(Incidentally, I always used to spell it "Hanukkah", but I'll allow that Franny should be the resident expert in the house, so now it's "Chanukah".)
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Happy Chanukah!
Happy Chanukah! I'm not quite late with this, but I'm cutting it close. The Mizz has really enjoyed the celebration this year. He still doesn't really get it, but he's very into candles and presents, so he's having fun. It's been a little confusing for him this year with it spanning across Christmas, but a menorah burning with a lit Christmas tree in the background pretty much defines our family. Maybe next year the Mizz will understand a little better, but until then Happy Chanukah to everyone.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas 2008!
Merry Christmas, everybody! I wish I could be with the rest of my family today, but I'm still very thankful for what I've got right here with me...
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Between the holidays and the toddler, it's been busy, but I had to post a Merry Christmas to everybody out there. Ours was fairly low key. Most of my family was in Colorado, but we couldn't make that trip unfortunately. Only so much leave to go around. We did get a chance to see them on the webcam, and although the Mizz has about a one minute tolerance for sitting still, we still got to see family on the appropriate day.
We actually started Christmas Thursday when my folks came through on their way to the Colorado festivities. They brought along a winner -- a tent and tunnel combo. The Mizz loves it, although it does pretty much fill up the living room. We're down to the tent right now, which is still plenty big for him. It's full of legos rights now. He keeps inviting me inside, but I can only fit about halfway in laying down. He keeps telling me to wake up.
We ducked away Saturday night to Newport, Oregon. It's not exactly prime beach season, but we figured, if you're going to be cooped up out of the rain with a toddler, you might as well be somewhere cool. As we rolled into town, the rain stopped, so we were able to run around on the beach for a while. The Mizz has never really seen the beach, so rain drenched sand in the cold was still pretty cool to him. He did a lot of playing with kelp and sand and just running around. He kept saying that he wanted to go the beach. When we pointed out the fact that he was at the beach, he said, "No, I want to go to the beach of the water." He then ran directly for the surf. Luckily, we had seen this coming and we were a good hundred yards from the waves and the sharks and whatnot so he was easy to catch. We also caught a glimpse of some harbor seal napping on rocks. The next morning, we checked out the historic bayside, specifically to take the Mizz to the Undersea Garden. It wasn't that cool. It was a good sized aquarium, but unlike the brightly colored brochures, it was pretty drab. A whole green and brown aquarium full of green and gray and brown fish. Somewhat interesting, but only for a short time. The Mizz did get to touch a starfish and was pretty pleased about that. More interesting were the sea lions lounging on the dock outside. They were a little wary of us, but stood their ground. After all that, we decided that although getting away was nice, cooped up in a hotel with a toddler isn't that great. We wandered up the coast a way, with a quick stop in Depot Bay (world's smallest harbor) to observe the storm action in the blowholes. The water was shooting maybe 30 feet above the roadway, which was already quite a bit above the water. Very cool. After that, we'd had our fill of driving in the rain, so we called it a trip and headed home.
Today was pretty relaxed. The Mizz got a few things, but he's still pretty young to really understand the whole day. He has fun opening presents, but if they hadn't been there, he wouldn't have noticed. Waiting for him under the tree this morning was an old Tonka dump truck of mine, circa 1974(?). It is labelled as "hydraulic." "Spring loaded" or "catapult" might have been a better description. We'll show the Mizz that feature some other time. He also got a bunch of new legos, as I was feeling limited in my creative possibilities with his old ones. Now we can build much taller towers and much more complicated castles. We even built a house, because the Mizz wanted one to put a flower on. I'm just the builder, not the designer.
We got a taste of white Christmas. We got a good bit of heavy wet snow that made everything pretty, although it didn't stick around for long. We were going to go for a walk in it, but it was already raining again by the time we got moving.
To end the day, some friends brought over Chinese food, and unbeknownst to us, some more gifts for the Mizz. The best was four eggs worth of Silly Putty. The Mizz got four plastic eggs, WITH the original wrapping, and the rest of us got a lump of nostalgia to play with.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, whether it was a big family holiday, or just another day off.
We actually started Christmas Thursday when my folks came through on their way to the Colorado festivities. They brought along a winner -- a tent and tunnel combo. The Mizz loves it, although it does pretty much fill up the living room. We're down to the tent right now, which is still plenty big for him. It's full of legos rights now. He keeps inviting me inside, but I can only fit about halfway in laying down. He keeps telling me to wake up.
We ducked away Saturday night to Newport, Oregon. It's not exactly prime beach season, but we figured, if you're going to be cooped up out of the rain with a toddler, you might as well be somewhere cool. As we rolled into town, the rain stopped, so we were able to run around on the beach for a while. The Mizz has never really seen the beach, so rain drenched sand in the cold was still pretty cool to him. He did a lot of playing with kelp and sand and just running around. He kept saying that he wanted to go the beach. When we pointed out the fact that he was at the beach, he said, "No, I want to go to the beach of the water." He then ran directly for the surf. Luckily, we had seen this coming and we were a good hundred yards from the waves and the sharks and whatnot so he was easy to catch. We also caught a glimpse of some harbor seal napping on rocks. The next morning, we checked out the historic bayside, specifically to take the Mizz to the Undersea Garden. It wasn't that cool. It was a good sized aquarium, but unlike the brightly colored brochures, it was pretty drab. A whole green and brown aquarium full of green and gray and brown fish. Somewhat interesting, but only for a short time. The Mizz did get to touch a starfish and was pretty pleased about that. More interesting were the sea lions lounging on the dock outside. They were a little wary of us, but stood their ground. After all that, we decided that although getting away was nice, cooped up in a hotel with a toddler isn't that great. We wandered up the coast a way, with a quick stop in Depot Bay (world's smallest harbor) to observe the storm action in the blowholes. The water was shooting maybe 30 feet above the roadway, which was already quite a bit above the water. Very cool. After that, we'd had our fill of driving in the rain, so we called it a trip and headed home.
Today was pretty relaxed. The Mizz got a few things, but he's still pretty young to really understand the whole day. He has fun opening presents, but if they hadn't been there, he wouldn't have noticed. Waiting for him under the tree this morning was an old Tonka dump truck of mine, circa 1974(?). It is labelled as "hydraulic." "Spring loaded" or "catapult" might have been a better description. We'll show the Mizz that feature some other time. He also got a bunch of new legos, as I was feeling limited in my creative possibilities with his old ones. Now we can build much taller towers and much more complicated castles. We even built a house, because the Mizz wanted one to put a flower on. I'm just the builder, not the designer.
We got a taste of white Christmas. We got a good bit of heavy wet snow that made everything pretty, although it didn't stick around for long. We were going to go for a walk in it, but it was already raining again by the time we got moving.
To end the day, some friends brought over Chinese food, and unbeknownst to us, some more gifts for the Mizz. The best was four eggs worth of Silly Putty. The Mizz got four plastic eggs, WITH the original wrapping, and the rest of us got a lump of nostalgia to play with.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, whether it was a big family holiday, or just another day off.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
How was your Black Friday?
The whole idea of Black Friday really does nothing for me. Why on Earth would a store even bother existing if it depends on lunatic shoppers staying lunatic each year only a month before the year's end to ensure that it can turn a profit? If everything is on crazy sale, how does this help anyway? Aren't there safer ways to make money? (Not in America, Dave. Here, the lunatic shoppers are as dependable as the tides.) And from a shopper's perspective, how little is your time worth that you want to wait in insane lines at four in the morning to get the extra 15% off of crap you don't need anyway? I'm not a big fan of shopping as it is, and shopping in crowds is never worth it.
So naturally, I met Franny at the mall after she got off work Friday. I'm clearly an idiot. Luckily, we didn't last too long and had more fun wandering around downtown in the cold. Actually, the Pioneer Place Mall in Portland wasn't too bad. It's just a couple city blocks in the heart of downtown, so parking is kind of an issue. As Franny put it, lots of people want to be able to park their SUV's in the store.
I kind of wonder about the effect of Black Friday anyway. For one thing, lots of people shop online now, which is not really tied to being at the store opening at 0 dark-thirty, while still allowing you to get some great deals. You can still shop at three in the morning, but you can do it in pajamafied comfort after a case of beer, if that's what floats your boat. I've seen a few things here and there which would never be purchased otherwise.
Another thing that I would think might dilute the after-Thanksgiving sales is the pre-Thanksgiving sales, AKA Christmas creep. I began hearing Christmas music before Halloween this year. Costco had it, but in their defense, they they probably got it in HUGE batches that might actually take two months to completely hear. I was also working at a place where someone brought in AWESOME Halloween cookies that we were enjoying when someone found a radio station that had already switched to 24-hour Christmas programming. Not that there's much Thanksgiving music, but seriously, one holiday at a time, please. To paraphrase Lewis Black (Jewish, but apparently not intensively so), "How long does it take you people to shop?"
One good note about Christmas creep: Nordstrom and I agree on something, which is unusual. Nordstrom is all about fashion and other expensive stuff, while I have no fashion sense that I am aware of, and I am borderline miserly. My mother-in-law is a big fan, but I'm merely aware that it's a department store specializing in things I don't understand. However, Nordstrom apparently refuses to put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. For that I commend them. Perhaps I'll buy something from them some day, although for the life of me, I couldn't begin to guess what.
So naturally, I met Franny at the mall after she got off work Friday. I'm clearly an idiot. Luckily, we didn't last too long and had more fun wandering around downtown in the cold. Actually, the Pioneer Place Mall in Portland wasn't too bad. It's just a couple city blocks in the heart of downtown, so parking is kind of an issue. As Franny put it, lots of people want to be able to park their SUV's in the store.
I kind of wonder about the effect of Black Friday anyway. For one thing, lots of people shop online now, which is not really tied to being at the store opening at 0 dark-thirty, while still allowing you to get some great deals. You can still shop at three in the morning, but you can do it in pajamafied comfort after a case of beer, if that's what floats your boat. I've seen a few things here and there which would never be purchased otherwise.
Another thing that I would think might dilute the after-Thanksgiving sales is the pre-Thanksgiving sales, AKA Christmas creep. I began hearing Christmas music before Halloween this year. Costco had it, but in their defense, they they probably got it in HUGE batches that might actually take two months to completely hear. I was also working at a place where someone brought in AWESOME Halloween cookies that we were enjoying when someone found a radio station that had already switched to 24-hour Christmas programming. Not that there's much Thanksgiving music, but seriously, one holiday at a time, please. To paraphrase Lewis Black (Jewish, but apparently not intensively so), "How long does it take you people to shop?"
One good note about Christmas creep: Nordstrom and I agree on something, which is unusual. Nordstrom is all about fashion and other expensive stuff, while I have no fashion sense that I am aware of, and I am borderline miserly. My mother-in-law is a big fan, but I'm merely aware that it's a department store specializing in things I don't understand. However, Nordstrom apparently refuses to put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. For that I commend them. Perhaps I'll buy something from them some day, although for the life of me, I couldn't begin to guess what.
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