Say it Ain't So, Santa .... Say it Ain't So

Rachel's Dad and his wife, Becky, stopped by our home on Wednesday night for a holiday visit with our family. They had spent some time with Wes' family (his mom, and brother) in upstate New York and were returning to North Carolina to spend a few more days with Becky, Zach and Daniel before flying home on Christmas Eve. They originally planned to stay with us only a night, but decided to stay and hang out with the girls for a whole day before leaving on Friday morning. We decided to go to the mall, and have the girls visit Santa, so that the grandparents could see the magic of Christmas through the girls eyes. I waited in line with Allison and Ryleigh, and Rachel gave Lindsay to Santa when it was our turn. Wes had his camera to snap a few pictures, as apparently even Santa Claus at the mall has turned evil.

The trend of charging out the whazoo for pictures of kids with Santa now is annoying. It used to be a service that the mall would provide for the customers of the particular mall, with parents being able to take pictures at will for FREE !!??!! Now, they have people and stuff blocking Santa with signs telling you to be respectful and not take pictures of your kids with Santa (see green sign in foreground). What does that mean? Be respectful? I think that loosely translates into "Please don't take pictures of your kids with Santa, but you can pay 15 bucks for one 5x7 photo from our camera". They also claim that "Visits with Santa are always welcome" on the sign, but don't tell you that it also comes with a high-pressure, guilt laden sales pitch. I almost expected the freakin' lady to tell me about the cost savings of a Time Share in the Napa Valley, in addition to the photo. They were awful, especially since they knew that Wes snapped a couple of pics of the girls. I almost don't ever want to go to the Mall again during Christmas with the girls, because Santa is now a sell out. Just another childhood memory ground to dust, sacrificed at the altar of the Holy Dollar.

Survivor Ends - Todd Herzog victorious

Okay - in a previous post, I spoke about my love for reality (or not so reality) TV. Sunday was no different, as we were looking forward to seeing how the season ended. Rachel and I run hot and cold with Survivor sometimes, but it's always fun to see how the drama plays out. We were both rooting for Todd or Amanda to emerge as the winner, as they both backstabbed their competitors to get where they ended up. Glad to see that Todd was unapologetic for his actions, and basically said, "I started playing as soon as I got to China" as opposed to Amanda, who was counting on her doe-like eyes, and pushing the "I was following Todd, so I'm not that mean" card on the jury. So, in the end, Todd took everything like a man, and turned at least two votes his way to take the million dollar prize. It was nice to see that James took home the most popular survivor cash, and that multi-billionaire producer Mark Burnett decided to "tip" poor Denise fifty grand to "make your life the way you want it." I'm guessing she'll spend it on Cheez Whiz and scratcher lotto tickets, maybe upgrade to the 1990 Ford Tempo 4-door model. Come on Burnett, fifty grand? I hope that's coming out of your overflowing pockets, and not being charged to the production budget that CBS is footing the bill for.

Now for my annoyance part of the post. What is it about Survivor and making sure that everyone knows that so and so is a Gay Mormon? This is now the second Gay Mormon contestant (that we know of) to compete, and third overall. Raef from Survivor: Guatemala was a Gay Mormon river guide, Neleh was a Mormon student, and now Todd the Gay Mormon flight attendant. All of them did very well in their respective seasons, with two of them making it to the final vote. I mean, what's the deal with bringing that out and sticking it front and center on their nameplate when they do their "aside" interviews? Does it matter? You would think that in the day and age in which we live, that being gay is a non-issue anymore, let along on a freakin' reality game show. I guess they just love to do that kind of thing as a thumb of the nose to a known conservative religious sect for some reason. Just annoying that they don't match a Gay Catholic or Gay Baptist tag on the other contestants who happen to be gay along with holding a job. Just annoys me to a degree, but that's me.

Way to Go, 'Skins

In a windswept Meadowlands Stadium, the Redskins pulled out a solid victory over the division rival New York Giants, 22-10, on Sunday night. Rachel and I were watching the Survivor finale on CBS, so I was completely unaware of the score, or even how things were going in the game. After we had caught up with the DVR (which I love), I switched over to the game to get a score while we were watching the after show of Survivor (more on Survivor in my next post.) First thing I saw was WAS 22 and NYG 3, first thing that Rachel saw was Jeremy Shockey being carted off the field. I started laughing, as I thought the Skins had no shot of winning this game. Well, as I kept swapping between channels, I saw the Giants go down to score a TD to pull within 12 points, and I thought "Here we go again" as the Skins were stomping the Giants into the fourth quarter in the game at FedEx earlier in the year that ended in a loss. Well, this time, the defense held - in addition to the Giants continued trouble hanging onto passes from Eli Manning. There was no more scoring the rest of the game, and a very happy Aaron celebrated by doing two loads of laundry.

Can you Believe the Time?

Can you believe it has been over 6 weeks since Lindsay joined the clan!! I can hardly believe it. Lindsay had her one month check up a week ago (I know, a little late in posting the details). She is in the 75th percentile for both her height and her weight. I was a little shocked, since both of her sisters barely made it on the chart at the same age. See what happens when they get to cook a little longer I guess. She weighed in at 10lbs 3oz and measured 22.25 inches long. Her nickname is fitting more and more. Allie and Ryleigh have both taken to calling her "tank". Although Allie calls her Lindser Tank. It is really cute.

Ryleigh also had an appointment the same day. She needed to get the second half of her flu shot. She did great. No tears or whining at all from her. And as a reward for her bravery she received two Backyardigans stickers. You would have thought she won the lottery. It was so fun.

Lindsay is really a good baby and has been getting better at sleeping at night. She does really well with her sisters always wanting to love on her, but lets us know when she has had enough. She loves to be held and has begun to smile. It is really great.

Just thought I would share Lindsay's progress with everyone. We are so grateful to have her in our family and look forward to all the "firsts" again.

Lindsay's Blessing

When we were down at Mom's at the beginning of November, one of the things that we needed to accomplish was find a date that would work to bless Lindsay, so that as many family members could attend as possible. After a straw poll was taken, it was decided that December 2nd worked out best for us, as that date was also working for Rachel, as her father would be in North Carolina and be able to possibly participate as well. I talked to Bishop Duersch, and he said that would be fine.

Well, it turned out that we picked the weekend that they were calling for our first ice storm of the year. Great. Well, Rachel's father, wife and Zach/Daniel came up on Friday night, and ended up staying in a hotel room that Becky rented for them. Mom and Thad came up Saturday night, then Andrew/Amy and Nancy all came up Sunday morning. Andrew called Saturday night to see if what time that church started, and said he would call in the morning for directions. Well, we weren't up when he called the first time, but the second time he called we were. They ended up getting a later start than they would have liked, but started out for the journey, determined to get here. Well, as time passed that morning, and showers were finished, and people getting dressed, it was looking close as to whether or not Nancy, Andrew and Amy were going to get to our house in time. We got a call from Nancy, giving her "40" and not even 3 mins after that call, Andrew called to give us same. Even with leaving after Nancy by about a half-hour to fourty five mins, Andrew was now only about 3 miles behind her. So, we all piled into the cars and got to the church only a few mins late. The blessing was pretty much what you'd expect, I was nervous that I was going to say something wrong, or bless her with the wrong name.

Wes and Beckie (Rachel's dad and step-mom) left church right after sacrament meeting with the boys, because they had such a long drive back. The rest of us returned to our house for a family dinner we put together, before everyone returned home. It was a nice weekend, and I am glad to have everyone show up that could have. Pictures to follow.

???

Why am I watching Project Runway right now?

::goes to find movie with guns and bombs::

::digs out Transformers: The Movie::

Ahhh..... much better!

Ahso .... Vely Tastee .. |o)

I was a late comer when it came to "Chinese" food. To this day, I remain a picky eater. Chinese always has tons of veggies, which I am not a big fan, or has odd sounding if not odd tasting sauces that the stuff is cooked in. I remember the first night that I was taken to Chinatown in D.C. and ordered my first dish, Orange chicken. I wasn't too sure it sounded great or not, but in my condition at the time, I would have eaten just about anything. It ended up being great, and I stuck to ordering that as my staple for a long time, even though Chinese food was never at the top of my list of foods to eat. Then one night, my oldest friend, Alan Kanyan, and I went to Ying Chang's (sp?) in Fairfax for dinner. I knew it was there, as it's only about a mile and change from Mom's house, but due to my avoidance of Chinese, I never went. Well, that's when I found out about General Tso's chicken and hot/sour soup.


I couldn't have found a food that screamed Aaron more than this. Basically it's fried chicken nuggets cooked in a hot and sweet sauce, with dried hot peppers. It's spicy, sweet, and served with white rice. That place became a regular of Alan and mine, especially when they started their lunch buffet. I just love the crabmeat rangoons, General's chicken, the hot/sour soup and other fare offered on the buffet. When we moved up here to Pennsylvania, one of the things we tried to find was "our" chinese food greasy spoon. We tried all over Pottstown, but the General's chicken up here is way different than what I got used to at home. It's more of a sweet and sour sauce, with a ton of carrots, onions, broccoli and other filler to hide the fact that there isn't much chicken in the dish. Rachel is okay with the food, as sweet and sour chicken is pretty much the same no matter where you order from. So, now I've found that sesame chicken at our new greasy spoon chinese joint is closer to what I'm used to. It's not as spicy as I like, but at least it isn't eight bucks worth of broccoli and ninety-five cents of chicken.


Whenever we go back to visit the family in Virginia, we always try to squeeze in a trip to Ying Chang's for lunch with Mom, Nancy, or whomever wants to go with. On our last trip, Allison saw that I was using chop-sticks (very gay, I know) to eat my food, and wanted her own set to try. I attempted to give her the kid friendly version, where the back end is molded together, but she wanted the ones that are just like Daddy's. Well, here's the result:











She had a ball eating the yellow noodles, and actually ate something besides the mini desserts they have. The one bad thing was that the little (Avenue Q reference coming) cawrring me olee enter, offensive to me Lady wasn't there for Mom to talk to about the water, her kids, or general merriments. Oh, well, such is life, the food was just what I wanted and I was able to enjoy not only the Tso's chicken, but they also had sesame chicken as well.