Happy eve of the new year

Fresh and clean, we get to start a brand-new year tomorrow. Some people make resolutions. I have no allusions that I can just decide to make significant changes to myself.

For me, change happens because of something, not just my mind saying, "Dude, you should so lay off the brownies ... I mean, you ass is getting huge." There's got to be something else simply because my determination has A.D.D.

I know this. I don't pretend otherwise.

Determination A.D.D. is the antithesis of resolution making. So instead this New Year's Eve, I'll be cherishing this time with my family and my friends.

Happy New Year!

With a side of envy

Margaret and Bill are home today, like they were yesterday and like they will be all of next week.

It's a great relief actually, having Bill be off from school. Margaret doesn't have to go to daycare and she can spend the days hanging with her dad. Those two have a really good time together.

Bill gets stuff done around the house, but doesn't get hung up on the notion that if he's not engaged in some significant project then the time home is wasted (like I do). He enjoys his time at home with Mar ... and so does she.

Before leaving work for lunch today, I called Bill to see what was on the lunchtime agenda. He had already made my lunch as they were preparing to go to the movies this afternoon.

I felt a pang of jealousy and asked if they could wait for me to get off work ... I like to go to the movies.

I probably should have just left them to go by themselves, but I didn't and they happily agreed to wait a couple hours so I could tag along. And that's what's even more awesome about Bill and Mar, their ability to be flexible.

I have a lot to learn from them ... still after all these years.

Let it snow

Around 5 this morning, being sandwiched between Bill in his hot, fleece, "Surrounded by nuts" pants and wiggly, elbowy Mar was more than I could stand. Because I had to go to work in the morning, Bill got kicked to the curb ... OK, he really ended up in Mar's stuffed-animal-filled bed, but still ...

So it was just more insult to injury when I woke him up once again at 7:30 this morning to shovel the drive and get my car started, because it had snowed a couple inches over night. But because he's a good guy, he got up without complaint, donned his snow boots and threw a jacket on over his pajamas and braved the cold for me.

Did I say "good guy," because I really mean "great guy" — especially since the neighbor across the street made fun of his bright, yellow, M&M pants.

Here are a couple of pictures I took on my way to my nicely warmed-up car this morning:


To read about how we spent our Christmas Eve, click over here. Believe me, you wanna click ... my kid is either crazy or a genius ... or both.

Spoiled

Christmas has always been the most important holiday for my family and this is a tradition that I am trying to maintain.

In a normal year, we bake cookies to take to our friends and neighbors and have people over to celebrate. This year is not a normal year, but it was still important to me that we have a normal Christmas celebration.

Lucky for Margaret, Santa brought some really fun gifts. Margaret gave Bill and I two of her "published" stories from school — a wonderful gift indeed. Bill spoiled me with an iPod Nano (I've been dying for one of these ever since they came out) and we all got a bunch of really lovely gifts.

One of my favorite gifts this year was not something I either gave or received, it was a gift that Bill received from his mom ... these bright yellow, fleece pants:

with M&Ms all over them with the phrase "Surrounded by nuts" printed all over them.

Awesome.

Merry Christmas Eve

I've been out of town and away from the world of the Internets.

I'm back now and plan to begin posting regularly once we get through the holidays.

I'm at work this morning and posted a funny story about Bill trying to think on his own over here. Silly boy ... trying to do stuff all by himself.

Lightening the load

For the past two years I've been updating this blog five days a week, give or take a day here or there (omitting the week I was in Buffalo where they only had dial-up and a tree fell on the phone line).

I'm going to take a break for a while. I need to direct my attentions elsewhere.

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy new year.