My Frakkin Blog!

Okay - finally - I was wondering if the frenzy was ever gonna end.  Well, Christmas and the New Year festivities finally ended today.  All the decorations came down and were put away.  The house really looks bare now.

Christmas was a big hit with the kids this year.  As stated previously, Ryan was really in to the whole spirit of it this year.  While I totally expected him to get us up at 5am - he actually woke up at normal time - 8:00 and then got us all up.  Mary’s parents came in and were staying with us - they were actually up before Ryan.

Anyway - he came in all excited about Santa coming and all the presents that were there.  Kylie slept through it.  After Ryan opened up a few presents - we decided we really needed to go wake her up.  She had a great time opening up her presents as well - but - she still hasn’t really figured the whole thing out just yet.

I spent Christmas day doing what I usually do - putting together all the toys that Santa brought.  With the exception of about a 3 hour break when Mary’s Uncle’s and Aunt came for dinner - I pretty much spent the whole day doing that - into the night.

But - I got a Wii from Santa.  After everyone went to bed and after I finished with the last of the toys that needed to be put together - I spent the rest of the night playing Need for Speed and Nerf N-Strike.  Wow - time really flies when you’re playing those games.  Before I knew it - it was 4:30am.  I had to just shut the thing off or I would have been up all day.

I spent some serious time on that thing over the past week - so - I wouldn’t say I’m burned out - but - I’m definitely over it and ready to incorporate blogging back in to the routine.

So - I hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Boxing Day, etc and a safe and Happy New Year.  I’m really looking forward to what 2009 will bring!

Also - I see that BSG will be on Jan 16th for those of you that are interested.  Unfortunately, it appears it will be the last episode of the series.  Bummer!

Yes - the countdown clock is getting closer and Ryan is almost over the edge - which, in turn - is about to drive me over the edge!  His excitement is getting so built up he doesn’t really know how to let it out other than running around all over the place, not listening, and just being a regular 4 year old in anticipation of Santa’s arrival.

Well - I had to pull the old “I’ve got Santa’s phone number” thing.  It worked for a little bit.

He was poking his little sister in the head.  I told him to stop.  He looked at me, then poked her again. Here’s how the rest of it went down:

Me:  If I have to tell you one more time, I’m calling Santa Claus

Ryan: You don’t have his phone number!

Me: Oh yes I do!  Every parent gets his phone number as soon as we become mommies and daddies.

Ryan: Right! What’s his phone number?

Me:  1-800-North Pole

At this point - he had that kinda cocked-head quizzical look on his face.  Then he decided to test it - he didn’t even take his eyes off me.  He just kinda reached out - then poked his sister in the head again.

Me: Okay. That’s it.  I’m calling Santa! (as I’m walking towards the kitchen to the phone).

Ryan: Nooooooo! (he’s following me now)

Me:  I told ya if you did it again I was calling! (picking up the phone).

Ryan: I won’t do it again.  I promise!  Don’t call Santa!

Me:  Fine.  But, I swear - if you’re mean to your sister again, I’m calling him.

Ryan: Okay.

I think that lasted a couple hours.  But, now - I only have to threaten to call Santa one time then he stops.

Okay - got them downloaded!  Here are just a couple pictures of the outside of our house, at night.

Hopefully, you guys can make out these pictures okay.

These are the best angles I could get.  I was thinking about taking these at twilight - but - wasn’t sure if the full effects could be seen.  I think I will try to take some twilight pix tomorrow and see how they look.

After looking at all of these pictures, maybe you have noticed the same thing I have  - it is noticeably dark on the right side of my home.  Looks like I’ll need to put up some more lights, at least on the right side of the house.

I’ve also noticed that the corner of the house, just behind the choo-choo train needs something else.  Mary has to work tomorrow - so - I told the kids we’d hit target or walmart and see what other kind of lights or light-up yard ornaments we can find.  They’re really looking forward to it.  In fact, I think I’m looking forward to it too!

Alrighty - got the first set of pictures to show you guys - these are from the inside of the house.  Mary is still buying things to put up on the inside - so - as she continues to add - I’ll take a few more pictures and post them up.

First - a couple different angles of the Christmas tree.  Also - if you take a look at the mantle to the left - you’ll see the countdown calendar that I referenced in an earlier post.  Also - you’ll see that mantle is very bare - well - long story short - while I was putting the Angel up on the top of the tree - I hit the mantle on the way up - which knocked down and broke all the ceramic figurines.  I owe Mary a new Manger with all the pieces, a couple Angels, and one Santa Claus.  Oops!!

I also had to repair the mantle - I knocked it loose!  Also - you’ll notice there are only two stockings - Kylie’s and Ryans.  We actually have 11 - one for each kid, one for Mary, one for me, and one each for the dogs.  But, we figured with a 2 and 4 year old - it would be safer this year if we didn’t put them all up around the mantle.  I would rather have had the stockings up - at least I wouldn’t have broken all the

And - here’s one of the steps.  Mary likes to collect different figures - here’s the beginning of them.  I’m sure there will be more by the end of this Christmas.  Anyway - this is the last of the pictures for tonight - I don’t want to overwhelm you all!

Also - you’ll notice a gate around the stairs - some of you may remember the whole Kylie saga last April when she broke her arm.  For those of you that are new - she fell down from the third step there and broke her left forearm.  I’m kinda lazy and don’t want to hunt through the archives to post it up here - but - if you follow the tags for Kylie - you’ll find the broken arm posts.  Anyway - that gate is now our and her protection.  She can’t get up the steps any more on her own.

Yup, feelin’ like a kid again!  I always do this time of year.  I think part of what is making this so exciting for me is the excitement that Ryan experiences every day.  We have a count down calendar on our mantle that we update every morning.  Actually, we let Ryan change it over.  He’s starting to get countdown fever - and - it’s catching.

Likewise, he’s starting to learn all the Christmas carols and he’ll just break out in to a song at any time in any location.  I have a tendency to join him!

Well, tomorrow I will finish putting up the lights outside.  I’ll get both daytime and nighttime pictures and post them up here.  Mary did a great job on the inside as well.  I’ll get some pictures of that and post them here as well.  I’ll try to spread them out a couple days so not to bog the page down with picture loading.

Anyway - how about you guys?  Anybody else starting to feel that buzz in the air?

Well, of course, what is the next thing that happens all around this country after Black Friday?  Yup - the Christmas decorations start going up.  Well, I always do mine in two phases (mostly because I only have one day a weekend to do it.) - Phase I is all the outside ground ornamentals and decorations and Phase II is Outside lighting and inside.  Mary always does the inside work and decorates the interior.

So, like I said, I completed Phase I today.  I will put the lights up around the house next Saturday.  So, rather than post pictures of a half-complete decorated house - I will take all the pictures next weekend after I’m done.  I’ll take some pictures of what it looks like during daylight - and a set of what it looks like at night all lit up.

So - if I actually have any readers who follow this blog - you can expect to see some pictures next weekend!  Now that there are some decorations up - Ryan is getting extremely excited.  Kylie likes the decorations - but - she still doesn’t have an understanding of it yet.

Can you believe it’s less than one month from Christmas already?  Holy Frakkin’ Cow!

Well - better late than never!

Mary had to work today - so - it was just me and the kids all day.  We’re actually going to celebrate our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.  The day is going to be quite busy.

Anyway - Mary tells me that working on Thanksgiving day in a hospital turns out to be the same as any other day - extremely busy.  I can attest that hanging out with the kids on Turkey day isn’t any different than any other day I have them when she’s at work - extremely busy!

We had a good time today.  However, I realized that this is actually the very first Thanksgiving where I did not watch any football games!  And..you know what?  I hate to say it, but I didn’t miss it like I thought I would.

Considering how busy tomorrow is going to be, I’m not entirely sure I’ll get back out here - but - we’ll see.

Hope everyone had a great  Thanksgiving.

Well - like I said, I took tons of pictures at Saturday’s concert.  I figured I would share a few more of them here tonight.  I have so many to share - but - I promise, I will spare you all!  I don’t want to be known as that guy that shows the vacation pictures every time you visit the blog!  LOL - kinda reminiscent of the old slide projector vacation pictures thing, eh?

Here’s the first one - this is Murray saying hi to the audience

And..this one is Anthony.  I’m not entirely sure exactly what he’s doing there.

This one is Sam.  They were doing Rock-a-bye Your Bear.  If you don’t know the history - this is the guy that took Greg’s place.  Sam was one of the Wiggly Dancers and Sir Singalotta before they passed the yellow shirt on to him.  Apparently, Greg became too ill to continue performing.  That’s too bad.  I really liked that guy.  He had a great voice.

And..this one is Jeff.  Ryan really likes him…especially when he gets to wake him up!

This one is Henry The Octopus.  He’s kinda creepy if you ask me.

And, finally, here’s Dorothy the Dinosaur

Well..that’s it.  Between yesterday and today - that is all of the Wiggles and The Wiggles Friends!  We really had a great time there!

Hi All - as promised - here are a few of the pictures I took at The Wiggles Concert this past Saturday. I’ll only post a few up here tonight - I’ll post more up over the week - I got a lot!

First up - We got one really happy and excited boy here!

And..if you recall from yesterday’s post - I mentioned that Kylie started coming down with something just as we were leaving…here she is at the start of the concert - she laid in my lap the whole concert

And…here’s The Wiggles coming out in The Big Red Car

And..then I got a really great shot of Wags The Dog

And - this last one here is of Captain Feathersword. He slid down these silk …whatever? As you can see - by the time he got to the bottom - he ended up head first…that guy is a nut!

You can also get a good look at just how close we were to the stage! Way to go Mary! She bought the tickets. Anyway - that’s it for today. I don’t want to fill up the whole page today with pictures.

Like I said, I have many many more - but - I’ll go easy! LOL. I’ll just post up some of the really good ones. And..as I said yesterday, if you have young ones and haven’t experienced it yet - I highly recommend catching a Wiggles concert when they come to or near your town. These guys are great and the kids just love them!

I promise to have the pictures up tomorrow and Wednesday.  This past Saturday we took the kids to see the Wiggles in concert.  Both of them were absolutely excited the week leading up to it.

First - I have to admit - we’re Wiggles Groupies!  This is the 7th concert we’ve been to over the last 2 years.  In fact, the very first concert we went to was over in Orlando.  Kylie was only 6 weeks old and Ryan was 2.  One year, we went up to Carlisle, PA for my 25th reunion - yup - we planned the trip so that we stopped in Richmond to catch a Wiggles concert on the way up.  We’ve actually seen them in 3 states! LOL.

The very first concert we went to - we were up in the nosebleed section.  We’ve actually become insiders now and we get early release tickets.  We’ve been down on the floor every time since then.  This time, we were in the 3d row from the stage.  Wait until you see these pictures!

Ryan had a really great time.  Unfortunately, for Kylie - she wasn’t able to enjoy it.  She was fine on Friday.  When it was time for us to leave, she was just laying on the couch.  We knew she was starting to come down with something.  During the whole concert, she just laid her head in my lap.  By Saturday night - we ended up taking her to the ER at around 10:00pm with a 104.7 temp.  Poor thing - they had to catheterize her to get a UA sample.

Apparently, she caught some kind of virus.  She was fine on Sunday - and - apparently, she was able to get more of that concert than we realized.  All she could talk about was The Wiggles and Wags and Dorothy and Anthony!  Mary took her to the Pediatrician today for the follow-up.  She was talking up a storm with the Doc about seeing the Wiggles.  So - while it appeared she was out of it - she did in fact see and remember a lot more than we thought.

We don’t have any pictures of the kids because they didn’t get out in the aisles and dance this time - but - I will put up some of the pix over the next couple days.  If you’ve never been to a concert and you have little ones - I highly recommend it!