It's Christmas Eve....

.....already. It kinda snuck up on me this year, which is probably a good thing. I've never been a big fan of the gigantic interruption in the normal ebb and flow of life that it causes. I don't really think I'm a scrooge, but this time of year tends to bring out a lot of hypocrisy in people and I could do without any more of the negative side of things than is absolutely necessary. There's no other time of the year that gets the attention that this one day gets and with the current attitude of taking anything religious out of the holiday I'm not sure I understand what the point is any longer except to maybe give the economy a shot in the arm and make up for sagging sales numbers the first 11 months of the year. Hmmm, maybe I am a scrooge.

Anyhow, this has been a fairly quiet holiday season around here and the biggest event has already come and gone. Due to a death in the Polgar family, Eric, Jen and the kids had to leave Kansas and head back to Indiana for a funeral this past Saturday. So, while Eric stayed in Hobart and took care of business, Jen loaded up the van with all 3 munchkins and drove up here for the day, yesterday. They got here about 10 and between 3 kids, 4 dogs and an undertermined number of adults it got chaotic quick. Ri and Adam were here for the visit also. I made breakfast for everyone and then for about the next 6 hours we sat around and talked, played with the kids and had a good, albeit hectic time. The weather outside was crappy, snowy and very windy so it was an inside day for everyone.

As to be expected I guess, when you only see someone once in awhile, they grow up quick and the biggest difference was in Jason, who now is the official family holy terror. the boy is up and running and the world is his to explore. Only problem with that is he don't know yet that there's places in the world where you can fall right off the edge so mom and dad are gonna have to keep an eye and maybe a leash on that boy so he's still around to watch graduate from high school.

We finally got to meet Ethan Thomas too.....now that he's 5 / 6 months old. He's a cute little bugger with big eyes and big smile. I got a chance at alittle quality time amid the chaos and held and fed him a bottle. He was almost asleep when he got snatched up by someone else. Wanda had to head out for bingo about 3:30 and because of the weather Jen decided to head back South a bit early so right around 4:00 we packed up the toys, the diaper bags and the kids and reloaded the van for her trip back to Hooiserland. Adam and Ri took off the same time Jen and the kids did and then the house got quiet again.

I had only got about 3 hours sleep the night before so after everyone was gone me and my 4-legged buddies all curled up in our favorite spots and napped for a couple hours. Jen called when she got down to Hobart to let me know she got there safely and it was at that point that the light came on and I realized in all the whoopla that I'd forgotten all about bringing the camera out and getting some shots of the kids. Guess I was more tired than I thought I was....that ticked me off cuz who knows when I'll see the kids again. What an idiot I am sometimes........so I've included a pic of Ethan that Jen sent recently that I like.......that'll have to do for now.

Today me and the wife did some last minute shopping and then later in the afternoon we went out to Tony and Gigi's for a little get-together. Ate sloppy joes and snacked on sugary treats until about 9:30 when we headed back home. We're heading up to the folks in the morning and that'll take care of most of tomorrow. Then it's back off to work for the rest of the week. Not much else to say at this point. I could tell my favorite Christmas story about when the kids were little but I think I did that last year.......

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

TC