7 posts tagged “christmas”

I had to go down to our church tonight to lead the kids in some Christmas songs.  My brother played the guitar while I played the piano for some songs, but I mostly tried to lead the kids and keep them on tempo and on key.  The second part of that is the hard part, because I don't really sing that well.  If you ask my wife, she'll tell you, "He sings on key," but that is all you'll get from her.  I did my best to lead the kids through a few carols.  I was surprised how many of them liked the song Silent Night.  It is a difficult song to sing, and it is pretty slow.  I always liked the peppy Christmas songs when I was a kid.

After church I had a bit of a crisis: I could not find my cell phone.  I've lost my phone before, but I usually remember the last place I had it and I find it somewhere in the vicinity (Example- I know left it in my car and eventually find it under a seat).   This evening was different.  I knew I had my phone on the way to the church, because I called my brother.  I didn't realize it was missing until I was ready to leave.  I figured I must have left it in my car.  When I got to my car, I looked in the most obvious places, but couldn't find it anywhere.  I moved my car closer to the door of the church so I could more easily run to and from, because I knew I was going to be running back and forth looking for the phone (I had reached the point of "frantic" searching).  I ran into the church, gave some kids my phone number, told them to call it and went back out to my car to listen.  I didn't hear a thing.  I called Jennifer and had her and a friend from the church call at different points while I walked around listening for it, but still didn't hear anything.  At one point I KNEW I had left it in our church's office.  I had been in there earlier to make copies of the carols and I felt like I was forgetting something when I left.  When I didn't find it, I honestly started thinking about if I would be able to get new cell phone before Christmas (it was looking that hopeless). 

Getting a bit desperate, I went up to my parents, which live about 3 minutes from the church, and cleaned my car and went through it with a flash light.  I looked in places that didn't even make sense.  I had obviously gotten tunnel vision about the issue, but I just KNEW it had to be in my car. 

The only thing I could think of was to go back to the church and look around again (a exercise I felt would be fruitless).  When I got there, it occurred to me to look on the ground where I had originally parked my car.  I parked my car so the headlights shined in the general vicinity of where I had been parked.  I think I walked around less than 10 seconds before I saw my phone lying face down in the grass.  It had 14 missed phone calls. 

The funny thing is I was only maybe 20 or 30 yards from where the phone was when I moved my car.  I was so convinced it was in my car, I was probably tuning it out without even thinking about it.

What's the best present you gave this year?

Well, this is a tough one.  Just last weekend we heard my brother talking about how "The Village" was one of his favorite movies of all time, but he had never bought the DVD.  We draw names in my family and it just so happens that my wife had his name, and had been trying to figure out what to get him.  She drove around town on Tuesday looking for the DVD, but all she could find was the full screen version.  We knew my brother would want the wide screen.  So, on Wednesday, I ordered the DVD from Amazon.  It went out that same day and we got it on Friday.  I just love it when things come together like that. 

So, Christmas has come and gone, but the mess still remains.  This was Grace’s second Christmas, and she is nearly 2, so she got into it this year.  Christmas for us actually begins on Christmas Eve as we always go to my Grandmother’s house for breakfast that evening.  Yes, you read that correctly.  When I was younger, we would wake up on Christmas Day and go to my Grandmother’s house for breakfast.  One year, because of various circumstances, it was decided to go to her house on Christmas Eve, but to stick with the breakfast food.  So there is my family’s most unique Christmas tradition: eating breakfast on Christmas Eve night at Grandma's house. 

After dinner, we opened presents and Grace was really getting into it.  As a matter of fact, we sort of had to restrain her because she wanted to run around the room and open up everyone’s presents.  By far the cutest moment of the evening occurred when Grace's cousin (that is only a month and half older) stole a biscuit she was eating and she proceeded to chase him around the room yelling his name.   You had to be there to appreciate it, but it will probably be my fondest memory of this Christmas because it made everyone in the family laugh so hard.  Words really can't capture how cute and hilarious the moment was.
     
Christmas morning Jennifer and I woke up about 6AM and couldn’t get back to sleep.  It wasn’t from excitement.  Just insomnia.  We decided to get up and open our gifts to each other before Grace woke up.  I had gotten Jennifer a bunch of stuff from Bath and Body Works, a bathrobe, and a special edition of Scrabble.  I told her later I actually had a theme this year and that was to buy her stuff that would help her relax.  She got me a 30 GB iPod, which is what I was wanting.
   
When Grace finally woke up, we brought her out to the living room and got started on her presents.  Something new started.  I don’t know if it was because she had heard it being said the night before, but when she opened a present, she would say, “Oh wow!”  After a few quick gifts, she started wanting us to open boxes so she could play with what she had unwrapped.  We actually had a hard time getting her to open the last 3 gifts because she was getting so interested in everything she had already opened.  We got Grace a CD Boombox with some kid’s CDs, some JoJo’s Circus action figures, Mr. Potato head, Mega Blocks, a kid’s laptop education gizmo, and a Little People Circus play set.  Her and I sat around and played with her blocks and her Mr. Potato Head while Jennifer made Christmas dinner.

We invited Jennifer's Grandmother and Uncle over for Christmas dinner this year because last year they were all by their selves on Christmas Day.  The worst part of that is that her son lives in town and didn't bother to invite them over.  He's been sort of a loser lately.  That's a long story, but I wasn't going to let them sit at home alone this year.  Jennifer's family always made a big seafood dinner around Christmas time, so Jennifer decided to make a big seafood spread for our Christmas dinner.  She made crab cakes (Yes, MADE crab cakes), broiled salmon, shrimp cocktails, potato wedges, and broccoli.  It was all delicious.  It was all better then most of the seafood that I've ate in restaurants.  I don't believe I've ever mentioned that my wife is an excellent cook, but she is.

After her Grandmother and Uncle left, we went over to my parents and exchanged gifts with them and my brothers.  I got a Monty Python CD from my youngest brother, and the little bit I listened to was interesting.  I love Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so he must of thought I'd love this CD.  It is sort of weird.  I've only listened to a few tracks, but it was apparently recorded live and there is activity going on that you can't see.  You'll hear a lot of sounds like something is happening, and then people suddenly start laughing.  What the world?  Oh, and what you do hear doesn't sound that great.  The audio is pretty lousy.  I'm hoping there are some good tracks on it somewhere and that my brother doesn't read this blog (because it’s the thought that counts).

Live! At City Center

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Overall, it was a good Christmas.

Man, has this been a crazy week.  I occurred to me last night that I haven't gotten home before 6 PM a single night this week.  That's unusual for me, because I am usually home around 5:30 PM.  So what's been going on?  EVERYTHING.  Jeez, it's crazy.  See, I decided a month or so ago that with Jennifer being 3 months from giving birth, I was going to find a new job.  Yeah I know.  You see that dimly lit bulb on your Christmas tree that flickers sporadically every so often?  Just call that one "Matt" from now on. 

On Monday, I had an interview in Raleigh, NC.  I was really excited about the prospect of getting a job at this company, but we were stressing because we would have to move while Jennifer is pregnant.  The interview went pretty well, but it turns out that they didn’t feel I was "senior" enough for the position they were hiring for.  They seemed to stress on the phone that they really did like me and would like to consider me for other positions in the future.  Now, sometimes I'm sure stuff like that is said to ease over the rejection.  Maybe I am naïve, but I think they were serious in this instance.  It turns out the decision about me wasn't without controversy.  The CTO of the company (Chief Technical Officer – I guess) said that he wasn't sure the two that interviewed me had ask the right questions or spent enough time with me to gauge my skills.  Also, it sounds like one of the guys actually had a position that he could use me in, but didn't have the funding to hire me.  Generally, I just get a post card in the mail 2 weeks later if a company decides I am not right for the job.  The fact that I was contacted by phone and had this all explained to me is the reason I think they genuinely would like to hire me, but just don't have a place right now.  Anyway, I am supposed to get a phone call in a month to touch base.  The guy sounded like he was hopeful that things would change at the beginning of the year and they might have a position for me.  Turns out I decided I was going to wait until after the baby is born to pursue more interviews, so the timing may actually work out much better if I get an offer in a month or so.

We went down on Sunday and spent the night in Raleigh so I could get to the interview early the next morning and we could do our Christmas shopping.  Grace stayed with her grandmother, so we got to have a night to ourselves.  We did the whole PriceLine "name your price" deal and got a $50/night deal at the Hilton in Raleigh!  I couldn't believe it.  Even less so when I actually walked in the Hotel.  I felt out of place.  The room was much nicer then what I was used to.  Just inside the room there were hardwood floors.  The carpet for the room was different and had a square pattern.  The walls were painted a pale yellow and the room actually had an accent wall.  Even though we felt like rednecks at Buckingham Palace, we had fun and even ordered room service for breakfast.  

After the interview on Monday we pretty much shopped till we dropped.  We were amazed how busy Toys R Us was at 11 AM on a Monday, but apparently the Raleigh area only has 1 Toys R Us now, which seem odd for an area that size.

Man, that was just Monday.  There is no way I could sit her and type up about the rest of my week.  For one, I don't have the time.  We have our first Christmas Party of the season to attend today.  It is my mom's family get-together.  Secondly, it would most likely bore you to tears.  So, I'll just end this post here and hopefully I'll have a chance to post again before the weekend is over.  HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Everyone is talking about their favorite holiday movies, so I thought I would talk about a holiday movie I don't like.  This might be a start of a series: the worst holiday movies ever.  Does that make me a scrooge?  

I would like to kick off the list with a classic Michael Keaton film I love to hate: Jack Frost.  The premise of the movie is pretty simple: kid's dad dies and comes back as a snow man.  Sounds OK, right?  Well, it gets freaking depressing from there.  After this child has had to cope with the death of his father, and has finally adjusted to his dad being a snowman, Jack melts away and dies a second time.  So, the kid loses his dad, not once, but twice in the same freakin movie!!!  I recommend this film to anyone who desires to be very depressed. Congratulations to Jack Frost for being one of the worst holiday films of all time!

I was at Office Max this weekend and noticed they had a 1GB USB Flash Drive for $19.99.  That seemed like a great deal to me so I picked one up.  I am thinking about picking up a few more to give as Christmas gifts.

Blogging has pretty much taken a back burner to everything lately. I have a lot of things going on right now, and I am staying pretty busy. We are having Thanksgiving at our place next week. Originally we were expecting as many as 15 people, but it turns out we’ll be lucky to have more than 4 people (besides ourselves) show up.

I can’t believe Christmas as going to be here in a little over a month. Every year Jennifer and I say we’ll start shopping early, but we never do it. We wind up having to buy all our gifts in the last month. Neither one of us could really think of anything we wanted for Christmas this year, so we are talking about buying a new recliner. Our existing recliner is an eye sore. We bought the leather recliner we have about 5 years ago.  We had also gotten a cat not long before that, and we named her Piper. One weekend, we decided to go out of town and leave Piper at our apartment with our new recliner. We thought everything would be OK.  Up until then, Piper had left the chair alone. When we got home, we discovered that Piper had decided to chew the thing up from top to bottom. Yes, I said chew. When we first saw the results we assumed the obvious: she had clawed it. There may have been some of that too, but over the years we discovered that it was chewing that did the chair in. We got part of the chair reupholstered at one point because my wife was convinced Piper never messed with the chair anymore. Well, we discovered she preferred perfect leather upholstery. Once she had chewed it up, it apparently lost its appeal. I’ve kept the chair for this long because we put so much money into it, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it. Besides, it was ugly, but it still worked. That changed a year or so ago with it stopped reclining. So now its not only an eye sore, but it doesn’t work anymore.

Most people tell me we should have gotten rid of our cat when she chewed up the chair the first time, but we kept Piper until this past summer. She was getting meaner and meaner over the years and wasn’t adjusting to Grace. Piper could have been mean to almost anyone she wanted and Jennifer would not have cared, but when she started hissing at Grace, Jennifer turned on her. The only person in the world that loved that cat decided it was time for her to go. I’ll save the story of getting rid of her for a later date, but it involves an empty potato sack, piano wire, a cinder block and a little event we refer to as “dunking day”. I am joking, of course. We left her at an animal shelter and like to think someone fond of possessed animals took her home.