Boy Toys

When my boys have moved away from home can I still buy Legos and K'Nex???? I hope so, or will I have to wait for the grandkids? We were a Legos family for a long time. We have bins and bins of them. The boys would build the model, then reuse the pieces for a variety of other structures and vehicles. I liked Legos. Then Legos started their downhill slide. I don't know what market they were trying to appeal to, but it wasn't ours. I think it started with Bioncles, which weren't really models anymore, but some kind of action figure. In any event, over the years our interest in Lego kits waned. But, then K'Nex entered the home. They aren't quite as versatile as Legos, in my opinion, but their kits are more fun. We just finished building the motorized madness ball machine....it's cool. A chain lifts balls up a tower and then they fall 3 different ways back to the bottom. When I get to a computer that I can hook up to the camera I'll post a picture.

What do I like about these kits? I think I like following the directions! I like the fact that you can follow the steps and make something. I don't have the fine motor skills to build tiny model cars, or do fine needlework. But I do like having a finished product from my efforts. I like the whole building process. I'm not that interested in making something new or different from them, I just like going through a process step by step and ending up with the "right" thing. It's like following a recipe, which I also like to do...so K'Nex are just like baking, except you can't eat them when you are done.

The Christmas Letter

I enjoy getting Christmas letters from friends. Many of the people who write are folks we haven't seen face to face (f2f for the net savvy!) for many years. Still, I enjoy hearing about their children, and increasingly, their grandchildren. I am, however, pretty bad about mailing my own Christmas cards. Each year I think it will be different, but it never is. We write a letter, and even send it out to some folks. But not enough. On days like today I think of all of the folks to whom I wish I would have mailed cards. I should make a list...Kerry, Anne, Mark, Stacy, Val, Sam, Jim, Gretchen and Gretchen...maybe I'll remember next year. In any event, for those who read this, here is our Christmas letter for 2008...

2008 was another busy year for the Himes.

Doug is in the midst of his senior year and taking full advantage of the privileges associated with that status. His college applications are in, we think. He is likely staying in the Central New York area and planning to study engineering. He still plays the mallets in band, chess in local, state, and national tournaments, and whatever the sport of the season happens to be. His soccer team made it to the state semifinals, losing that game on penalty kicks after 2 overtime periods. Back in the winter, the basketball team also advanced into regional play. In golf, Doug played in the sectional tournament on a rainy cold spring day. He has added barbershop chorus to the schedule as well, and is a great bass singer.

Evan is finishing middle school with a flourish. He just finished playing Augustus Gloop in the school musical, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He scored his first goal in soccer this fall and is working towards his TaeKwonDo black belt. Evan inherited his mother’s love of books and is an avid reader. He has joined the math club and loves to do anything associated with computers and robots. Evan also plays the mallets in band and chess in local, state, and national tournaments. The boys claim to have the “mallet dynasty” at school and Fabius-Pompey will have 8 straight years of Himes men on the mallets in the high school band.

This summer we hosted Tom, a coach with the British soccer camp that both boys attended. It was fun to have another young man in the house and the kids picked up several new English phrases. Maybe some of his soccer skills rubbed off, too. Earlier in the summer we spent a week vacationing nearby at DeRuyter Lake. It is great to be “away” but not too far away. Chris and Craig enjoyed a trip down memory lane at the reunion of the Chesterton High School speech and debate program. The whole family just returned from the National Scholastic Chess tournament in Orlando (Chris and Craig relaxed while the boys toiled over the chess boards, but let them miss an extra day of school to visit Epcot.)

Chris has completed her term as department chair at SU and is now enjoying a year of sabbatical leave. She is doing some research, grant writing, and organizing the family photo collection (or so she claims).

Craig continues to manage his recruitment and placement business from his home office. He coaches the school chess team and does some substitute teaching. This year he made a foray into the political world, serving as campaign treasurer for a friend running for town board. She won, and, so far, has not been audited, so all is well.

We hope this holiday season finds you all in good health and spirits!

The Office Party

Since I have been married I have spent very few Christmas Days at home. Early on, my husband and I would alternate spending Christmas and Thanksgiving between our families. After our first son was born we kept up the tradition. Thirteen years ago we moved to the Syracuse area and son number 2 was born. Still, we traveled at Christmas. I think the first Christmas the kids spent at home was in 2001, when we had just returned from our Germany sabbatical. Since then I think we have spent 2 other Christmas days at home. I used to feel like the kids were missing the excitement of Christmas morning, but we always celebrated "Christmas Day" before we left, even if it wasn't on the 25th. In some ways when they were younger it seemed to matter less.

But, I do have a little hang-up about traditions. My grandmother made us Christmas stockings when we were infants. She embroidered and appliqued designs on each. Over time these stockings faded and the stitching started to fray. One year my mother decided to spruce them up (a fitting holiday term) with some new decorations. I was dismayed. My stocking had been altered without my permission! It wasn't exactly the same. I think in the end I tore off all of my mother's handiwork. I wanted my original stocking, frayed or not.

I wanted our kids to have some traditions that they would remember and would make up, in some way, for not having the traditional Christmas morning. When we moved here my husband started his own business with a home office. The first Christmastime here we decided to hold an "office party" in that office. We hung special decorations, made special treats, and played Christmas music (Twisted Christmas is a popular favorite). Over the years the tradition has been maintained. The menu stays pretty much the same--including IBC root beer for the kids, shrimp cocktail for the parents. We all look forward to the evening and enjoy some time as a family. I'm glad that we have kept it up. Maybe some day the boys will complain when I try to vary the menu, but hopefully the tradition will carry on.

Cooking with kids

I like to bake. I'm not so big on cooking, as in meat and vegetables, but I like making cookies, pastries, etc. Always have. My mom used to let us make all kinds of things--angel food cake, cream puffs, cookies and cakes. Most of the time they turned out well, but I do remember a recipe where I left out a key ingredient in a boston creme pie (I think it was baking powder...) and the end result was pretty dreadful. Live and learn.

My son likes to bake, too. He usually doesn't like to eat the stuff he makes, no matter what it tastes like. So, I don't let him do it that often, because I can't eat a whole carrot cake by myself (well, I could, just don't want to.) He is pretty adept in the kitchen, but there are times when I am about to lose patience...well, maybe I DO lose my patience. We have one of those battery operated cookie presses that we usually use to make spritz cookies at Christmastime. Being Christmas time, we decided to whip up a batch. We got out the appliance, the recipe book, etc. Son decided that instead of spritz, maybe we should make cream puffs instead. Cool. He put the machine together while I mixed up the dough (very easy recipe.) We loaded the shooter but it wouldn't work, took it apart, re-read the assembly directions, put it back together. Still not right. Finally it dawns on me that the shaft is moving the wrong way--he put the batteries in backwards! Okay, fix that problem. Load up the dough, shoot it on to the cookie sheet and bake. This is the only reason to bake a recipe with this appliance, getting to shoot the dough onto the sheet. He has now discovered a whole host of other treats we can make and shoot...

But, they turned out GREAT!! We decided to make them into profiteroles, because I didn't feel like making a custard filling. Filled them with vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate sauce, EXCELLENT! Ours looked just like this, really, they did!

Travel

I love traveling, in theory. I like visiting new places, returning to old places, the planning, the anticipation. What I don't like are the hassles. Our trip to Florida was fun and relaxing. We were trying to minmize the time out of school, but maybe we cut it too close. We departed Syracuse on Thursday afternoon, a 5:30 pm flight, so the boys could get in a full day of school. Got to the airport, flew to Atlanta, all is well. Our flight out of Atlanta, however, was delayed for some reason...don't even remember what it was now. Fortunately, our plane had those little individual TVs and everyone could occupy themselves that way. We got into Orlando late and then had this incredibly long wait to get our rental car. I have never had to wait so long to get a car that already been reserved, especially at midnight. I know this was compounded by the fact that we used Priceline and wanted an economy car. They didn't have any keys ready and were not going to upgrade us when we only were paying $15 a day. We drive to our Disney resort and encounter another incredibly long line to check it. Again, everyone had reservations, they knew we were all coming, what was the hold up? One contributing factor was that for each reservation the desk clerk had to walk into a back room to get the printed information. Most hotels now have printers at the desk, not Disney I guess! We collapsed in bed at 2 am.

The way home started with nobody around to check in the rental car, long security lines at Orlando, but at least the flight was on time, and not too crowded, either. Left Orlando on time and flew back to Atlanta. Our 9:50 PM departure now read 11:20...not good. A 2 hour layover became 3+ hours, after a long day at Epcot, we just wanted to get home. We did finally board just after 11 and landed about 1:30 in Syracuse. Home by 2:15 AM. Should the boys go to school or not? Older son was up and out on time, we let younger son sleep in a bit.

The real effects, of course, hit the next day. You can make it through the first day on sheer will power, then it catches up with you....time for a nap!

Chess People

I do not play chess. My sons play chess. I have no patience or interest in learning the game. They seem to enjoy playing, so we are currently in Orlando, Florida at the K-12 National Scholastic Chess tournament.

It will come as no surprise to hear: chess people are weird. No doubt about it. First, people who play chess cannot walk. Everyone is absorbed in some mental gymnastics making it virtually impossible for them to walk in a straight line, be aware of their surroundings, or change course. Add to that the fact that most of the 2000+ people here are kids under the age of 10, and you are running into people (literally) all the time. Second, people who play chess dress oddly. We have kids with Viking hats, Santa hats, backward ball caps and mirrored sunglasses. Yesterday I saw a dad and son dressed in some 1920s gangsta style. The dad has on a plaid suit and fedora, the kid is decked out in knickers, with suspenders, and a beret. It was like they stumbled off of a movie set. Lastly, many of the kids who play chess have limited social skills (fortunately, not true of my kids!) Last night my 12th grader was seated next to a young man and and his female opponent. Remember these kids are 17-18 years old. The lady asks for help spelling his name to record on her scoresheet. The young man spells out a complicated name. She asks, "Oh, are you Russian?" (lots of chess people are Russian.) "No," he replies, "I'm Polish." "Oh, can you speak Polish?" The guy says, "Alas, I do not." My son is rolling his eyes. What contemporary teen uses "Alas" in ordinary conversations??? Only a chess playing teen!

School Delay

We all woke up this morning and did our morning things. The boys have their routines down to a science, they get up at 7:00 and leave the house about 7:20. Now that Doug drives to school they actually leave a little earlier than the bus because they have to backtrack to get the girlfriend. Anyway, I walked out to get the paper and there was a brisk wind blowing that had drifted a little snow across the driveway. The boys departed and I snuck back into bed, intending to read for about 15 minutes. I turned on the radio and just caught the end of the school delay message. I heard our school mentioned, but not the time of the delay. I bustled out to the living room and surfed the channels to catch the scrolling school delay messages. Sure enough, FP had a two hour delay. I called the boys on the cell phone, they had just arrived at girlfriend's house. They turned around and came home. What a treat! Time for a little Guitar Hero before school! We all could have used an extra hour of sleep this morning, but given that we are all up and fed, it is nice to have some "found time." I guess the drifting was bad enough on our rural roads that the buses could not navigate.

I remember in high school our school would sometimes have "late start" days when the teachers would have in-service meetings in the morning. It was a nice break to come into school a little later than usual, changed the whole character of the day. I much prefer "late starts" to "early dismissals."

Ready for the Christman Season

I'm finally beginning to get into the Christmas mood. Two girlfriends met me for lunch today at our favorite French restaurant and then we walked across the street for a Christmas chorale concert. It was a nice performance, a beautiful church, and even had a sing along part! Some of the program notes were interesting. They performed a version of Pacem that I had never heard before (we all remember the old Girl Scout version....dona nobis, pacem, pacem....) Anyway, turns out this arrangment was by a guy named Lee Dengler who grew up as a Mennonite and now teaches at Goshen College in Indiana. The Mennonite influence was evident in the composition and I really enjoyed it. I wonder if I can find a copy online anywhere....Another composition was by a Belgian composer and this was the program note.."Noel Goemanne (pronounced 'Whoo-mahn' in Belgium, and every other way possible in the United States." I thought it was great quote! The final program note of interest was for a verion of the Lord's Prayer composed by one of the chorale members. The note for that song, written by the composer reads in part, " He has no formal education in music theory or composition...Not surprisingly, The Lord's Prayer is deceptively difficult to perform, being somewhat complicated and unpredictable." Reminds me of my kids composing things on the computer that could never be performed in real life!

It was a great way to get into the holiday spirit, topped off by the 4 inches of snow that fell while we were inside!

Middle School Romance

Remember middle school, possibly the worst years of your life? This week my younger son performed in the middle school musical. He did a fantastic job, sang wonderfully, looked great, got plenty of applause (of course, I am his mother!) Cast members arrive about 90 minutes before showtime to get into costumes, arrange props, get makeup (a highlight for the girls and a source of embarrassment for the boys), and generally work each other up into an increasing state of nervous frenzy. When we arrived my son's best friend pulled him aside, "I need your help!" he whispered and they ducked into the men's room. A few minutes later my kid comes out with a determined look on his face, "I have to do something for Sam, " he calls as he runs down the hall and into the lobby. There are a variety of concessions--candy, drinks, photos, DVDs, and flowers for family and friends to buy. A while later I see the two of them with a red carnation, headed back to the bathroom. As much as I love my kid, I'm thinking this flower is NOT for me. Soon, another boy is called in for consultation. The three of them conspire for a bit and next time I look around Hannah is holding a red carnation....hmmm, how did that happen? I had heard that Hannah and Sam were "dating" from my son, so I had kind of figured out the reason for the drama, but it was still fun to watch. Later, my kid told me that Sam had wanted him to give the flower to Hannah. My son's response, "I don't think that would look too good. She'll see me coming towards with a flower and think, 'oh no, not him!' " (A romantic in the making, my boy!) In the end, Sam handed over the gift, probably the only contact the two principals had the whole evening.

Young love, can't beat it.

Horizontal leadership

The other day our department had a visitor who talked about the "horizontal leadership" in some social movement organizations. The basic idea, I guess, is that decision making is shared and that all members have ownership of decisions and input in discussions. I can see how this, in theory, makes people feel more vested in the outcome, how it is more inclusive than the traditional "vertical leadership" model, and why it has developed as an alternative to leadership models that have marginalized groups of people. BUT, I just don't get it. I guess I'm too old, too conventional, or too authoritarian. It seems like, in the end, someone needs to be "in charge." I am totally in favor of inclusive decision making, sharing responsibility, and consensus building. BUT, doesn't somebody, in the end, have to take the lead? Who communicates decisions to others in and out of the organization? With whom do those outside of the organization direct their comments and feedback? Is the lost efficiency worth it?