Grandma Dolly 1922 - 2013

Ellie's great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mom's mom passed away this week.
Here is her obituary:

Calvetti, Theresa

Theresa Calvetti, 90, died in Santa Barbara, California,
on February 6, 2013, after a brief illness. She was born on March 25, 1922, in
Coalton, Illinois.
She was the only child of Anton Nicolotti and Margaret Pissardo Nicolotti who
both emigrated from Italy
in the early 1900s.

Theresa lived in the house she was born in for the first
seventy-four years of her life. She graduated from Nokomis High School
in 1939 and married Ronald Calvetti on June 27, 1944, shortly before he shipped
out as an Army Master Sergeant to the European Front.

Theresa and Ronald moved to Santa Barbara in 1996. He preceded her in
death on November 22, 1996.

Theresa is survived by her daughter, Pamela Calvetti
VanBlaricum (Michael), her two granddaughters Ann Calvetti VanBlaricum Harrer
(Nicholas) and Susan Michelle VanBlaricum, and her great-granddaughter Ellen
Calvetti Harrer.

Services will be held at Stiehl-Dawson Funeral Home in Nokomis, Illinois.
Visitation is 5 to 7 pm on Sunday evening February 10 and the funeral is at
10:30 am on Monday, February 11.

Theresa’s family would like to thank Abundant Care,
Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care, and the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara.

 In lieu of flowers, donations
(make checks payable to CALM Auxiliary) may be sent to the CALM Auxiliary, P.O. Box 30058, Santa
Barbara, CA 93130.

Grandma Dolly will be missed by me, Nick and Ellie. I was fortunate enough to get to grow up with her from trips to Illinois and playing at their house to her time in Santa Barbara when she and my grandpa would winter and then when the bought the house just down the street. Susie and I will always have memories and cherish the important lessons we learned from her from how to play badmington to silly card games. We will cherish the $20 bills she would hand us whenever we would see her. And nobody will be able to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies like she could. We will be sure to carry on the superstitious New Year's Day activities of eating red grapes and taking a stick to the first person we visited...it seemed to have worked for her! She loved Ellie more than anything and although she had promised me and Susie the moon, I'm pretty sure she really would have done anything to give it to Ellie. Yes, even though Nick isn't Italian he is "such a nice boy" and Ellie is "so beautiful". I feel so fortunate that Ellie was able to get to know her and I know she will have memories of her own: picking tangerines at Gma Dolly's house, playing with the dolls she would put out for Ellie, taking cookies from Gma Dolly even after mommy said no more cookies...This past Christmas, Grandma Dolly came down to Pasadena with my parents for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house. We were able to decorate cookies and open presents together. I know Ellie will have memories of this Christmas. There is so much more I will miss from Grandma Dolly.

I quickly went through some of the photo files on our computer and picked out some of the best photos of Grandma Dolly I could find. I hope you will enjoy.

Grandma in the middle, my mom on the right

1971

EOH 1972

My parents wedding in 1972, Grandma Dolly in blue

1981

1984

2003, Nick and my wedding

2003, rehearsal dinner with Mickey and great-grandma Kost (Nick's grandma)

2009 Ellie's first visit

Grandma Dolly felt it was VERY important Ellie got a baby doll for her first birthday. "Baby Sister" is now one of Ellie's most cherished possessions. Here, Ellie is showing my baby doll to Grandma Dolly. The two shared a bond over the love of Ellie's baby doll.

Grandma's 90th birthday

Cookie decorating, Christmas 2012



This video I took in 2010. Grandma always put me, Susie, and Ellie first. She always tried to keep up with us. She even tried to keep up wiht Ellie.

Thank you for everything Grandma Dolly. We will miss you and always remember the awesome memories!

Cousin Jimmy!!

So I know this post is a little delayed, but I definitely wanted to share these photos. Before Christmas, my cousin Jim who lives in Brooklyn was out in LA visiting friends (prior to the Christmas celebrations up in SB). He made a point to stop by our house one afternoon both to see the new digs but also spend some time with Ellie. Last time they really spent any time together she didn't have a very large vocabulary...



After a quick tour of the house, Ellie was insistent on showing Jimmy the playground. So we headed down to our favorite new, close by playground. Ellie showed Jim the proper way to use the swings, slide, and the stepping stone thingie. Jim pushed Ellie on the swing, taught Ellie a new game on the stepping stone thingie and taught Ellie the proper protocol of high fives on slides. So much to learn from the older generation!









The two played really well and we all had a chance to catch up prior to family festivities. Nick and Jim played basketball in our backyard before the playground, but I didn't get any photos of that.










Up in SB Ellie had fun hanging out with "my really really really big cousin Jimmy" and was sad when we left and he headed back to NYC. But she is looking forward to more visits with her big cousin even though it may be a LONG plane ride.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Exploring L.A. :: Travel Town

This morning, despite the rain, we were all having a bout of cabin fever and needed to get out of the house. We opted to head down to Travel Town in Griffith Park. Its free and its also near the zoo just in case it ended up being a bust. Basically, Travel Town is a museum with lots of trains: engines, cars, and cabooses. Full size trains. Its actually pretty cool, but the fact that none of us are major train enthusiasts made for a relatively quick visit. I could definitely see how if you or a kid were majorly into trains, this place would be the best ever.

Ellie asked quite a few questions and seemed particularly interested in how all the cars of the trains stayed together. Nick and I didn't know all the exact terminology for all the parts, but think we did a good enough explanation. She also was a bit excited at how big the trains were in real life. I think I was a little surprised to see how big some of the engines and wheels really were.

Some of the train engines and cars you could climb into, which was pretty exciting. Some were currently being restored and not open, others people had rented for birthday parties. But getting up close to the exterior and the interior of the trains was actually pretty neat. I mean, its not everyday you get to climb into the engine of a train.

Ellie noticed that these trains looked different than the trains in Boston. She now knows what a steam engine looks like and how it runs...kinda...we did our best to explain it. However, I think the puddles were almost as exciting as the trains for her today.






They also have small train that you can ride in. Its a short train ride that goes around Travel Town so you have a good view of all the trains. Ellie had a blast on the little train ride and liked waving to all the people who were waving at her. However, we had to sit in the back because she thought the engine and the horn were too loud and didn't want to be close to them.

We had fun. And it'll be something to keep on the list of things to do on a weekend. Its nearby, free, and educational...the trifecta of weekend activities.

Happy New Year!!!

What a New Year's morning we had! My parents came down for a couple days and we had a fun NEw Year's Eve (although I don't think anyone made it up till midnight, but we did let Ellie stay up till 9pm to see the ball drop in NYC). Our new home is close to the end of the Rose Bowl parade. After breakfast and watching the Rose Parade for about 90 minutes on TV, we headed out to the streets to see if there was ANY chance that we could see anything without having to camp on the street like so many others had done.

And we were super lucky! We found a spot on a side street where we could see the floats, bands, and even the Grand Marshall Jane Goodall. We ended up getting to a spot towards the end of the parade, just as the very first band went by. It was pretty interesting watching the parade on TV, and then again in real life.

Jane Goodall!!

As I'm sure most of you know, the theme was "Oh, the Places You'll Go" (the Dr. Seuss book title). There were amazing floats, great bands, and a lot of fun to be had, as usual. Ellie was happy to see the princesses, but interestingly decided that she wanted to be a cheerleader, not a princess, when she grows up.

We had a great time this morning. We can't wait till next year now that we have figured this parade thing out! Pasadena is a great town and it is as amazing as it looks on TV during the Rose Parade.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

Christmas Morning

Well, Santa definitely made a sotp at our house this year! And he brought presents for Grandma Pam, Grandpa Mike, Aunt Susu, and Great-Grandma Dolly...which was great because they Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house!

 

Santa gobbled up the cookies Ellie decorated and left out for him. But as Ellie noticed, he ate them really fast because he left quite a mess! Santa again left a nice note for Ellie thanking her for being a good girl this past year and to continue to do so.

Everyone got loaded down with presents from Santa, especially Ellie who was super excited about her Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip dolls.

Remember that note Santa left...

And what did we find when we went outside?

Santa also brought some dishes and play food to to outside in the house. Ellie took no time getting the hosue set up and ready for a party! She spent all morning outside with the house. She was obviously very happy with the big Santa present!

After playing in the house for a while and eating some breakfast, we all piled into cars and headed up to Santa Barbara for Christmas Dinner. This year, the entire VB family, including Cousin Jim, was together up in SB which was nice. Ellie bonded with Cousin Jim and had a lot of fun with him.

 

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!