Happy New Year! 2007
Well, it’s now been a couple months since the site has been up, and we’re already slacking on keeping you all updated. I just kept telling myself I’ll wait till after the holidays and then give it to you all in one foul swoop. So here it is. We had a great Christmas and New Year, packed with family, friends, gifts, and junk food. Mostly the later. Maddie had an absolute blast this Christmas. While she’s still working on the whole unwrapping thing, she’s finally old enough to understand Santa, reindeer, presents, and the Christmas tree. (Which, by the way, had no decorations on the lower half after the first two days.)
We decided not to spend much on each other this year, as we spent all our money this summer on putting in a new lawn and sprinkler system, car problems, and my student loans have now come due. We actually did really well. We spent a total of $4.00, for a puzzle. We spent the rest of our fortune on presents for Maddie. Yes, we still splurged on her. She got all sorts of good stuff, from blocks, to trains, to ponies, to books, to movies, and much more. Grandma Lang, who’s favorite pastime is to spoil Maddie, got her a nice little drawing easel with magnets, and got us some much needed bar stools for our kitchen. Totally unnecessary, by the way Debbie, I’m sure you could have used the money for your expensive home project! (They are in the middle of some major renovations on their house. I’ll post up some pictures as soon as I get them.) But thanks anyway! And she was spoiled again by the grandparents-Packer, with a cute little stuffed animal/purse, which held her one true crutch inside - chapstick. (see picture at the top of the paragraph) Not only is chapstick Maddie’s favorite thing in the world, this was chocolate flavored chapstick! Which, by the end of Christmas day had been smothered all over her face.
I was lucky enough to get a 4-day weekend over the Christmas break, and another 4-day weekend over the new-year break, so we spent nearly every night over at one or the other grandparent’s house gorging on junk food, playing games, or just having fun. Since the Lang’s didn’t have a complete house Christmas morning, we had them over to our house for breakfast. Grandma Debbie made mountain hash, a family favorite mash-up of scrambled eggs, hash browns, Italian sausage, and mozzarella cheese, all fried together in a heavenly combination, only to be topped by… more cheese. That was the highlight of Christmas for me, I mean besides the whole spirit of giving, joy, everlasting peace, blah, blah, blah.
After breakfast at our house, we headed over to my parent’s house to spend some time over there. Come to find out Jaron, Jordan, Austin, and Rebecca stayed up till 6:30 am Christmas morning, working on a domino powered contraption that spanned half the family room downstairs. Somehow, I got dragged into helping them with it, and we spent quite a few more hours Christmas day finishing it up. When we set it off, we caught the whole thing on video. I’ll get the video posted up soon, but for now, there are a few pictures in the Christmas Album I just uploaded. The Duckworths spent Christmas at home in Klamath Falls, but made it down from Oregon the day after Christmas, and as always, it was great to see them. Maddie just loves to play with the cousins she doesn’t get to see very often.
New Years was similar. We visited the Packers for dinner, and played a few games with them, and then headed over to the Lang’s to bring in the New Year. Somehow Maddie is able to have just as much energy at 1:00 in the morning, as she did at 6:00 that evening. She never has a problem staying up on New Year’s Eve. Of course there was more junk food, and plenty of games and fun.
Well, I just noticed that this little update is getting extremely long, so I’ll leave it at that. Be sure to check out the Public Blog, as we’ve had a few new things posted up there recently. And if you’re still bored, check out the Brain Cell Bucket, which has a few videos and other stupid stuff to waste your time. It was great to spend so much time with friends and family over the holidays, and as always, it was so great to have the Duckworth’s down here. So in parting, I’ll leave you with a quote from the late, the great, James Brown, “I tought them everything they know, but not everything I know.” Happy New Year!
