It’s not too bad for a 10-minute process!! Maggie is the only one not cooperating—well, that and the flash, since I had it set for three-pics-at-a-time and my battery was dying. But it’s still a pretty good pic!
And then when we were done, Owen wanted to take some pictures. So he took this one! (Basically he just pressed the button and the camera did the rest—but he was still proud!)
Santa’s beard is slowly filling up!
This is where Owen decided the Santa hat should go. 🙂
It was a really nice sunny day so it was time to put up the lights! YAY!
We had new lights this year—the icicle lights we had at this house before were long since dead—and of course, one strand wasn’t QUITE long enough (so two would have been completely too long) but as it happened, Tom had to restring them because he started with the wrong end (even though I told him so at the start!) so when he did, he adjusted them just enough to look good! I keep dreaming about lights on the second story, but Tom has said NO WAY—though if I want to hire someone to do it, go ahead. Let me tell you…I’m tempted!
Then I had to come up with something for the porch railing because the lit garland I had hung there other years had died (and Sam’s Club hasn’t had it since) so I used some colored lights that we used on the tree last year. It took a tiny bit of finagling, but I got the two strands to fit perfectly. I like the garland a lot better, but this works.
And the tree lit up…
This morning we put up the tree! Owen was GIDDY with excitement as Tom got the pieces out, turned the lights on, and put everything together. The tree isn’t as wide as the last tree, so it looks A LOT smaller, but it works with the space we have so it will do for a few years.
We try to only get Christmas ornaments that are meaningful—like from vacations, colleges, traditions, or our annual family Christmas photo. Sometimes they include favorite TV shows—for example, Owen has both Little Einsteins and Cars ornaments—and this year I bought the Tardis from Doctor Who (Tom has watched it throughout the years, but I just decided to watch it and got caught up on the past six seasons on Netflix over the last month or so). Owen has watched it with me, so he knows what the Tardis is…and was SUPER excited when I opened the package. We didn’t have the tree up at that point, so he kept asking where the Tardis was. So this morning, the Tardis was the first ornament he hung and now he runs around saying “The Tardis! The Tardis!”
Owen was REALLY good at hanging ornaments on the tree, too—except he wanted to hang them all in a one-foot clump. Also, of course, they were all hung at his chest-level! I eventually started pointing out where to put ornaments and telling him to look for a bare spot—and he did pretty well.
Lastly, we had to take the traditional photo of Owen kissing the Bear (I used to kiss the Bear when it hung on Grauntie Marge’s tree).
Owen has been WAITING and WAITING for us to put up the tree.
Yesterday he helped me clean out the room to make space for it…and his second question this morning after his usual “Where’s daddy?” was “Where’s the Christmas tree?”
This was the unboxing:
And this is him trying to wake up the tree (since we told him it was sleeping):
I wonder what he’ll do when we eventually get a REAL tree?!
He found the tiny Santa hat (from when he was a lot smaller) and was having a ball. We had also been watching a Christmas-themed Backyardigans, which I think is where he got the bit about the sleigh. Of course, I could never get him to wear the hat when it actually fit him…
We made the official Facebook announcement today…
The shirt is how we shared the big news with the Len side of the family (back on December 23, when this photo was taken)…
Official Family Christmas Photo:
Spur of the moment photo that I like better…
I like this spur of the moment one better than our official one this year…
Well, maybe not so much cooking as watching him separate eggs. Once Owen actually started “helping” (i.e. got his fingers into it), only one ended up down the front of the dishwasher and on the floor. :>>
Grauntie Marge got him some “magic” capsules that melt, leaving you with foam animals (<a href="like these
As soon as he saw the mini candy canes on Gramma’s tree, he had to have one! He picked blue…
Cute, but not nearly as cute as last year… 🙂
On our way to Michigan for Christmas, we made sure the hotel we stopped at had a pool… Tom said it was FREEZING but Owen still had a blast!
My how we’ve changed…
We had “Christmas” this morning (since Owen won’t know the difference) so Santa could give him the train table…and he LOVED it! (We were sure he would, but you just never know.)
He is also really into opening presents now, and thinks every wrapped present is his. Soooo cute!
Also, Owen is now in 5T pants. Some 4Ts still fit, but they’re a little tight in the butt and thigh area.
Lastly, we got a decent family photo in the first session of 20 pics! (And of course, Owen looks the best!)
And with his stocking!
Owen has watched his video about 12 times and keeps asking for “More Santa!”
One of Owen’s favorite ornaments is the Stargate SG-1 that talks and lights up when you press a button. And it’s loud. Over and over and over.
And he also still loves the Star Trek Borg Cube…so he’ll get both of them going at the same time (yeah, I mistakenly put them within arm’s reach of one another).
Linda and I put up the tree (no lights or decorations) while Owen was outside playing with Papa, so that when he came inside, he got excited and exclaimed “CHRISTMAS TREE!”
Then throughout the rest of the day, he’d walk by Charlie (who was laying in her customary spot in the corner chair in direct view of the tree), stop, look at her, hold out his arms, then swing them around to point to the tree saying “Charlie! Look! Christmas tree!” Adorable!
Grandma Linda got Owen his own chopsticks for Christmas…and he LOVES them. As soon as you get them out, he smiles and laughs—and he loves it when you click them together. He will even take pieces of food from you!
I dropped a puff (hey, give me a break—I was using my left hand because I had the camera in the other hand!) and he tried to give it back to me (the chopsticks)!
We went up to Grayling for the long holiday weekend. We went over to Kalkaska on Christmas Eve Day to have our Christmas with Marsha and Rob and then Christmas Day we exchanged gifts with Marge, then my dad and Linda came over for lunch and Owen time. Here are some of the best shots:
Grandpa Mike brought over a sled for Owen, in which he THOROUGHLY enjoyed being pulled around the house!
We were able to finally take him sledding outside later in the weekend. Cousins Isabelle and Gabrielle were there to help! Here are some of the best shots:
It was great being able to have the entire family together again (the last time was actually just in July, when we all vacationed together in Kentucky). Here’s the annual group shot and the Christmas shirt photo with a new inductee:
Since I always seem to lose the list from year to year, I thought this year I would try posting it on my blog so I KNOW where it is. 🙂
The results of the random.org list generator for Christmas 2009 are:
Filipek buys for Coe
Schwalm buys for Hudson
Coe buys for Filipek
Hudson buys for Schwalm
Marie is elated because this means she FINALLY gets a calendar. 🙂
So, funny story.
I am eating my Christmas Eve dinner at the computer. Exciting, right? |-|
It’s frozen crab rangoon, from Sam’s, totally nothing to write home about, but it’s somewhat tradition to eat hors d’ ouevres on Christmas Eve (mom and I started it a long time ago), and this was all I had in the freezer. (Tradition also includes a bottle of Tosti d’ Asti, which I forgot to chill, so I am drinking the next best, our favorite Moscato d’ Asti.)
So, I have eaten one or two rangoons with no issue. Then I bite into one and the thing splits open and crab rangoon innards go shooting across the desk and land—are you ready?—ON THE CAT. Oh my god, I thought I was going to die laughing between the actual sight of innards shooting out of the rangoon and the look of surprise? terror? on the cat’s face. Of course she didn’t want to lick it off, and made to leap away to try and run from it, so I had to grab her and clean her (okay, wipe most if it off and then let her do the rest).
There’s nothing like crab catgoon? cat rangoon? crab rangcat? for Christmas. 😀
This does NOT feel like Christmas. At all. In ANY sense of the word.
Obviously the biggest thing is that Tom isn’t here. And I’m not with family. And there’s no snow. And I didn’t even put up a tree. And my Christmas presents are sitting on the dining room table—how is that for pathetic?
It just really SUCKS because Christmas is my most favorite holiday EVER.
I’m not depressed about it or anything—it just does not feel like Christmas and that is weird.
Our Christmas dinner this year was at Port City Chop House—a premier steak house in neighboring Wilmington. I had actually been there once before, in 2004, for a Builder Appreciation dinner when Tom was deployed…and was eagerly anticipating returning with him. The food there is TO DIE FOR.
We started with a few bottles of wine and (I think) five appetizers, including two orders of Oysters Rockefeller, Baked Crab Dip, Sashimi Tuna, and a Crabmeat Cocktail. And more wine. And soups and salads (I had Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato). And more wine. I think everyone got some form of steak, and a few of us got Tide & Tundra, which included a Tristan lobster tail (I think the waiter said it was Australian), and it was the biggest lobster tail I have ever seen in my life!! I also got an Oscar accompaniment. And then we had more wine. And then four “desserts for two” including the Mile High Chocolate Suicide Cake, Colossal Carrot Cake, New York Style Cheesecake, and White Chocolate Créme Brulee. And more wine. 88| (At one point, I asked the waiter just how much wine they stocked, as we were on our [I think] fourth bottle of a particular Reisling and the waiter said they had one bottle left!)
Let’s just say the bill for our table of eight, with tip, was a hair over $800. We would go back by ourselves for dinner (chicken or pasta only) with no appetizers, drinks, or desserts!!
We had a great time, though—we exchanged our gifts and shared a lot of laughs. There are some pictures, too…but we won’t go there. Thankfully Jennie was our designated driver so the ride home was fairly uneventful (except when her husband gave Sue and John a bare moon doing 75 down the highway).
An online board that I belong to did Secret Santas again this year, and I decided to participate since I actually have become move involved with the board since last Christmas. There was a whopping 115 people participating—including quite a few I didn’t really know—so chances were I’d have to do some “stalking” to do to find [what I hoped] was the perfect gift. (Now, by stalking, I mean researching past posts that person had written, seeing what their interests were, and deciding on a gift.) And on a board that is heavily participated in with subjects of all varieties, this could have been a very lengthy process indeed.
So everyone was excited and counting down the days until the names were drawn! I got someone I didn’t really know, but someone who I had at least heard of and posted semi-frequently! And the stalking began! And as luck would have it, I found a great hint within the first 10 minutes of searching! I kept stalking, however, in the hopes I would find something better, but it never happened—and I thought “Why waste any more time on this when I already have a great gift idea?!”
What was it, you ask? What was the perfect gift? Well, it was pre-Thanksgiving time and there had been a few posts about casseroles—actually, I had started one asking something about the typical green bean casserole…and then due to that thread, someone else started a thread about casseroles in general…to which my person had replied, simply:
Yum! Not only do I like eating them, I like making them.
And from that simple comment, it was off to Amazon! As I tried to decide which of the numerous casserole cookbooks to purchase, it turned out my additional stalking had come in handy—from his comments on Riedel wine glasses, new granite countertops, and a recent visit to a trendy and expensive restaurant, I gathered he had a sense of refinement about him…so I went with the Cook’s Illustrated cookbook Cover & Bake (which I then proceeded to put on my own wishlist!) and a 4-qt Pyrex casserole dish!!
We’re not supposed to open our gifts until December 22, but apparently he has about as much willpower as I do sometimes, and he already opened them and emailed me to thank me—and tell me I did an excellent job stalking!!
Phew!
Now I just have to wait to receive my gift….and wonder what my Secret Santa is learning about me from stalking!
Everything went well in the city. We were able to get the shot up, which happened to have the best Bit Error rate yet (very little packet loss). The set up was easy at first, then the generator went down on us. We tried everything to start it. I ended up tearing the pull cord out of the damned thing. The infantry company that was there had a BAT team assigned to it and the Gunny in charge saved our ass. He had wired the building (that we set up in) with power from a 60k generator so we had power but no American plugs. The Gunny lent us a Hadji power converter so we could plug in. The next problem was that we were getting shocked like a mother when we plugged in the UPS. Not just any shock, like static electricity, but the kind of shock you get from a full-powered electric fence! Turns out that Iraqi power is not grounded! So we had to ground everything so we don’t die and the equipment doesn’t fry.
After that turn of events we had to run the wire. I had my marines get out a pick axe and start putting holes in the walls to run the Cat 5 cable–they had a blast! Typical marines! We had to do this while they were still BATing the Iraqis, what a mess with the men coming in and out, mud everywhere!
We then programmed the router and the BAT computers and started pushing the info from the Iraqis to the server at Camp Fallujah. I had taken the contractor out with me and he was impressed as hell at what we did and how well the network worked. We are getting better bandwidth than any other BAT system in Iraq, because it is a dedicated line. We ended up getting done around 3 and then had to wait for the convoys to pick us up to head to the FWD and wait for the next convoy.
When we got back I had the marines head to Christmas dinner and then clean their weapons, due to the rain and mud (they ended up getting into a mud fight). I waited in line for chow, fresh turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing gravy! To top it all of they were playing “It’s a wonderful life.” Not a bad Marine Corps Christmas. Sorry I couldn’t be there with you hugging a sofa with the family around us…definitely next year though! That was my Christmas in 2004.