It's Christmas Eve 2010 and we anxiously awaiting the arrival our the rest of our daughters. Colleen and Mark are already here and claimed the best guest room, Erin, Brad & Caden will arrive around noon and Allison will show up around six this evening. Meaghan & Sean will get here tomorrow around five and last but not least will be Henry (Allison's fiance) due to arrive noon of the 27th. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!! "The Madge" has been running around(sometimes four times the same day) stocking up on food and every time she goes out she comes back with another toy for the little guys. Her Christmas tree is still giving us problems but I have isolated the issue. She plugs it in around 5 in the afternoon and around eight it is totally dark. The following morning I fix the problem and await the tree lighting ceremony at 5, then at 8 it's black again. The problem is not from defective lights but from overloading the system. As previously advised "The Madge" has fourteen sets of lights ALL plugged into the same string therefore before the string of lights that is plugged into the wall completely melts down from the electrical load it is carrying, it blows a fuse. Rather than completely redoing the tree properly "The Madge" handed me 13 spare fuses and stated "These should get us through Christmas day". Well anyway on to part two of the Christmas card pictures.
The Madge, Cooper and "The" tree
Our Grandson Caden
"The Madge's" God daughter's twins, Morgan & Julien with their step brother Luc. 
"The Madge's" grand nephew Matt and wife Sharnee's boys Malachy & Ennis from Hopewell Junction, NY
My Grand Nephews and Niece, Ryan, Casey and Taylor, children of Cathy & Kirk Pritchard from Montgomery, NY
Good Friends Pat & Matt Warren of Stratford, CT
Emilie, Ellinor & Carl Peder, children of our friends Bente and Peder from Oslo, Norway
My Godson Bryan Orsini's children Liam, Bridie and Fintan. Bryan and his wife Erin hail from Union. NJ 
Friends Jason & Alicia Graziano's little girl Drea from Trumbull, CT
Long time friend Judy Colliver with Tabby of Anaheim CA.
Two old fools Dave Calonico and Joe Kennedy of Spring and Houston Texas. Is Dave grabbing himself or trying to hold on to the wild ride?
Friends Janelle and Gary Welchel of Baton Rouge from left to right son Chris, girl friend Jenny, Gary, Janelle, daughter Sarah, Sarah's husband Robby and Hannah the dog
Friends Stephanie & Scott Bridges' girls Ally and Maddy also of Baton Rouge, La
As promised these are some of the Christmas cards and photos we have received so far.
Our Grandson Sean
Lyn & Bob Stefans from Sugarland, TX with their grandchildren from Florida.
Nancy & Jim Eichman with their children Kelly & Kyle of Ridgefield,CT. in front of the ruins of either Italy or New York.
Sandy and Mark (Smitty) Smith from Sugarland, TX
Austin & Aidan, children of Suzanne (niece) & Earl Rush of Princeton, Kentucky
Ryan & Drew Neander, sons of Becky & Todd from Dallas, TX. Is it physically possible to fit any more happiness on Drew's face?
Kristin & Michelle, daughters of Janet & Steve Pankey from Wichita, Kansas.
Donna & Steve Blinn of Malibu, CA. with their sons KC & Steve's families.
Brigitta, Bethany, Von, Charlotte, Kai, and Milo (not in order) all the Grandchildren of Myrna and Bill Hanff of Greenport, NY.
I was wrong about the leaves falling, they are still on the trees. Typical Houston, temperatures were in the low 30's for two nights and High 70's during the day. Here it is thirteen days until Christmas and yesterday some golfers were wearing shorts and polo shirts. No complaints here though. "The Madge" just got back from Dallas where she hung out with Caden, Erin and Brad. Erin had chemo on December 9th, so until the effects REALLY hit, the women got in some shopping, lunch and dinner. Yesterday and today should be Erin's tired days, then a few more mending days and by next Friday she should be back to normal. One of the best Christmas gifts we all are getting is knowing that Erin's last treatment is December 29th, then it's a few weeks of rest until radiation starts.
So "The Madge" gets home yesterday and tries to catch up with some missed TV shows, then as the sun is setting she plugs in the Christmas tree. The next thing I hear is "Jim, can you take a look at this tree? Most of the lights are not working." She was right, about 85% of the lights were out and in light numbers about 650 were dead. "The Madge" loves a well lit tree. I mumbled a few things about throwing the all lights out and buying fresh ones each year or getting a smaller tree with a fewer lights.
As I mentally prepared myself to jump into this mess I remembered that "The Madge" recently bought a gadget called Light Keeper Pro that claims it will fix any and all the problems associated with Christmas tree lights. Here's the weird thing, after watching the "How to" video on the internet I went over to the tree and removed a bulb, put the socket in the gun, pulled the trigger and ALL the lights went on. This thing actually works. I don't know how but who cares? We were happy for about ten minutes.
Darkness fell upon us. Oh crap. I tried zapping it with this miracle tool a few more times but nothing. Back to the original idea of removing all the lights, throwing them away and replacing them with some brand new sets. As I started to remove them from the top I discovered something very interesting. "The Madge" had strung the tree with fourteen individual sets of lights and rather than run the light strings in a continuous string she decided to plug them into one area totally independent of each other. A giant common plug receptacle.
I wouldn't have noticed a problem but the plug connection was "warm" to the touch. The lights were actually doing their job by shutting down before the tree caught fire. We made a few changes, plugged in the tree and sang "O Tannenbaum".
Well the cold weather has finally hit Spring, Texas. The leaves are beginning to change color and will probably be on the ground or in the pool by Saturday, so much for a colorful Autumn. This is the time of year that my daughters are looking for things to get me for Christmas, so I will publish a list of my suggestions.
From Colleen, who thinks she knows her wines - Either a bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 or a refill for the pen she got me two years ago.
From Erin - Either a bark collar for her dog or a pack of printer paper.
From Meaghan - Either return the Coach luggage that belongs to "The Madge" or a battery for my watch.
From Allison - Either remove me from paying for her New York EZ Pass, it's only been 3.5 years now or a small box of SPICED ribbon candy.
Now if they really feel generous they could pool their assets and get me - Either a Sebring MX or a Hooyman 10' folding tree saw.
On a serious note, all I want for Christmas is for them and their families to arrive here safely. Just having them all here is the best Christmas gift I could get.
My cousin, Paul McAllister, from Maryland sent me preview of his family Christmas Card. Six daughters & husbands, fourteen grandchildren with another on the way, Ginger, his wife, and one new puppy. Can you picture Christmas day at the McAllister's? I don't think they open one gift at a time.
The Gods are smiling down at me. I hung one flier up and as I was duct taping it to a pole a man who was walking his dog said "I think I know that dog, his name is Rocky". He came to the house and looked at the pup, and he and "The Madge" walked over to the house where the man thought "Rocky" lived. Yipee, it belonged to the family and the woman told "The Madge" that there is a $40 reward, so "The Madge" gave her the $40. Back to normalcy.
"The Madge" is a proverbial Piped Piper, but not limited to just rats and children, she attracts all forms of life. Well last night she came strolling in the house announcing "Look what I found". A Boxer puppy, about six months, was walking in the house with her and it looked as though it was glued to side. The first thing we did was determine the sex, "The Madge" sighed it was another male. Hey wait a minute, this little guy isn't going to stay with us forever so what difference does that make? She said he looks as though he is suffering from starvation so she proceeded to give him a couple of dog biscuits, a bowl of food, a vitamin dog treat and a raw hide chew. This dog is a perfect weight and is in extremely good health, he is lean, bright and energetic unlike the rest of the males in this house. She soon realized that the more you pump into his body the more that came out. He is NOT housebroken. If she gave him two pounds of food then 1.999 pounds were deposited in various rooms of our house and were supplemented with a few quarts of liquid, always within a few feet of the loads. This morning after cleaning up a few gifts that were left by our new friend I quietly coaxed him out of our bedroom and took him in the backyard to hopefully empty his system. He will NOT venture on the grass and he calmly squatted on the patio to bestow his morning movement for me to clean up, this was followed by a couple of squirts on the patio furniture. Early this morning I have made fliers and signs to see if we can find his rightful owners. PLEASE CROSS YOUR FINGERS!!!
Not a nice day. The mashed potatoes came from a plastic tub, dressing in a box (just add water), gravy from a can, frozen string beans, and a pygmy turkey that tasted like a flavored inner tube. The biscuits were good and we had real butter. It's not "The Madge's" fault, it's just tough cooking a Thanksgiving FEAST for two. She does have a pie somewhere but I think her Pinot Grigio made her forget that she has it. It's just as well as I think it another frozen item. She didn't cook a lot but since neither one of us thought the meal was decent there are enough leftovers to last us the whole week. At least my diet will start out with me losing a few pounds by starvation.
This is the only place to store the meal.
Happy Thanksgiving 2010 to all our family and friends. We are still recuperating from our vacation and to make the transition from cruise to normal life worse we had to drive up to South Dallas to pick up Cooper our dog. Erin and Brad dog sat for us and since they were driving to Oklahoma yesterday to spend Thanksgiving with Brad's family it was imperative that we get Cooper. Off we went heading North on I-45 and met Erin, Caden and Cooper at a Macdonalds in Corsicana. Believe it or not we arrived first and within five minutes Erin showed up. Erin let Cooper out of the car so "The Madge" could take him for a walk, and within 10 minutes he was in the backseat of my car. "The Madge", Erin and Caden all went into the Macdonalds for a little lunch however "The Madge" ordered hers to GO. So the dog transfer, visiting our daughter and grandson, getting lunch all took less than 15 minutes. Oh well, we will see them at Christmas.
This Thanksgiving is a our first to be without any family. So instead of "The Madge" buying the normal turkey we will have a slightly smaller bird (see below). This morning I read that Angelina Jolie hates Thanksgiving so much that she took her family out of the country, she says it celebrates what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another. Here's a thought Ms Jolie, while you are "out of America", stay out. I have also included a link about the history of Thanksgiving. 
Our normal Thanksgiving turkey
Our Thanksgiving turkey 2010
Home sweet home. Our vacation is over and it's now time to prepare for our next trip in four months.
While checking in to board the ship we had to go through security, the agent asked me to place phone, pen, watch, belt buckle and anything else that was metal in a bin that would be put through their xray machine. He then proceeded to pat me down, I asked him what were they looking for and he responded "weapons". I couldn't resist and said "Where am I going after this search?" He told me that he hoped I was getting on the ship. "OK, once I am on the ship, I go to the dining room and order a steak, how will I cut the steak"? He looked at me and said "Sir, I am only doing my job".
Our room on board the cruise ship was probably the biggest and best we've had. Every night we had our friends, the Calonico's & Kennedy's, joining us on our patio for cocktails discussing what happened during the day and to make plans for the next day. Only had two days out of eleven of a "slightly" choppy seas but no one felt ill. "The Madge" spent many many many hours in the casino and if you ask her how she did it's always the same, "I won". What she doesn't tell you is she spent $500 to win $200.
Late one night she came into the room and fluttered about getting ready for bed. I only opened one eye just to make sure she was alright and went right back to sleep. While she was in the bathroom the phone rang and "The Madge's" conversation went something like this. "Hello." "Oh you want to talk to my husband." She then came out of the bathroom and handed me the phone saying it was for me. One o'clock in the morning, who could be calling? "Hello" I said. "Hello Mr. Murphy, this in the ships hospital and we just received an medical emergency signal from your room." "Is everything alright?" I replied that everything was fine and I had been fast asleep. "Are you sure everything is fine? Your wife said you pulled the medical emergency cord". I assured the voice that I was sound asleep and my wife must have pulled the emergency cord by mistake. "OK Mr. Murphy as long as there isn't an emergency have a good night". Now I was 100% awake but it was best that I did not confront "The Madge" with what just happened. The next morning when I asked about the pulled cord she casually waved me off. Thirty minutes later I had tied the emergency cord to shower fixture so high up that she would have had to stand on the shower stool to reach it. The rest of the trip the phone never rang.
The second day of the cruise she told me that she lost her "Ship credit card", so I asked her to go down to the guest relations and have them issue a new one. The woman said not to feel bad as it happens all the time. The NEXT day "The Madge" tells me that she can't find her new card. "It has to be in the room as you needed it to get in last night" I explained. "I've looked all over the place and can't find it" so I told her she better get another one. Later that day I went back to the room and found out MY CARD didn't work, fortunately the room steward was in the hallway and I asked her to open the door as my key doesn't work. Once the door was opened I noticed "The Madge's missing card on the cocktail table. The room steward said she found it "IN OUR BED". Huh??? IN OUR BED???? Why would "The Madge" need her room card in bed? Thought it best not to ask. Since "The Madge" was on her third card in three days they voided my card and now I had to get a new one.
There are other stories but it's best I don't tell you them now, but maybe over a drink or two at a later date.
Now for the pictures.
"Jewel of the Seas"
"The Madge" and Dave Calonico enjoying a cerveza in Colombia.
Kathy Calonico in Panama
"The Madge" in Panama
The Panama Canal
More of the Canal
Kathy Calonico and Kay Kennedy having refreshments in Costa Rica
"The Madge" getting ready for dinner on board the ship
"The Madge"
"The Madge"
"The Madge" being kissed by a Stingray
"The Madge" returning the kiss while Kathy Calonico watched. Hey Madge, no tongues.
"The Madge" and her new friend
Kathy Calonico and "The Madge"
Joe Kennedy hearing that his football bet came through
Dave and Kathy Calonico "We're number one in Italian" 
Kay Kennedy at dinner and I have no idea what she is doing. 
The day is over and so is the cruise.
The Madge, Cooper and "The" tree
Our Grandson Caden
"The Madge's" God daughter's twins, Morgan & Julien with their step brother Luc. 
"The Madge's" grand nephew Matt and wife Sharnee's boys Malachy & Ennis from Hopewell Junction, NY
My Grand Nephews and Niece, Ryan, Casey and Taylor, children of Cathy & Kirk Pritchard from Montgomery, NY
Good Friends Pat & Matt Warren of Stratford, CT
Emilie, Ellinor & Carl Peder, children of our friends Bente and Peder from Oslo, Norway
My Godson Bryan Orsini's children Liam, Bridie and Fintan. Bryan and his wife Erin hail from Union. NJ 
Friends Jason & Alicia Graziano's little girl Drea from Trumbull, CT
Long time friend Judy Colliver with Tabby of Anaheim CA.
Two old fools Dave Calonico and Joe Kennedy of Spring and Houston Texas. Is Dave grabbing himself or trying to hold on to the wild ride?
Friends Janelle and Gary Welchel of Baton Rouge from left to right son Chris, girl friend Jenny, Gary, Janelle, daughter Sarah, Sarah's husband Robby and Hannah the dog
Friends Stephanie & Scott Bridges' girls Ally and Maddy also of Baton Rouge, La
