When my mom was in NJ in October, I asked her to buy a little Christmas tree and put it up so that when we arrived in December, it would be up and waiting for us. Our dear friends Dora and Paul got wind of what we wanted, and tah-dah!!! They just happened to have a 7-foot artificial tree that they were going to get rid of. They conspired with Aunt Rosie and together the three of them, along with cousin Tony, had this beautiful tree waiting for us. Dora made it a “family” tree and put all of our pictures on it in frame ornaments. Thanks!

Finally, a Christamas tree window!

Aunt Rosie, Paul, and Dora

My grandmom always had this cube on her kitchen window sill. When I was little I always used to hold it and stare at it from all angles; it amazed me. Whenever I would ask her if I could have it she would say that I could have it when she died. So, when she passed away in 1996, I took it home with me. I never displayed it in my own house; it seemed sacrilegious for some reason. The first thing I did when we arrived in NJ was place the little deer drinking from the brook back on the very window sill where my grandmom used to keep it.

Some photos of the cancer center at the town’s local hospital, named after my grandmom and grandpop.

When I was growing up I was always petrified to go down to my grandmom’s basement. First of all, the basement door used to open “in” toward the basement. When my mom was a baby she fell down the steps while she was scooting around in her walker. Luckily, during the house remodeling, my dad changed the swing of the door to open “in” toward the kitchen.

Second, there was never a handrail. I am petrified of heights, so the in-swinging door, coupled with the absence of a handrail, was a total trauma for me.
Finally, the old wooden steps have huge gaps in between them. When you look down to step onto the first step the first thing you see is a wide gap. It looks and feels as if you are falling from the kitchen into the basement.
Not only does the door swing the right way now, but during this Christmas trip Neil and my dad installed a handrail. Thank you! The big gap is still there so if you look down instead of looking out you still feel like you’re falling, but at least I now have the security of holding on to something!

The basement holds lots of treasures: my mom’s basketball hoop is down there, and that’s where all the family history papers were stored over the years. More pictures from down there on the next trip, promise.

One thing New Jersey has that Florida doesn’t are diners. I have yet to find a place in Florida that serves the kind of food that New Jersey diners serve at any time of the day. I had the privilege of eating in a diner three times on our trip. I would love it if the menu had a “Diner Sampler” on it. It could include 1/4 BLT, 1/4 cheeseburger, 1/4 club sandwich, and 1/4 Reuben plus 2 pieces of blueberry French toast. They could serve it with a cup of diner hot chocolate with whip cream. Then life would be perfect.

Here’s a pic of Erica, Andrea, my cousin Patty, and Adrienne at our first diner stop. Everyone ordered something different so the girls and I could have a taste of it all.