Saint Nicholas Visited

December 6th, Saint Nicholas comes to visit early in the morning. If you leave our your shoes he is known to give out fruit, nuts, little gifts and candy. This is another tradition we have at Christmas time. This come from our German heritage. Saint Nick did visit our home as seen is this blurry picture I took with my iPhone.

Tarzan, Tonto and Frankenstein from SNL sing a carol

To help share the Christmas spirit, here' a funny SNL skit where Tarzan, Tonto & Frankenstein are singing a Christmas carol. Thanks Ron!

Night Arrest at Walker's Gas Station

When my daughter asked if I would go fill up the car that she drives at 10:30 pm the other night I didn't think I was going to be a bystander in a big arrest. I was at the Walker's gas station near where I live and this blue car, some sort of rice burner tricked out after the fashion of cars seen in the drift movies. i.e. has an exhaust system that makes the little engine sound like a beefier engine. Well, while I was pumping gas this blue car pulls into the last parking slot in from the the store. Just as the car parked a police care whips around from the back of Walker's and a black police SUV and a black police truck box this car in. They all had their lights on and promptly hopped out of their vehicles yelling for the occupants to put their hands where they can be seen. Also, they yell to the occupants to get out of the car and lie down on the ground with their hands behind their heads. I don't see this kind of thing where I live. Usually the only crime around is speeding on the road Locust Ave. which is near our home. I'm glad no shots were fired. There were four young men in this car, maybe one was a young woman, but they all looked like they were getting arrested.

Matryoshka doll - Russian nested doll

At Christmas time we get out our Matryoshka doll to display it. Our children like to take the dolls apart and put them back together again. The set we have now is the traditional peasant girl in a traditional dress. We used to have a more Christmas oriented set. Which included Joseph, then Mary, a sheep dog, a lamb and the the baby Jesus. This is just another one of our Christmas traditions.

An early morning adventure...

Yesterday morning at about 5 am I heard a bang on the wall of our home. I didn't think anything of the noise, because often my son bangs his head against the wall in his sleep. Well, when I went out to feed our chickens and rabbit at 5:45 am I saw an outline of what looked like a chicken in our grass. As I walked closer I was thinking, oh great, one of the chickens got out and got killed by a fox, skunk, racoon, etc. Then as I got closer I noticed it was a pheasant. I stood about one foot away from the pheasant and it did not move. Mind you at 5:45 in the morning its pretty dark in our backyard and I could only see the pheasant because I was wearing a headlamp. So, I stood over the pheasant and tried to see if it was alive after a few minutes I noticed its eyes were blinking. Well, I left the pheasant all hunkered down and then fed our animals. I came back and the pheasant was still there. So I called over our cats, and I wonder about one of our cats intelligience as he came over he actually stepped on the pheasant and it went crazy. It flew over into out carport and then got stuck in our lilac bushes before it freed itself and ran across the street into the orchard. I thought about trying to catch the pheasant but as I soon found out they are fast birds on their feet. I believe this pheasant was injured and couldn't fly well any more. This pheasant might have been the bang, against the wall noise, I heard early in the morning.

A Beautiful Family Portrait

I connected with a college friend recently and found that she makes a real cool family holiday card. She's been doing this for her family and has had so many requests from people that she is making a go at doing this for others. If you like the family art style below and would like to drawing made for your family click on this link or click on the picture below:

To see her entire gallery of samples, click here

McKay's Lost A Tooth

McKay has been working on this loose tooth for a while. Last night he excitidly let us know he got it. I asked him if I could take his picture. I missed taking a picture of his first lost tooth, so I didn't want to miss it this time. I know this is a rite of passage where he is becoming a BIG kid now. I'm sure he will have fun showing his friends and classmates the gap where the baby teeth used to be. McKay wanted to make sure I put this on the blog so that Natalie could see. I don't know if he will remember that this tooth coming loose was probably accelerated by his face getting smashed into the Classic Skate floor last Monday when I took him skating with his sisters. A sixth grade size kid tripped and fell onto McKay driving him into the rink floor. It was hard to watch as a parent as it unfolded, I kept thinking in the back of my mind hoping it wasn't McKay, knowing in the front of my mind that it was McKay. The tooth fairy visited McKay this morning and he was excited to let us know. Now I will be able to let him know that Natalie now will know about his tooth adventure as well.

The Christmas Advent Wreath

We have a family tradition as Christmas approaches where we light a candle on the advent wreath marking the four Sundays before the celebrated day of the birth of our Savior. Starting the first Sunday (of the four Sundays before Christmas) one candle is lit. As we get closer to Christmas on each new Sunday another candle is lit until on the forth Sunday all four candles are lit.

Well, November 30th was the first Sunday to light the candles. After the candle was lit each family member got to pick their favorite Christmas song. McKay's all-time favorite song started off the celebration, which is "Once their was a snowman". We go from youngest to oldest in the song selection. After the last song we read in 1 Nephi where the Savoir's birth is fortold. Then we finished off with family prayer.

The advent wreath comes from Oma my wife's mother who is from Germany. We love this tradition and love to share it with our children.

What are some thing you did as a child that you would never let you child do today?!

Things have changed in our world so much so, that growing up as a kid isn't the same these days?

For example, when I was a kid, at about the age of eight, my mom dropped my friend and I off at the theater and paid for us to see the movie H.R. Pufnstuf and left us for the day. I think my friend and I watched the movie four or five times in a row. We were left to run around in the theater all day while my mom was out running around town and my dad was working. My friend and I had a blast and we loved the experience but I would never drop my kids at that age at a theater today to see a movie, let alone stay for the day.



A real life Witchiepoo (evil character from the movie) might get our children. We wouldn't think twice about leaving our kids at eight years of age at a movie alone today, no way is that going to happen. We don't have Freddy the talking flute to help us out (another character from the movie).

Another thing I did as a child is I drank out of the garden hose. I don't let my children drink from the garden hose today. Of course we have grey water for irrigation coming out of half our hoses, but I don't let them drink from the hoses connected to the house either. They might not remember some time and drink from the grey water or they could catch something from the filtered water garden hose coming from the house.



We rode everywhere in cars with no seat belts, and when they were installed in our cars they were generally lost into the gap between the seat and the back of the seat. Everyone wears a seatbelt now and until they get to be big enough they are in a booster seat.



We rode in the back of my fathers truck all the time. Somtimes we rode from California to Utah and back in a Camper Shell in the back of a truck in the winter time.



I'd maybe allow this for a short off-road ride or a short ride around the neighborhood but would drive very carefully. No standing up or trying to move around.

We walked to school when we were growing up. In fact when I was in high school I walked across an interstate 80 overpass to get from my home to school or to get from school to home. Now we drive our children to and from school and rarely let them walk home. If we do let them walk home we know they are with a group a friends and know when they left the school and when they should be home by. Or sometimes we walk to school or home from school with our children.

This Holiday Don't Get sent to the Dog House

Beware Of The Dog House


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This is a video click on the picture or the link "Beware Of The Dog House" above to see this video.