As on Seinfeld, "I had an itch!!"
Friday, December 14, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Christmas get-to-know-ya
Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do: Just copy this entire blog entry and paste it into a new post on your blog. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. So, here goes...
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Bags are definitely easier, but they're also a little too easy for those "curious" sorts, so it depends on who it's for. I'm a terrible, messy wrapper. My sister makes the most awesome looking wrapped gifts, but you almost need dynamite to get them open for all the tape!
2. Real tree or artificial? Fake. As a kid we used to actually go out into the woods and cut down a real tree (envision "Christmas Vacation" scene 1 here), then we just started buying real ones. Now it's just an artificial one.
3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving, or thereabouts.
4. When do you take the tree down? Why would I take it down?
5. Do you like eggnog? Absolutely, but it must be homemade - not the nasty grocery store stuff. I make it myself, and it's to die for.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? You know, I never did get any of the things I asked for!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, we have lots. My wife is enamored with the things, so they're all over our house. Big ones, small ones, porcelain ones, wood ones, etc...
8. Hardest person to buy for? My step-dad. And he lives in a small town, so I have to make sure it's good b/c he might not be able to return it if it doesn't work out.
9. Easiest person to buy for? the kiddos
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I have received my share of heinous Christmas sweaters over the years.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? snail mail, for sure.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love "Christmas Vacation" ("Clark, that there's an RV!"). An old family favorite is "Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas".
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Dec 20th
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Sure, didn't you like it?
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Any and all Christmas foods, snacks, treats, etc... except fruit cake. Did you know there are only 10 of those in the whole world - they just keep getting passed around (see #14 above). Once one gets thrown out, a new one is made to replace it. Currently, the "youngest" one is 37 years old.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. Same for the house. Very. Straight. Lines.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night. The Christmas Song. the First Noel. there are so many!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We used to always travel, but we've been at home now for the past few years. With 4 kids, it's likely we'll never travel at Christmas again.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Blitzen, Comet, Vixen, Rudolph, etc...
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? This year, a star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Usually 1 on Christmas Eve, the rest on Christmas Day.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The fact that the Salvation Army panhandlers don't bother dressing up as Santa anymore.
23. What I love most about Christmas? Family, food, fun. People also tend to be nicer to each other, too, so that's a plus.
WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL & JOYOUS CHRISTMAS!!!! Hope to read your "list" soon!!!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Bags are definitely easier, but they're also a little too easy for those "curious" sorts, so it depends on who it's for. I'm a terrible, messy wrapper. My sister makes the most awesome looking wrapped gifts, but you almost need dynamite to get them open for all the tape!
2. Real tree or artificial? Fake. As a kid we used to actually go out into the woods and cut down a real tree (envision "Christmas Vacation" scene 1 here), then we just started buying real ones. Now it's just an artificial one.
3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving, or thereabouts.
4. When do you take the tree down? Why would I take it down?
5. Do you like eggnog? Absolutely, but it must be homemade - not the nasty grocery store stuff. I make it myself, and it's to die for.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? You know, I never did get any of the things I asked for!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, we have lots. My wife is enamored with the things, so they're all over our house. Big ones, small ones, porcelain ones, wood ones, etc...
8. Hardest person to buy for? My step-dad. And he lives in a small town, so I have to make sure it's good b/c he might not be able to return it if it doesn't work out.
9. Easiest person to buy for? the kiddos
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I have received my share of heinous Christmas sweaters over the years.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? snail mail, for sure.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I love "Christmas Vacation" ("Clark, that there's an RV!"). An old family favorite is "Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas".
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Dec 20th
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Sure, didn't you like it?
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Any and all Christmas foods, snacks, treats, etc... except fruit cake. Did you know there are only 10 of those in the whole world - they just keep getting passed around (see #14 above). Once one gets thrown out, a new one is made to replace it. Currently, the "youngest" one is 37 years old.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear. Same for the house. Very. Straight. Lines.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night. The Christmas Song. the First Noel. there are so many!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We used to always travel, but we've been at home now for the past few years. With 4 kids, it's likely we'll never travel at Christmas again.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Blitzen, Comet, Vixen, Rudolph, etc...
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? This year, a star.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Usually 1 on Christmas Eve, the rest on Christmas Day.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The fact that the Salvation Army panhandlers don't bother dressing up as Santa anymore.
23. What I love most about Christmas? Family, food, fun. People also tend to be nicer to each other, too, so that's a plus.
WISHING YOU ALL A WONDERFUL & JOYOUS CHRISTMAS!!!! Hope to read your "list" soon!!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Festival of Trees
Along with my "band", MC6, we had our first show of this year's holiday season at the Festival of Trees fund raiser at the Banner Gateway Hospital in Mesa. The crowd was, well, sparse (see below)
so we decided to use this as an opportunity for a dress rehearsal. If you'd like to see a clip of the show, please check it out at the MC6 blog at http://mc6acappella.blogspot.com/. On the clip I sing a lovely rendition of Eclipse's "This Year".
so we decided to use this as an opportunity for a dress rehearsal. If you'd like to see a clip of the show, please check it out at the MC6 blog at http://mc6acappella.blogspot.com/. On the clip I sing a lovely rendition of Eclipse's "This Year".
Monday, November 19, 2007
Little Elves
Here's the link to my little munchkins' dance. http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9549730449
This is pretty fun. Try it yourself! http://www.elfyourself.com/
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
FHE smackdown
When I was in Prague a couple of weeks ago, I received an email from my son that said the following:
I received this on Thursday. I was 1/2 a world away, as the REM song goes.
Ends up it was a pretty minor mishap involving too much dancing and "twirling" during FHE and a resultant head-smacking against the coffee table.
Apparently, there was some blood and some crying; but a little TLC and a head bandage from Melanie that would have made a WWI field medic proud, and Kate was all smiles in no time.
I never did hear how the FHE went after the incident, but I imagine Kate was begging for dessert and fighting with Collin over who would get the yellow ice cream bowl in short order.
She seemed fine when I got home 4 days later. Crazy as ever.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
TAG! I'm it!
I was "tagged" by 2 people, my sister-in-law Erin (http://eringsmith.blogspot.com/) and my wife's cousin, Kelly (http://diversifiedbeeson.blogspot.com/). After the first one, I thought maybe I could skate by and not actually have to pass on the chain-type letter, but once I got tagged a second time, I figured there were people out there that really want to see my answers, so here goes.
The rules:
1-Link to your tagger (like I did with Erin & Kelly), and also post these rules on your blog
2-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird
3-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs
4- Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog
So, 7 weird, yet interesting things about myself...
1. I always have wanted to be a pilot. It started out in jr. high - I wanted to be a Navy pilot, flying fighter jets off of aircraft carriers. I actually was not far away from attending the US Naval Academy (I had 2 congressional nominations), but my eyesight had already begun to fail me, and pilot training was then no longer an option, so I went to BYU and studied Finance and pre-med. I never did go to med school either. Nor do I work in Finance anymore. Funny how life throws curve balls at you sometimes. BTW - I still want to learn to fly. I see those fighter jets from Williams field flying over my house all the time, and I can't help but grow wistful at what cool jobs those guys have.
2. I'm somewhat anal about the family checkbook (see Finance degree mentioned above). I reconcile that dang thing at least once a week. I have to write down EVERYTHING that affects that account, and then enter it all into Quicken, which I never actually do analyze for relevant trends, etc... Melanie, on the other hand, could go YEARS without writing down any expenses, wads of receipts slowly taking over her purse. I figure there's got to be a happy medium, but I haven't found it yet.
3. I LOVE music. All kinds of music. Except for Top 40 Pop (Britney Spears, Beyonce, anything American Idol-esque), gangsta rap, and speed metal. I have over 45G of mp3s on my computer, and only a 20G iPod. You can imagine my frustration.
4. I was on my high school varsity basketball team. I never played, except in blow-out wins (or losses), but I was there, and I rarely broke a sweat.
5. I absolutely can't stand reality TV, with the lone exception being The Amazing Race. It would be so much fun to be a part of one of those races, but who really has 6 weeks to take off from work to do that?
6. I have a weakness for pistachios. My favorites are a brand called Zenobia, which are Turkish pistachios. They are smaller than the California nuts you see at the grocery store, but much tastier. I think you can only get them on-line now, ever since CVS dropped them a few months ago. I'll eat them until I make myself sick. Then I'll eat some more.
7. Both of my parents are the youngest kids in their families, my Dad by 10 years, and my Mom by 11 years. I am the youngest kid in my family as well. I have two uncles old enough to be my grandparents - they fought in WWII!
OK, so now I'm supposed to "tag" 7 people and pass this along as some sort of blogging chain letter. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I know of 7 people, who blog, who haven't already been hit by this bug, so there may be some redundancy here. maybe I'll just tag some randoms and see where it leads?
1. My sister, Laura (http://minetap.blogspot.com/)
2. My wife, Melanie (http://minipearls.blogspot.com/)
3. Laura Gunn (http://lauragunn.typepad.com/paintinmyhair/)
4. My bro-in-law, Daniel (http://boonersmith.blogspot.com/)
5. My bro-in-law, Davey (http://dgsmith.blogspot.com/)
6. Jake (http://diversifiedbeeson2.blogspot.com/)
7. My bro-in-law, Ben (http://thebionicblog.blogspot.com/)
The rules:
1-Link to your tagger (like I did with Erin & Kelly), and also post these rules on your blog
2-Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird
3-Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs
4- Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog
So, 7 weird, yet interesting things about myself...
1. I always have wanted to be a pilot. It started out in jr. high - I wanted to be a Navy pilot, flying fighter jets off of aircraft carriers. I actually was not far away from attending the US Naval Academy (I had 2 congressional nominations), but my eyesight had already begun to fail me, and pilot training was then no longer an option, so I went to BYU and studied Finance and pre-med. I never did go to med school either. Nor do I work in Finance anymore. Funny how life throws curve balls at you sometimes. BTW - I still want to learn to fly. I see those fighter jets from Williams field flying over my house all the time, and I can't help but grow wistful at what cool jobs those guys have.
2. I'm somewhat anal about the family checkbook (see Finance degree mentioned above). I reconcile that dang thing at least once a week. I have to write down EVERYTHING that affects that account, and then enter it all into Quicken, which I never actually do analyze for relevant trends, etc... Melanie, on the other hand, could go YEARS without writing down any expenses, wads of receipts slowly taking over her purse. I figure there's got to be a happy medium, but I haven't found it yet.
3. I LOVE music. All kinds of music. Except for Top 40 Pop (Britney Spears, Beyonce, anything American Idol-esque), gangsta rap, and speed metal. I have over 45G of mp3s on my computer, and only a 20G iPod. You can imagine my frustration.
4. I was on my high school varsity basketball team. I never played, except in blow-out wins (or losses), but I was there, and I rarely broke a sweat.
5. I absolutely can't stand reality TV, with the lone exception being The Amazing Race. It would be so much fun to be a part of one of those races, but who really has 6 weeks to take off from work to do that?
6. I have a weakness for pistachios. My favorites are a brand called Zenobia, which are Turkish pistachios. They are smaller than the California nuts you see at the grocery store, but much tastier. I think you can only get them on-line now, ever since CVS dropped them a few months ago. I'll eat them until I make myself sick. Then I'll eat some more.
7. Both of my parents are the youngest kids in their families, my Dad by 10 years, and my Mom by 11 years. I am the youngest kid in my family as well. I have two uncles old enough to be my grandparents - they fought in WWII!
OK, so now I'm supposed to "tag" 7 people and pass this along as some sort of blogging chain letter. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I know of 7 people, who blog, who haven't already been hit by this bug, so there may be some redundancy here. maybe I'll just tag some randoms and see where it leads?
1. My sister, Laura (http://minetap.blogspot.com/)
2. My wife, Melanie (http://minipearls.blogspot.com/)
3. Laura Gunn (http://lauragunn.typepad.com/paintinmyhair/)
4. My bro-in-law, Daniel (http://boonersmith.blogspot.com/)
5. My bro-in-law, Davey (http://dgsmith.blogspot.com/)
6. Jake (http://diversifiedbeeson2.blogspot.com/)
7. My bro-in-law, Ben (http://thebionicblog.blogspot.com/)
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