Party Central, Plus Jim's Furlough

February has been as busy as it has been cold. And trust me, it has been cold!

Where to start? Well, Matty turned 3 on Feb. 17. That's amazing to me. Time doesn't just fly, it travels at the speed of sound.

First, let's backtrack to Jan. 30: Kerri and I hosted a party of 40 in honor of longtime Democrat and Chronicle columnist Scott Pitoniak, who was laid off in December. It was a GREAT party, as several people have confirmed. My boss, Steve Bradley, told me he felt it "brought a lot of people together." The last guests left at 1:45 in the morning. It was a great Friday night bash.

Nine days later, we did it again - this time with mostly family members and with Matthew James as the guest of honor. We had 34 people on hand, and Kerri made a great dinner that included ham and potatoes. The theme this year was Thomas the Tank Engine.

Gannett's financial troubles have resulted in everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - having to take one week off without pay. It's called a "furlough," and I took mine the week of Matty's birthday. It was also winter recess, so our niece Megan stayed with us for five days.

We had a blast. On Matty's actual birthday, we presented him with a Thomas the Tank Engine bike (complete with training wheels) in the morning and a wooden train set in the afternoon. In between, we spent several hours at the Strong Museum for Kids. We liked it so much that we purchased tickets for the next year.

Matty is growing by leaps and bounds, and in many different ways. We attended ANOTHER farewell party (this time for laidoff assistant sports editor Jim Castor) on Feb. 22 and Matty spent countless minutes in the basement of Steve and Cathy Bradley's home playing with their kids, 8-year-old Bobby and 4-year-old Caroline. He NEVER would have done that months ago. He would have been attached to Mommy and Dada.

He's growing - faster than I want him to. He is a complete joy, and the love of our lives.

Christmas 2008

Well, it's Jan. 1, 2009 as I write this and the long holiday season is over. It was the same as always: Lots of fun, too much food and over too soon. Pretty hectic, too.

Christmas Eve is always tough for us because both Jim's family and Kerri's family celebrate it in a big way. Because Kerri's family also gets together on Christmas Day and Jim's doesn't, we spend most of the night with Jim's family.

Here was our routine for Christmas Eve:

3 p.m. Arrived at Kerri's parents' house in Irondequoit and hung out until it was time to head to mass at St. Salome, the church where we were married in 2003.

4 p.m. Mass. Matty is happy but fidgety, and Kerri spends most of the service in the back of the church hanging out with him.

5 p.m. Back to Kerri's parents, where we indulge in one appetizer after another. For a little while, anyway.

6 p.m. We head to Penfield for an evening with the Mandelaros. For nearly two decades, the hosts were Butch and MaryLou Mandelaro, Jim's brother and sister-in-law. But when they sold their house in 2007, Jim's other brother (Doug) and sister-in-law (Terry) took over.

Jim loves the fried fish MaryLou prepares every Christmas Eve. It's the only day each year he gets this treat. They also served potatoes for 100, stuffed shells, chicken, rolls, salad and other great food. After dinner we opened presents.

We do the "Secret Santa" thing with both families. This year, Jim bought for Terry and received from Doug. And Kerri bought for Doug and received from Barb.

Matty was in a great mood and hung out with Cousin Julie and Uncle Butch.

We left around midnight, and had lots of fun. Matty fell asleep in the car and we took him straight to bed. Then we spent more time putting his train tracks together - the one Santa got for him. It was 1:30 a.m. before we crashed.

We woke up at 7:30 Christmas morning and opened our gifts while Matty slept. He loved his train set and something called Clippo (it's like Leggos).

Matty learned many Christmas songs this season, especially Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. We watched Rudolph's TV special around 20 times (literally).

We spent Christmas Day at Kerri's parents' house. My mom and sister came over, too, so Matty was surrounded by family. It was fun, and relaxing.

The next several days were a whirlwind. My birthday is Dec. 27, but that also was the day of the annual "Hayden Party" (my mother-in-law's side of the family). So 75 people converged on my sister-in-law Julie's house in Irondequoit. Kerri was sweet enough to get me a cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me. Matty sang the loudest, and out of all the "Dear Jims," I heard this little voice say "Dear Dada." Music to my ears.

New Year's Eve was quiet. Too quiet. We stayed home and had my mom ("Mimi") over. Next year we'll mix it up and maybe go out to dinner. New Year's Day was laidback, too, as we went to Kerri's parents again.

The Christmas season is over now, and we're having our worst winter in six years (and just had our snowiest December ever). It's back to work now, but that's life. Hard to complain when you have so much going for you.

Happy New Year to all!

Oh, you Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang

One of the things that continues to amaze us about Matty is his ability to memorize the lyrics to songs. We rented the DVD of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" three days ago, and he already can sing the very fast-paced title song. He also knows the words to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and his new fave, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.
Kerri's sister, Lisa, is a pediatrician office manager and says it's highly unusual. I'm thinking of sending a video of him singing to Ellen DeGeneres or America's Funniest Home Videos.
We're in full stream of the Christmas season now. Today, Kerri and her sister Laura went to the annual Julie-Val Holiday Bash in Irondequoit (women only), so I took Matty and my mom to Wal-Mart for extensive (and expensive) shopping. Now, all of us are sitting by a roaring fire, baking a pizza and watching - shocker - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Tomorrow, we go to my cousins Michael and Cindy's for their annual Christmas Tree Party. They have about 20 Christmas trees in their house, and I'm not making this up!

St. Nicholas Visits!

Today is St. Nicholas Day, when children all over the world find gifts and candy in their shoes. The Mandelaros were the recipients of two beautiful tins filled with cookies baked with love by The Marthettes. That's the nickname I gave years ago to Julie and Val, our wonderful sister/sister-in-law. In past years, we have all assembled at their house in Irondequoit to put the frosting and sprinkles on. This year, they did it all, and the result is cookies suitable for a bakery window.
Don't you agree?

St. Nicholas Day

Today is St. Nicholas Day, when children all over the world find gifts and candy in their shoes. The Mandelaros were the recipients of two beautiful tins filled with cookies baked with love by The Marthettes. That's the nickname I gave years ago to Julie and Val, our wonderful sister/sister-in-law. In past years, we have all assembled at their house in Irondequoit to put the frosting and sprinkles on. This year, they did it all, and the result is cookies suitable for a bakery window.

Here, have a look yourselves:

Matty meets Santa, and Santa meets Matty

Well, the unbelievable happened last night (Dec. 2, 2008). We went to the mall and Matty actually sat on Santa's lap.

You have to understand: Matty would rather throw his 800 little cars in the Genesee River than let anyone touch him, let alone sit on their lap. But the kid knows the importance of being nice over naughty this time of year, so he gave it up for Mr. Claus.

Matty said, and I quote: "Santa, I want cars....pink cars. OK?"

He talked to him as if they were fast friends. This Santa was good. I said "Matty, Santa knows Rudolph." And S.C. said, "And Comet, and Cupid, and Donner, and Blitzen...."

Of course, we forgot to bring our camera, and being parents whose child was about to really meet Santa for the first time (Matty had an encounter last year, but it was forgettable), we succumbed and had the Eastview people take their photo for the modest (cough, cough) price of $10.99 (!!!!) for one 4-x-6 (or is it 3-by-5?). But the photo is priceless. It's hanging on our fridge, now.

Earlier yesterday, we went to a store called Clix and had family photos and Matty photos taken for Christmas. Matty was surprisingly agreeable to this, and I think he's amazingly photogenic (of course, I'm biased). I'll post those photos when we get them scanned.

We've been playing the "gifts for good boys" angle for a few weeks now. Not sure what we'll do after the kid gets his loot on the 25th!

That's all for now.

In the beginning

This blog is for friends and family who want to check in on the Mandelaros and see how we're doing, but mostly it is for Matthew James Mandelaro, born Feb. 17, 2006 in Rochester, New York. We call him "Matty," and he is the greatest thing to ever happen to us.

First, I'll introduce "us":

My name is Jim, and I'm a sportswriter for the Democrat and Chronicle. I'm a graduate of Webster Schroeder High and St. John Fisher College, with roots in East Rochester. I'm a late bloomer of sorts: a first-time husband at 40, first-time dad at 43.

My wife, Kerri, is a native of Irondequoit and a graduate of Bishop Kearney High and SUNY Brockport. She spent about 15 years working at Kearney in the advancement/PR office and currently works as a grant writer for NeighborWorks. She also is co-owner of the event-planning firm Cosmopolitan Creative Events with her friend, Vienna McGrain. If you're looking for someone to plan your wedding, graduation party, company party or block party, these two ladies will do a great job. OK, end of shameless plug.

Kerri and I met in 2002 and were married on Oct. 4, 2003. We live in Fairport (technically Perinton, but that sounds sooo pretentious) with Matty and our cats, Marius and Cosette. In 2006, we had a 650-foot addition built that includes a spacious living room and a very spacious bedroom. This year, we had our kitchen completely remodeled and flipped.

Matty is 2 1/2. Enough said lol. He can be an angel one moment and a little devil the next. His favorite word is "no." But he loves his "mommy" and his "dada." Oh, and Elmo, too. Loves Elmo.

Matty knows his ABCs and can count to 20, but for some reason he forgets about 16 and 17 from time to time. He loves to sing and is a quick study: He knows all the words to "Do Re Mi, Farmer in the Dell, Clementine, Santa Claus is Comin' To Town, and many more oldies but goodies.

I expect that I'll post the most, but hopefully Kerri will chime in with her thoughts on parenthood, marriage and life in the 21st century.

Fairhaven Vacation 2014

So I am lying in bed in our room upstairs at the cottage we rent in Fairhaven, New York. It is late Thursday night, July 31, 2014. Our vacation began last Saturday and has simply flown. We leave Saturday morning. On this trip are: Me, Kerri, Matty and Sophie; Kerri's sister Lisa and her son Joe; our other nephews Jon and Rob Bishop and niece Megan; Kerri's oldest sister Julie and her partner Val Colby; and Kerri's parents Bill and Carol Bishop, aka Papa and Grammy. Papa has had serious health issues this year, and his presence here has been a minor miracle. We thank God that he is here with us. Also visiting this week is Heather Evans and Janessa Spooner. Heather is the daughter of Jim Evans, Lisa's boyfriend. Janessa is the daughter of Heather's boyfriend. They have been lots of fun.
 I've gone in two boat rides with Captain Jon and Sophie, drank a lot of Sangria, Snapple iced tea, beer and pop, swam in the bay, ate a lot of junk and played a lot of wiffle ball. We've had two long games and will have another 9-inning affair tomorrow when Sara Mroczek (Val's daughter) arrives with her three sons. Dan Bishop (Kerri's brother) and wife Mary Lou were here last weekend and will be back tomorrow.
  This is our third summer spending a week at this place. Kerri's parents sold their cottage in Sackets Harbor in 2009, and we spent a week in 2010 on Conesus Lake and a week in 2011 on Seneca Lake before finding this place. We love it. The worst part of this week has been the rain. Three days already. Yikes.
 We are missing Kerri's sister Laura, who has been a regular on vacations but missed this one because she just started a job in Boston. And our nephew Tony is out of state in his job as a roofer.
 Matty is 8 and about to enter third grade. He has been into organizing the wiffle ball games this week! And playing on his iPad, of course. Sophie is 4. She is up for anything. She loves the boat rides, swimming and hanging with the big girls. Such a sweetie.