In between Holiday Happenings

Oh goodness, I just realized I hadn’t posted anything since Christmas. I am sure my two fans are just chomping at the bit for more (yes, perhaps I’d have more fans if this blog weren’t so well hidden, and I am thinking maybe it will be OK to let this be less hidden soon). I've added random photos of the kids' gifts. The one at left is Beccano after following a ribbon to find his acoustic guitar hiding in the closet.

The days right after Christmas would have been a lot harder except I spent a lot of time at the yarn store on Friday and Saturday. Answering knitting questions makes it easier to deal with a lack of children to hang out with. No one was pleased to learn that the boys’ flight out of Wisconsin was canceled Friday. They were ready to come home, and I think their other family was ready, too. The flight was canceled again on Saturday, but the step-grandparents graciously agreed to drive them and their dad/stepmom to O’Hare, so they could leave from there. It was a long drive. Very nice of them. I know two very grateful boys.

Saturday ended up being OK, because after the yarn shop, Parker came by to visit Beccano’s new guitar and show us her birthday guitar (1992, her birth year, barely, since today she is 16), and we did the usual laughing our heads off at the Internets stuff, and spent a lot of time texting the kids at the airport. We even cheered Lee up, though I think the two days he spent running limbs through the shredder and cleaning up the back yard had him fairly cheery. Yes, we had an exciting week off, folks.

At right Tuba Boy shows his favorite gift, a huge external hard drive, which he really needed to hold all his tunes (he is using a very small laptop right now, and running out of space).

The kids straggled in after 1 am Sunday morning, but we were all up mid-morning to open gifts. We had our traditional cinnamon rolls from a can, and as usual, all the dogs joined us in the sitting room as we opened. It really was great to see the kids’ faces when they got stuff they didn’t expect. Tuba Boy was giddy over a gigantic hard drive Lee got him, and Beccano was visibly tickled at a guitar effects pedal from Lee, as well. It sounds like a ton of fun, listening to it. Even Jeff liked it—he has the same model. Beccano had fun following a ribbon to find his acoustic guitar, which he proceeded to play for the next hour. So, he must like that. Tuba Boy’s guitar is still not here, sigh. Maybe today…(nope, now schedule for the end of January, DARN IT).

Yes, the day was topped off by a reasonably nice meal (hint, giant potatoes take forever to bake) at which Jeff joined us. He really liked Beccano’s new guitars, and he helped Lee install the BluRay player. I am glad, because I would have been much less helpful. It was really a pleasant evening and a nice day, even if Lee and I were both vaguely depressed and not sure why.


At left, Beccano is cracking up because "Bad Santa" gave him candy cigarettes. I knew it would amuse them to no end, since they aren't around a lot of smoking, and I don't think had ever seen candy cigarettes. A lot of posing has gone on, and laughing at the horrid taste--cigarettes aren't even good as candy!

Yesterday was our one month anniversary (and we still like each other). I went to work, but came home in the afternoon, since it was deathly quiet, and I can proofread from home just as well. Not quiet at home, with the dogs erupting every time a child goes outside to play. I was able to give Beccano a ride to the first rehearsal of his new band, Triskelion (ooh) which is really Parker’s new band, I guess. He is playing bass, so we had to get the gigantic amp in the car. I am glad he’s willing to play bass, so he can at least get some group music experience in. And he sounds pretty good on it (there is a recording they made for practice on their MySpace page and yes, I still am not fond of MySpace). He thinks other friends are forming a band that he can be guitar person on, which would also be nice. After all that practicing, he really should play with others more. That is a skill you need to get!

My entire evening (and much of the previous day) was spent putting wedding photos into a rather nonstandard size for the digital photo frame I got my parents. In the end, I put in 363 photos. I had to lighten a lot of them, since it got dark during the wedding, and our new camera’s flash isn’t too great. That added to the time. But, hey, they have over 6 hours of things to look at now! I am going to make them a copy of the wedding DVD and send it to them, hoping that it is a good enough gift that they will forgive it not showing up at Christmas. While doing that, I did a very long online chat with my email friends, who were in multiple crisis mode—glad I was just a consoler and not a crisis-haver. And I was listening to Lee try out the new harmony generator that I ended up getting him at least part of for Christmas instead of fixing his guitar (I also got him really, really nice knives). I expect hours and hours of harmonizing fun with that. It is easier to sing with than I thought it would be.

I can’t believe I spent this much space writing about not much going on. But, honestly, it’s nice to have not much going on. Tuba Boy is working a lot and has plenty of friends to hang with. Beccano is doing music. Lee is harmonizing. I can do whatever I want. Not bad.