Blogging more

As much as I enjoy keeping up with people on Facebook and Twitter (and the few who are on Google+), I miss my blogging. The blog requires brain power that the others don't, like sentence structure and a reason to write, and maybe pictures, too. Flickr will upload to the blog automatically, which is nice and is encouraging me to do more with both. But the Flickr uploader is still clunky and working through its issues.

This has been an exciting year with some great adventures. We started biking outside, and I got a good bike for Christmas so that I can keep up with Jeni hopefully. Now we just need the weather to cooperate so we can get back on the road. In the meantime we've borrowed Tiffany's trainer so we can bike in the house.

We had a nice Christmas with Lisa and Brian and the girls. We went over and spent Christmas Eve and Day with them. You just can't beat being around small children at Christmastime.

Now we are gearing up for New Year's ... we'll be doing a Roaring 20s themed New Years. It should be a lot of fun.

Christmas joy

I know this picture is a little blurry, but aren't we all about this time of year? I still love this picture -- Gracie and Clara Ann feeding treats to Maggie and Josie after a matinee of the Nutcracker with the Columbia City Ballet. It is such a great show, and a Christmas tradition for us for the past four years or so. This was the first time for Clara Ann, but Gracie's third. Clara Ann did pretty good considering she is four and hasn't learned how to whisper real good. The show was a little more interesting for them, I think, because we know two of the dancers, and pointed them out to the girls early on. So throughout the show, it was "Where's Katie? Where's Alexis?"

We got some great pictures of the girls after the show, too, but that's kind of a secret right now...

We had such an amazing weekend last weekend too. We went to the Christmas DREAM magic show at Workshop Theatre (featuring the magic of Brandon Wagster). He is so talented, and a joy to watch perform.

Saturday we went to the lights at the zoo with a group of friends, then everyone came back to the house for dinner. It was such a great group of people to be around, and it was nice to have the house filled with laughter and joy.

Sunday was the Volunteer Holiday Party at Workshop Theatre, and as an added bonus our old friend Melanie was passing through town on her way home from Disney. She stopped and we got to spend about 45 minutes catching up and squeezing on her little baby and meeting her husband and other kids. There's just something about reconnecting with someone you haven't seen in eight years, and picking up like you haven't missed a beat.

All this happiness over the weekend has left me with a bit of a happiness high that has carried through for the week. Gifts are in the mail, almost everything is bought, except for a few little things for Jeni so she has surprises under the tree (which isn't an easy thing to do). Jeni's family should roll in tomorrow (just a little more cleaning to be ready). It's going to be a merry Christmas indeed.

It's beginning to feel like Christmas

Brr. It is cold here, and I don't say that often about South Carolina. But it is real cold -- whipping wind chilling you to the bone cold. I'm still sticking to the mid-weight coat.

The tree in the family room is up with most of the decorations on it. There are still more to come, just haven't had the time to get them on. Plus there's the smaller tree that goes in the foyer so people from the road can see we have Christmas spirit.

A good chunk of the shopping is done -- unwrapped still, but done. One more gift for the Dougs and that can go out in the mail. I just can't believe there's just one more weekend before Christmas. And it is chock-full, too. Fortunately I'm off next week. It looks like we'll be hanging out at home this year. Maybe we'll get caught up on things around the house. That's the plan, at least.

Last weekend we went to see the Nutcracker with Lisa and Gracie. It was so fun. This is the second year taking Gracie. She's 6 1/2 now, which is a great age for the Nutcracker. To make it more fun, our friend Alexis is one of the ballerinas so throughout the show Gracie kept whispering to Jeni, "Where's Alexis?" After the show Alexis met us in the lobby and Gracie got her autograph and her picture taken with her. Very cute. Gracie then went and got autographs from a bunch of the other dancers but no pictures with the boys, "Not the boys Mom!"

It's Christmas Time

Christmas is coming very quickly. Our schedule has kept us running in different directions so we have yet to put up our Christmas tree. But it is going up this weekend. My excuse right now is that the cable guy is coming on Friday to figure out why we're not getting a high definition signal to our TV in the family room and the tree would just be in the way.I think the signal strength is low, which was an issue with this room when we had Time Warner, too.

We finally have bedroom furniture on its way. We bought a king size mattress a while ago but have had just the hardest time finding furniture that we liked, that fit the space, or that we were willing to pay for. (Really liked a bedroom set at Crate & Barrel -- didn't like the price.) But we got one that we had looked at several times before, and it will be here Friday (hopefully not at the same time that the cable guy is here). Our bedroom is pretty much bare now as we moved most everything out. We'll finish tonight so when the furniture comes in they can get it put together and in place quickly and easily. It'll be nice to have everything matching and looking right.

The furniture also came with an LG flat screen TV, so we'll have all flat screen TVs now. Hooray for no more bulky, heavy TVs. Now we just need to get those old sets out of the house.

Thanksgiving visit

We made it up to Richmond to visit with Nanny for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful trip, and so nice to see her doing so well. Aside from using a walker, you'd never imagine that she was 92. She still has her wits and her sense of humor, and she is always such a joy to be around.

Mom, Dad and Kelly came down from Cincinnati as well, so we got to see a good bunch of the family. I got to go in a joy ride in Uncle Steven's 911. No -- didn't drive it. But wow! That car really corners like they say.

We've got some pictures that I'll try to upload soon. We got home Saturday evening and Sunday was a pretty lazy day. Between the travel and finishing the play it was just nice to have a down day. The problem with that is now it's crunch time to get the house put back together and get the Christmas decorations up. But it will all happen in good time, as it always does.

Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Story is on, it must be Christmas! This has become one of our favorite Christmas traditions, sleeping and waking to A Christmas Story...

We hope Santa brought you all kinds of happiness and joy this Christmas morning!

Beach bound

We head out for Gulf Shores this morning. We did presents yesterday ... we'll do a recap of the haul later, but we do have most all of Monk on DVD now, all of the Office and SuperBad, so if the writer's strike continues, we have good shows to watch. The coolant issue continues to perplex me, but this time in a good way. After waking Saturday morning to low coolant and signs of a leak under the car and a quick mechanic's checkup, now that we are in Mississippi our coolant is full, remaining full, and showing no sign of a leak. Now, I don't want to jinx anything, but right now it's OK. Go figure. Hope everyone is having a (relatively) stress-free Christmas eve. Remember, be good or Santa will bring you coal.

Down the road

Jeni and I made the trek to Jackson, MS today after a brief false start. The VW is losing a little coolant, but we got the OK to make the trip this morning and, nine hours later, got here. Fortunately we hit very little traffic, even with the construction around Augusta and Meridian. We'll be heading over to Gulf Shores, Alabama on Monday to spend Christmas day relaxing there and then back for my parents and sister to visit. We hope everyone is having safe travels and good weather as they travel and visit with friends and family this week.

Oh, and yes, Judy, you did paint that Santa, and two others we have out around the house. Wouldn't be Christmas without them.

"I have been very nice this year, but my brother...he's another story"

"I have been very nice this year, but my brother...he's another story"
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

Since I've been having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit, I decided to look through some old pictures. When I looked back at all these pictures I started seeing all the pictures of my brother Chris and I. Seeing our little Christmas outfits, sitting on Santa's lap, and pictures of my mom and my grandparents really made me start thinking of Christmases past.

One specific Christmas I remember was the year that we got our pinball machine. Not a toy pinball machine, but a full arcade size pinball machine. I know the name on it said Chris, but I'm pretty sure Santa made a mistake and forgot to put my name on it. (I got a dollhouse that year.) I loved that pinball machine. I love the smell of the wood when you would open the door to get your nickles out. And watching all the lights blink on and off as the steel ball would roll on. Or how the lights all went out when you tilted it. And how Fluffy loved to chase the ball all around. I can still hear the sound of the spring being pulled back, the smack of the ball, and the flippers clicking in my head. That was a very good Christmas.

I won't get all nostalgic on here, but it was sort of mixed bag of emotions -- I guess anything that holds such special meaning to you always is.

Dean and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. May the new year bring you joy, love, peace, and happiness.

Wrapping up Christmas

I can't believe after such a hectic few weeks that Christmas is wrapping up. We're about done with gifts, have a few left to wrap, and got the big stuff in the mail today. Unfortunately, that means the tree is looking a little bare now. We need some filler boxes to make the tree look better...

Christmas dinner

We had our office Christmas dinner at a Japanese steakhouse last night. Every year we go to the same place, it's a family tradition with my boss because that's where his father liked to go and with his father passed away I think it is a sentimental decision on their part. But I also think it's just a little nuts. I always feel rushed in and out by the restaurant because we go on a Friday night. It's so loud that you can hardly talk to the people sitting at your own table, much less to any co-workers anywhere else (heaven forbid you get up and try to talk to someone ... they look at you like you're in the way). And for what my boss spent on just a few of us, Jeni could have cooked for the entire staff (not that I want to put Jeni through all that again ... ). I just leave with the same mixed emotions every year. It's nice to see the families out and dressed up, but you're so isolated and herded through that it just lacks the feel of a true gathering. But I did get a decent meal...

Christmas tree

We started with the Christmas decorating today, with a little help from the cats. One tree is up and decorated -- the living room tree -- and the smaller hallway tree is next. The hallway tree has breakable ornaments so we'll have to be careful with these around the cats. We only lost a few last year, so let's keep our fingers crossed. If we can find a live tree that's the right size, Jeni would really like to put one on the front proch, which I think could look really cool. All the neighbors have started decorating their yards and houses and I don't plan on doing the lights on the porch or inflatables in the yard, but I think a tasteful tree on the front porch would look really nice.