Christmas Get to Know Your Friends

Got this via email and thought it would be fun to post for you to see. Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? About 1/2 & 1/2.

2. Real or fake tree? We prefer the term "artificial tree".

3. When do you put up the tree? We aim for Thanksgiving weekend---but only if we'll be home for Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down? The rule is it must be down before Valentine's Day. Usually, I have it down around Martin Luther King's Birthday.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, thank you.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Funny thing---I don't remember all that many of my gifts. I remember keeping the big ones secret from my sister and watching her face as she opened them. However, I do remember getting a stereo when I was a teenager. It was my last gift and came in a dinky jewelry box. I knew I wouldn't get that stereo, but inside was the picture of the stereo waiting in the basement for me.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.

8. Hardest person to buy for? All of the grown men on my list.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmmm---I usually like my gifts.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Holiday Inn--in the original Black & White format. It's the real movie where the song White Christmas comes from.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 26---get it 1/2 off or more for next year!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? All the cookies, candies and other foods that create a 10 pound bulge.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Multi-colored on the big tree and purple on the all purple and white tree.

17. Favorite Christmas song? In the past few years, "Christmas Shoes" has become my favorite.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Usually already in Texas, but home this year.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph….........

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One (maybe) on Christmas eve. The rest Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The fact that it's Christmas, yet we aren't allowed to say "Merry Christmas" anymore. Happy Holidays is for the birds.

23. What I love most about Christmas? I love the excitement of the kids. I enjoy watching the wonder on their faces with the trees and lights. I also love it that they understand it's a BIG birthday party for Jesus. We even sing Happy Birthday to Him on Christmas morning over our cinnamon rolls.

Thanksgiving Dinner Pictures

As you know, we celebrated Thanksgiving by having lunch at Burger King (the kids had the play place to themselves and played for over an hour). We read the paper and went through the ads in peace and quiet. Besides us, it appeared that every other person in the place qualified for the Senior Drink.

For dinner, we had Village Inn (one of the few places still open). However, in my spirit of getting the best deal, I did have Buy one, get one 1/2 off coupon plus two free kids meal coupons. We tipped the gal well.

Here's some pictures of us at Village Inn. I wanted to get Rebekah's pretty Thanksgiving Day dress. Hope you can see it. (You can always click on any photo to see it in SUPER SIZE format).

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Got our trees up this weekend. Hooray! Here are a few photos of trimming the tree. We wore our Husker Red on Friday, but it didn't help in the second half.

Today, Rebekah had on one of her many Christmas Dresses. The last few are pictures of her by the tree. She's working hard at looking--not touching.

Tom Osborne's Mission

After the announcement this morning that Bill Callahan is no longer with the program, I thought some of you might enjoy seeing this photo.

While you're online, click http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/specialsection/citirosebowl/2007/index to vote for Tom Osborne as the greatest coach.

Finally, here is a new email I just received with the Gospel, According to a Nebraska fan.

And it came to pass in the land of Lincoln, in the kingdom of Husker Nation, that a man named Pederson arose to rule the realm of Athletics. For he was of the Kingdom, from the city of North Platte, and was a follower of the Huskers of Corn.

But he was not a wise man, forsaking the ways of the Husker Nation, sending the leader Solich into the wilderness, and turning away the warriors of old who wore the tunics of black into battle in ages past, even removing their portraits and pictures.

And in the place of Solich, he selected from the land of La-La a strange man, once known as leading a failed army known as Raiders to defeat after defeat in the grand Coliseum of the Land of Oaks, a city by the bay of San Francisco, a wicked city of Sodomites and practitioners of perversion.

And did this man, known as Callahan, become the general of the Husker armies, forsaking all traditions held dear to the hearts of the citizens. And a strange plan known as the West Coast Offense was forced upon the armies, and the proven tactics of old were called evil and sinful by Callahan. And complex and confusing were the plans in the Offense, and failure was the result.

And the Husker armies fell apart on the fields of battle, and adversaries from the Land of Troy, the hated Sooners, the powerful Orange Cowboys from the land of Still Water, yea even the despised Purple Cats from the wasteland of Kansas, did achieve victory after victory over the once-mighty Husker armies, and the wearers of the Tunics of Black.

And in the fourth year of the reign of Callahan, did the Husker armies struggle against warriors from a land where canning jars were made. And lo, the armies of Troy, the Tiger tribe from Columbia, yea, even the Orange Cowboys, did soundly defeat the Husker armies.

And it came to pass during the battle with the Orange Cowboys, in the presence of St. Thomas of Osborne and his brave soldiers of yore, that the members of Husker Nation did turn their backs upon the slaughter of the weakened armies of Callahan.

And a hue and cry arose throughout the land, in cyberspace, and on the program ESPN, for the removal of the failed general Callahan and his aides, and his master Pederson the Jerk. And the Chancellor heard their cries, and dispatched Pederson into exile. And St. Thomas was summoned by the Chancellor, and was given the power to rule in the department of Athletics.

And o, did Callahan wail and gnash his teeth, telling one and all of the fine works he had done. And his lies fell on deaf ears.

And there was great joy in Husker Nation as St. Thomas restored the traditions of old, welcoming with open arms the warriors of old known to the Nation.But there was a reminder from St. Thomas that no remedies would be quick in coming, and that time shall pass before the great Husker armies are strong and feared once again throughout the land of the Alliance of 12.

Even so, once again hope is strong among the faithful of the Husker Nation, and some day in the future the Tunics of Black shall once again be worn by the fierce defenders of the field.

Pick a Better Turkey

Here's to all of you who cooked yesterday. Since we are hosting Christmas and I'll be up to my eyeballs in cooking, Sean said we were taking Thanksgiving off. So BK for lunch and Village Inn for dinner. Not a piece of turkey in sight.

Happy Thanksgiving

Nathan had to write "I'm thankful for..." Below is what he wrote and how he explained it to his teachers.

Nathan said, "I'm thankful for God & Jesus. This is God (points to the right) and this is Jesus (points to the left). They are in Heaven. The reason you can tell they are in Heaven is because I used my yellow crayon to make the road. I don't have a gold crayon, but yellow is like gold, so I used yellow to make the road. This is because the streets in Heaven are made of gold. So God and Jesus are in Heaven."

And a little child shall lead them.

Info on subscribing to the feed

I added (on the left) a place where you can subscribe to a feed.

What's a feed? Good question. I did a little research and found out there's probably already a button on your internet screen that you didn't realize was there. It's the same shape with the 'speaker looking thing' as what is to the left. When you click on the link on my blog page, you can subscribe to my feed. Then every time I add a post to the blog, the button on your internet page will change colors to alert you to the fact that a new feed is there. You can click that button and it will open my blog into the web feed page. It's the same words/pictures/videos, but through the feed site so you don't get the pretty backgrounds like I have on the blog.

So for those of you who wanted to know if you could get emails when I update, I haven't found a way to do that just yet. But, I've found a feed and you can sign up for that if you'd like.

Robyn

Who pays the weatherman anyway?

OK--I made several errors yesterday. First off, I decided I was too tired to make it to the 10 o'clock news so I watched the 9 o'clock Fox news. Big mistake. First off, their weatherman irritates me just with his voice. So I'm not happy when he's talking. Then there was his forecast for snow flurries which didn't make me happy. But he assured all of us there would be NO FLURRIES until after 9am and stopping by 4pm. He also PROMISED nothing would stick to the ground because there wouldn't be enough falling to stick, and it would barely be enough to call a flurry, etc., etc., etc.

So at 7:30am when the snow is falling so fast you can hardly see, I'm a little extra-peeved at the guy. What was I thinking to watch him in the first place?!?!

On the funny side, Rebekah came crawling up the stairs after breakfast. Our friend Tyler spent the night and when she stops halfway up the steps, it made him a little more than a little nervous. After she stopped halfway up the stairs, she points out the front window saying, "Look at that!" She kept saying, "Look at that" and "What is it?" I told her it's snow. She tried saying "so" but kept going back to, "Look at that!"

I could only snap one picture of the "Look at that" that "didn't stick" (HA) to the ground before the three kids scattered. So eyes are closed, mouths are hanging open (yelling Snowball) and Rebekah is trying to figure out what the yelling is for. (Click the image and it will open really big for you to see.)

How do you S-P-E-L-L??

Andrew put a little note in his homework assignment journal. Guess who made it onto the Spelling Bee Team?? You got it--Andrew did!

The whole fourth grade took the written test and the top students did the oral eliminator. There were seven who made the team with one alternate. They will begin studying and go to the district competition here in town. (I thought they had to have one more eliminator to get to two kids, but the note says he's going to the district level.)

Now we'll have to begin to p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e our spelling.

Oh Nathan!

First off, the title, "Oh, Nathan!" My girlfriend Holly blogged that they find themselves saying, "Oh, Samantha" to their daughter all the time. I laughed at how cute it is that Samantha has so many antics. Then I started hearing how often I say, "Oh, Nathan." Hmmm--maybe that's why Holly's blog was so funny to me.

This morning, Nathan was trying(?) to be helpful. He woke up and got himself totally dressed---OVER his pajamas. I think he knew he was goofing around because he hid his clean underwear back in his dresser so I wouldn't see it. What a goof. Beyond the clothes (can you see the navy pj's sticking out?), he was wearing the Michael Jackson one glove and clutching his Dash PEZ dispenser (from the Incredibles) for dear life.

Big Girl Bangs

I finally did it. We cut Rebekah's bangs since they only covered her face all day. (She rips out every bow/pony/headband/hat/etc. so the hair just hung in her face.) Don't have pictures of the trim because she was sleeping on Sean's lap while I cut her hair.

Here's before (notice bangs swiped right starting to fall into the face, we're at the Box Tops Pizza Party at school)--

And here's after--

Tom the Turkey is Missing

This just in---only one week to Thanksgiving and Tom the Turkey is missing. We have unconfirmed reports that Tom has been sighted at Nathan & Andrew's school, but he is wearing a disguise. A certain Kindergartner admits he 'might' have helped Tom into a costume, but won't disclose any details. A reporter on the school news team stated that Tom is hiding to try to save his skin. He hopes everyone will consider a more humane Thanksgiving by "eating more chicken."

We'll let you know if Tom is ever found. We keep looking by the Kindergarten rooms, but no turkeys have been found.

Rebekah Speaks Out

Here is a video of Rebekah working on some of her new words.

Nathan's Grandparents Program

Nathan's teacher does a Grandparents program each year. This year, it turns out my mom was here (dad was hunting) so Nathan got to take a real grandparent with him.


Here's one of the songs they sang. It's "Five Fat Turkeys" and goes something like:
Five fat turkeys are we,
We spent the night in a tree,
When the cooks came around
We couldn't be found,
And that's why we're here you see.


They sang some additional songs and they made a 'treat' with the grandparents. Fudge Stripe cookies with frosting for the glue. Add candy corn feathers, a mini-Reese's cup for the body and a mini M&M gobbler for a turkey treat.


Grandma had a great time---so did Nathan.

Husker Fun Day

OK---I've gotten so many things in my inbox that I can't not share these with you. We're still Husker fans, but you gotta admit these are still pretty funny.

Where's the safest place to be during a tornado in Lincoln?
Memorial Stadium, they never get touch downs there.

This next one must be true, I heard it from a reliable source.
Nick, the guy who told me, has a second cousin who's ex-wife's new son-in-law is a janitor at the University Bookstore. (Told you it was a reliable source.)

Anyway, it's more than a rumor, but it appears Bill Callahan will not be fired. He will be resigning to take a new coaching position.

Bill was, as recently as last week, approached by the US Olympic Committee to come on board full time. It is further rumored that he will become the head coach for the illustrious US Bobsled team. After an interview with Olympic officials, they were unbelievably impressed with the manner in which Callahan is able to get a team to go downhill faster than any coach in modern history!

I also have a song to upload, but not sure how I can do it on the Blog. Will keep working and post it if I find a way.

Dancing Dog

OK--Rebekah just loves this You-Tube video. The dog and owner/trainer are amazing.

You may wonder why we're putting this one up, but you have to understand that Rebekah has increased her vocabulary by leaps and bounds just this week. She loves to see the dog because puppies say "Woo" (translated is Woof). Pigs say "nk" and cows say "ooooo". Ducks say "ack" and every moterized vehicle is a "tuck" (truck).

Enjoy the puppy--who says woof--dancing. (Imagine Rebekah twirling and waving her arms to dance with the puppy (woof).

Check out "Mah Moooves"

Nathan had a fantastic time at the Fall Festival at church. It's like a carnival on Oct. 31 to provide a Christian environment for the kids to get candy and have fun. This year, we had a no-talent talent show---what a scream! At the end, we all sang a song and Nathan was showing off his moves. Except he tells me (imagine a southern drawl), "I'll show you mah mooooves!"

So here are some video clips of Nathan and his moves. (First one is the longest at 30 seconds, the others are only a few seconds.) Oh--if you are wondering, I have his pants pinned in the back to keep them small enough in the waist for him. However, the pin must be coming loose because it's dance, dance, dance, hike the pants.

King Kong

OK--so on the way home from State Music Festival, it was lunchtime. We were hungry and pulled off to get a bite to eat. The kids beg for King Kong's whenever we pass it on the way to the zoo or stadium. So, we decided to stop there for lunch.

Their burgers are HUGE---check out the KID'S MEAL hamburger that Andrew got. We ate on it for a few meals.

Afterwards, we had to stop and get a family photo with the monkeys. What fun!