Christmas 2008

We had lots and lots of Christmas and Kids this year. We start on the 20th with Christmas at Oma's with Sean, Kelly, Tara and all of Elda's Grandchildren. It was fun, load and exciting. The kids all had a good time and get along great together. The little one's got a bit over tired by the end of the day but that's all part of the experience.

After that Christmas day was amazing with Gavin. He got a Little Tykes Car which I though he would have no idea what to do with it. Surprise he climbed right in (through the window) couldn't wait to find the door and opened all the rest of his presents from inside the car. Teddy's gift of a child's DVD player with a YoGabaGaba DVD was a huge hit. He watches it 2-3 times a day and returns to it frequently.

Then it was off to Grandma's house for Christmas dinner and more presents. Mike, Gayle, Erin and Shannon were there with Sue and Kate. There Gavin got a Tricycle with a cool handle for the parent to keep it all under control on the road. Dinner was a wonderful Roast Beef, good wine and the usual stimulating conversation.

Last but not least it was back to Oma's for a quieter present giving session with Elda, Oma, Tara and Nathan. Gavin had given up the ghost by then and we let him open his last presents the next day. Nathan still going strong loved his new Fire Truck from Aunt Barbara.

On Saturday we celebrated Dorothy's birthday with not one but two rounds of tennis with many of our friends and teammates from our mixed doubles team. At night the boys and I took her out for dinner at Bittersweet here in Aptos. Dinner was very good, and it was very nice to have some alone time with the two boys. We have missed that as Teddy has Gavin a lot of the time. We love our Gavin but miss alone time with Teddy.

On next Saturday we are off to San Diego to our timeshare club site there for a week. Looking forward to wandering Balboa park, the Zoo, maybe take the trolley to Tijuana. No real agenda just some relaxation and getting away from home.

Holiday Lighted Train

Last weekend it was Lighted Boats yesterday we did the Lighted Train ride from the Boardwalk through downtown Santa Cruz and part way up to Felton. The Hospital offers discounted tickets to this each year and this was the first year we took advantage of that. Edward had a great time singing carols and walking around the train talking with my co-workers and their children. I think he told everyone on the train that the tunnel in Santa Cruz is 900 feet long.

New things in the Blog

I have a list of sayings I like at the right side of the blog. Not sure that everyone sees these so I wanted to share two new ones I have added that are particularly appropriate to the somewhat crowded and chaotic life we have at home these days.

"Be careful the light at the end of the tunnel may be another train"

"Due to the current economic crisis the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off"

The other new thing I wanted to share was a listing of Audio Books that I have finished. Revel and I walk 2-3 hours per day. I have a new Zen X-Fi MP3 player and have loaded several books from LibriVox. The list is just above the listing of actual books that I have finished recently. Well that's about 5 new posts so I will stop there.

Harbor Lighted Boat Parade

On December 5th we went to the annual lighted boat parade at the Yacht harbor in Santa Cruz. Edward really loves this event and in the past we have been rained on, its been 35 degrees but we got lucky this year. No rain, temps in the mid 50's and some great entries. I hope that you can load and view the entry that I have at the left here. I am very pleased to see that video does justice to the boats. Still pictures just end up blurry and have never worked out well.

Projects Update

Those of you who know me will understand this post. For the rest of you skip to the next entry. There are two things in the workshop that bring me great joy. One is creating something like the trucks from scratch. The other is taking an existing project that has weathered, and looks down at the heels and bring it back to its original luster.

We spent a small fortune for solid teak furniture for the new deck. This is part of the reason. When you sand off the grey weathered patina, get a smooth surface and then apply a few coats of teak oil in 2-4 hours work you get an almost new chair, that now has a cover over it for the winter. (I don't really want to do this yearly). I love the results but the work is tough.

We love these chairs in summer and they are very much worth taking care of.

49er's 24 vrs Jets 14

Wait we won? We actually won? Ok so I won't get any metals for my being the most faithful fan but come on the 4-8 9ers taking on the 8-4 Jets. The team that stopped the Titans from being undefeated. Of the 42,000 fans there I am willing to bet that less than half thought we would win until about 5 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. At that point the 49er defence took over the game and stopped Farve (4) from completing anything. He had time but could not find a man open.

It was a wonderful, somewhat chilly afternoon. Mom, Elda and Tara joined me. We had a great time.

Had by a Virus

On Friday after thanksgiving, possibly secondary to our Internet shopping we were infected with several extremely nasty viruses. Our virus checking system was very much incapable of dealing with it.

I was able to fix our main computer only by formatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything. Fortunately our backup system was very good. Edwards computer was unfortunately also infected and I could not fix it. I spent 8 hours working on it then called in the pros. Geek Squad spent 6 hours fixing his computer, he lost nothing and the machine works great now. They were wonderful and worth the cost.

Thanksgiving 2008

We all went to Mike and Gayles for a wonderful dinner. We all really enjoyed Gavin who wondered from person to person all evening. Not sure that he ate much but he sure slept well on the way home.

I have to say that the sausage stuffing was my favorite by far. Gayles Turkey was really wonderful.

It was fun visiting with Erin and Shannon, amazing how they and Teddy have grown and starting to be adults. Erin has her own place now, everybody's driving. We are getting so old.