The reason?

Every year we go through this. Angie does 95% of the Christmas shopping and I worry, fret over, and question just about every purchase she makes. I don't want to do the shopping and I don't want to pay for it either. I get so stressed when my already tight budget has to absorb the gigantic hit that comes at Christmas time, especially when it comes on one weekend! It's hard for me to understand why Christmas has to cost us so much. Who's jackass idea was it to give out so many gifts? That's not what Christmas is about. It's Jesus, man. We should be giving to those who need it most; not spoiled kids and their spoiled parents. I just wish I could practice what I preach.

On a lighter note: Angie's Aunt Carolyn sent us a beautiful comforter/pillow set. Thank you Carolyn!

Stupid Cattle

It's hard to believe that the long Thanksgiving weekend is already coming to an end. It's been quite enjoyable for sure.



Wednesday night, a few of the Troutslayers and I went out for a couple beers and to see the Tenacious D movie "Pick of Destiny". It was a good time. The movie is not for everyone, but I thought it was hilarious. I will see it again, just to pick up on some of the lines.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Everyone wrote a poem and we all read them right before dinner. It always sounds corny before hand, but it's very cool. After dinner we played a few games and had some laughs. This is the stuff that the kids will remember.

Friday was the shopping day. Angie had a list of stuff for me to get at Target when it opened at 6am. I got there about 5:40 and the line was already over 100 yards long and growing quickly. I decided to wait until the store opened and just walk in like usual. That's what I did too, along with a bunch of other folks. I felt bad for about 1/2 of a second when some lady yelled "you ought to be ashamed of yourself". I don't feel comfortable joining the crowd like a bunch of stupid cattle. Screw that. When the store opened, I went in. It was a fucking zoo. I got one thing on my wife's list. That was enough for me. I then went to Staples and waited in line at the cash register for 45 minutes. Karma.

Friday was the annual "Girls shopping weekend". Each year, after Thanksgiving, my wife and sisters get a hotel room somewhere and shop, eat, & talk. So, it was just me & the girls on Friday night. We went to Hickory Park for dinner. I had ribs and they were good. Not as good as Wicker's though.


Saturday was a relaxing day. Abby kept begging to get the Christmas tree and decorations out. Her consistency finally paid off and I got everything out. Now there's a big mess upstairs.

We went to see the Jolly Holiday Lights last night. Tina, George, and Jordan came along for the ride. It was fun to see Madeline so excited that she was clapping. I love that.

E. Viction

Friday, when I picked Alex up after school, one of her friend's mom came up to my car window and started bitching. I'm not going to go into details about what she was bitching about, but I will say that she was VERY immature about it. I wish I would have rolled my eyes at her, because that's how I felt. Then, yesterday, we had a conversation with friends about one of their children. Angie and I feel that these kids' every move is directed by their mother. Parenting is really hard and everyone does it different. However, I think it's important to let them be themselves. Kids will be kids. They have to go through life and experience it for themselves. As Angie said last night, "At least Alex is real". She is and I'm proud of her.




The girls and I just got back from a trip to Iowa City to watch my nephew in a school play. He did great and it was a pretty good play. The girls did good on the way out, but lost their minds on the way back.

It's going to be a short work week. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and and four days off. It's supposed to be warm too.

Riblets

I just finished watching an episode of the Glen Beck show. It was about how the radical islamists use propaganda to teach their children to hate Jews, Christians, and Americans. They showed a clip from a cartoon in which a terrorist had a bunch of grenades strapped around his body. He jumped into a truckload of Israelites and blew himself up. In the same way that we are raised to love each other and to treat each other with kindness, they are raised to hate non-muslims and to be martyrs. It's all they know. How do we stop that?

Sunday, Angie and I finally got to have real date. The first in a very long time. We went to Home Depot for paint samples and then to Applebees. I got a steak and riblet dinner. Bad choice. Don't ever get the riblets. There were way too many small bones. I was constantly picking bones out of the half-chewed food in my mouth. yuck. Next time I'll get the baby back ribs.

Buttons

It happens every year. The kids love it, but I despise it (sort of). We had our first snowfall of the season on Friday. I think we got about 2 inches in Cambridge. It was 80 degrees here on Wednesday. Crazy.

Angie showed Madeline how to sew on a button. That's all she wants to do now. She's pretty good at it too.

Bath time

A few months ago our "old" bathroom roof sprung a leak. For the past week or so, the local handy man has been putting a new roof on the bathroom and fixing the ceiling. I elected to hire someone this time because I wanted it done quickly. If I'd have done it, it would have been strung out over several months. That's just how I roll.

Anyway, the "new" bathroom doesn't have a tub, just a shower. With the "old" bathroom under construction, Madeline has had to resort to baths at the sitter's or showers with me. Tonight we decided to give her a bath in the kitchen sink. It worked great and she had fun with it.

It was nice today, in the 60's, so we raked some leaves and Abby torched them.