Great Holidays
-- 02 Janurary 2007 [Monday]
It's a NEW YEAR ! Yippeee.... I'm back at work after 11 days off which I really enjoyed. The kids were all home the entire time as well and we had no travel plans so it was very relaxing most of the time. Of course there were the occasional stressful moments but overall a great relaxing time off.
There's no way I'll remember all the details of the past 11 days. I did not want to use the computer if I didn't really have to, so I chose not to update at all until back at work today.
Christmas was great and the kids had a great time of course. They really believe in Santa Claus which is just a great fun memory for me. I really enjoy watching their reactions and answering their questions "Dad, how does Santa fit down that little hole in our chimney?", or "What if we have a fire in the fireplace, how will Santa come down?".
On Christmas eve night the kids left the usual plate of cookies, carrots and coffee this time. Keegan insisted on coffee so it would help Santa stay awake during all his deliveries. There are times I think Keegan is questioning the whole Santa thing...I can see it in his eyes, but I quickly make a comment of some sort to bring him back in. :) The downside was around 11pm Carson woke up vomitting all over his bed and down the side of the bunk beds. He got the stomach flu that Keegan, Ian and I had weeks ago. So Amanda and I spent a long night doing laundry and waking up at his every cough with the bowl ready as he slept the rest of the night in our bed. Luckily by 2am he was over the vomitting part. He recovered quickly and still had a great time at Christmas opening all his presents.
Christmas day was very overcast, rainy and bit chilly. Perfect for spending the day inside opening presents and playing.
Carson got the 'magical plant' he asked for - and LOVED it. He still to this day carries it all over the house with him. I hope it survives with all the movement. Carson also received a remote controlled truck which is a big hit with the kids.
Keegan enjoyed his train pieces (new track, new cars and a lighted station) - Amanda and I spent about four hours a couple of days before Christmas assembling all these models. It was actually quite fun and a nice change of pace.
Ian really enjoyed (as did his brothers) his Fischer Price train set we got from the man selling it on Craigslist. What a deal at $20 and looking brand new and FULL of pieces. Easily a $100 set if bought new.
Later on Christmas day we drove to the Greyhound bus station in Raleigh to pick up my mom. She only paid $32 total for a four hour trip down. That's cheaper than driving the truck one way to Williamsburg. She will definetly use this option again in the future as it turned out so convienent for all of us. The kids were so excited she visited for a few days and had a great time. We actually finished opening presents with her as the kids kept getting distracted with each present when we opened in the morning, that we never finished until evening.
I cooked a nice dinner of crab cakes from Trader Joe's (which turned out excellent) and was a nice change from the usual dinner's we have. We'll definetly make them again in the future for us.
Other than that after my mom left we stayed around the house and played with the new toys or played outside in the nice warm weather that followed.
New Years eve Amanda and I stayed up and played SkipO which was a LOT of fun once we figured out how to play again. We ended up going to bed at 3am after our 'discussion' finally ended.
New Years day (Monday) was off and on light rain, but started out very warm as it was 70F by 11am! We played outside a good couple of hours until the temps started dropping and the rain became heavier, then switched to playing inside. It was a very relaxing final day before going back to work.
During all of this time off I was able to get the Ural back together as I worked on it now and then when I felt like it and had time. My goal was try to starting it up on Jan 1, 2007, but that didn't work as I noticed the throttle cable on the right side was broken as I was reassembling it. Luckily the previous owner had a spare cable already. Once they are back on (tonight hopefully)I need to retorque the heads, set the valves and fire it up to balance the carbs. Then hopefully it will run much better.
We'll see what changes come about at work this year since our CEO was fired along with three other SVP's that resigned. Rumor has it that part if not all of the company will be sold so the investors can finally cash out after 10 years. I like change, so I'm exicted - even if it means a mandatory job change for me. But I'm not going anywhere ahead of time.. I'll let the company decide for me what happens, but until then it's work as usual. See you in 2007 !!!
It's a NEW YEAR ! Yippeee.... I'm back at work after 11 days off which I really enjoyed. The kids were all home the entire time as well and we had no travel plans so it was very relaxing most of the time. Of course there were the occasional stressful moments but overall a great relaxing time off.
There's no way I'll remember all the details of the past 11 days. I did not want to use the computer if I didn't really have to, so I chose not to update at all until back at work today.
Christmas was great and the kids had a great time of course. They really believe in Santa Claus which is just a great fun memory for me. I really enjoy watching their reactions and answering their questions "Dad, how does Santa fit down that little hole in our chimney?", or "What if we have a fire in the fireplace, how will Santa come down?".
On Christmas eve night the kids left the usual plate of cookies, carrots and coffee this time. Keegan insisted on coffee so it would help Santa stay awake during all his deliveries. There are times I think Keegan is questioning the whole Santa thing...I can see it in his eyes, but I quickly make a comment of some sort to bring him back in. :) The downside was around 11pm Carson woke up vomitting all over his bed and down the side of the bunk beds. He got the stomach flu that Keegan, Ian and I had weeks ago. So Amanda and I spent a long night doing laundry and waking up at his every cough with the bowl ready as he slept the rest of the night in our bed. Luckily by 2am he was over the vomitting part. He recovered quickly and still had a great time at Christmas opening all his presents.
Christmas day was very overcast, rainy and bit chilly. Perfect for spending the day inside opening presents and playing.
Carson got the 'magical plant' he asked for - and LOVED it. He still to this day carries it all over the house with him. I hope it survives with all the movement. Carson also received a remote controlled truck which is a big hit with the kids.
Keegan enjoyed his train pieces (new track, new cars and a lighted station) - Amanda and I spent about four hours a couple of days before Christmas assembling all these models. It was actually quite fun and a nice change of pace.
Ian really enjoyed (as did his brothers) his Fischer Price train set we got from the man selling it on Craigslist. What a deal at $20 and looking brand new and FULL of pieces. Easily a $100 set if bought new.
Later on Christmas day we drove to the Greyhound bus station in Raleigh to pick up my mom. She only paid $32 total for a four hour trip down. That's cheaper than driving the truck one way to Williamsburg. She will definetly use this option again in the future as it turned out so convienent for all of us. The kids were so excited she visited for a few days and had a great time. We actually finished opening presents with her as the kids kept getting distracted with each present when we opened in the morning, that we never finished until evening.
I cooked a nice dinner of crab cakes from Trader Joe's (which turned out excellent) and was a nice change from the usual dinner's we have. We'll definetly make them again in the future for us.
Other than that after my mom left we stayed around the house and played with the new toys or played outside in the nice warm weather that followed.
New Years eve Amanda and I stayed up and played SkipO which was a LOT of fun once we figured out how to play again. We ended up going to bed at 3am after our 'discussion' finally ended.
New Years day (Monday) was off and on light rain, but started out very warm as it was 70F by 11am! We played outside a good couple of hours until the temps started dropping and the rain became heavier, then switched to playing inside. It was a very relaxing final day before going back to work.
During all of this time off I was able to get the Ural back together as I worked on it now and then when I felt like it and had time. My goal was try to starting it up on Jan 1, 2007, but that didn't work as I noticed the throttle cable on the right side was broken as I was reassembling it. Luckily the previous owner had a spare cable already. Once they are back on (tonight hopefully)I need to retorque the heads, set the valves and fire it up to balance the carbs. Then hopefully it will run much better.
We'll see what changes come about at work this year since our CEO was fired along with three other SVP's that resigned. Rumor has it that part if not all of the company will be sold so the investors can finally cash out after 10 years. I like change, so I'm exicted - even if it means a mandatory job change for me. But I'm not going anywhere ahead of time.. I'll let the company decide for me what happens, but until then it's work as usual. See you in 2007 !!!
Comments