Proud Momma!

Seriously, it's an amazing feeling to watch your children manage their lives and families. Sometimes, yes, you are thinking...........what the heck are they thinking ? ? and at other times you are trying to somehow take credit for their brillance.........thinking that a great decision or an outcome is most certainly due to your good parenting. I love observing what dedicated mothering and fathering is taking place with my sons and daughters-in-law. Well, yes, they have all had good training, but they all go way beyond the measure. As a parent you feel such appreciation and respect to see their skills in action.

So yes I'm a proud momma.............

Two shout outs for two recent accomplishments:



Matt just made partner in his law firm. First partner in about 14 years, I think. It was announced this week and yes we thrilled for Matt. Congratulations

Andrew just finished his MBA in December. Excellent work Andrew. We celebrated at Arties.


A proud momma indeed. I'm very confident I had something to do with something here. Don't you think? Two excellent accomplishments at the same time. My Kings of Virginia.

My Day

Last Friday was just the craziest. Check this out. Rich and I commuted to Fairfax (we leave at 5:30 a.m.) and I dropped him at his office. I had an eye appointment at 8:00. Traumatic, but no treatment. I didn't have to have the eye shot so that was good news and I was at work by 10:00. I raced back to get Rich so he could drop me off at school. So I work work work all day and one of my cute teachers, Anne dropped me in Centreville for my hair appointment -- about 3:30. My hair was seriously lousy as my hair stylist had been in Utah for about a month. After I was sufficiently cute Rich picked me up in Centreville and we drove back to Fairfax to meet Andrew, Melanie, and Audrey for dinner at my favorite restaurant. We had a fabulous dinner and a fun visit with A, M, & A. We then left the restaurant to go to the Sea Chanters concert in Fairfax. We got to see my cousin, Bob, his wife Veronica (from Seattle). Antje, their daughter performs with the group. It was superb. Anyway, what a day. We were home by 10:30 and yes...............tired. That's called logging a lot of miles in one day. Yep, we're old. Can you keep up with these senior citizens. Ha Ha.

Happy New Year!

Okay, I started this on Jan 2. Phew! We made it into the new year. The last week has been so much fun! It started on Christmas Eve with dinner at Matt and Gabe's. The stockings were hung and all the gifts wrapped. Gabe put together a fabulous dinner............cheesy potato soup and pumpkin pie for dessert. It doesn't get any better for this Idaho girl. We all opened a gift as we usually do on Christmas Eve and enjoyed being together. Charlotte was in the spotlight. The next morning...........that little Charlotte was amazing. After looking at the tantalizing packages for days she was finally able to open some.......Wow! She was so precious and what a delight to be a part of that magical wonder in her little eyes. We all had fun with our new treasures. It was a necklace Christmas for me. I know -- I'm lucky. Two Brightons and a beautiful butterfly necklace with an outfit to go with it. I also got a fancy white scarf from CA and a fab George Forman grill that I have used many times and love. I'm spoiled. Rich received his new flip camera and a requested sweater.......books and an itunes card........hmmmmm. Music for the rock star. He loves it.

I had to show you the addition to the gold and white tree. I like to add something each year and Margo and I found these leaves in a little shop in Culpeper. She bought some then I bought some. Then she gave me hers. Thanks Margo.



I did get a really fun present for myself...............that is allowed, I believe. I have given the reading "White Kid Gloves", by Margaret Cousins, many times at Christmas time and was looking for a better copy than the old copy I had. I didn't want to retype the darn thing. Anyway, I found the collection of Margaret Cousins book, Christmas Keepers, on Amazon. After looking in the library and online for many hours, I bought the book. It was published in the 1950's. I am a happy girl to have this fun collection of stories to add to my library. $6.00.

On Friday, Lauren arrived just in time to go the the White House with Matt and Gabe. We got to keep Charlotte for most of the day Saturday. The next few days were fun filled trying to keep up. Lauren and I shopped our legs off in downtown Culpeper. I found a beautiful Mary and Baby Jesus -- okay,
it's a Russian Icon of the Madonna, but it is beautiful with a gold shell gown. It is very special. Matt did ask me if he would now have to genuflect every time he came in the house. No, it is a beautiful work of art.

New Year's Eve -- we were all in bed by 11:00. Lauren said she was the last one up at her house also. New Year's Day -


we had our Christmas traditional breakfast for Lauren. Hmmmmmmmmmm more Sugar Lump Bread and Gabe made the breakfast casserole. We polished off the ham and bean soup that night. Then...........

Lauren finishing a puzzle lickety split.


Two Crowley Sisters Snuggling at Grammy's House


Just wanted to show you Lauren's long legs. Yes, she is taller than her Grammy now.


On Friday Gabe made her absolutely fabuloso everything from scratch lasagne. We were in Heaven. Later the Utes killed Alabama and I thought Matt was going to pass out with excitement. It was an awesome game. Go Utes! I vote #1. But come on let's not sue the BCS. What a fun week. Lauren left Sat morning for Utah. We are sad and lonesome without her, but what a treat to have her.

I hope to add pics to go along with the events. Who knows..........I am way behind.

Christmas Traditions

I was thinking back about Christmas traditions in our family and had to smile as I remembered some very fun times with our boys. They were the best little helpers as we made our Christmas goodies. We started when the boys were very young making popcorn balls to deliver to all of our neighbors and friends. Every year we made lots and lots of popcorn balls of red, green and white. I remember Matt skating across the street during an ice storm once to deliver our treat to the neighbors one Christmas Eve. We loved those popcorn balls and would eat them until our mouths were sometimes sore. After we left Fairfax we have had several friends request we stop by with the popcorn balls. It's Annie Crowley's recipe...........everyone loves it.



Annie's Popcorn Balls

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup white karo
1/2 stick butter
Stir to first bubble. Cover and let boil for exactly 2 minutes. Pour over two batches of popped corn and shape into balls.

How easy is that!

Our long time tradition for Christmas morning breakfast is our "Sugar Lump Bread", link sausages and Grandma Rigby's Orange Julius. We've had the same breakfast for at least 30 years on Christmas morning. If you can't tell, I'm a recipe nut and have a super collection from lots of family members.

Freshly Baked Sugar Lump Cinnamon Bread



A Crowley Family Favorite - I found this fun recipe in 1970 right after moving to the DC area.

We also always have a ham dinner on Christmas Day. This tradition goes back to our Neider Family in Idaho. My dad always made Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings and the ham had to be prepped just so with glaze and cloves, etc. He would sometimes let us put the cloves in the ham, but most of the time he insisted on doing it all himself. It was a very fun tradition.

Another fun thing in Tyhee was our Christmas deliverys. Since Dad and Mom had the IGA store in Tyhee, they would gather their kids each year and designate several families to receive a bushel basket of food. Dad would put the ham in the basket and then send us kids all over the store to select other items we felt were appropriate. I can still remember squealing with glee as we raced back to the basket. With a full basket the family would then deliver the goods. My parents were especially generous and it was a very memorable experience.

With my own children I love thinking of the sweet times. One FHE in November, we had the manger with a baby Jesus. Every time a good deed was performed we put new straw in the manger with the hope that by Christmas the manger would be nice and soft for the baby. After about three days, Andrew could no longer take it and filled it full so the baby would be comfortable. That Andrew likes to take care of everyone still.

One of the sweetest Christmas FHE's was when Andrew was our own little baby in the manger. He was just a perfect baby Jesus. Our Christmas FHE's were always memorable. We started the year Matt was a baby having a special FHE at Christmas and invited friends or family to come. Everyone had to be on the program in some way. They were so memorable. Last year we did the Christmas Story with little Charlotte in the manger and Lauren, Tanner and Carsen were shepherds. They were adorable.

So this year will be new for us. We are going to Matt and Gabe's for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Of course we will take our traditions with us and also enjoy Matt and Gabe's. It will be such a delight to be with them and watch our darling Charlotte enjoy the awe of Christmas.

It's been a quiet Season for us and we have happily navigated it very differently. We are so thankful for all of our Christmas' and the sweet spirit that surrounds and fills our home. The hustle bustle isn't here and it feels serenely peaceful. We'll still have the sugar lump bread, the divinity and maybe some caramels, but it's very quiet. I'm not even going to look at the part of our beautiful tree where the string of lights went out today. It just won't bother me this year. I'm just going to think about our fun traditions.

Is it REALLY December?

Wow! How do you say............STOP! I need more time. Thanksgiving flew by so quickly, it seems like a blur. And. it seems like I was just anticipating the Freslings arrival on the 22nd. Well, arrive they did and what a wonderful week the Crowley gang had. It was very over the top with smooching the chubby cheeks of Emery and Audrey -- snuggling with Tanner and Carsen -- and watching Charlotte discover her cousins.

Cute picture stolen from Shelly's blog - missing Charlotte

Tanner, Audrey, Emery & Carsen

So here's what we did:

1. We hosted an amazing dinner on Sunday, November 23rd. Rich's best friend and best man from Boise was here with his wife (Jack and Ruth Haight). They now live in Colorado and were here visiting Stacy who just moved here with her darling family. Joining us were Matt, Gabers and Charlotte, Jeremy, Shelly, Tanner, Carsen, and Emery, and Andrew, Melanie, and Audrey. Okay...........that was 17 for dinner. What fun.

2. After the Haights left, we had a little birthday party for Tanner and Carsen. Those handsome young grandsons are 5 and 7 now. We took advantage of the whole gang being together to celebrate.

Another picture stolen from Shelly's Blog

Carsen and Tanner


3. Monday & Tues - fun with all the Peperhead's and Freshlings. The big event of the day was taking Shelly shopping and to lunch for her birthday. (Sept) We ended up at the Vera Bradley & Brighton boutique for quite awhile.

Shelly's Bag


We reserved some items for Black Friday. Then we had lunch at Frost's Cafe. This is a little Main Street Cafe that has been in Culpeper forever. Margo and I ate there last week. A very 50's place. In other words, they haven't changed the decor since then.

4. Now it's Wednesday and Andrew and Melanie arrived to stay for the rest of the week. We ended up having a little mini Christmas celebration as Andrew and Jeremy's families will be away celebrating in Calif & Utah. What a night. Just to summarize: Everyone got new socks. It was great.

Melanie came with her pecan pie ready and Shelly made two pumpkin pies. Andrea and Gabers made their pies -- coconut cream, apple struesel & lemon meringue later for the big feast. Somewhere in all of this day, Gabers made her gooey pumpkin bars. Oh my gosh. They are wonderful.

THANKSGIVING DINNER -



Matt, Charlotte, Gabe, Drew, Jordan, Ken, Tricia, Doug, Jeremy, Andrea, Melanie, Andrew, Shelly & Tanner, Rich leaning in........missing Carsen, Emery and Audrey.

5. Thanksgiving Day - we headed for Uncle Ken's lakehouse. It's about 30 minutes from Culpeper. I took the stuffing and veggie platter. Gabers surprised us with raspberry jello with bananas and other stuff. Crowleys were in heaven. Annie Crowley used to make red jello with bananas for her family. Gabers took it one step further.

The Maryland Crowleys were all at the lake except Shannon, who was still in Italy. Ken, Tricia, Kara and new husband Drew, Jordan and Uncle Doug were all there. It was fantastic. Check out the cute centerpiece Tricia made - a pumpkin with pansies and the darling apple candles. She hollowed out the top of the apples, rimmed the opening with cloves and put a small votive candle in the apple. The tablescape was beautiful. It was very clever. The Crowley Men worked diligently on their afternoon activity after dinner to get an abandoned wasps nest out the the tall tree, but alas and alack were unable to get the darn thing down. They had fun trying.

How do you say full.............Thanksgiving. We were full of food and blessings. We loved being together and sharing all of that good food and enjoying each other's company. The only Crowley missing was our sweet little Lauren.

A Pie Feast!


6. On Friday when I awoke, Andrew and Audrey were standing by the bed asking when we were going to get up. That's payback for all those years of getting Andrew up for seminary. He said, "Melanie has been gone for two hours. She left at 6:00 to go to the made rush at Kohls." She did very well too. So, Shelly and I got in gear and were getting ready to leave when Mel came back and we all went to Pepperberries Boutique for our prizes. Funny thing is none of us have really liked Vera Bradley stuff before, but now she has some fun winter patterns and yes, we now all have darling bags.

Melanie's Bag



Okay we finished shopping in time to get Jeremy and Shelly back to the airport. They flew back to Fresno Friday night. Andrew, Mel and Audrey stayed for one more day and Matt, Gabe and Charlotte were also there to keep us from being too sad. Then, the next day, after breakfeast, my two amazing daughter's in-law went like buzz saws through the house stripping beds, cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming. Love those girls. I am so lucky. And those boys, Matt and Andrew put up my 12 foot tree in the family room complete with all lights working. That was a big job. Three strings were out when I took it down last year. They found the naughty little burned out bulbs and wow! The tree is beautiful. (My son's are the best.)

One more stolen picture from Shelly's Blog

Tanner and Grandpa in a tense game with Charlotte



So now it's December. This weekend I hope to get some decorations up and finish the tree.

Smiling Shark by Bruce Yates

Bruce and Margo at the Smithsonian with the picture of the smiling shark. The picture will be on display for one year. Bruce captured this picture in the Bahamas.



see his stuff at http://www.underwaterreflections.com/

Cleaning Lady Woes

This is such a dilemna, I don't even know where to begin. I have a cleaning lady, a very nice, cute, about 30 something that cleans for me every other week. I have been very pleased until this month...............then I am such a marshmellow, I can't figure out how to tell about how I am displeased about some items. Then Rich and I stayed home last week on the day she was supposed to clean. (another deer problem with Rich's car -- it was complicated)

We decided to leave before she arrived. So we went to vote and then went to breakfast. Both close to our house. We went on a little road trip later to Charlottesville to give her some more time. When we got back she was still there which was odd. I went in the house and there she was -- with her three children. One was a baby -- nine months or something and the others looked to be 3 and 5. She also had a flat tire which Rich started working on immediately without even going in the house.

Anyway, we left again to let her finish and I wasn't too concerned, but not really feeling all that great about it either. Her babysitter had canceled. (I think it is her mom.)

Later we returned and she was finished and was gone. Then I kept finding very obvious items that had not been cleaned. And..............children evidence. Rich even found a book that had been scribbled in with a red marker that he just started so no other children could have been guilty.

I want to let her go, but I know she needs the money. I'm thinking of telling her that Gabe ask me if she can clean for us. I know that is a big lie -- but I am a coward when it comes to this little mother. Any suggestions?