Be The Pigeon

Everyone's doing it, so I feel like I must too. Here's a posting of some of our Christmas and Baptism pictures from the last couple weeks. I can't embed a slideshow here, so have to settle for the link .

Sometimes good fortune is upon me. Yesterday was one of those days. In addition to my eldest daughter's baptism (another post forthcoming), I was able to spend most of the day hanging crown molding in our newly completed basement family room. The basement has been done for about 6 months now, but I decided to finally make good on my "trim" plans since I'm off work and otherwise bored enough to go work anyway. When we planned and built the room, we wanted to set it up for watching movies properly. I ran several thousand feet of cables through the walls. Overkill? No way. I prefer the term "thoughtful." I can't begin to count the hours I spent down there just staring at walls in the middle of construction, pondering just how things should be setup. True meditation. I setup the speaker wiring with three different runs since I just could not determine which way I wanted to face the room. The solution was simply to run wires all over the place and...

According to Picasa, we've taken 170-something pictures this month. (Full disclosure, that extraordinary figure does include the gallant pictures of Kristen's salty noodles that Jo took!) Guess that blows the 11 from last January out of the water. We seem to take lots of pictures at this time of year. I'm just glad for digitals. They keep so well and don't cost much when Amy decides to take 29 pictures of the top half of her own head. I didn't really have a point with this post, other than I saw this picture and thought it needed to be posted.

12/30 update. I've been waiting for a photo to complete this post, but thought it worth sharing this gem with you while I search. OK, so I have an update on the White Elephant post below. I knew instantly when I received the lovely lightplate what I should do with it. Our good friend turned 40 recently and we attended her surprise party the other night, all dressed in black. I had to come up with the perfect gift. What a better birthday gift than a Michaelangelo's-David lightplate? But that was too normal, so I thought I'd spice it up a bit. In collusion with her sister, I was able to get a perfect picture of our friend's husband. A little crafty patchwork (yeah, that's right Carly!) and I had myself a much-improved gift! Once hubbie's mug was secured to the lightplate, the gift was completed with a clever card suggesting she could now turn him on or off whenever she likes. Ahh, sometimes pure genius just flows, what can I say?! Yeah, pure genius. Inc...

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. There's not much in the world that compares to watching children open presents. The look of delight on their faces says it all. It's a thrill to make any of their dreams come true. My wife is wonderful about planning a wonderful holiday every year. (I help in spirit.) We took lots of care this year to get gifts that would be practical and usable far beyond the initial one-week novelty. There is, however, one thing that absolutely DRIVES ME CRAZY about toys. I'm absolutely sure it's a conspiracy, one that goes all the way to the center of our Chinese-made toy industry. Have you ever tried to actually open a Barbie? It's impossible! Most dolls are secured more soundly than a terrorist in Gitmo. Some of today's treasures had numerous twist-ties, plastic retainers, and all sorts of slice-your-finger-open plastic. I love that stuff. In an age of suing over hot coffee and narrow toilet seats, surely I could win some ...