Anthony Talks on the Telephone
Now don't forget that we're just doting grandparents and yes, we know that Anthony doesn't really talk yet, but while he was in Hawaii, he got on the phone with us in Boston and he "talked" ( baby talk of course, but boy, did he just chat away!). For months, Anthony has loved telephones and phone conversations, but up until now, he just listens and plays with the buttons.Give him a call and he'll talk to you too. It's fun!
Window Shopping @ X'mas Time
Walking down 5th Avenue or up Madison just before Christmas can be a treat.... just looking at the shop windows decorated for the Holidays. This year, Rachel, Paul, Kevin and Ron took the morning off before Christmas and did just this.Best or most entertaining windows this year goes to "Barney's" at the corner of 61st and Madison.... They had six windows decorated with the theme of "window talk" which were humorous and creative. Second place goes to Saks Fifth Avenue which always has a nice set of eight windows decorated with a Christmas story and music.
Ron hosted us all to lunch at a Hamburger Diner just behind St. Patricks Cathedral, then we walked another hour before we hailed a taxi to return home to the Columbia campus.
Post X'mas Shopping
Paul, Rachel, Ron and little Anthony went shopping the day after Christmas at King Of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania and purchased their normal "deals", half priced Hallmark tree ornaments, i/2 priced X'mas cards and gift wrap. Rachel was the happiest with her cards from Pipyrus stationary.Meanwhile, Anthony was thrown out of the Hallmark store for touching all the merchandise, pooped in his diaper and required a change at the mall, drank all of milk and demanded more ( we substitued water in his bottle and he was happy) and fell asleep in the Taurus Wagon car seat on the way home. He was gently carried up to his bedroom where he continued his morning nap. Wheeeu!
Kevin Makes Dean's List
It's costing Kevin Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars to earn an MBA at Columbia ( tuition, room and board, plus lost earnings for two years), but he seems to be making good use of his academic time. For the first semester, his grades were good enough to get him on the Dean's List ( at least 3 "A"'s in his 5 courses or better). He never got grades this good at Brown nor at Exeter.... hymmmm , what's going on here?Business School is a different pace than his other schools. Kevin has been at Columbia only a few months now and already he's serously applying for his summer intern jobs and thinking about permanent placement upon graduation..
But don't worry about Kev working too, too hard. He still has time to do his tutoring on weekends in Harlem, his annual Brown gang get together at New Years, a quick trip to L.A. over Thanksgiving, a Ski trip to Vermont for the weekend and he's thinking of trying out for the graduate students a capella group at Columbia in the Fall.
The most fun he gets still however, is a trip to Gladwyne to visit with "Little Boy" and one of those big smiles.:)
Neiman-Marcus Cookies
On the Baus' Thanksgiving Trip to LA and Honolulu, they gave out several tins of Neiman-Marcus cookies... baked in Rachel's kitchen. They were a hit with all the receipients and a hit with Rachel and Paul too. So as a X'mas gift to several of Rachel's workmates at the Weston Public School system, it was decided to bake more cookies!At 8:30 pm the baking prep and mixing process began. By 12:30 am, about 100 cookies were completed. Paul made one mistake that caused about 1/3 if the little gems to be lost. The cookies were to be baked for 10 minutes at 375 degrees, but the baking shelf close to the lower heating element was too low. The cookies baked on the lower shelf of the oven were burning on the bottom, while the ones on the upper shelf were coming out just right. Before this error was discovered, a third of the cookies were not suitable as gifts. Oh well, guess we'll just have to eat them ourselves.
Has anyone else done the same thing while baking?
