These were by far the most psycho and busy holiday time I can remember. I am sure those that read this don't want all the gory details but suffice it to say it climaxed at my parents house Christmas afternoon when we had 16 people (1 infant-Abby, one toddler, two little kids, three teenagers, and nine adults) and to make it interesting mix in one ancient and grumpy beagle dog, two miniature border collies that need much larger doses of Valium and one two year old golden retriever that just wanted to play with every one but that the other three dogs thought he is try to eat them. Chaos and hilarity ensued.

Abby was a real trooper through all this chaos. I am sure there were days her butt never hit the ground being passed from one friend or relative to another. She final wore out yesterday coming down with a minor cold and has been a bit fussy do to that.

In addition to the Christmas festivities we also did Abby's baptism Sunday after Christmas with a get together afterwords and dad, brother and myself slipped off Sunday evening and hunted deer for two day.

I was asleep well before midnight last night and I am going to need another vacation just to recover from this one.

Well today, just before I jumped into the shower, work called and said there was no water at work. Apparently a 42 inch main ruptured a few blocks from work. So I took the day off (despite the water coming back on at 11:30am) and did stuff with GFWTR and Abby. We ran around to pick some stuff up, did a little Christmas shopping and went to the mall and got Abby's picture with Santa. I don't think she even really noticed Santa, she was having more fun laughing and squawking at the photographer. Anyway here is Abby's first picture with Santa.



Click picture for bigger cuteness.

After all the work we did at my brother house we just crashed New Years Eve. I think I was the last one to sleep and I went to bed just after 11:00PM Central Time. GFWTR hit the sack early, the nephews were in bed, mom and dad too, bro and his wife were asleep on the couch. I saw the ball hit bottom in New York and off to bed I went.

New Years day dad decided bro's master cylinder on his decrepide 1993 full size Chevy Blaze needed replaced. Dad is one of those guys that always want to be doing something, can't sit still if he thinks there is something that needs done. We managed to find a auto parts store open on new years day and got the parts. Changing a master cylinder and more importantly bleeding a brake system in 37F weather sucks. Finger quite working right after a few minutes.

We flew out of Nashville that night. Flight was suppose to leave at 7:40PM CT but did not get out of there until after 8:00PM. We were almost to Cleveland and due to the nasty snow storm we circle Cleveland for 30-40 minute before landing. I knew we were in trouble with baggage when I looked out the plane's window and three guys were trying to get the baggage conveyor truck unstuck from a snow drift. We did not get our bags until almost 11:30PM ET. We got on the road just before midnight.

Cuyahoga county snow removal sucks. We did not see a single plow until after midnight and we only saw the one when we did. I assume it was to avoid paying holiday double-time rates. It took up nearly an hour and half to get home, normally it's a 40 minute drive. When we hit the Cuyahoga-Lake County line we went from six inches of snow on the roads to dry bare roads, even the berms were plowed clean in Lake County. Lake County knows how to prepare and plow the roads.

I didn't make it to work Wednesday until nearly 10:00AM.

...because of greed (my own included), the ugly side of capitalism/consumerism, misdirected religious fervor, and the helpless-angry feeling of having been forced to do something against my will.

Yeah it's probably not quite as bad as the above reads but without pages of explanation (that I have no doubt would bore the few readers I have) that will have to do. Once Christmas day actually gets here I usually get over most of the above and enjoy myself to some degree but at present I really hate this holiday.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and this year was the best ever for several reasons this year.

First and foremost, and likely the most momentous thing I have ever posted here, GFWTR and I are expecting our first child. We announced it at Thanksgiving to our families’ to much excitement and surprise. I am pretty sure both of our parents had given up on us ever having children.

I am presently somewhere between exhilaration and terror. This is going to be quite a life changing experience, and the more I tell people about it and think about it the more excited I get at the prospect. I think GFWTR is still taking it in a bit slower than I am. She is a bit more level headed than I am when it comes right down to it.

Needless to say the two mother-in-laws are beside themselves and have already had at least a few phone calls and one face to face meeting. I am sure the first few months of the new child’s life have already been planned out to the minute by them. Living this close to both parents is no doubt going to be both a blessing and a curse but I think (after much chastisement by my brother) is going to me a larger blessing than a curse.

I told my co-workers today and between telling them about the coming addition to our family and my weekend hunting I was very distracted at work. It was next to impossible to concentrate on the proposal I am suppose to be working on.

I am sure there will be many more posts on the baby as this progresses. I have created a tag just for posts on it.

The other thing that made Thanksgiving good was my brother coming up. I got to play lots with his two sons. One almost 4 years old and the other about 6 months old, they certainly fed the baby fever around the place. We had a good time having my whole immediate family together along with several of my parent's siblings and their kids and grandkids around for Thanksgiving. I think we only had about 26 show up for Thanksgiving dinner (we have had as many as 51). It was good times all around and GFWTR was somewhat the focus being the one with the "announcement". It's a tradition in my family that baby announcements happen at Thanksgiving and ours was a nice surprise to most. I think, despite her likely denial, she is enjoying the attention.

Finally to top all this family goodness off with an excellent deer hunting experience. I took a very nice 10 point buck opening morning of Ohio’s modern gun season. It was nice enough that it will be my first deer to be mounted, to be hung in the house down at the farm.

( Long detailed story of the hunting with pictures of the deer behind the cut. )

ETA: I fixed a for a few typos and bad grammar, don't worry I'm sure I left a few in there.

For Halloween I give you this interesting play on the recycling symbol.



Don't remember where I got it from but its funny.

I have 9+ lbs of candy to sugar up the neighbor kids with. I got to remember to not buy my Halloween candy at Sam's Club next year, by the time you get the variety you want you have enough candy for three years. I always like seeing how many times the same kids come around for a second or even third go at it. I usually give them more candy but call them on it at the same time. We also live on the edge of our neighborhood with the highway behind my house so I get to see all the mini vans from other neighborhood drop of little packs of hoodlums on our street to start through the area.

Great Thankgiving! We had 41 relatives from my mother side of the family show up. We had three generation represented, I believe the oldest was my Aunt Eileen at 69 and the youngest was “still in the oven” as my cousin announced they were to have their second child. Three turkeys were consumed along with large quantities of stuffing, homemade noodles (a Yost family tradition) and Broccoli casserole. And the desserts are always good and plentiful, pecan pie and mom’s homemade cheese cake topping the long and varied list of sweets. We ate lots, watch football, played many game of pool and foosball. All-in-all it was a very pleasant and relaxing holiday.