Family | Peaches Prattlings

{December 24, 2015} ‘Twas the night before Christmas…

Happy Christmas Eve to one and all!

Today is Christmas Eve and I got to continue a fabulous tradition, spending it with crazy friends.

I started my day seeing my grandson, Baby A. What am I going to call him? I can’t keep calling him Baby A! He’s two and a half! I’ll think of something soon. I drove out to see him and his mom, KAB, had a fabulous time and forgot to take a picture of what he made me, pure awesomeness! I will take a picture tomorrow and post it, promise!

After a fabulous visit, I headed back to JT’s house, picked him up, we went to the store and picked up stuff I could eat for dinner, then back to his place.

People started arriving, including ST, who joined us because JT’s family graciously extended an invitation. I told him how great JT’s family is and ST experienced it.

This year was a slightly different crowd, since some of the usual suspects weren’t there. Some of the same faces, some new, but as always, warm, fun, entertaining and amusing, loud, boisterous and fabulous. What more could you want.

For those of you celebrating…Happy Christmas eve!!! I hope you are with the ones you want to be with and having a fabulous time!

{December 22, 2015} A first concert!

Tonight was my first foray into the world of grade school concerts…from the “parent” side.

EJS decided at the start of the school year that she wanted to play an instrument. Her decision was an interesting choice, the cello! It’s almost bigger than her!

When she was making the decision, I told her, after I told her parents of course, that I wanted to be her patron. Try explaining what a patron of the arts is to an eight year old!

She really likes The cello and tonight we got to witness the results of all the practicing and rehearsals.

We started with the beginner strings, this included EJS’ group, cello, violons, violas. These were the third graders. Then it was the advanced strings, fourth and fifth grade. Next was the wind instruments, beginner, then advanced. The winds include clarinet, which GES and I both played, flute, trombone. Then orchestra.

The beginner strings started with the traditional beginner piece, ‘Hot Cross Buns’, of course, then there was Martian Cross Buns, huh?

I have to say, the beginner strings were better than we expected, fair thinking for a beginner concert.

Along with being very proud family members we, GES, ACS and I realized we are now in the parental group that must attend and sit through not only their own child/family member’s performance, but the entire school’s performances! Oh my!

A realization came to mind, how lucky we were as kids! Our parents did it for us and smiled the biggest smiles they could.

I looked at GES during one of the other group’s performances and said “Does this mean we need to call daddy and thank him?” Yes it does!

To our dad and mom, who sat through our concerts and to all those parents who sat through their child’s concerts, no matter how good or bad, we send a big collective “THANK YOU!!” You are now up for sainthood!

{December 6, 2015} Happy Chanukah

Tonight is the first night of chanukah and I was lucky to spend it with family.

PSM and I flew back from Hawaii today, we’ll, yesterday and today, sorry about no post, I didn’t think about it until today! We left at 5pm yesterday and arrived on the mainland late morning. Anyway…

Tonight startes the beginning of the celebration of Chanukah, also known as the Festival of Lights. For those of you not in the know, the Festival of Lights celebrates the miracle of what happened so long ago.

When the temple was destroyed and the Jews went in to clean things up, they found enough oil to light the lamps for one night, but a miracle occurred and it lasted eight nights. That is why we celebrate for eight nights.

Things that are special to the holiday are things like potato pancakes or potato latkes, they are fried in oil, which is what makes them special. We might also serve donuts, fried in oil, maybe filled with sweet jellies.

We play games like dreidel and sing songs. It’s so much fun as a kid and to play and see through the eyes of a child.

Each night, we light candles on the menorah, one more each day until the eighth night, the menorah is aglow with warmth and hope and love.

Tonight, I was with GES and family. The only thing missing was the rest of the family. Before dad left last week they celebrated chanukah together so they could enjoy the celebration together.

The menorah I lit when I got back to my apartment was one I picked up after we got back from our big trip. Doesn’t it scream Antoni Gaudi!

On the last night, I’ll post a picture in full glow.

Happy Chanukah!

{December 1, 2015} I’m in Hawaii, what?

I was in Europe three weeks ago and now I’m in Hawaii? How does that happen? Well, I’ll tell ya…

I couldn’t say anything before, it was very hush-hush, but PSM was looking to shake things up a bit and one of the things he did was interview for new opportunities within his company.

And then we waited.

And we waited.

We got tired of waiting and ran away to Europe. And here’s where the cool part comes in.

It was our first day in Marseille and we were on the Il d’If, the prison I was telling you about that the Count of Monte Cristo was based on. We were in someone’s prison cell when he got the call. Cool, huh? I thought so.

Good thing it was a large prison cell, I had to walk around it for the next twenty minutes while he talked to his new boss! I took a lot of pictures from the same window, great view!

“But, JJ, you still haven’t told us why you’re in Hawaii.” I’m getting to that dear friends. The new position, if you haven’t followed my chaotic train of thought is…in, yup, you guessed it, Hawaii!

It has been a whirlwind! I couldn’t tell you before because I had to tell my family first and I couldn’t tell them until he told his family first and then his first cousin’s wife, AT was waiting so patiently for my sister to find out so she could say something! It was like a sitcom!

Now, I’ve told my immediate family, first reactions were: Dad “I knew that when JJ said PSM was going to Hawaii, she was going with him”, GES “April break, auntie’s house!”. ACS “oh yeah!” then I’ve told some friends and I’m working on telling the world. For PSM, it’s a quick phone call to friends and family, maybe a 15/20 minute call, max. For me…1-2 hours! My mouth went dry!

The plan is that PSM will move in January, he starts work mid-January and I will join him when my lease is up, around August/September. Until then, I will do what I can to visit him as often as possible, hopefully once a month, if not every two months. If I can get a job on the west coast, then it will be a lot easier to come on the weekends.

I have to tell you, it was easier getting here than I thought. PSM got a flight yesterday morning, very early as his girlfriend got him to the airport at 4am, what a girlfriend he has! He flew through Texas and got to Hawaii about 2pm yesterday. I flew out at 6pm, after a fabulous time at the Nutcracker with the family, got to LA about 9:30, got a room for the night and was back at the airport for my 8:30am flight, 10 hour layover and then to Hawaii and I got in about 12:15pm.

I have to admit, I think I liked the way I did it, especially if there were kids involved, fly 5/6 hours spend the night in a bed getting decent rest, then fly 5/6 hours the next morning, get in relatively early and have the entire day ahead of you. On the way back, I am flying through LA again, but with a one hour layover, we’ll see how I feel!

So, the reason I am in Hawaii with PSM…he is here looking for a place to live and I was hoping to, based on my schedule, join him so we could look and make decisions together and much to our surprise, things worked out and here I am!

It was a crazy day. I landed, PSM picked me up, we went to the hotel, dropped bags, went out for a bite to eat, then met the agent taking us around about 2pm, looked at about 6 or 7 properties. A few apartments, some houses, some town houses. We went in a few and others, we checked out the neighborhood to decide whether or not we wanted to even go inside.

The last house we looked at, from outside was in a great neighborhood, on a hill, overlooking the island and the farm PSM will be working with and met the neighbors, great people who we ended up talking to for TWO hours! The sun went down!!! It was a very long day, some of the houses started to blend in with each other, but I think we picked the one we want and fingers crossed it’s available!

We are on the island of Oahu, for those of you with inquiring minds. And now you know why I am in Hawaii! Looking for a place to live, can you believe it?

Yes, we’ll have a guest room, all ready for your visit!

{November 30, 2015} A very long standing family tradition continues…The Nutcracker

Today, the family went to see The Nutcracker Ballet at the Boston Opera House.

This is a tradition my parents started when GES and I were little kids. Every Christmas Eve we would all go into Manhatten and go to Lincoln Center and watch the City Ballet Company performance of The Nutcracker.

We would get dressed up, just like little girls do, get to our seats, settle in and wait for the the dings signaling that the lights were about to go out and the curtain go up.

It’s a little different as now, there are announcements instructing the audience to turn off their cellphones.

The lights go down and we sit on the edge of our seats waiting with anticipation…and then the conductor comes out to applause and the first note is played for the opening overture.

We are transported to a different time and place, not sure where, we were wondering that today, maybe Austria who knows, it’s timeless. We see Clara and her brother Fritz waiting for the party guests to arrive.

We did this every year for, we’ll, forever, it seemed, until we left NYC for other parts of the country and now, my sister had picked up where we left off and is making new memories with her children.

Last year was the first year I was able to go with them as that was my first time in Boston for Thanksgiving in a very long time.

I’ve been to and seen different performances over the years, NYC, as you know, Atlanta with my grandmother, once in an imax theater, on TV and now Boston.

I have to say that my favorite is still the NY City Company, is hard when that’s what you know and you’re used to, but I did enjoy the performance today. I was able to look at it as the ballet that was presented, some things felt different and some felt like they were missing, but it was still quite enjoyable and fun and my nieces enjoyed it and that’s all that really matters.

They were so well behaved, it was a pleasure to be with them. I have to say they outshone a lot of other kids!

We all had a wonderful time and another tradition is going strong and I how to be there for many more.

{November 28, 2015} A fine Chanukah party

Today my family and I were invited to a special event.

PSM hosts a Chanukah party every year for his family. It’s a tradition that has been going on for years.

PSM orders a lot of food, I mean a lot! There are platters of bagels, lox, cream cheeses, cheeses and crackers, a whole whitefish, egg salad, tuna salad, whitefish salad, a salad/salad, a kiegel, two quiches and I made a blintz souffle. We had platters of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and capers, all the things that go with bagels, cream cheese and lox. And of course…potato latkes with applesauce or sour cream

Then there were desserts…cookies, cakes and pies, how could you go wrong?

It was PSM, his brother’s family, aunts and uncles, their kids and their kids kids, cousins and then there was us, and PSM’s best friend from college and his family. 39 people total. That’s a good sized crowd, wouldn’t you say?

So, there was food, then lighting the menorah, then presents for the kids. The nice thing is that only the kids get presents because all the adults make a donation to the charity of the year. Each year a different family member selects a charity. One of his aunts even gives each adult a check made out to the charity in their name.

This year, I got a check!! Along with a desk calendar like all the other “kids”. I guess I’m now part of the family.

It really was a nice party, a good time with good food, family and friends and I’m touched that we got to share in the day and experience, thank you PSM.

{November 25, 2015} That was too cool!

This morning, I went to breakfast with my dad and we had a grand time.

We caught up, on work, life, stuff. We shared stories, laughed, got serious…yeah right, laughed, it was a lot of fun.

Then we started talking about the trip PSM and I just took and our stories started to overlap a little, he was just on a river cruise that took them to Budapest, some of the same places that we were when we were there. He even had photos of the same things I did, what are the odds? I guess pretty good since we were in the same place!

We had similar experiences and then we started swapping stories and as he’s looking at my photos he’s exclaiming “I took that picture too!” that happened over and over again! It was a very cool experience to have, I enjoyed every minute of it.

We started talking about some trips we would like to take together, I know it would be a blast, we have similar styles with the way we travel and look at things, I’m ready, where are we going?

pest

{November 11, 2015} Our trip

I know I was blogging every day while we were away, but there’s more.

There are a few posts that I need to try to get posted, add more photos, [I want to share about the people, the hotel rooms, the graffiti! Oh my!] so please forgive me for the overload of posts, but I don’t want you to miss a minute.

We had such an amazing time! I don’t know how much you’ve seen, but I want to give you a recap and a few pointers that we figured out.

We started in Lisbon, Portugal for the half marathon. We stayed in Lisbon for two more days, then the train to Porto, the home of Port wine, oh my, but fabulous! The city, for me, that is, PSM found a new affinity for Port wine, so for him, it might be a toss up!

Lisbon

Porto

Then it was on the train to Sevilla, Espana. Well, sort of, we missed the stop to change trains, it was an honest mistake and it sucked, but…we made the best of it, we ended up renting a car to drive from Lisbon to Sevilla. That was such a nice drive! I liked that we drove on the same side of the road as here, I didn’t have to think quite as much!

Lisbon to Sevilla

We didn’t really need a car on Sevilla, everything was walkable or we took the bus. And the streets were so narrow, no thank you!

From Sevilla for two and a half days, then on to Barcelona, by Eurrail, for three and a half days, is it possible to get “Gaudi’d out”? then on to Marseille for two days, heaven, then Nice for three. While we were in Nice, we took side trips to Monte Carlo/Monaco and Cannes, amazing!

Sevilla

Barcelona

Marseille

Marseille to Nice

Nice

Monte Carlo/Monaco

Cannes

From Nice we flew to Budapest, it was cheaper than the train and only took about five hours versus the 24 hours by train! Two full, jam packed days and it was back to the USA, Wow, talk about whirlwind!

Pest

Pest, from Buda

Buda

We had a few apps at our disposal, Triposo, which is fabulous, you can download the individual cities or countries or the parent app and download from there. It had suggestions on tour to take, top destinations and things to see in the city, food and lodging recommendations. A few of the cities even had free walking tours. Love this app! Use it if you can!

That was one of my contributions to the cause, PSM loves Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor, which we also used in conjunction with Triposo, sometimes we needed to verify times things were open, locations and other recommendations.

He was the navigator, wherever we went he was the one who mapped it out and led us where we wanted to go. Now, Google maps on occasion couldn’t figure out if we should go left or right, luckily, he has a pretty good sense of direction, so we made it where we needed to go, eventually. It was the adventure along the way!

I became the hotels.com queen, booking rooms sometimes as we pulled into the train station of that city or country! My job was to find the hotel and check out the ratings while PSM mapped the location to determine if we were in a good area, close to the city centre, the public transport, etc. Sounds like a good working relationship!

One of our best friends on the trip? Google translate! Oh my, but this app is fabulous and I recommend it highly! You can download the language package of your destination, make favorites, like “hello”, “do you speak English”, “where is the toilet? “, “how much”, “check please”, “thank you” and very important, “American decaffeinated coffee with milk” for PSM. If he could say that and thank you, he was set!

For me personally, there was one app I really like, Happy Cow. It gives you. Veg-friendly, vegan and vegetarian restaurants and stores wherever you are. We used it a times and I was quite pleased, well, as long as we could find the place, or it was open! You can select a nationality our select all and it gives you a list, each listing had location, offerings, reviews and dollar signs. I use this app in the states, it’s great!

The money was easy when it was in euros, Hungarian money, a lot more calculations! The nice thing was when there we signs for the price in HUF and EUR, that at least have us an idea.

This was an amazing experience that we had. We’ve traveled together, just the two of us a few times, but short trips, long weekends, this was a huge undertaking, three weeks, just the two of us. Two people used to doing everything on their own, that admittedly, was an adjustment, but it was also nice to have that other person to do stuff, take some of the responsibilities.

It’s nice to experience things together, it’s still a new relationship, so we haven’t gotten to the part about doing things on our own and meeting for dinner later, that may or may not happen, who knows.

Hey…We survived our first major trip together! No one got pushed in front of a train or a bus and we still like each other. We even talked about our next great adventure. Who knows where the road will take us, but I promise you’ll be right there with us!

{November 9, 2015} Panic attacks

Or moment of panic, fun, huh?

Tonight I had one, slightly stressful, ok, very stressful! I couldn’t find my wallet. I know none of you have ever experienced that before, so you just wouldn’t understand what I went through. Did you like that bit of sarcasm? I thought it was pretty good!

So…what happened was this…after finishing work tonight, I went to meet PSM for dinner at The Friendly Toast, a wonderful place near him that we love. All was fine at dinner, I gave him a ride back to his house after and when we got there, his sister-in-law, JM was there. She’s taking a class in the area on Tuesdays so she stays with PSM on Monday nights.

She and I chatted after PSM went to bed and then I left to head home. I was at home, packing for my trip tomorrow, back to Buffalo, and as I’m getting everything ready, I can’t find my wallet. Now, this is not a large space, so where could it be? I have another story to tell you soon about where I am staying, but enough about that now.

I went through everything, every nook and cranny looking for my wallet, I remember having it, but not what happened with it when I got home. I normally keep things in one place, but as I am in a new place, not sure where that place is just yet.

I unpacked my bag and repacked it…twice, looked through the trash…twice, the bathroom…twice, the laundry…twice, everywhere twice, including the car, although that may have been three times, to no avail. I texted PSM and then threw caution to the wind…called him.

I am so sorry I woke him, but I am glad I did because it was at his house, thank goodness! I know he went back to sleep and he’s my hero of the day, he’s my hero of the day quite often, for little things, but he gets big superman props for this one!

Now, I can sit down, write to you, breath and get some sleep. whew…

{November 8, 2015}

What is a relaxing Sunday? Could someone explain it to me?

People experience international travel differently. Some people get wiped out by jetlag, sometimes it hits later, some people have trouble adjusting or readjusting to their time zone. When we were working on the plans for the trip, we decided to come back Saturday morning so we could chill and relax on Sunday. Ha!

Apparently my internal clock is still 6 hours ahead. So, after falling asleep about midnight 6am here) I felt the need to wake up at 3 am and apparently, I’m not go back to sleep.

I stayed in and unpacked, cleaned up, all while binge watching ‘How to get away with Murder’. Dozed off one or three times!

PSM unfortunately woke up at 6am, ugh. He and Mollie when for some walks, then he picked me up and took me to GES’ house to pick up more stuff. Back to the apartment, unload the car , back to GES for dinner and catch up and more loading of the truck.

I love my greetings and catching up!

Back to the apartment, unload the truck, we’re getting there! PSM left so he could spend some time looking at the back of his eyelids.

Now, at 12:30am it’s time for me to bid you a very good night. It’s a work and school day tomorrow!

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