Today was a long but enjoyable day.  It started out at 8AM when I put in a half-day at work.  We then had our annual holiday gathering with my mother’s family at her brother’s place… a nice, spacious home with lots of spread out space for the pack of little angels to enjoy (ok… some not so little).  This meant ANOTHER feast.  However on Christmas Eve, our priest gave permission for all to eat as much as we like without feeling guilty.  We had a nice buffet of ribs, turkey, and all the trimmings.  However, what everyone looks forward to is Aunt Sandy’s spread of delectable goodies: holiday cookies, caramels, pretzels, and BUCKEYES… ooooohhhhhh, yummy.

While enjoying the feast, we caught glimpses of the Detroit Lion’s perfect season.  At one point, the score was actually tied.  But I thought why ruin a good thing and spoil the perfect record even if it was a perfect losing record.

Later, while everyone was digesting and in an attempt to corral the kiddies, Santa made his annual appearance.  You never saw a group of kids become quiet so fast.  Traditionally, the youngest starts and we make our way to the oldest (18 and younger this time, it seems the idea of adult gift exchanging had been ruled out sometime ago).  Following the tumult of the present giving, one was given to my second oldest brother, Chad: a scratch-off lottery card.  Reveal three like prizes and win.  When he revealed the prize, his reaction was rather ho-hum for the amount he had won. I mean to say, if I got a ticket that said I had won $10,000 I would have been jumping up and down, banging my head on the rather low hanging ceiling lamp ( I could have easily been decapitated if I did not watch where I was walking), and making my way to the nearest agent able to cash my ticket in…. meaning a three-hour drive.  Chad was more like…Whhoooppeee… rather low key.  Shortly after, he was asked to read the fine print on the back of the card.  GOTCHA!!! We all had a good laugh.

By the time the merriment was complete, it was 8.30.  I had planned to attend an open house that ended at 9, but unfortunately was not able to.

Friday night I again ventured to an evening of games and fun at our wonderful friend’s house.  In the early morning hours, I began to venture to my car when another game partier made it known that it was very foggy and offered me to stay over at her house.  I gladly accepted and while following the car in front of me to our destination, I was really glad I did not attempt to drive home.  Even this morning driving home at 10AM, it toook 30 minutes as opposed to the 10 it usually takes.

While the title of this post has only a slight connection to the topic, I wanted to post on the loss of a Catwoman who used up her nine lives.  Eartha Kitt played the feline pur-r-r-lunderer during the final season of the Batman tv series. In my opinion, she was not as captivating as Julie Newmar in the role.  Ms. Newmar and Adam West had wonderful on-screen chemistry that seemed to lack when Eartha put on the catsuit.  Aside from her stage and film credits, Ms. Kitt was also a famous singer whose rendition of “Santa Baby” graces the airwaves every hoilday season.  Most recently, she appeared on stage in National Touring Productions of The Wizard of Oz and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

I don’t know that I will have much time to blog in the next few days and I wanted to get this down. 5 years ago this weekend, I spent as much of the weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) with my wife. The two youngest were spending time at Grandma’s house (with Mom), so The oldest and I were back and forth taking care of the multitude of animals.

I really don’t remember anymore what we did on Friday or Saturday. Those days were lost in the many days traveling back and forth from home to Toledo. But the final Sunday I remember very well indeed.

I took my oldest in to visit (Again, I don’t know what day), and that Sunday my in-laws took my youngest 3 out for the day. I spent Sunday the 28th with my wife. We didn’t do a lot. She sat and did some word search puzzles and a crossword or two. I was reading various magazines and books. A nice quite time. Around lunchtime I found out that the movie The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Sarah and I both liked that movie, so we watched it while eating. We had Campbell’s Vegetable soup and some crackers. I drank coffee, she had some hot tea. She dozed on and off while watching the movie. When it was over she said she was very tired and wanted to get some rest.

She leaned on me walking down the hall, so she wouldn’t lose her balance. I tucked her in gave her a hug and kiss. She slept the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. The rest of the family came back. I took my 2nd daughter back home that evening. Late in the evening my wife went to the emergency room with breathing problems. Shortly after that she was transferred back up to the Ann Arbor Hospital.

That Monday I found out that the cancer had grown back to more than the original size. She had developed pneumonia. She had very little time. That night (early morning really) at 3:55 she passed away. That will be 5 years this Tuesday morning.

For the first few months, I would wake up every morning at 3:55. Then it was every Tuesday at 3:55. Then it was the 30th of each month at 3:55. Finally it was only on the 30th of December. I’m not sure what will happen this Tuesday, it doesn’t matter really. The memories are different this year. The anniversaries are more introspective than really sad and depressing.

Many things have helped over the years. Wonderful family, good friends, theater therapy and many other things. I’ve been lucky and blessed.

There is one other thing to mention. The night after Sarah’s death my three youngest were at home. We tried to welcome in the new year. Not a joyful evening, but one of shock. The thing I remember of that night is seeing all the girls in their mother’s Eeyore sweats. Bittersweet, yes, but again I remember feeling blessed with my daughters.

So this is the final entry of what happened 5 years ago. Starting the 31st it is the 6th year of being a widower, I have no idea were that journey will lead.

I was scheduled to go to my sister’s for a family Christmas dinner/gift exchange. Unfortunately, I am unable to go. I had the unfortunate luck to hit a deer on my way to work. I’m very sorry for the deer I hit, and my poor truck. While it is still drivable, there are some problems.

The inspection by the Highway patrol went fine, the insurance was no problem at all. This was the good part of the day

The passenger side head lights are out. The driver side seems to come and go. So no driving at night. So now I am sitting at home, and not going out.

There was also a game night scheduled at some good friends. After getting home, even with good lights, I found our back county roads very, very dangerous. I was slipping and sliding at 20 miles per hour and less. The rain that fell during the day made the road worse than they were this morning.

So her I am, sitting at home and blogging away…

Sigh….

Ok, going in, I knew it would be a terrible movie.  When Christmas With The Kranks came out in the movie theater, it was met with terrible reviews from critics, and its imdb.com rating is a measley 4.7 with over 7,000 votes.  So why did I want to watch it?  Two reasons – I wanted to watch a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve, and I had read Surviving Christmas –  one of the rare John Grisham books that isn’t legal fiction, “Surviving Christmas” months ago – I always like to see books come to life on the screen.  Well, ok, not always…  because Christmas With The Kranks was simply awful – even worse than I thought.

The story is about a couple of empty-nesters who decide to skip Christmas since their daughter will be out of town.  They plan to take a tropical cruise and go about getting fake tans and whatnot to prepare for their unconventional holiday celebration.  Not such a big deal, you’d think.  Except that the Krank’s live on a street that is famous for their Christmas decorations.  Every house is expected to put a Frosty the Snowman decoration on their roof every year, and so when the Kranks are preparing to leave town without doing so, the neighborhood is abuzz.  That’s it.

The novel was alright; it was a fun little story, and although it wasn’t one of the best books, I did get all the way through it.  But I can’t say the same about the movie.  We turned it off in the middle and I can’t say I missed the rest.  My main problem with it was the casting of Tim Allen as Luther Krank.  While reading the book, I kept picturing Luther as a crabby senior citizen, but Tim Allen made Luther more angry than crabby.  In the novel, John Grisham does a nice job setting scene of a small, close-knit community, but all that is lost in the movie, especially with Tim Allen involved.  I was shocked to read on imdb.com that John Grisham has casting approval rights for movies based on his novels.  Maybe that was established because of Christmas With The Kranks.  Well anyway, that’s enough time wasted on this movie.  From what I hear, it’s not the best example of a John Grisham book, but worth a try, I suppose, if you have lots of spare time and like to read.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t recommend the movie to anyone.

Our Christmas was wonderful, thanks for asking!  Our 8 9 year old and our 2 year old were awake first on Christmas morning, and they crept downstairs to see if Santa came.  He did, and surprisingly, they waited very patiently until Mom and Dad were ready to roll out of bed to open their presents.  Christmas Eve was a late night, and because we weren’t really being pestered, we stayed in bed until about 9:45 Christmas morning.  After that, it took A LOT of prodding to wake our middle daughter who is 4.  Believe it or not, even telling her to check if Santa came didn’t do the trick…  she was apparently tired!  Like I said, late night last night.

Finally she was awake and excited, so then the kids opened their gifts, and they were really happy with what Santa had picked out.  So happy, in fact, that they were really good during the day, and we had few fights amongst the natives – a rarity in our house.  Their favorite toys seem to be these large inflatable balls with handles that they sit on and bounce.  I guess Santa didn’t realize how annoying it would be to have 3 little girls bouncing all around the house 🙂

So what did I get?  My husband got me a game based upon our favorite tv show, The Office.  A good friend had gotten us another board game (with a dvd as a big part of the game) based upon the show, and so now we have both games – the complete set.  I love it.  I was looking forward to playing it all day, and it’s easy to see that the game is REALLY cool.  It’s different than your average trivia game; lots of added elements, making it a stand-out favorite board game.  But then again, we feel the show is a stand-out favorite.  My husband also got me a Snuggie – ever heard of them?  Snuggies are big blankets with sleeves, essentially.  That way you can do many a chore (or even fun things, like changing channels on the remote or blogging) while still being covered by a blanket.  We’re waiting for mine to arrive, and once they do, they will be an especially appreciated gift since our electric bill doubled between last month and this month – must be all those space heaters we were using to supplement our giant furnace because we thought our gas bill was too high.  Just wait til we get that bill in the mail this month… ugh.  At least it didn’t come on Christmas Eve like I was sure it would.

So what did I get for my wonderful hubby?  It’s lame I know, but months ago while I was still pregnant with our son, I found a picture frame that says “I get my good looks from my Daddy”.  I liked it immediately and bought it, and it’s ironic that at that time, I thought we were going to have a baby girl instead of a boy which would make more sense when it comes to the photo frame.  But then we found out we were indeed having a boy, and so I was able to give my husband the picture frame with a picture of our son inside.  A good gift, but I had wanted to get him something else.

I almost asked a friend to get something for him from me.  My husband usually wants-for-nothing, but this year, he did spy a few gadgets for his wish list.  Since he’s usually with me when we’re shopping at the stores that carry the items, I was going to ask a favor of someone to pick them up.  But alas, my plan was foiled when I told my husband (and the captain of our family finances) I need some money for Christmas shopping.  He basically vetoed the idea of me getting him anything, and I was under the impression it was mutual, that we were going to focus on the kids this year and not get each other anything.  But he sneakily got me some really good gifts, and I’m not going to let this happen again – I’ll be squirreling away some money here and there until I have enough to buy him a birthday present in June – HA!

Hope you and yours had a very Merry Christmas!

I’m not sure how the man in the red suit spends the day after his big flight covering all the good girls and boys in the world; however, I was almost certain that he was our truck driver delivering our stock this morning.  At about 7AM, my mother calls up the stairs informing me that I was to go to work as soon as I was able.  Moving ratherly slowly (I was up until 2 this morning), I made it by 7:30.  And what to my wandering eyes should appear but a rather robust man with a long white beard and white hair.  Instead of the red suit, the gentleman, Bob, had a flannel shirt and bibs and a light jacket.  We decided to have a bit of fun and Bob was all too gracious. He even asked what I had had to drink this morning.  I also recall a remark about a straitjacket.  For moi?!  Surely you can’t be serious. It sure made the unloading of 200 odd cases seem to fly by.  When we were finished, it was almost a shame to see him go.

Following the unloading, I asked our manager if she was surprised to see the man arrive 3 hours ahead of the usual time.  She informed me that he scared the living daylights out of her.  She saw the strange man who was not wearing the typical jacket with the name of the distribution company on it and almost thought he was going to rob the place.  She had the traditional deer in the headlights (HAHA) expression before he announced “Nash Finch.”  Unfortunately, I do not feel the need to carry a camera with me to work or I would have snapped a quick picture.  I am happy to say that the 3 hours I went in early allowed me to leave at 3 instead of 6.  The walk to and from work was quite interesting with the freezing rain making the roads and sidewalks a natural ice rink (AND I DO NOT ICE SKATE) but I made it both ways on my feet.

While searching for the perfect DVD to view on the new Blu-Ray (yes DVDs are able to be played on the machine), I decided to give Star Trek VI – The Undiscovered Country a long overdue view.  Released in 1991 (I remember seeing the film in a GOOD theatre setting while taking a break from holiday shopping in the city), the sixth film was the final voyage of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain James TIBERIUS Kirk.  I still say no one chews scenery better than William Shatner.  I was not disappointed in the experience as the space battles were given more punch and bang when viewed in high definition.

The tale begins when an important Klingon moon is destroyed forcing the empire to enter into peace talks with the Federation.  In short, the race has roughly 50 years of life remaining.  In a show of “arrogant presumption,” Spock volunteers Captain Kirk and crew to lead and escort the Klingon High Chancellor to peace talks.  In defense to Kirk’s bewilderment, the first officer offers an old Vulcan proverb: “Only Nixon could go to China.”

While the Enterprise leads the Klingon ship, the Chancellor is assassinated and Kirk and Dr. McCoy are found guilty of the crime and are sentenced to serve on the gulag Rura Penthe with no possibilty of parole.  Of course, the duo is eventually sprung from the penal asteroid and rejoins the starship to discover the truth behind the assassination and attempt to again begin the peace process

Several factors make this one of the finest Star Trek movies.  The plot parallels the climate in real world 1991: the end of the Cold War.  The veteran actors shine in their prospective roles and new characters are dynamically introduced.  Kim Catrall is introduced as Lt. Valeris who (as the first Vulcan to graduate at the top of her class at Starfleet Academy) is Spock’s personal choice to succeed him as science officer aboard the Enterprise.  Christopher Plummer is deliciosly hammy as the villainous Colonel Chang, a Klingon who is forever reciting Shakespeare either in English or the original Klingon.  Dr. McCoy becomes so annoyed with the outbursts that he would “pay real money if he would just shut up.”  Michael Dorn appears as Colonel Worf, attorney for Kirk and McCoy and grandfather of the security officer from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Captain’s Log, stardate 9529.1. This is the final cruise of the Starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun, and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man… where no *one* has gone before.

Today was filled with fun, excitement, hilarity, and chaos.  In short, a traditional Christmas at my home.  It began, for me at about 9AM after getting to bed around 3AM after watching one of the showings of A Christmas Story that is shown every year marathon style over a 24 hour period.  I have to sneak a viewing in sometime (usually after I wind down from the majesty and beauty of our late night Christmas Eve mass.  I still cannot understand why no one else enjoys the recollections of young Ralphie as he longs for a prized bb gun one Christmas season.  You’ll poke your eye out!  I triple dog dare you!  Pink fuzzy bunny pajamas.  A Chinese version of Deck the Halls and Jingle Bells.  And “OH… FUDGE”

Later this morning, I awoke to a few presents under the tree.  Then we tuned into the Disney Christmas Parade followed by some of the Christmas Bondathon (got to watch From Russia with Love which is not a bad two hours spent any day) before everyone else arrived for dinner at 2.  After dinner and connecting the parent’s Blu-Ray player, the 5 older children and I (child or not, you decide) spent 4 hours playing UNO Flash and a new version of Yahtzee.  I think more time was spent trying to get SOMEONE to play the new UNO game without breaking the rules.  I kept telling him, “You need to push the SLAP button and not the player button.”  Hilarity ensued as each of us in turn attempted to take our turn in the time limit before being buzzed.  Fun for groups of 3-6 players.  Sometimes the old games with new twists can be hit or miss.  UNO Flash is definitely hit.

Finally at about 9PM, the dishes were cleaned, the table put back into storage, and children ready to go home to play with the treasures Santa had given them.  I think i will find a movie with lots of bangs and whistles to test on the Blu-Ray player to run it through its paces.

We had none of the normal trappings of a Christmas dinner. No ham or turkey. No yams or potatoes. No green beans or corn. Not even a goose or pudding.

We did have family close and dear. Cousins and siblings, parents and grandparents. Good food, good conversation, good times. We met early and stayed all day. Presents were exchanged. More conversation, some more food, and a cup of coffee or two. More conversation, more laughs.

What did we have?

Homemade pita, Greek salad, homemade hummos, Kafta, Gyro meat, sliced vegetables, Grilled Kabob chicken. Yes, a Greek dinner. It was wonderful. And for our family it was completely normal. We’ve had everything from pizza to Chinese food for Christmas and other family gatherings. Eating new foods is a way to celebrate life and love.

Merry Christmas.