I Need All The Help I Can Get

Santa is about five hours from visiting our house, and Caden must have gotten a phone call from his Sleigh phone. Here's Santa's helper.

Non Stop Happy

Do you think Caden is thinking of Santa, or maybe Christmas presents. Nope, this is the way he spends all his waking moments (HAPPY).

Merry Christmas

Far away in Bethlehem, a Baby Boy was born;
Born with neither riches nor with fame,
Yet Wise Men came from all around to bring to Him their gifts,
And peace was felt by all who heard His name.

Angels watched Him as He slept, and gently rocked His bed;
Their voices singing softly in His ear;
His Mother and His Father both gave thanks to God above
For the greatest gift of all, their Son, so dear

They knew His life upon this earth would not be filled with wealth,
They also knew He would encounter strife;
But most of all, they knew that He would be a loving Child,
And teach the love of God throughout His life.

At Christmas, as we celebrate this Birth of Jesus Christ,
Let's keep in mind the truth of Christmas Day;
For it's not the Christmas wrappings, nor the gifts that lie within,
But our gift of love to others in every way...

All Wrapped Up

One of my jobs this year is wrapping all the grand children's gifts. I believe that Fisher Price has a wrapping paper company and owns 3M company, the makers of Scotch tape. Gone forever are the square and rectangle boxes and enter the trapezoid shaped items, you have to use twice as much paper and tons of tape just to get it to look half way decent. Picture trying to gift wrap an egg or a stuffed animal. No more nice looking right angled edges but just a wad of paper that is held together by six pounds of tape. It then dawned on me that the recipients of these gifts were little teeny children that have no clue of what Christmas is or are convinced that that the paper isn't a better gift than what it covers. Now knowing that I will not be critiqued on the neatness of the gifts, at least by Caden and Buddy, I can really get into it. Hmmmm, maybe I will try wrapping the dog.

Are We Having Fun Yet??

The fun starts today, Allison is scheduled to fly into Houston this afternoon and I being the anal person that I am I have already checked potential delays. Every airport in the U. S. is operating normally with the exception of one, you got it, Laguardia N.Y. It seems the cold weather has affected the flights upto three hours. I voiced my displeasure to "The Madge" and she said according to "Good Morning America" it is very cold in New York. Forgive me but there are other airports in the same area and no delays, not to mention the numerous airports north of Laguardia which I am sure are colder. Laguardia sucks!! These delays will put Allison in a FOUL MOOD and I will be the brunt of her "non-happy" attitude. MERRY CHRISTMAS, Ho Ho Yuk.
Meaghan sent some pictures of snowstorm "Austin", I never realized they name snowstorms. Anyway, she bought Buddy a sled, wrapped him up in warm clothes, stuffed him into the baby sled and braved the cold temperatures. Look how excited he is. Don't worry Buddy in a few more days you will be in the hot tub, relaxing and thinking of the poor souls braving the harsh weather.

Thank You Lorraine Cole

German? Irish? Take Your Pick

Erin and Brad finally sent me a copy of the picture that will be on their 2008 Christmas Cards. I can't make up my mind whether he typifies a German Junge or an Irish Lad, so I will go with a Swede. Notice he is standing by himself with a little assistance from the branch on his right.

Having To Use "That" Gift

Every Christmas you receive that "one" gift, whether it be a camel with a clock on his stomach or a tie that changes color with temperature swings, you know exactly what I mean. I have always found it strange that the person who gave you the weird gift would not have used nor worn it themselves. I therefore believe that such a gift was not purchased but rather that they were the recipient of this gift and just passed it along. Little Caden got a hand knitted sweater with matching mittens and boots, I wonder if it was every worn by any one else??

A Little Boogie Woogie

Just a little break from Christmas. I have always enjoyed music, any kind of music except rap. Here's a video of Silvan Zingg playing some Boogie Woogie. Please watch the dancers, who remind me of Bill Kenney and Connie Hepper, either they are super small or Silvan should be playing basketball rather than the piano.

All Hands Tom

The gang starts arriving a week from today, and we are getting excited. Excited to see the kids but also excited because our garbage disposal is broken. Sunday morning I noticed water marks on the rug in front of the sink, I asked "The Madge" and she said she spilled some water on it. OK, no problem, wrong!!! A half an hour later she tells me that there is a lot water in the cabinet below the sink. Yep, lots and lots of water, so I grabbed the trusty flashlight and few tools to tighten any loose fittings. Again wrong!!! There is a crack in the disposal that can not be patched. What does any sane person do in this situation, you call your Handyman. OK, it's Sunday and it is a day of rest not to mention double time for workers, but this is an emergency. My guy Tom asked if it could wait until Monday as he was going fishing and "Hey, do you want to go with me?". I thanked him for the invitation and said we could wait until Monday to fix this thing, I meant replace this thing. He said he would stop in the morning and get a new one, "What model do you have?". I told him the model and to my surprise the unit we have is rated for an apartment meaning "light use". No wonder it only lasted us one year, "Tom, you better bump that model up at least three levels". Tom is on his way over here with the new unit and some fish that he caught. I bet Tom will ask for max $50 for the labor, now you know why I use him. By this afternoon we will be back in business so bring on the family.

Help!!! Our garbage is backing up.

Tom the "Handyman"

An Early Christmas Present

To appease "The Madge" I subjected myself to a colonoscopy on Wednesday. If you don't know what this procedure is, it's placing a garden hose into an orifice on you body, blowing you up with 135 PSI of air, taking a bunch of pictures and snipping little things called "polyps". You then have to sit around while the nurses stand next to you encouraging flatulence (commonly known as blowing the bugle or passing wind). This is not a pleasant experience nor does it help reduce global warming. Well anyway my Wednesday was not a nice day, but it turned out to be one of the best as less than a half a mile away was a good friend Dave Calonico who was having a triple bypass. This operation came as a BIG BIG surprise. He was having a cardiac catheterization and the doctors came at and told his wife"Kathy" that were going to schedule him for Quadruple bypass surgery. Now here is a guy that exercises, eats all the right foods, occasionally has a cigar, watches his weight and is physically active, you see what that stuff can do to you? It turned out that he required a triple bypass and he is 100% OK and on the road to recovery, that was my early Christmas gift.

Dave and Kathy

Dave after his surgery, I think he is still anesthetized

I Must Not Fool With Mother Nature

The other day I mad a reference to snow and how it isn't all that nice. Well Old Mother Nature must have read this blog and decided to send some of the white stuff this way. Typical Texas weather though, it will be in the mid 70's by Sunday.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The leaves are slowly turning brown and a few have already fallen off the trees. This is an unusually long Autumn, we are now into our third day. By Tuesday it should be over and then a few weeks of the bleak look. I LOVE IT. Don't get me wrong, winter means snow and snow is great, but only for skiing. When the kids were growing up we used to go to Colorado at least once a year and ski everyday. We usually spent Christmas week in Breckenridge Colorado then returned back to Texas to have a second Christmas day. I think it funny that the girls that live in the north do not go skiing at all and the girls that live here still go to the mountains now and then. Well Meaghan sent the following picture of Buddy that was taken today and all I can say is "It's fun having the first snowfall, then you watch it turn brown, have a little rain, mix that with some sleet, have a hard freeze and then call in sick so you don't have to drive in it". Enjoy it and tell me how beautiful and fun it is come the end of January.

Ho Ho Hiccup Ho

Caden went to visit Santa on his first Christmas and from the picture it looks like Ol' Saint Nick has been hitting the egg nog. I am including Sean's Santa picture that was taken last year up in The Woodlands, Tx and you be the judge of who's a better Santa.

On Darncer, on Blitzkrieg, on Darner, Victor and Ralph "Hiccup"

After seeing this Santa I started to believe again.

Go Huskies

Half my family went to Texas Tech and the other half UConn. Well, I tried to watch UConn play Pitt in a national televised football game but they forgot to show up. The announcer called their play "Atrocious", the Quarterbacks was superb, they attempted 31 passes and completed 6. Well there is always basketball.

Live Long Enough To Be A Problem To Your Kids

Many thanks to Jack Roberts for sharing this with us.

Go Caden Go

A little pre Christmas gift. The gang from Frisco, TX called this morning and said that Caden has a surprise for us. Here are the pictures of the surprise. It's time to start moving things up and out of reach.

Bob and Lorraine's Krishmush Kookys

Yesterday was, as I suspected, low key. There were however a few surprises, Colleen and Mark arrived at the house at 2:02, and the Carters and Calonico's came over for dessert and after dinner drinks. We polished off four bottles of wine, one Kahlua, one Baileys, some Crown Royal, Old Bushmill (Irish Coffee), vodka and Dewar's. Now thats getting into the holiday spirit(s). Our guests didn't stay long as they waking up at thee in the morning to take advantage of the "Black Friday" sales. Jill said she could save $100 on a DVD player, WOW. I told Jill I would give her the $100 so she could sleep like a normal person.
It's now on to Christmas. A very good friend of ours, Lorraine Cole, was kind enough to share a old family recipe with us. The Cole's are great people and when they aren't upsetting their neighbors, they are a lot of fun. Maybe in 2009 they can visit us. Thanks again for the secret recipe.

Christmas Cookies

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
Lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mix er. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup just in case.

Turn off the mixer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit, Pick the frigging fruit off floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just! pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Check the Jose Cuervo.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher

Give Someone You Love the Bird

GOBBLE GOBBLE !!!!!
Today will be very low key, Colleen and Mark are scheduled to come over at two (which means three) to celebrate Thanksgiving. Like so many other families our children split up the holidays alternating between their in-laws and us. As this will be a relatively quiet day it will allow us to mentally prepare for what is about to happen. While raising a family one needs adequate space to exist and when a person retires they usually downsize their home. In our case it was six people, now the number has risen to twelve. Our house is only 3200 square feet, so things at Christmas time will be a little close for a few weeks. Did I say weeks??? Ooops, I forgot to mention that we will also have about 200 lbs of dog running around. In preparation for Christmas I plan, starting today, on drinking heavily. HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!!!!

Back To Normal

Since the last full posting a few things have happened. The Madge has returned from Conn., rolled into the house yesterday afternoon, grabbed a Pino Grigio and asked "Where are we going for dinner?". Meaghan's operation hopefully will be a success and she has one more week on crutches, however she is getting around well enough to be left "sans Madge". Today will be Erin and Caden's last day here until Christmas, they have been here all week babysitting Cooper and myself. Thank You Erin, you've been a huge help. Colleen is up in Philadelphia today running in the Marathon, I purposely got up early to watch the start (no luck), watch the race (no coverage) and track her progress (not working). Good Job Philly. During The Madge's absence I booked another cruise, this time we are leaving from Galveston and I only have to pay for the two of us. Whew. We are joining the Kennedy's and the Calonico's (professional cruisers), and will learn the art of sneaking on alcohol and winning at the slot's.

OUCH, No Make That Double OUCH !!!

Tried to watch the Texas Tech - OU game but it got real ugly early.

De Boat Boss, De Boat

People have asked us "How was the Ship?". Well thanks to Mark who isn't big on family shots I now have 290 pictures of the ship and about 10 of the family. So for you people who are curious about the biggest cruise ship in the world (at least this year).














Now just in case you are family and want to see yourself