home when she was good and ready. If she was in the mood for a long walk we'd go and go and she would eventually sit down and give me a look like okay, pick me up, I'm tired and I want to go home and I'm not walking back! She was tiny but after a few blocks she got heavy. I tried to walk her in circles when she was in that mood, but again, she was the alpha and led me where she wanted to go. And I'm a sucker for a cute face.

For a few months now, I've been helping out my neighbor who had surgery on her knee, by walking her dog Trixie. Trixie again is the alpha, she leads me. Trixie has lots of routines. Depends on her mood day by day. We go north, south, east or west, she puts her little nose up in the air, catches a smell and off we go. She loves to go by the houses of people who have dogs, she's tormenting them. Really. I think when she walks by and starts barking she's saying, ha ha I'm out and you're not. And then every walk before going home we have to sit around the block in front of DJ's house. DJ is another one of my four-legged neighbors, very sweet. DJ's parents always give Trixie a treat and she will wait until they come out of the house no matter how long it takes. I feel so funny standing there, I feel like a stalker. But DJ eventually starts barking and gets his owners to take him out. He greets Trixie, she gets her treat and we get to go home. Trixie in the lead!

If it's raining, Trixie does not get out of bed. I've knocked on the door on rainy days when it's just drizzling or even when the ground is just wet after the rain has stopped, but Trixie's mom says that Trixie is still in bed. She knows it's raining, can smell and hear it and stays warm and snugly under the blankets, wont budge. Smart cookie that cutie!

I'm not the only one letting their four-legged family member lead. Trixie is the alpha in her house and I bet there are more Molly's and Trixie's out there leading the way. The Alphas!

Hit 'Em Where It Hurts

I've written in other blogs that I was blessed with two fathers.

My biological father, James, I can't really remember. I have some vague memories but they are mostly just of me and knowing he was with me at that particular time or event in my life. I wish I knew more about him.

My father James passed away when I was 7 and a few years later my mom and my brothers and sisters and I were lucky enough to be blessed with Bo, my second father. I don't like to say step-father. I refer to Bo as my father or Bo, just don't want to confuse you here.

When Bo first came to live with us we were living in a two-family house with the Mallens upstairs as tenants. The Mallens being my godparents and their family, at least 5 or 6 kids. Growing up, in my little world, everyone had 5, 6, 7 or more kids in their family. It was the norm of the times and my neighborhood.

Not long after Bo came into our lives, the Mallens ended up buying their own home and moving out and we took over the entire house. It was still like two separate apartments, the upstairs very private from the downstairs, which was great in some ways and not so great in others. Great being that our parents could not hear anything going on upstairs. I remember being told to go upstairs and study for an hour. An hour? Mmmm. That would be about two albums listening time. Dancing, jumping on the bed. Studying. Not so great, my parents couldn't hear what was going on upstairs.

But we had so much more room. There were 5 bedrooms upstairs and now downstairs we had a huge dining room, a TV room, 3 bathrooms. It was great house, and the home that will always be in my heart, as that's the last house where all of my brothers and sisters, my parents and I lived all together.

My sister Linda and I shared a room and at that time Debbie was still so young so she and Joey shared a room. And Debbie would never come upstairs to our room anyway. To keep her out and away from our stuff, we told her there were ghosts up there and it took some time before she finally told my parents why she was so scared to come up. We got in trouble but the damage was done for Debbie, she still thought there were ghosts up there no matter what our parents told her.

We had bunkbeds and it was probably me more than Linda but our room was a mess! We would throw our clothes all over the place, leave candy wrappers all over and I had a favorite place to hide everything. We had a dresser with a mirror that was catty corner in the room and I remember throwing tons of stuff back there, well hidden, never to be found. Straighten up our room? Sure! Right behind the dresser.

Well one day I came home from school and my father had taken apart our bedroom. Took apart the bunkbed, the dresser, took off the mirror, found our, well again probably my, stash of junk, laundry, garbage. He was furious and I don't blame him but the whole time my mom was telling him, they're little girls, they can't put all this furniture back together. We had to clean but Bo had to put the furniture back together and that just added to his frustration and made his lecture to us about keeping our room clean all that much longer.

The clean room didn't last long and this time my father decided to take the door off our room so that we would be embarrassed if my older brothers' friends came over and saw our mess. That was funny. Linda and I could care less what our brothers' thought and their friends too. They didn't pay any attention to us and if they did see it, I don't think they would care either.

Bo was beside himself, he just couldn't figure out how to get us to keep our room clean. He was still learning how to be a father. My brothers gave him lessons pretty much everyday. Linda and I did too. I was and still am too sensitive, I can cry so easily, over happy things and sad things. Bo could make me cry and would ask me, what did I do, I didn't say anything. I would tell him you looked at me funny or angry, whatever, overly sensitive me, but he learned, I was a cry baby. One day I got a new pair of roller skates, they were ones that you could just slip over your sneaker. I went outside and put them on, got up and fell. I took the skates off and went inside and as soon as I saw my father I started crying. He laughed, he was learning. He said, I just watched you from the window. You didn't cry at all outside, didn't start until you saw me. He made me laugh that day too.

One day Bo figured out how to get us to keep our room clean. I don't remember what posters Linda had up in our room, but I know I was in love with David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman.

We had posters all over our room. Teen magazines in every corner, and cut outs of our idols posted on the mirror. Bo told us if we didn't keep our room clean, we would come home to find every poster and cut-out on the mirror shredded and in the garbage.

Bo learned that day and so did Linda and I. He won. He hit us where it hurts.

My favorite lesson similar to that, hit 'em where it hurts, is about my niece Irene.

Now Irene is not vain, not at all. She was a beautiful baby, little girl, teen and now a beautiful young woman. Yes I'm prejudice, but she is beautiful, inside and out. In any case, when Irene was about 7 or 8 she was always late getting ready for school in the morning because she couldn't tear herself away from the mirror. Loved, loved, loved to look at herself. Now I did the same thing when I was her age every chance I got, I think most little girls do, but she was making her mom late every morning and her mom (big sister Deb) hit her where it hurts. Deb covered every mirror in the house for a month. Irene couldn't look at herself! Ha! She got into a new routine and got herself going in the morning and out to school on time.

Again, you gotta hit 'em where it hurts.