Oh What Fun

By Karen Balice-Gregory





I am one of those “buy all year but finish up at the last minute” people. I love a good bargain so it's nice to shop after the holidays and then look for things during the year that are unique. Things get bagged up and piled in my laundry room and before I know it the holidays are upon us and I don't really know what I have. The last week before Christmas I begin to sort and try to figure out what gift is for whom, how much it cost (roughly), and whether or not I have spent about the same amount of money on everyone. I used to laugh at my mother because she would worry that she may have spent more on one person or the other and then begin to even things up...as if we could figure out the price or even care. The last several years of my father's life he would present us with a special gift of jewelry that he picked out for us girls and that was always (and still is) very special to us. Mom's gifts were usually more practical because she tried to take notice of the necessities lacking in our lives. In my case there was much more need than want so she had difficulty prioritizing the choices.

Of the three grandsons, Miles will be the only one that understands the gift routine and boy is he excited. His list is pretty short and scattered: swords (I unwittingly began playing swords with our flyswatters here and we had to quit after breaking a couple of them), a “spyscope” like the one that Diego uses on t.v. (naturally, no one sells little toy telescopes anymore or at least I haven't been able to find one yet), a tuba (no one knows why he wants one or even where he saw one except maybe on the football field during halftime and needless to say I haven't spotted one of those in miniature either), a screw driver (Lord knows he hasn't seen any of us use that tool very often but he thinks he needs one), and of course he wants anything that has to do with any sport involving a ball. Even though he has dozens of balls in every size, shape and color he wants more. We use wrapping paper cardboard tubes for swords right now and paper towel and toilet paper tubes for spyscopes but he still wants the real thing. I'm looking for a referee shirt also because he is very enamored with the refs at the ball games. Against my better judgment I have already given him a whistle for all of his “pretend” games with all of his “pretend” friends.

Jude (8 mos) and Kavaun (3 mos) are unaware of the Holiday. Of course that has not stopped me from trying to find them things that they just can't live without. I spend a lot of time with these kids and despite the fact that they have far more than they can ever use, there is always something else that they must have. Intellectually I know that they actually have more fun with common items that they find laying around the house, but emotionally I still want to find things that will make them laugh, jump, cuddle, and frankly, keep them occupied for long periods of time. It should be many years before they stop loving me unconditionally or are able to rack up prices in their little heads so I plan to take advantage of that for now.

As for all the other holiday stresses...cards, family and friends gifts, dishes to pass, wrapping, shopping,
and just getting everywhere in one piece and having money and time left over? I never do well with any of it because I procrastinate. If there is one thing that I plan to fix about myself (among so many) in the new year it will be that, but I'll save the ruminating until next week. Enjoy the Holidays.

Meet Abner Marion

Here's the newest addition to the Balice zoo, Abner Marion. Jeff named him after Gladys Kravitz's husband on the TV show Bewitched.

From Jeff:

I adopted 8-month-old Abner Dec. 17 at the Ionia Animal Shelter. He had just been surrendered the day before with his mom. He was so gentle and laid back, not to mention very cute, so I just had to have him. He's part Siamese, which is obvious from his markings and bright blue eyes. He's recovering in my basement from his surgery. In a few days, he'll get to come upstairs to spend time with Millie and me.

I hope all of you are doing well. If any of you are in the neighborhood feel free to stop by to see him and Millie.

Joe remains dedicated to Foot Locker despite bleeding head wound

On Saturday, a few of us were sent the above picture on our phones, with no explanation or credit given. Simply the phrase "yikes."

I finally got Joe on the phone today to explain what the hell happened.

Joe was crazy busy after rushing his panicking roommate ("you know how girls do") to the airport and arriving late at work (Don't worry. He had called ahead).

He picked up a random hanger sitting on a bench and, en route to put it in the box where it belongs, a co-worker shouted for Joe to get a couple of pair of shoes out of the back.

Behind the register, he tossed the hanger and quickly turned around to head to the back room when -- WHAM -- he clocks the front of his head (left side) on a large metal shelf holding basketballs behind the registers. Being tough as nails, he winces, then continues to the back for the shoes.

When a co-worker sees him and says Joe needs to go to the hospital, Joe responds with something like, "It is merely a flesh wound" (OK, not exactly. That was Monty Python. But you get the idea.) and continues in search of the shoes, blood running down his head.

Finally, he set his dedication aside and allowed his co-worker to take him to the emergency room, where he got several staples in his head after waiting only 3 or 4 hours. Fortunately, the co-worker is from Pasadena, so Joe didn't have to go to "county" in L.A.

He is safe and sound and will find someone in Ionia to remove the staples during his stay. We're happy Joe's alive and well and will be joining us for Christmas festivities on Sunday!

Buster Balice-DePover, R.I.P.

Buster began life as a mutt called Freddy and lived at the pound with his
sisters Molly and Dolly. Paul picked him out and brought him home to our
Kelsey Hwy house and declared him to be thence called Buster.

Buster had one true love, a homely bitch called Natasha that lived in a
trailer on Riverside Drive. Buster would sneak through the woods behind
our house and sniff his way to her place whenever he had a chance.

She often came up the hill to his house trying to entice him out of his collar.
One time they "hooked up" and, in fact, she pulled the poor guy, still
"connected" right out of his collar. They had 4 pups together.

One time Paul drove down to Natasha's trailer looking for Buster and, according to
Paul, they were lying in the shade under the trailer and Buster was smoking
a cigarette!

Buster loved spaghetti and ice cream and enjoyed fishing with Paul. He had
the softest coat of any dog in the universe and was possibly the most
loving, nicest dog that ever lived.

He is truly missed.

More photos! Days 3 and 4

Day 3

Thursday was mostly a rainy day, but we had fun, heading into downtown for lunch and to duck into a few shops.

There were parrots -- Lucas does a killer impression.



He loved watching the iguanas outside of Margaritaville having lunch.




Lucas, who is hard pressed to try any new food, spent our lunch sampling salt, sugar and pepper (which is apparently "yucky").



Before we left for our outing into town, Anthony sat up on the table by himself.


And practices for Uncle Joe's visit in a couple of weeks.

Anthony gives his 2 cents on the Caymans.

Cayman Islands Day 1 and Day 2

Get used to it! You will be getting several updates from the Cayman's this week. Aunt Kirsten's taking lots of pictures and will have plenty of time to upload photos while the little ones are sleeping. :)

Day 1

Anthony loved his first airplane trip.

Mostly. When he didn't, mom about had it.

Soon enough, everyone was in the pool and lovin' life.
Anthony figured out how to kick and wasn't too freaked out
by the water -- at least not on day one when it was just his feet.

Day 2

Anthony was not a fan of full pool submersion.
He stayed on the sidelines watching his brother look
for sharks and get splashed by dad's cannonballs.

Although it may not look like it, he's
cracking up in this picture. Loved the sand.

Despite some extreme reluctance, mama got Lucas in the ocean.
Papa joined them and you had to drag the kid out of there.

Again, Anthony a bit overwhelmed by all of the new sights and sounds.

And, last but not least, Lucas' magnetic attraction to my heels
seems to exist, even in another country. He can practically run in them now.

Aunt Kirsten's moment of the day:
Sarah and Lucas are sitting on a chair making a shopping list on the porch. I come outside and sit at a nearby table.

Kirsten: Did you tell mama to put broccoli on the list?

Lucas: (sigh) No.

Kirsten: Did you tell her to put celery on the list?

Lucas: No.

Kirsten: How about cabbage?

Lucas: You're teasing me. Go inside.

Holiday Movies

by Karen Balice-Gregory

What do the holidays mean to me? Sounds like a simple assignment that a teacher might give to a grade school class but maybe we all would be better off if we sat down and articulated it in our own words. After all, if we don't understand why we participate in something we may lose the essence of it all. Everyone has their own perception and specific memories of holidays past. The more years that we tack on to our experiences the more jumbled everything seems to become. The peaks and valleys of our history stand out most vividly so those are generally the times that tend to shape our personal view of what we expect of ourselves and what our expectations are of others. We are limited to whatever we can dig out from the brain cells that we have left. As multiple generations gather round, everyone gets a taste of what it all means...what it should mean...what it can mean...what it used to mean.

Each year as our family evolves, grows and expands to include new personalities we find ourselves still operating from the “old warehouse” of our beginnings. We had the luxury of “old world” grandparents living next door who always went all out to make sure we had fun. I can't for the life of me remember any gifts that they gave us but I do have a very specific vignette of old films reeling in my head at a moment's notice. Sometimes it's tough to distinguish the actual events from the pictures and old movies we've seen over the years...everything becomes blended over time...but I believe that the groundwork was laid with very little thought about whether it was enough in terms of our gratification.
From what I can remember, my grandparents and parents gave us what they could afford and we never expected more or felt deprived. In retrospect, I think we all appreciate their efforts to make sure that we had what we needed even if it meant sharing from time to time. We wore homemade and “hand me downs”, squeezed into small spaces to sleep, eat and study, and had obligations and responsibilities.
We slipped through our childhood not even knowing that our options were limited...what a gift!

If nothing else, this economic downturn has given us all a taste (and a very slight one to be sure) of what it takes to live within our means. We have become such a society of excess raising our children to expect or feel entitled to things that we can not only afford but end up paying for at the expense of real necessities. We are all guilty to a degree because it has been too easy to replace the gift of time with articles of distraction. The more we spend entertaining ourselves trying to escape the rigors of life in general, the fewer the vivid memories of real relaxation with family and friends. Laughter, forgiveness, realistic expectations, love, compassion, support and encouragement don't cost a thing but without them it doesn't really matter what's under the tree. My kids will tell you that they don't remember most of the gifts I have bought them over the years...in fact some of them are stored in their basements and garages (they think I haven't noticed.) They do remember the fact that some years I didn't even wrap them or have a Christmas tree to put them under. At the time I didn't think it mattered and I was so stressed out buying, budgeting, and stressing over the gifts themselves I lost the true meaning of it all.

What goes around comes around and I'm back to square one. My options are limited, I have far more time than money, and even in light of all the new technology and high speed everything I would rather give my children and grandchildren gifts that they can store in their heads and hearts. My ancestors sure knew what they were doing and all of it was produced in small little houses on neighborhood streets outside the confines of Hollywood!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Tony!

We miss you.

Illinois Christmas

Here are a couple of shots from my Thanksgiving weekend. We were in Champaign, Ill., from Wednesday to Saturday, then spent Saturday night Scrabbing with our friends Charlie and Leah in Chicago.

This is Grandma Betty Fern. Don't be fooled. She's a cutthroat Scrabble player.

This is Grandpa Leroy. He's the strong, silent type.

We got the whole family playing some pretty heated games of Catchphrase.
This was (literally) the only time Dan's mom, Phyllis didn't have to stand to stand up to give her clues.

Uncle Steve (next to Grandma) hasn't been to family Thanksgiving in years.
Even he got in on the Catchphrase action. Grandma was thrilled.

Uncle Scott, his girlfriend Amy (finally! I'm not the newbie!) and Dan's brother Chris.

Dan's brother, Matt turns Cole into Super Cole.

Matt's wife, Mary, struggles to support herself under the weight of their youngest, Titus.

Dan runs "Claire and the Baby Tractor" by Cole and Sepporah (Chris' daughter), which he wrote based on a bedtime story he made up for Claire. My friend Tara's husband, Jesse, is set to illustrate it.

Cole and Sepporah doing "karate" with Uncle Daniel. Grandma Phyllis gives
Titus pointers for when he can walk without looking like a drunk old man.

Since our plan for a manicotti repeat performance in Champaign was foiled by Aunt Trish's spontaneous pizza purchase (she wasn't around for manicotti last year), we took our already-purchased ingredients to Chicago. After dinner, we hunkered down for a game of Scrabble.

Charlie

Leah

Scrabble? Check. Knitting? Check. Delicious cocktail? Check.
Life is good.

Ionia Thanksgiving

Here are some photos from Thanksgiving a la casa de Jefe! It looks like it was a fun time!