Read This!

If you love New Orleans, do yourself a favor and read this article. While there is some Saints focus, it is at its core more about the city and its people, including the bounce-back from Katrina. You don't have to like the Saints, or even football, to enjoy this moving piece.

Christmas Tree.2009

Between swim meets, basketball games and snowstorms, we managed to get our tree up the weekend of December 12-13. It's not the biggest tree we've ever had, but it came together very nicely. Particularly after I followed up what I refer to as the kids' "provisional" ornament hanging with a little recalibrating.

Stephen and Nina are the most diligent and focused decorators, as evidenced here:

Although David gets bonus points for figuring out how to simultaneously hang ornaments and consume a gigantic spoonful of cookie dough:

And, of course, Matthew is Matthew:

More pictures of the tree trimming here (view in full-screen mode to see captions), although I just realized as I was putting together this post that I did not get a picture of the finished product! I will rectify that in a later post.

Tempting The Gris-Gris

I know Saints fans everywhere are excited about the 11-0 start. But Saints fans of all people should be well aware of the power of the "hex", and therefore should avoid things like this, which I found buried in the article linked here:

Even Mardi Gras is making way. One parade was canceled because it was set to roll on Feb. 7, the day the Super Bowl will be played in Miami. Another parade will be moved to the following Tuesday if the Saints make it to the big game.

That's what I call getting ahead of ourselves. All the 11-0 record means is that the Saints will finish no worse than 11-5. To be canceling Mardi Gras parades at this point, on the assumption the Saints will be in the Super Bowl, is sure to cause a major gris-gris to envelope the Superdome!

Is The Po' Boy Endangered?

This terrific article from Wednesday's NYT Dining section has me worried.

Haunting Mountain Lakes

Halloween 2009 was wet and (thankfully) warm here in Northern New Jersey. This year, we were scattered in several directions for the festivities. David went to a party with friends and then out to trick-or-treat. Stephen raided the houses of Mountain Lakes for candy with a pack of his classmates. And Nina and Matthew had a great time trick-or-treating together while Lisa and I tagged along, enjoying some socializing in the streets with the other parents.

Here are Matthew (Commander Rex) and his friend Danny preparing for the Wildwood School Halloween parade:


Stephen said he was going as a "rebel":

And finally, Nina -- some kind of "grim reaper" figure -- was a huge help escorting Matthew around the neighborhood:

Matthew Is Six -- Lisa is ??

We had a birthday extravaganza on the third weekend of October, spilling into Monday and Tuesday. We celebrated both Matthew's and Lisa's birthdays, with lots of help from Christina, Olivia, Michael and Nonni. There were cakes, cupcakes, ice cream and presents starting on Saturday, and not concluding until Tuesday evening (Matthew's actual birthday)!

So it started Saturday making the first cake for the celebration with cousins Olivia and Michael:


Then that night, he blew out the candle (singlular), and we all enjoyed the home-baked cake:


Then, it was on to Lisa's birthday (Monday), and then cupcakes at school for Matthew with his class on Tuesday. That night, there was yet another cake!

Whew! After all that, we will need a whole year just to work this off.

Stephen's First ("Real") Swim Meet

On October 24, 2009, the mighty Dolphins of the Morris Center YMCA took to the Hackensack High School Pool in a showdown with the Greater Bergen YMCA. This would be the first true test for rising 8&Under star Stephen Graf of MCY. Below, MCY Coach Cecala huddles with Stephen and his 8U buddies to talk strategy.


Finally, it was time to race. Stephen started strong, with a very impressive third-place showing in the 25 yard freestyle. MCY swimmers took second and third to tally four big points for the Dolphins. Here's a video of the race (a little shaky at the end . . . sorry).



Then it was on to the next race, the 25 yard backstroke. True to Graf family tradition, Stephen struggled a bit in backstroke. Reflecting on his race later, Stephen puzzled over why it is that anyone would want to swim a race that requires sprinting headlong toward a cement wall while looking up at the ceiling.

But then Stephen finished strong on the freestyle relay. Unofficial splits had his time at 19.7 seconds, his first time under the 20-second barrier. Video of that race is below