Red White and Blue Christmas

Red, White, And Blue Christmas

Rob and I were extremely privileged to be invited to the White House open house by our good friend Shayne. Rob and I jumped on the opportunity to go. While we could have brought the kids we thought it would be nice to take our first tour of the White House, especially with a 2 ½ year old and shiny decorations, by ourselves. So that morning I took Cameron over to Christy’s house. To my surprise he had no problem saying goodbye to me. So off I headed to the Springfield metro station to catch my train to DC, but off course this is the DC metro area and I hit some horrible traffic and missed my first train. I was lucky that there was another train about 15 minutes later. I haul it through the station and made my second train and then I was off. A few stops later this very handsome man got on the train. A few more stops and we were walking to the White House. First we had to get in line to see if we were on “The List” and show our id’s then we headed into the building where we had to go through security. After that we were basically on our own. It was a self guided tour. We first headed down a wood paneled hallway and up a small set of stairs where the first of many Christmas trees was set up. There was also a wooden sleigh with Santa. Rob and I stopped by the tree to have our picture taken and then we were off. Down a long wreath lined hallway to an area decked out with a large bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by a garland filled with tons of red glass balls. In the other corner was a trio of singers caroling. As we moved through White House the halls were lined with collections of Christmas cards from Presidents past and photographs of poignant moments in Presidential history. We then headed up a large staircase to the second floor. On the second floor we went through East Room. It is a large formal room used for State dinners, receptions, concerts and many other events. In this room was a portrait 0f George Washington. This portrait of Washington has been in the White House since it was first occupied in 1800. It was only removed once by Dolley Madison for safe keeping when the White House was burned in 1814. After that the Green room, the Red room, and the Blue room which housed the White House Christmas tree decorated with all of the state ornaments hand painted by artists from each of the 50 states, The Virgin Islands, and Guam. Beyond the Blue room is the State Dining Room. In there we were able to see the official White House gingerbread house. After leaving the Dining room the halls were filled with the voices of the Glenn Draper Singers. While marveling in more fabulous decorations and portraits of Presidents past (Regan, Clinton, Bush Sr. just to name a few) we listened to a few more carols and visited with Shayne before we headed back to the train. We did stop outside for a few more photos and then headed back to our original destinations. Rob back to work and I headed to get the kiddos and get dinner ready. All in all it was truly a magical day and I know that we both enjoyed every minute of it. If you would like to know and see more there are a couple ways to do it. The White House's official website has a tour online here and on HGTV they are showing a tour of the White House decorated for the holidays here for the times they are airing it. One of the great things about this tour was that I was able to take pictures. I have literally hundreds (I believe I took over 300) of photos that I would love to share. But for whatever reason right now I am having difficulties with the two sites that I load my photos to. So for now you will have to live with a little teaser and I will get more up when I get things straight.

Don't Forget to Track Santa

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is tracking Santa on the NORAD website. When our computer died earlier this month I was bummed at the thought that we wouldn't get to see where in the world Santa was. But now thanks to Chris and Christy our tradition has been saved. So start your own and log on and see where the big fellow is at : WWW.NORADSANTA.ORG and if you would like to know more about how the tradition started go here.

A Bit of Culture

The Nutcracker.

MacKenzie’s Girl Scout troop got the chance to go to the Warner Theatre in downtown Washington DC to see the Washington DC ballet perform the Nutcracker. I was lucky enough to be invited to be a chaperon. I know what you are thinking thrilled to be a chaperon for a troop of girl scouts, I have to be out of my mind. But I have to say our troop was absolutely wonderful. They were polite, quiet, and all around well behaved. The ballet was fantastic. I think that I was as excited and amazed as the kids. This was my first visit to the ballet as it was for most of the girls. I hope to make this an annual trip.

Finally back online

So I have been having withdraw symptoms because our computer died. It just isn't the same trying to look at things on a cell phone web browser. But for now we have a loaner a laptop from some really good friends until they can fix ours. Thanks very much guys!!! So over the next few days I will be very busy doing my Christmas cards (my address list was trapped on my external hard drive) and updating the blog. So Happy Holidays to all and a Safe New Year!

The Placebo Effect Day 1

I know what you are thinking "What on earth is she talking about" so here we go. As many of you know MacKenzie is a very intelligent child and that was proven when she was accepted into the SIGNET program at school. What many of you don't know is that MacKenzie has a bit of a dark side. Some of you may have noticed that I did not post anything about her first report card. Well that is because we were a bit unsure of what to make of it. MacKenzie got a C on her report card in the first semester. I know I know a C is not a bad grade but in this situation it really is. First off it was in Writing as in Language Arts as in MacKenzie's area of focus that got her into the SIGNET program. Writing is one of MacKenzie's strongest and favorite subjects. When we got the report card Rob looked at it and was shocked as was I. We had just been to a parent teacher conference the week before and the teacher said that she was getting all A's and B's. We were a bit taken aback by the C, if it had been in Math (a subject she had been struggling with) we would have been ok with it and made a plan of attack to help her bring it up. But instead it was in writing. So Rob called her teacher to see what had happened. The teacher was even a little shocked. She said she would look into it and get back to us. See the report cards are all computer generated. The teacher puts in all the grades and the computer does all the work. She thought that maybe she had flipped a number or imputed something wrong. So a few days later I got a call saying that no the grade was right. The problem (and this is part of MacKenzie's dark side) is that MacKenzie is just not completing or even turning her work in. Being the fantastic teacher that she is Mrs. W gave MacKenzie some extra credit points for an story that MacKenzie wrote at home (I will post that later). That extra credit brought her grade up to a B and put her back on the Honor Roll. While we appreciate what Mrs. W did we told MacKenzie that this didn't change anything to us. This was about her not completing her work and turning it in. So we started to work on things with her to get her to start focusing more on doing her work and turning things in on time. Mrs. W also changed a few things in the classroom that would benefit both MacKenzie and other students. We as a team have been talking and working to help MacKenzie work up to her potential.

So this is where my little experiment comes in. We are still having problems with getting MacKenzie to focus. Mrs. W even suggested that maybe we take MacKenzie to the dr to rule out anything medical. While we thought about that our minds were changed when Rob took her to Family Night for SIGNET. Rob talked with MacKenzie's teacher there to see if she was having the same problems with her. And to our surprise Mrs. B said no, that MacKenzie is very focused, organized, quiet, and turns everything in as needed. So now we know that this is a MacKenzie problem. This is a problem with her only doing what she thinks is necessary and doing it on her terms. So how do you fix this problem??? We have tried talking, incentives, punishments, any thing we could think of and then it hit me. While in the grocery store looking at homeopathic remedies for Cam's cold a few weeks ago I stumbled across a "Homework and School work Focus helper" and I started thinking. To truly find out if it is a medical or MacKenzie problem we need to rule one out. But how do you rule out a MacKenzie problem. So I came up with it. I would make up my very own "Focus enhancing homeopathic cure" and give it to her before school everyday. If there is a big improvement in her performance at school then we know that she is in total control of the situation. So I talked to Rob and he said why not. And to make sure that I wasn't doing anything that would hurt her in the long run I also sought out the advice of Cam's therapist during his last appointment. So this morning while she was brushing her teeth and hair I whipped up my miracle cure. A couple drops of almond extract, a splash of Cran-Cherry juice and a 1/4 cup of water. I mixed it all up and put it in an empty vanilla extract bottle (minus the label). Then I headed into her bathroom to tell MacKenzie what I had "found". After taking a 1/4 teaspoon I explained to her that it was our secret and that she shouldn't tell anyone till we knew if it worked. I don't want her teacher to know that way she can unbiasedly tell me if there has been any improvements. So now we wait........ I will call her teacher on the last day of school before winter break to see how she is doing. So we shall see if my little experiment works or not. I will keep you posted.

Only in the Swanson house

I think that maybe I need to start a regular post called "Only in the Swanson house" because it seems that I am saying that at least weekly. We had one of those moments last week on Thanksgiving day that I will share later. But today we had a "&^%$# Only in the Swanson house" moment. I was sitting on the couch finishing my lunch and catching up on my DVR (what an evil little machine) when I heard a pop and a whoosh. Now that isn't a totally out of the ordinary noise. We have gas heat and you can hear when the heater kicks on with a very similar noise. But this time it was loud and this time the sound didn't stop. So I ran downstairs thinking the heater was acting up. As soon as I turned the corner I saw water flowing everywhere. Our water heater had exploded!!!! What a great thing to have happen. Lucky for us we rent this house. So my first call was to the landlord and he was on his way. Then my attention had to turn to the massive amounts of water. Today was laundry day so all of our laundry was sitting right in the line of fire. Luckily most of it was contained in out laundry room hampers. So after throwing all of that in to Rob's tub I started grabbing the clean towels laying in the trampoline waiting to be folded. When I realized that I was losing the battle I ran (yes me run I am sure it was a sight) across the street to see if my neighbor had a shop vac. We have one but it is only a one gallon model and I knew that it would be more work then help. So Ben and I did what we could till Don and Arlene arrived. The water has now stopped and most of it is gone. The water heater is laying in the backyard and Don is shopping for a new hot water heater and dehumidifier. Rob currently has no idea that anything is going on because he is away on business for the day. He will be back after 10pm and hopefully there will be no sign of the drama that happen here in the Swanson house. There is no telling what will happen next so stay tuned for the next installment of "Only in the Swanson house"

Happy Anniversary

Last Monday (the 24th) Rob and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We were extremely lucky that Rob's dad was in town. For the first time in 2 1/2 years we went on a date just the two of us. It was great not once did we have to say "don't touch that, sit still, please chew with your mouth shut", or have to cut up someone else's food. It is hard when you live so far away and you have nobody to watch your kids. But we lucked out with the timing of Rob's dads visit. We took full advantage of it and went out and enjoyed The Tokyo Japanese Steak House. It was a first for us but not the last. The food was great and so was the show. We can't wait to go back, and maybe next time we will even take the kids.