Author: Josh

Elise, Maly and I flew into Denver Colorado on Saturday afternoon to meet up with Steve and Joanne and Elise’s uncle Norbert (Uncle Nob). Nob was kind enough to leave his Tahoe at the airport for us so we could drive it to his house in Lakewood while he was still at work. The girls’ and my flight was a little late and Steve and Joanne’s flight was a little early in from Des Moines, so we all arrived at the airport within half an hour of each other.

Steve and I took a van to the parking lot to pick up Nob’s truck and install Maly’s car seat. We drove back to the airport, picked up the girls and then drove the 45 miles to Lakewood. When we got to Nob’s house, he was fast at work in the kitchen, cooking a roast, mashed potatoes and green beans. We had a great dinner and sat around the kitchen table and chatted. At some point, Nob asked if we wanted to see the grand tour of the house. We went to his bedroom, which he had recently added as well as his new living room. When we walked down the three steps into the living room, I saw an unopened Nintendo Wii sitting on the coffee table with a card propped up against it. I looked at the box curiously for a moment, and then I caught Joanne’s eye. Then I saw Joanne look at Elise and smile. Elise was looking around the living room, I guess waiting on Nob to start in on the details of the room. We all looked at Elise and giggled. She was totally clueless and soon seemed to be the brunt of some joke. She kept asking what we were laughing at. She finally saw the Wii and her card.

The Wii was Elise’s birthday present from her parents. Steve and Joanne then told us the hassle it was to obtain a Wii. I knew they were hard to come across and was very impressed that Joanne was able to score one.

Needless to say, we were up late taking turns playing the Wii.

Sunday was a slow, relaxed day. Nob played golf with some of his friends. Elise and her parents went to church and to the grocery store. Maly and I stayed back at Nob’s house and played and ate lunch. Later that evening Elise and I made chicken fajitas for everyone and then Nob, Elise and I went to the local ski rental spot to pick up our skis and boots.

Monday morning came early. Elise, Nob and I woke up at 6:30 and were out of the house by 8. We drove an hour west, into the mountains for our first day of skiing at Loveland. If you know me, you know I don’t like cold weather. And it was COLD. Luckily Marc and Cyndi loaned us their ski gear so we were well equipped. Since it was a Monday and Spring Break hasn’t started yet, we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves.

Nob went skiing while Elise and I took ski lessons. Elise was considered a Level 2 skier since she’s skied many times before. This was your humble narrators first time on the slopes, so I was deemed a Level 1. Since there was virtually no one the slopes, Elise and I both had private lessons. Bert, my instructor, was very impressed with how quickly I picked up how to snow ski. I think I can attribute that to good balance from years of Tae Kwon Do and water skiing. So after half an hour of flat land instructions, we were on the lift and at the top of the bunny slope. I’ll admit it: I fell. A lot. And I quickly realized that falling really sucks. It’s not so much the falling part as it is the having to get back up. So I quickly became an expert and falling and getting back up. And my muscles are still reminding me of this mastering.

Up the lift, down the slope; practicing my turning, stopping, falling and getting back up again. My instructor again praised me for picking up the sport quickly and said he thought I’d do great on the slopes alone. So at 12:30 I was given a slap on the back and left to my own devices and newly acquired knowledge of the sport of snow skiing.

I skied back to the lodge and met Elise and Nob for lunch. After lunch we bundled up and put on our skis. If memory serves me correctly, I had Elise go down the bunny slope with me a couple times, just so I could show her how wicked awesome I’d become and because if I were to fall and have to shriek like a little girl, I’d rather it be in the company of someone who knows me best.

Shortly after that, I found myself on a lift with Nob and Elise that was actually traveling up the side of the mountain. And this lift was going far up the mountain. Like, really far up the mountain. My wicked awesomeness quickly began diminishing as we were approaching 11,000 feet.

Being the trooper that I am, I followed as Elise and Nob exited the lift. Although not as gracefully. Elise and Nob both skied of the lift. I sort of waited a second too long and found myself having to jump 4 feet and land not-so-gracefully, while hitting Elise in the head with my ski pole. So we had a quick laugh and then quickly began making our descent down a green slope. Then we made a turn onto a blue slope called Switchback, which left me with my face down in the snow more often then not, and also very discouraged. We made another turn back onto a green called Boomerang which eventually brought us back down to the base of the mountain.

We made a few more runs, I stuck to the greens. Given my overall general good health, I thought that the greens were pretty difficult. Elise’s instructor as well as mine concurred that some of Loveland’s blues are considered ‘easier’ blacks compared to other mountains. So if that puts anything into perspective for those of you who have ever sno skied. Nob, an avid snow skier, admitted that these greens were difficult.

Anyway, after a few more runs, we called it a day. I was extra tired because of all of the energy I had to exert to pick myself back up each time I fell. We called it a day, loaded up and headed back to the house. We stopped in Georgetown on the way home to get some caramel cappuccinos and then to Target in Lakewood for some sour cherry juice (supposed to help with fatigued muscles) and finally to the liquor store for some much needed scotch (also for fatigued muscles).

We got back to the house and unloaded our gear. Steve fried chicken and we had a good, hearty dinner after a long day of skiing. I was bushed and headed for bead at 10 p.m. Everyone else quickly followed suit.

Elise, Nob and I again rose early on Tuesday. We were all mostly rejuvenated after having had a full night’s rest. We drove the hour west out to Loveland again. This time we hit the Loveland Basin. We had three great runs down Turtle Creek and Home Run. Each run was approximately three miles and allowed to get my legs working the way that I thought they should.

We broke for an hour and had lunch in the lodge. We then decided to take the #1 lift and take a run down Cat Walk and Mambo. I was finally getting really comfortable and was having a really good time. Which meant I wasn’t falling down nearly as much and was really honing my turns. We decided to take that lift again for a couple more runs. This time Elise and Nob branched off and took a quick run down a blue called Waterfall. We reconvened on Mambo and raced down the mountain. Nob barreled down, Elise was gracefully using the whole slope do descend quickly. I was trying to keep up with Elise…

I got a little over confident and found myself in a spot that was pretty packed and I was ascending faster than I was comfortable with. I turned hard to the right and I over compensated. It was my hardest wipe out in my many over the course of the past day and a half. I heard the snap and I yelled as my face landed in the snow. I winced in pain and knew something wasn’t right. I sat myself up as quickly as I could and as painful as it was, I removed my left ski. I think my right ski was already off from the fall. I quickly jabbed them into the snow behind me in an ‘X’ formation. Elise turned uphill and saw that I was hurt. She took off her skis and started the trek uphill to me. The snow patrol quickly skied up and radioed for a snow mobile to pick me up.

I was taken to the infirmary where my ankle was iced and they medic made a make-shift splint out of cardboard, bubble wrap and tape. The offered to have an ambulance take me to the ER, but I opted to just ride back to Lakewood with Nob and Elise.

An hour and a half at the local emergency care clinic to find that I’d broken my ankle.

So as I write this I have a temporary cast that has my left leg immobilized. I have a 9 a.m. orthopedic appointment tomorrow to see if we can just set the break with a cast, or find out that I’ll need surgery.

But I’ve found many silver linings: I can get in tons of practice playing tennis on the Wii, we can park in handicap parking spots everywhere we go and most importantly, even before Elise asked the question, I had already decided that I will snow ski again.

I bought Elise a new (to us) crossover on Friday. It’s one of those crossovers that looks like, what I’ve coined as, a “spacionwagon”. It’s the vehicle that if I were in the marketing meeting when they were brainstorming on design names, I would have gleefully chimed in with, “spacionwagon!”, and Paula, the intern, would have said, “how about ‘crossover?’ And I would have then given Paula the evil eye and would no longer say hello to her in the breakroom.

The Spacionwagon is the stationwagon of the future — you know, like from outer space. I always laughed at them and their bubbly form in the past. And now we’re proud owners of one. I do have to admit, however, it’s a pretty sweet ride and I’m sure Elise and Maly will enjoy it.

I had the luxury of driving Elise’s newly purchased vehicle home from the dealer on Friday night. I reveled in the style and handling. I was alone on the road with Elise and Maly miles behind me in our soon-to-be sold SUV.

In one of many quiet moments, I remembered something my Dad once said. It was at some point in the late 80’s when Dad commented on the then-influx of minivans. He said, “The more of those things they make, the more they look like suppositories.”

Well it looks like we’re going to be plunking down some coin this week on a new (to us) used vehicle. Elise went to the credit union yesterday and got pre-approved for an auto loan. She drove to Waco this afternoon to check out a model that she likes. She’s pretty much sold on buying this particular crossover, but still wanted to test drive a few more.

So tonight she left shortly after dinner to go to the local Carmax dealer to test drive other vehicles in an effort to persuade herself that she needs to shop even more. Maly immediately picked up on the fact that Mommy was going bye bye. She flipped out as Elise left through the front door. Luckily she was easily distracted by me with a game of chase and then a bath.

We did our usually nighttime ritual. Upon reading a couple books together and while she stood by the bookshelf, Maly asked, “Mommy book?” To which I responded, “Mommy went bye bye, but she’ll be back.”

And then I had to see THAT FACE again. She puckered her bottom lip and her eyebrows fell as did her little heart. The only thing I could muster was, “Awww, Sugar, Mommy will be back. She’s coming back.”

Maly ran to me, threw her arms around me, put her head on my should and cried. It was a heartbreaking moment.

After the sobbing stopped, I told her we were going to rock-rock and then go night-night. With her head still on my shoulders, we stood up and I turned of the light. We sat in the rocking chair and rocked. I attempted to recreate the Mommy-Maly nighttime ritual by singing to my daughter.

I couldn’t think of anything to sing other than this:

Hush little Maly, don’t say a word,
Daddy’s going to buy you a mocking bird.
And if that mocking bird don’t sing,
Daddy’s going to buy you a diamond ring.
And if that diamond ring don’t shine,
Daddy’s going to buy you something with even more bling.
And if that more bling ain’t blingin’ enough,
Daddy’s going to buy you a truck built Ford tough.
And if that truck ain’t built Ford tough,
Daddy’s going to buy you a…

And she then pulled her right hand from its spot on the back of my neck and put it right on my mouth, in a very deliberate motion to quiet my song, all while her head still rested on my shoulder.

I thought for a second that maybe it was just her wanting to change the position of her hand, so I restarted my song.

She immediately put her hand over my mouth again. Without having to say it verbally, she pretty much said, “Dad, shut up. You sing terribly.”

It’s looking like we’re going to leave the singing up to Mommy.

Today I sent in my Health History Questionnaire as I was informed that I could be a potential bone marrow donor for a man who has Myelodysplastic Syndrome. Six years ago I decided to submit a blood sample during one of my countless blood donor sessions to be part of the National Marrow Donor Program. The Scott & White Center for Cancer Prevention & Care contacted me to inform me that I could be a potential match. I hate to think of someone sick in the hospital, just waiting on a match.

On a more positive note, I have a new buddy in Prague. He found Janicek.com after watching a documentary on Texas and the name Janíček was mentioned. He and I have since exchanged a few emails and I’m really excited to have a pen pal in the mother land!

Elise left last night at 10:30 for Luling so she could get a hotel room and be ready bright and early for a photo shoot with Marc. I woke up bright-eyed today and did my usual morning ritual. I heard Maly playing in her crib a little before 8. Riley and I went into her room. Immediately she asked, “Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?”

I told her that Mommy was on a photo shoot and would be back tonight for dinner. I told her a couple jokes, played with Riley, made some funny faces and eventually got Maly into a really happy mood. I then picked her up out of her crib and we started our day. We changed a diaper, ate a banana and and a tangerine, and put on camo cargo pants and Maly’s favorite pink UT jersey.

Then we went back into her room and read her Gossi the Gossling book, which we’re using as a tool to learn how to share. It was then that Carla pulled into the driveway. The driveway can be seen in plain view from Maly’s room. Carla is our nanny that we used a few weeks ago when Elise had a week-long photo assignment. I said to Maly, “Look! Carla’s here!” Maly immediately stood up, about faced and threw her arms around my neck and commenced pouting.

I picked Maly up and we walked to the front door to let Carla in, Maly still clinging to me. I talked to Carla for a few minutes and then it was time for me to head out to work.

I tried to pass Maly over to Carla like I would to Elise. I found this first attempt to be rather awkward and difficult. This was a new experience for me as a dad. I’d never been the one to engage in the process of leaving my daughter with someone who wasn’t family or a close friend. Elise has experienced this quite a few times and has become quite astute in the technique of prying off latched-on offspring.

I tried to hand Maly to Carla again. Maly clenched to the back of my neck with her hands. I budged and reeled her back onto my chest. Finally the third time I got Maly far enough from me to where her arms were still outstreched toward me, still reaching for me while desperately not wanting herself and me to be parted. Carla jumped in, with apparent knowledge that this was my first time leaving my daughter with a sitter, and took Maly from me.

The moment I was just a couple feet away, I could see Maly in Carla’s arm. I immediately noticed her face. Her eyebrows sloped down, her bottom lip stuck out and made for the most heartbreaking frown while her eyes looked in my general direction, but as to not make direct eye contact and read, “Why would you EVER do something like this to me, Daddy???”

I will forever remember that look on my daughter’s face. As heartbreaking as it was to endure, it made me proud that I was needed.

Elise and Maly were setting off to go to the grocery store yesterday afternoon when Elise found that the Expedition wouldn’t start. I got up this morning and tried to start it because my being a man means that I can use my innate mechanical wherewithal to turn the key in the ignition to determine that the Expedition won’t start.

I, like any man, popped the hood and took a gander at things. Everything looked good. There was a cable over there, some spark plugs down there, battery was still in the same place where I last saw it. Yep, everything looked good.

So now I’m waiting on a tow truck to come pick it up and take it to the mechanic. The truck’s got 235,000 miles on it. It’s time to sell. Which means it’s time to buy. This next vehicle purchase is going to be for Elise. The last time we bought her a vehicle, it was her Jeep (which I’m now driving). She knew EXACTLY what she wanted which made vehicle shopping pretty easy. I don’t think she knows what she wants this go-around.

Assuming the tow truck gets here sometime this morning, I think we’re spending the day test driving cars.

I made a mad dash to the grocery store after work on Friday to pick up steaks and other miscellany for Saturday’s dinner. I got home, started a fire in the fireplace, turned the TV to one of those digital music channels and started making a marinade for the steaks before Elise and Maly got back from swimming at the gym.

On Saturday we all loaded into the truck for an unusual day of reverse consumerism. We stopped at Target so Elise could return a bunch of stuff, then to Office Depot where we picked up a labeler, then to the HoPot to return some stuff, then to the grocery store and then finally home. Elise and I started prepping for dinner as Rob, Julie and the boys came over later that evening for steaks. I grilled five filet mignons out on the deck among of flurry of sirens and a helicopter that kept circling our neighborhood overhead. After dinner and about an hour more of the helicopter a sirens, I called 311. After inquiring about the helicopter, the operator asked if I lived on or near Via Dono Drive. I told her I didn’t know where that street was. She then asked on what street I lived. I told her. After a odd pause while she looked up my street, she then said, “It has been advised that you stay inside your house and keep all doors and windows locked. I’m sorry I cannot provide more detailed information at this moment.” Of course while she’s telling me this, I’m standing out on the deck. So I made a fast dash back into the house to tell everyone what the operator had told me.

So that left Rob and me to mentally prepare for the worst. Rob’s a huge gun enthusiast and I have a few firearms of my own. We were both ready to get all Red Dawn on the insurgents. After combing the media outlets, we couldn’t find any news of what was going on in our neighborhood. About an hour or so later, the Fenders walked back to their house two doors down. I stayed up watching TiVo’d episodes of Fight Quest until 3 a.m. I was subconsciously keeping myself up should something happen.

On Sunday morning we finally found out that a man a few streets over had barricaded himself in his house with a gun and SWAT was called out to the scene. It was reported that “the situation ended peacefully.” Whatever that means.

The girls and I were then off to Cabela’s. Maly conked out on the way there, kept snoozing in my arms as we entered the store and it took Elise and I both to wake her up so she could see the huge aquarium and all its fish and turtles. We walked the store for an hour or so. I picked up some jerky seasoning and curing salts and ogled over all of the other cool stuff that I wanted to buy. We had a late lunch at the Cabela’s restaurant. Elise had an ostrich sandwich and I had the 1/2 lb. buffalo burger with chipotle mayo and fried jalapeno slices (holy crap was that a good burger).

We then shopped camping gear and finally decided to leave before Maly unleashed holy terror due to only getting a 20 minute nap on the ride there.

We got back to the house and Maly and I hung out, watched the Chargers lose to the Patriats and eat dinner while Elise went shopping. I seasoned 4 lbs. of meat to be made into jerky. Elise got home while I was giving Maly a bath. So we put Maly to bed, watched a little TV and tried to watch Superbad on the Apple TV. Despite what Apple says, you cannot rent a movie in the iTunes Music Store and watch it on your Apple TV. So we sat on the couch and watched movie trailers on Apple TV and went to be early.

It was brought to my attention on Friday that we had Monday off for MLK day, so today is weekend day three. Maly woke up groggy, probably because it’s cold and rainy today. I packed the dehydrator with the meat I seasoned yesterday and have been making jerky all day. We’ve done a little finger painting, played with some Play Doh, fed the baby dolls, took one baby on a stroller ride all around the house, learned to say, “Daddy, mere!” which means that I am to follow Maly around the house while she pushes baby Gigi in the stroller, and got into trouble after sneaking into Daddy’s beef jerky before it’s done.

This evening we went to Target for diapers and then to dinner at Cypress Grill for their famous muffaletta’s. So it’s been nice to have a long weekend even after having some recent time off over the holidays – just hanging out with the girls.

I received an email from Dreamhost this morning stating:

This is just a notice that your DreamHost Account has a balance of $208.95 (including any charges not
due until 2009-01-24), with $208.95 due (since 2008-12-24).

You also have $189.05 past due (owed since 2008-11-24), and if
by 2009-01-24 you do not pay at least the $189.05 part, your
account will be automatically suspended until payment is received.

WHAT DO YOU OWE MONEY FOR?

We have the last payment on this account to be $9.95 on 2007-12-24 00:18:41.

Since then the following charges have been made to the account:

2008-01-04 – $9.95 for “Domain Registrations” through 2009-01-11.
2008-01-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-02-23.
2008-02-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-03-23.
2008-03-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-04-23.
2008-03-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-04-23.
2008-04-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-05-23.
2008-05-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-06-23.
2008-05-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-06-23.
2008-06-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-07-23.
2008-06-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-07-23.
2008-06-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-07-23.
2008-06-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-07-23.
2008-07-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-08-23.
2008-08-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-09-23.
2008-08-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-09-23.
2008-09-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-10-23.
2008-10-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-11-23.
2008-11-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-12-23.
2008-11-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2008-12-23.
2008-12-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2009-01-23.
2008-12-24 – $9.95 for “My Strictly Business SALE!” through 2009-01-23.

After my “what the hell is going on?” email to their billing department bounced, I checked the Dreamhost Status blog to find their Billing Issues post.

Customers’ credit cards were charged, bank accounts were drafted (many were over-drafted). This is going to be very, very bad for Dreamhost. I’ll be curious to see how they redeem themselves. I think at least a free year of hosting services would be a decent start.

It’s 2:00 p.m. as I write this. 2:00 p.m. Keep that time in mind.

Elise and I got a HDTV for Christmas this year. It’s a nice TV, too. And we were really happy to get it. We brought it home and I got it all hooked up with our newly acquired HDTV digital cable from Time Warner. I quickly realized that I couldn’t get an HD signal through our existing TiVo box unit. The next day I did a little research and decided that I needed to get us a HD TiVo box. I decided that I was going to stop at Best Buy on the way home from work. But before doing so, I called TiVo to ask if there was anything I needed to do with my account if I was going to get the HD box. They said, “No. Everything will be the same. We’ll just charge you a one-time $199 fee to transfer your lifetime TiVo membership.” I quickly pointed out that that just wasn’t going to cut the mustard. I wasn’t about to pay $199 to keep something that I already paid $300 for in the first place 3 years ago. The rebuttal I received was along the lines of, “Ummm, well, I’m really sorry, sir.” So I asked to speak to someone else. My case was escalated to a client services representative. I calmly and politely plead my case and explained that I felt as if I was being treated unfairly. She concurred and waived the transfer fee.

Damn skippy. TiVo was about to have themselves a pissed off customer. Now I’m happy. Sort of.

During my research and upon purchasing the TiVo, I learned that you have to have CableCARDs for your HD TiVo box. Basically a CableCARD is like a de-scrambler that is inserted into the TiVo box and does away with the digital cable set-top box. I then called Time Warner and scheduled a technician to come out to get my old digital cable box and install the CableCARDs. I, being the lay person that I am, am not qualified to insert these CableCARDs into the clearly marked slots on the front of the TiVo box that says, in cryptic cable technician language, “INSERT CABLECARDS HERE”.

So I called Time Warner a week ago to have a technician come out today to install the CableCARDs. In the meantime, we’ve been without TiVo. We have learned in the past days that we sadly rely on TiVo more than we had realized. We actually had to watch our television shows at their regularly scheduled times. This meant that we heard, on more than one occasion a conversation like this:

“I’m going to go give our loving offspring a bath.”

“Um, the season premiere of The Apprentice comes on in like 8 minutes!”

“Okay.”

“She doesn’t need a bath this week.”

So a technician was supposed to be here between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. today. I called Time Warner at noon to let them know that no one had showed to install these gem nugget CableCARDs. They told me someone would be calling me back within 15 minutes. An hour later I called back to let them know that still no one had showed up or called.

It is now 2:15 p.m. and I just received a call that the technician is on the way.

2:19. Cable guy is here. And there is much rejoicing as there will now be a clean child.

The girls and I spent Christmas at Mom’s this year. Christmas morning was a blast with Maly and, of course, the day was all about her. I filmed the majority of the morning and as all of the present opening was coming to an end, I thought, “Awesome! I have 53 minutes of Christmas morning present opening on film in HD!” Only to find out later when we watched what I had filmed that the majority of what I filmed was the side of my leg, the couch’s armrest or the bar stool in the kitchen. When I thought I had hit the record button, I was actually hitting pause.

Later that afternoon my uncle J.L. drove out to Mom’s house and shortly after, my other uncle Bill and cousins Shantel and Joshua came out. Mom, Elise and I made Christmas dinner and the seven of us sat down for a nice meal before the uncles and cousins headed back to the Houston area.

The girls and I headed back to Austin on Wednesday afternoon in time to put away most of the Christmas presents, have dinner and go to bed.

I worked on Thursday and Friday amid a virtually dead office as most folks took the entire week off.

The weekend was upon us again soon. Mom drove up to our house to watch Maly while Elise and I went to San Antonio for Adrian and Sarah’s rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went well and dinner was great (I’ve forgotten the name of the restaurant at which we ate… something Oyster Bar). A few of us stayed late at the bar and before we knew it, it was pushing midnight. Elise and I left and got back to our house in Austin around 1 a.m.

On Sunday we all got up and ate breakfast. Mom, Maly and I went to the AT&T store to get the cell phone that we gave to Mom activated. Then we went to HEB for lunch and to get some eggs, milk, yadah yadah.

We got home in time for Elise and I to head out for San Antonio again for the big wedding. All went well; the ceremony and reception were both great and we now have a Mr. and Mrs. Adrian Gutierrez. The reception winded down around 11 p.m. Elise and I helped load gifts and decorations before we headed back to Austin. We used my newly acquired GPS, affectionately named Claudine, that Elise’s parents gave me for Christmas to navigate our way home by way of 281. We were driving my mom’s car which makes for very easy speeding. Traveling at 85 mph down a country rode, it wasn’t until it was about 30 feet in front of us when we both saw the imminent collision we were about to have with a deer. I swerved with break-neck speed and we barely missed the deer. For a split second I had come to terms with the fact that we were probably going to flip the car and either both be seriously injured or worse, die. Thankfully we were driving Mom’s car, so it stuck to the road and we remained unscathed. Elise then politely suggested that I didn’t have to drive so GOD DAMN FAST!!!

Hearts still aflutter, we stopped at a fireworks stand out in the middle of nowhere and loaded up on explosives for New Year’s eve. We arrived safely home and went to bed around 2 a.m.

Mom left New Year’s eve morning. I went to the grocery store and later made fennel gruyer potatoes gratin. Later that evening we all loaded up and went over to Marc and Cyndi’s to celebrate bringing in the New Year. We had an awesome pot luck dinner and vegged around and chatted while the kids tore up the Swendner house. Around 11 p.m. we went out onto the golf course where Chris and I shot off the fireworks that Elise and I brought. The New Year was among us without anyone’s knowledge as we were all outside in the cold, watching Chris’s and my amateur fireworks display.

We all went back inside and everyone yucked it up while yours truly conked out on the couch. At around 3 a.m., I was awoken by camera flashes and giggles. Seems there is no rest for the wicked.

So we had a great Christmas and New Year this year. We hope yours was as well.