"Christmas Time...Is Here..."

Already?? Yes, I too am in disbelief at how fast this year just went by. I guess we all say that in December right? When you're in our family, you have a lot of Christmases to go to, and this year was no exception. As I may have mentioned a few times, my 16 day vacation started on the 21st, so I had all the time in the world to relax. Cari had to work up to Christmas Eve but she was off the following week. We started by going to her parent's house:



What a tempting shmear of dinner treats. I forget what we brought. A pumpkin pie maybe? Not sure.



A Martin High School hoodie for Emmy? Check! Eventhough she won't be going there for 5 more years, why not get a jump on the fashion trend, eh?



Zach picked up a Hexxbug battlefield! We've experimented with it. Cari got everyone Hexxbugs, which are robot bugs that will move around and battle each other when in a confined space. Much like married people do to this day. I kept calling it "Hexabugs" which Zach couldn't stand. He'll say "Okay Dad, say Hex...Bug...no A in the middle!" and I'm all "Hex...B-B...B---ABUG!" and he'd freak out just a bit. Ahh, the fun I have with my kids.



John: "Can anyone guess what I have behind my back?"
Us: "Um...not a clue."
John: "Oh come on...somebody guess...please?"
Us: "Ohh...we'll say...a chicken."
John: "What kind of a guess is that!?"

Moving on...

Christmas morning of course saw Ol' Saint Nick leave everyone some goodies:



A new iPod for Emmy? Check. A new TV for Zach? Double check. How did we wind up with a nicer TV in his room than we have in ours? Very peculiar...



I really like this shot of me and Zach. I got some new sunglasses and a book, "1001 Battles"!! Zach got some Nerf battle blades which he will not put down. So far all of us have gotten hurt in some way by them...but Zach the most. When the attacker becomes the martyr...God help us all.



Me: "So Cari, how do you like those earmuffs I got you?"
Cari: "I'm not wearing earmuffs."
Me: "Ohh...um...this is awkward."

Turns out she wanted some a little more...less furry. I can't blame her.



We even got some snow! Not until we were driving home after Christmas lunch of course, but it was still pretty cool to have some during the holiday week.

All in all, we all got some pretty cool things this Christmas. But what made it really nice was to be able to see all of our family at pretty much the same time and be able to be together for the holidays. That's what really does it for me. Knowing my family is taken care of makes me feel like I can do anything. Hopefully that's the point of it all.

"New Carpet??"

Well, not really. But we did rent a carpet shampooer from Kroger to get our house ready for Christmas! This year it was our turn to play host for Mom and Keri to exchange presents before going over to Tom and Glenda's new house in Millsap for the Camp Christmas get together. Here is what it looked like before:



Ugh...just...foul. We have an older carpet cleaner in the garage but it didn't do anything. Needless to say it looks a lot better now. So we got the house looking better and we had a good time opening presents. A few pix:



The Beatles are coming! Well, not really. But Mom saw this shirt and thought it would be perfect for me. And...it was.



A Beatles clock! I'm sensing a theme here. Keri definitely scored a major find here.



A Titanic Christmas ornament! I'm not as big into the movie as others are, but this is pretty neat.



I do believe this is Emmy's most favourite present she got this year. I personally added this to her Amazon wish list cuz I thought she'd like it, but it turns out she won't take it off now. I even cought some flack because she's worn it to Six Flags like every time we've been (between washes of course).



Zach even picked up a cool Spiderman hat and gloves! As cold as it's been this winter I know he'll need them. I think I got out of order here. The Saturday night before, we went over to Grandma's house to have Christmas with Dad and company since they don't come to Grandma's house on Christmas Day. Which, since it's at Ed and Susan's house this year, would seem silly to go to Grandma's house only to find no one one. So we had a potluck dinner and some apple pie for dessert and, as always, exchanged a few gifts:



Keri was nice enough to nab some "Griswold Family Christmas" t-shirts from...somewhere. So, we had our picture made with them. Seemed the right thing to do.



Me: "Wow, a Mackinaw Peach shirt from the tv show Seinfeld!!"
Emily: "I don't know why that shirt is so funny, but it's cracking me up!"
Cari: "I think there's some sort of laughing gas being pumped in through the vents...HA HA HA"



Man, someone is ecstatic over his new saw blades!! I was talking about Dad of course. I know you were all thinking Grandma, but...nope.



A Phineas & Ferb voice changer! I added this to Zach's wish list about 3 years ago and he finally got it. It makes him sound really weird...er. Heh heh.

Next week I'll feature the pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning! Needless to say, my children made out very well for themselves. As did I. I love my Mackinaw peach shirt. I can never have enough cool t-shirts.

"Another Birthday??"

Man, am I really 38? Really? Time sure does go by fast and slow at the same time doesn't it? Mom was nice enough to have Keri and us over for a wonderful lunch and a few presents! Thank goodness Amazon.com has the wish list function plus every item known to man (and a few that aren't!) for me to wish for. A few pix:



This has quickly become one of my favourite hoodies! Even if the Cowboys are only an 8-8 team for the 2nd year in a row, this is really warm and soft...just like me!



A new alarm clock! I had been using Uncle Paul's old one with the manual tuner and no antenna so that I could never wake up to 103.3 ESPN radio in the mornings. But this one will charge my phone, play songs off of it, and even has 2 alarms for different radio stations! A very wise choice I made to wish for it many moons ago.





There's some good shots of me and the little folks! Keri wouldn't let anyone take pictures of her for some reason...a real mystery. Maybe we'll be enlightened one day.

So...now I'm 38. Now what? I seem to be in a pretty good place in my life. There's some things about me that annoy people I'm sure, but I wouldbe willing to bet there's more than a few people that would want to be in the position that I'm in. Financially I had the best year of my life, and I think Cari did too. Working 10 hours of overtime a week will do that for you. Hopefully 2013 will be just as good to us. I try to not take things for granted and to always be thankful for what I've been given. Part of me wonders if I should be doing something more...

"Cello Time!"

Yes, my favourite daughter Emily had her Christmas strings recital Monday night and, thanks to a good co-worker switching schedules with me, I was able to see (and photograph and videotape) it!! A few pix:



Boy: "So, do you come here often?"
Emily: "What? What are you talking about? I come here everyday! It's called SCHOOL?!"
Boy: "No no, I meant do you get on the stage and play cello often...?"
Emily: "Ohh. No, not usually, unless they ask me..."



When I was filming I zoomed in on her playing. Was pretty cool. Better than I could ever play the violin when I lived in Canada. They were all so shocked in 8th grade that I couldn't speak French and play an instument. Bunch of idiots.

Dad came by Thursday and took me out to lunch! We went to the one place neither of us ever get to go very often...Black Eyed Pea! We got rhe same meal practically, of course. Chicken Fried Chicken is so good there. I think they shrunk the portions a little, but it was still really good. He even got me the Three Stooges book I had on my Amazon Wish List! The real present was getting together though. We never seem to do that very often.

Oh yeah, it's my birthday! Numero 38. Man, some people might feel old when they hit that, but I'm in the best shape of my life right now. Hopefully I won't just completely fall apart when I hit 60 or 70. I wish I could think about things other than that right now. Time just flows by around us so fast.

"Another Tooth!?"

Yes, Emmy has lost yet another one. I sure hope they're falling out because they're supposed to and not because there's serious dental problems ha ha. I'd like to think that if there were, her dentist would have caught them. I think Emmy's almost done though. Maybe a couple more.

Emmy was also in a Christmas parade with her Girl Scouts! Zach was of course in full celebration mode:



Ugh lousy iPhone camera. It did though manage to get a cool shot of Zach with his lit up noisemaker:



I broke Carson's toy so I had to exchange it. I swung it so fast to make a cool light show that it fell apart. I gues $5 doesn't buy as much as it should.

Emmy made a gingerbread house for school. It looks really good:



Of course, they use cardboard to put everything on, which means if you tried to eat it you'd get an overdose of cardboard but probably a good dose of fiber!

Going to Choctaw Saturday night for my birthday!!! Can't believe I'm going to be 38 this year. So thankful for everything I have and get to do in my life. I know things could always be worse so I try not to complain about anything. I was at Kroger this week and they had their Christmas trees at the front. Well, I just stood there and breathed them in for like five minutes. Really took me back to when I was a kid and we'd get a real tree every year. I have yet to find a candle that can match a real tree. That's a shame.

"It's Christmas Time...In The City..."

Yes, the time for egg nog, caroling, and gift-giving and buying as rapidly approaching us! As anyone who reads this blog o mine knows, my favourite time of the year has always been Christmas. One of the few Christmas memories I can recall was when I was around 16...or maybe 17...not sure. I actually watched my sister open every single one of her presents and then re-wrap them and then look surprised when she opened them up again. Oh what an acting performance I witnessed that morning. Meryl Streep would be so impressed she would have given her one of her Oscars.

Moving on...

Finally got our tree up!



Gotta love two kids that can set it up and decorate it all by themselves! I strung the lights with care, but they did the rest. They're so awesome. So awesome that we took them to Six Flags (along with Emmy's friend Ryann who now seems to be campaigning to be my third kid ha ha):



This could have been a better shot had an iPhone not been used. They sure know how to light up the place.



Schweddy Balls ice cream? Leave it to Ben And Jerry's to capitalize on a Saturday Night Life sketch from 15 years ago.



A lifesize nativity scene? Check. I like this shot due to the light hitting it in just the right way.



This shot is pretty cool. They ran green lights all the way to the top of the orange tower.

Well, my lovely Sentra is more than likely entering the final stages of its' life. Firestone wants like $1,000 to fix everything. Daniel is looking at it tonight to see if there's anything he can do. But hey, I got 11+ years out of it, and that's more than a lot of people get out of a car. Cari has assured me we can swing a car payment if we need to, and I really want a new one. Or, at least, one that wasn't built in the last millenium. Soon...soon...

"Thanksgiving Time...is here..."

And not a moment too soon! A four day weekend is always welcome, but after a 24 day Advocare cleanse in which we couldn't eat anything yummy, Thanksgiving lunch was very welcome. We went over to aunt Candy's house in Waxahachie and there was quite a bit of the family there. I wish we could get together more than twice a year. Maybe we should all try to do that more often. Anyhoo...I brought the camera and took a few pix:



There's a lot of animosity between Mom and Uncle Tom in this picture. Right before I took this picture Mom and Tom were arguing over who was a better Prime Minister for England, Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair.



Fortunately, they made up by agreeing to disagree. Man, just one Thanksgiving without having to hear that argument would be my grown up...Christmas...wish.





Croquet! Aunt Candy bought a croquet set and Zach and Emmy just loved playing with it. Maybe ol' Santa should bring one for the family and leave it under the ol' tree...eh?



Tony decided we all wanted to relive our glory days and play some touch football. Well, we played about 20 minutes and then we all did this. I guess everybody gets older. I appreciate the back rub Emmy gave me though.

But the day before that, we went to Dave and Buster's in the Highlands:



Here Zach is trying to play the greatest video game of all...Dance Dance Revolution! I've played it with Emmy before a couple of times at Alley Cats, but Zach was hopping everywhere like a crazy person. At least here he was getting points for doing it ha ha.



Emmy's friend Ryann is in the background. She seems about as silly as Emmy is, which is probably why they get along so well. There's a whole story behind all of that. Long story short, one of Emmy's former friends pretty much turned on her and things may not ever be the same between them again. We've encouraged her to reach out to this person to try and see if there's anything left to mend. Who knows...

Emmy has started volleyball again! I had my camera all ready to take some good action shots only to have the batteries die after like three pictures. Here's a pic...literally:



Emily: "Watch out everyone, I'm serving the ball NOW!!!!"
Me: "You don't have to shout that everytime you serve!"
Emily: "But...what if they're not paying attention and someone gets hit in the eye?"
Me: "Are you kidding? You'll probably win the point."

It's gotten really cold the last week or so. I'm going to be getting the tree up and lit and the house lights on as well. Emmy always gets the tree all set up for me. I sure do appreciate her. Zach always helps get the ornaments on the tree. I appreciate him as well. Cari always goes out on Black Friday and shops till she drops so that she can get the best deal. I always appreciate her, even if she thinks I don't ha ha. Every Christmas I always try to make it better than last year. Even if I can't, at least I tried. Different candles, different decorations for the house...I even cleaned out the fireplace in the hopes that we might light a fire this year. This year I'm going to try and recap some of my favourite Christmas memories if I haven't done so already. It's hard to believe that was such a long time ago...and there's no way to relive it at all. Just brief flashes of gifts...too brief.

"All About Sparky!"

Who the heck is that?

Well, calm down and I'll tell you. Sparky is the Build-A-Bear turtle that all the kids in Zach's class have to take care of for a weekend. Well, no one takes care of a plush animal quite like Zach does. And by that, I mean I find all of his either behind his bed or under his bed or stuffed in hard to reach areas. Well, he took care of this one a bit better:



Here we are at Genghis Grill after what was probably the worst day of my life. Cari and I had a bad argument that morning and I was mad about it all day. I went to the mall at lunch and when I was about to leave my car's alternator pooped out and I was stranded. No one...no one could come by and pick me up so I had to call Cari. Well, needless to say, she wasn't in any mood to help me out. But, she came and got me and we got my car to Firestone and they fixed it. Plus, thanks to the NRH police giving me a ticket for expired inspection, I managed to get that fixed too! Took three days of driving around but the oil change place across the street finally got it to pass. Ugh...long week.



Just what every kid needs: a stuffed turtle, a shotgun, and the remote control.



I asked Zach to strike a soccer pose and he gives me Karate Kid. Oy. Sparky looks like he's having fun though.

Emmy played in her very last soccer game as well. She says she's done with soccer. She didn't have the greatest season. When it's hard to run and all these girls are just flying by you it takes its toll on the ol' ego. Probably why I only played one season of soccer. Nothing like a big fat man is short orange shorts screaming at you that you're not playing the right position ever. Which I wasn't. I had no idea what I was doing out there. Just run and kick blindly. Anyways...we had the soccer party at CiCi's, where else?:


Emily: "Coach Amy, I can't breathe! Can you please move your hair?"
Amy: "Quiet kid, your dad's trying to get the 'perfect picture'!"
Emily: "Hurry and take the picture Dad! I only have 30 seconds of air left!"
Me: "Hold on, I just need about 35 more seconds to get this shot..."


Aww, that's a better shot of Emmy. Not sure what the woman in the back is looking at. Maybe checking me out? Can't say I blame her ha ha.
So Emmy says she is done with soccer. But she's really good at volleyball and softball! I was good in those sports as well. Still am if you ask me. I just don't play them as much as I used to. Maybe there's a league for people like me somewhere. But at least Emmy gave it her all for over 5 years on the soccer field, and that's about all you can ask from your kid. Well, that and good grades. Love me some good grades.

"Zach is How Old!?"

SEVEN!

Geez, where does the time go? Seems like just yesterday Zach was learning how to walk and not scream his head off when he didn't get his way. Well, he's still working on one of those things, I'll let you figure out which one heh. But now that Zach is seven, now I can really wrestle with him without constant fear of breaking him in half. Not that I want to hurt him mind you, but I'd rather him take me on if he gets a fighting urge rather than someone at school. I was never much of a fighter in school, but there was a time when I managed to get some revenge. I'll tell it later at some point. Moving on...we had Zach's party at Pump It Up! Lots of loud kids running around like crazy people. Good times...



Zach: "Hey Dad, who am I doing an impression of?"
Me: "Um...Guy Smiley?"
Zach: "No man, it's a department store mannequin!"
Me: "Now how am I supposed to guess that?"



Dylan asked me to take a picture of her doing a back flip. Well, I took almost 20 pictures before I got this one. She's one fast kid.



I asked both of them to smile and I get that ha ha. We tease Zach sometimes that Cheslea is his "girlfriend", and who knows, maybe at some point they may be just that. I try not to do that though, cuz I hated it when my parents did that to me the one time I actually showed interest in a girl. Geez, that was...28 years ago? Have I told that story lately? Ah well...



Aww, the gang's all here to enjoy all the snacks Cari got together! We had Chex mix, apples, carrots, and of course...cake!



We couldn't find a Power Rangers cake so we got an Avengers cake! Hey, the next best thing, right? When I asked Zach what he wished for, he goes, "A better mom and dad!". Not his finest moment, but what kid says the right thing all the time, right? Certainly not mine ha ha.

And now...some gifts:



A Legos garbage truck!! I told my dad to get this for him since Zach's interest in Legos was semi-renewed by going to Legoland last week.



A Nerf crossbow! The darts this thing fires are huge! I think Zach alreday broke this thing unfortunately. You aim this at someone and they'll back down right away! Zach's already hit me in the back a couple of times without me knowing.



This thing is pretty cool. It makes a sound when you throw it like a bomb being launched! We have kept ourselves busy before Emmy's soccer games with this thing.



Ahh, the Overall men together again! I think I'll have this one printed up and give it to ol' Dad as a Christmas present. I should give more presents like this to people.

Well, now that Zach has had his birthday extraordinare, who's birthday is next? Oh yeah...it's mine!! Numero 38 just on the horizon. Geez...seems like such an old age. I'm thinking back to when my parents turned 38...I was 16 when Dad hit it and 18 when Mom hit it. We had just gotten back from Canada. All I could think about was how if I could manage to not uproot my family and go to Canada I'd feel like a pretty good dad. Now that I look back on everything, I really doubt Dad's grand plans for his family included going north of the border. He did what he had to do. How far do some parents go to ensure their family is taken care of? Some do it right, others do it wrong. By wrong I mean stealing or lying because you think you have to. You should never have to resort to things like that. So far I haven't, i don't think. Let's keep it that way.