Christmas Day

This year we broke with recent tradition and stayed home. The last two years, maybe three, we had taken the girls to see a movie on Christmas Day. This year there wasn't really anything I was dying to see (not to mention the fact that I didn't feel like going outside) so we stayed in and watched a movie on DVD.

I picked Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp. Yeah, I know it is an old movie, but it is one I had never seen, but one I had always wanted to see. I think Johnny Depp is a brilliant actor and some of his early roles I think are his best. I thought it was hilarious. I was laughing all through it, Kris and the girls not so much. The girls didn't get it at all. And Kris hated the fact that it was in black and white.

I know Martin Landau was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal if Bela Lugosi, but I don't remember if he actually won it. I think he gave a great performance. Overall, I give it a B. the campy acting is perfect for the period, and Johnny Depp, I think, really nails the mannerisms seen in some of those old, schlock movies of the 50's.

Merry Christmas

Santa visited the Hahn house yesterday though with Kris working the girls had to wait to open their presents. Sarah didn't have much of a problem but Alison was bouncing off the walls. She went over every gift under the tree and separated hers, and Sarah's. She also made sure to count how many were for her and how many there were for Sarah (it was 11-4 by the way). And she made sure to let Sarah know it as well.

Luckily, Kris got home from work early so Alison didn't have to wait as long as I originally told her. Sarah's gifts consisted of a netbook set-up (which was the netbook, carrying case, and other accessories). Alison got a new nutcracker (more on that shortly), a couple of new outfits, a game (Sorry Sliders), a couple of Zoobles, a couple of DS games and a game for the Wii (Monopoly).

All in all, Santa was very good the the girls and they were very happy and grateful.

Christmas Eve

This year we went to spend Christmas Eve with Kris's family. It used to be a tradition but we haven't done it in a few years as people are getting older and have their own families. However, this year we went to a nursing home for Christmas Eve. Kris's aunt had a stroke around Halloween and has been in a wheelchair as her right side is still paralyzed. She has also lost her ability to speak. And a week before, Kris's cousin (the son of the aunt who had the stroke) had to have an emergency appendectomy. Boy, talk about some bad luck!

It was really nice, and just about everyone in Kris's family showed up. I think there was only one cousin who didn't make it, but then again they never make it. I am pretty sure Kris and the girls enjoyed themselves, and it was good to see Kris's aunt. It was hard to see her in that condition, but I think at least she knew what was going on and recognize everyone. I hope she recovers at least a little bit, though I am sure it is going to be a long road.

Last Day

Today was the last day of school before the Christmas break and for Alison that meant it was time for her class Christmas party. My holidays for work were the 23rd and 24th, so since I was off Alison wanted me to come to her school with Kris. Kris, as co-room parent, was helping run the party, so I figured I would go since I didn't have anything else to do. Besides, Ali asked me to come along.

Boy, talk about some controlled chaos! There were two activities the kids were doing. Making ornaments out of some jingle bells and pipe cleaners, and decorating Christmas cookies. Once they were done with that they played a game, and did some fun puzzles. But I realize that I could never have been an elementary school teacher!

Gingerbread House

As promised, here is this year's attempt at a gingerbread house for Christmas. We had a little problem in that one wall and one section of roof were cracked in half. Then the frosting included in the kit was hard as a rock, so we had to make due with what we had, and that was frosting the roof and using colored icing for the shingles. We ran out of pink icing and had to finish with blue. It was a patchwork effort this year, but it was all Sarah and Ali making it, I only helped to keep the walls and roof together.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning began bright and early. We were up around 7:00 and Alison was dying to see what Santa brought. Ali was hoping Santa would bring her the High School Musical House. For the past two weeks she was hoping and hoping to find a big box under the tree. When she came down and saw the tree, there was one really big box, and she couldn’t wait to open it. Unfortunately, Sarah was still sleeping so she had to. After about a half an hour, she had to go upstairs and wake up Sarah because she didn’t want to wait to open presents anymore.

Santa ended up bringing the HS Musical house, a couple of the HS Musical dolls (the girls needed Taylor and Chad), a couple of Gameboy games, a radio/speakers to plug her mp3 player into, and a furry pink rug.





Sarah’s thing this year was an iPod. She got the new, iPod Nano with a docking station/radio. She also got Guitar Hero II for her Nintendo DS.





The rest of the day was spent putting things together and loading songs onto mp3 players. I am sure that there is one “universal” program for all players, but I have been trying to use the programs that came with them, I think it is easier that way, plus I don’’t want to take the time to research it all. But then that means uploading the same songs/CDs to each player separately.

The past two years we had gone to a movie on Christmas Day, but this year, Kris wasn’t feeling good so we put it off for a day or two. We’ll probably end up going this weekend instead. I’m not sure what we’ll see yet, but the preliminary choice looks like Bedtime Stories. Check back for a review.

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve over at Kris’s parents’ house. Normally her family will get together on Christmas Eve, open presents, etc. but this year because of her dad’s troubles with his balance and walking, they just couldn’t go out, and since it would have been way too much work for Kris’s mom to get things ready at their house for the whole family, they just skipped it this year, though their family did get together at someone else’s house. No one told Kris and me about it so we didn’t have the opportunity to drive her parents there. In the end it was fine, because Sarah was still feeling the after effects of her cold, and actually still can’t talk. Hopefully resting her voice over break will help.



The girls’ grandparents got them a Wii system for Christmas this year. We let the girls open the game system itself at Bob and Carole’s and then when we got home later on they opened the other accessories. Hopefully it doesn’t cause too much trouble fighting over who gets to play what game, or who wants to play the Wii when someone else wants to watch TV.

Tree Trimming

As promised, here are some pictures of decorating the tree (note the grass in the window... that's under about 4 inches of snow right now)

Busy Day Again

Today was another busy day. I went to work for a few hours and when I got home I spent two hours doing some outside Christmas decorations. We don’t do much, just some lights on our bushes in front of the house, a grapevine reindeer, and a snowman on the porch. We have some small, grapevine snowmen as well, but after taking them out I couldn’t put them out without a little bit of work. The metal frames are painted white and they have spots of rust bleeding thru the paint. Plus, the paint that was on the grapevines is chipped and peeling off all over. Maybe I’ll make a project out of it after Christmas and touch them up with some rust-o-leum so we can use them next year.

The one thing I don’t like is running cords all over the yard. My short extension cord is about 3 feet too short to use, and I’m not about to go buy a new cord just to be able to get the exact length I need, so I settle for a coiled, bunched up cord along the side of the house. The other problem is that I have to run a cord around the back of the house. When the new garage was built, I had an extra outdoor outlet installed so I wouldn’t have to do that, but I realized yesterday in order for the lights on each side of the house to go on and off at the same time, I needed them to be on the same light sensor. This was something I didn’t think of when I was planning out the lights this year. Maybe I can still see about doing something because I really don’t want to have a cord running around the porch where someone could potentially trip on it.

After that was finished, we piled into the car to see about getting some stickers for the girls’ powderpuff derby cars. We didn’t get real creative with the design, just a plain Mustang look. They thought they could customize it with paint and stickers so we hit Michael’s to see what kind of stickers they had in the scrapbooking aisle. When we got back home we primed and applied the base coats. They are drying right now. Hopefully I can finish the base coats today before we leave for the Christmas Parade.

Christmas Time Again

The annual adventure of getting the Christmas tree up has been completed. Once again, I believe I have gone overboard with lights on the tree. Every year I tell myself I am going to tone it down, but yet every year it seems I use more and more lights. I will say that I am still under as far as the record goes (which is in the neighborhood of 2400).

This year we have 2050 lights on the tree, though I tell myself that isn’t quite the case as there are a few lights that are out here and there. That way I don’t feel so bad. We have to be careful with how long the tree is on because the heat from the lights will actually warm the room a degree or two.

After getting the lights on we spent a couple of hours unpacking/unboxing the ornaments and hanging them. The girls love this part the best, taking out their ornaments, hanging them, and then just looking at them. It really is cute to see Alison on her knees looking at the lights and the ornaments. The only problem is that we put the tree in a corner of the room so we lose about a third of the space of the tree because no one ever sees it. The result is that we have many ornaments that don’t even make it out of their boxes. One of these years we’ll figure out a good way to arrange the room that will allow us to have it more in the middle of the room so we have more actual hanging space for ornaments.

Pictures of the tree will be coming shortly, so look for them.