Is it the end of the year already?

Wow. Another year gone by. This one has been eventful, but overall a pretty good year. Based on my last blog post (in APRIL!), everyone knows I have a new son, now 8 months old. I think I also covered the fact that we bought a house. Shortly after the baby was born, I was laid off from Genesis, and spent about 3 months on unemployment and taking care of the kids. Since then, I've been working at Community Health Care, in the Davenport office. I stay busier, and have a lot more variety in my work than I did with Genesis, so overall I'm really enjoying my new job.

Once I started working again, Allison quit to stay home with the boys. She is also babysitting a 4 month old boy now, for one of her former coworkers. At least, she is when we can keep everyone in our household healthy enough to have the baby over.

We spent Christmas eve with the Mom, Brad, & Joda, visiting Grandpa Dunn's and Dad's houses along the way. Unfortunately, we were all miserably sick (especially me) on Christmas day, so we didn't make it to Allison's side of the family.

Connie just came up last night, and the boys opened presents from her. William has got so many toys now that I don't know how he'll have time to play with them all. Ryan got several great presents, including a project kit called Snap Circuits. It's basically a bunch of electronic components (transistors, resistors, diodes, etc) molded into hard plastic with snaps on each end. Using the metal snaps to connect various compoents, you can build all kinds of electronic projects. He played with it all evening last night, and loved it. He built a touch lamp, a radio transmitter, a motion detector, and a handful of other projects from the book last night. It's definitely a hit.

We also got a new TV this Christmas. Dad came up one weekend and helped me mount it on the wall and run wiring to a nearby closet to install the Tivo etc in. Mounting it on the wall was MUCH easier than I expected, and it looks great. We used some money we got for christmas to buy a Blu-Ray player, and it's installed in the closet too. Just yesterday I got in the remote control booster system I ordered, and tore some of the molding off to run wires to the closet yet again. At least now I can use the remote control while in front of the TV. For the last few days, every time we wanted to use the Blu-Ray player, we had to have one person in front of the TV telling the other person in Wililam's bedroom which buttons to push on the remote. FUN!

Tonight, it's New Year's Eve, and we're going to Michelle's for the evening. As I understand it, Tony has some entertainment planned for the evening. Then, another long weekend. It's going to be rough having to work a full week next week. Well, I think that about covers the last 8 months or so. :) Any questions?

Another weekend wasted, and it’s all Mom’s fault

It’s Sunday evening, the end of the weekend.  Tomorrow Allison and I will return to work, and Ryan to school to start a new week.  So, what did I do this weekend?  Nothing.  Well, not quite nothing.  I read.  Other than that though, I did nothing.  I didn’t even get dressed.  I laid around the house all weekend and read a couple of books by my favorite authors.  See, for Christmas, Mom bought be a new book.  It was on my wish list, had been for a year or more, so it was a good choice.  But the trouble is, once I start reading, I can’t quit.  If I get into a good book, then I want another, and another, and another.  So, I’ve been to the library 5 or 6 times in the last 2 weeks.  I picked up a couple of good books by Stephen J. Cannell, and a couple by J.A. Jance.  I also grabbed books from a couple of authors I hadn’t read before, including David Baldacci.  These are all excellent authors, and the books are all page turners.  They all write much better than I do, as evidenced by this post.  Anyway, because mom bought me a good book, I have been reading every free minute for the last week or two, and haven’t accomplished much of anything.  And it’s all Mom’s fault.

Oh, one exciting thing did happen this weekend… Ryan got to go see the Globetrotters today with his Grandma Connie.  He got a red white and blue basketball, and got 2 autographs on the ball to go along with the autographed T-shirt he got 2 or 3 years ago. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's now the very early hours of Christmas Day, 2008, and I find myself preparing to turn in.  Tonight was Christmas with Mom's side of the family, and Mom and Brad gave everyone their gifts.  To be quite honest, I'm not sure I could ask for anything more from Christmas this year, except maybe to spend some time at Dad's side family dinner tomorrow.  Still, even though I'll miss that, it's been a great holiday. 

Ryan received 7 new books from Mom tonight, from his favorite series.  In fact, 3 of the books continue a series he thought had ended, so he was utterly shocked when he opened the books.  On top of that, he got a few 'fun' things as well, including his first mini mag-lite. 

Allison got a gift card to one of her favorite Restaurants, plus a gift that I am still not even sure we should accept -- one of Grandma Dunn's Christmas ornaments.  You see, Mom has her entire tree decorated in ornaments that Grandma Dunn either made or painted (ceramics) over the years.  It's really beautiful, and I'm amazed that she was willing to share one with us this year.  It is really something special.

As for me?  I got several items from my wishlist, including 2 Alabama CD's, the 'Inspirational' album which contains mostly Christian songs performed by the boys, and the 'Livin, Lovin, Rockin Rollin', a set of 3 CD's with some of the great hits and a few never before released songs.  I spent quite a while paging through the book that comes with it, just reading some info about the Alabama boys I never knew.  I was really impressed with the set.  I haven't had the chance to actually LISTEN to it yet, but just reading the material, including background info about each song in the set, I love the set already.  Most of the songs I've already heard many times over, but there's a lot more to the set than just songs. 

In the morning, I expect Santa will have brought some great new gifts for Ryan, and then we'll stop by Dad's house on the way out of town.  We're heading to Galesburg for lunch with Allison's family, and then home for the night since I have to work Friday morning.  All in all, a busy holiday as always, but I can't remember one I've enjoyed more. 

Oh, one last thing.  Let me leave you with this link to a true Christmas classic, which should bring a smile to the face of most everyone under 60ish.  Enjoy this Christmas song.

An early start to Christmas

In order to avoid possible weather delays caused by this evening's storm, Allison and I left work a little early today to head out and visit family. Once we got to my Mom's house, I insisted that everyone there open presents from us right away. What can I say, I can't help but be excited to see others open what I've wrapped up for them.

So, Mom has a new Hearing assistance device which will hopefully help her hear the phone better. Allison was lucky enough to get a new Camera and a couple of her perrenial gifts, the Cookie Crunch candle. Ryan has already read 3 of his 4 new pocket adventure books, and is looking forward to playing the 2nd Edition Harry Potter Scene It game. Oh, and me? I scored pretty well too. I came away with the latest edition of one of my favorite book series (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader), Rascal Flatts Greatest Hits Volume 1, and an outfit for William that has tools down the front and 'Daddy's Buddy' on the breast pocket. All in all, a Very Merry Christmas.

And Christmas Eve isn't even here yet!

Is it Christmas yet? (Or, Gift Cards don’t make as merry a Christmas)

It’s been a while since I really found myself looking forward to Christmas.  For years, it’s just kind of snuck up on me, and by the time I was in the Holiday mood, Christmas dinner was almost over.  This year though, I’m actually looking forward to it.  I don’t think it’s because of the early winter weather.  Believe me, I’m plenty tired of shoveling the driveway already.  In the end, I think it’s because I’ve been doing more of the shopping this year.  Like most years, we don’t seem to have a lot of money for buying gifts this year.  Because of that, I’ve put a little extra time into thinking about what the best gifts are, and into searching for deals on the things I think people will like.  We won’t be giving out many gift cards this year, which is another reason I have enjoyed the shopping.  It is just so much more fun picking out a present for someone than it is giving them a 2.5x3” plastic card.  I’ve also been able to do the vast majority of my shopping without ever leaving the desk.  Between my Amazon Prime membership and free shipping promos from some other websites, I’ve been able to have many of the gifts shipped directly to my door at little or no extra cost.  It sure beats fighting the holiday crowds in stores!

There are a couple of people I have had a hard time buying for, because nothing really seems quite appropriate.  I might end up going with gift cards for them, just because I can’t find ‘the’ perfect gift.  For the most part though, I think I’ve got presents that really fit the recipient, and that they will enjoy. 

I spent last night wrapping some presents, and have more still to wrap.  Anyway, Allison normally handles much of our holiday shopping and most of the wrapping, decorating, and other prep.  I think by getting into some of it myself this year, it has really helped put me into the holiday mood earlier.  It’s great to pick out and wrap presents for people that are just for them.  I just can’t wait for Christmas, to see people open the gifts I’ve picked for them.  I hope they enjoy the gifts as much as I’ve enjoyed picking them out!