Due to a schedule conflict this year, we were unable to get family pictures for Christmas. Some coworkers and I were talking about Christmas pictures when one of them told me that her husband was playing Santa. A friend of hers has a photography studio and she was doing pictures with Santa for only $25.
After talking with my wife, we decided to have the kids go there and get their picture taken with Santa. Her friend took a lot of pictures and from your session, you get 5 photos. This sounded perfect, as I needed it to be quick. Our kids don’t stay put for long!
I snuck this one on my phone as they set up for their shoot. I can’t wait to see how the rest came out.
The studio was in one of the smaller towns about 30 minutes away from us. It was a bit chilly and after our pictures were done, we decided to walk over to this little store that had baked goods and coffee. The kids got hot chocolate and I grabbed a coffee. There was a patio with a fire table outside and the kids wanted to drink their hot chocolate there.
It was so funny because as we were sitting there outside, my coworker pulled up to the stoplight right across from us. We both looked at each other for a second before we realized who we were looking at and laughed.
Later that day, a package arrived at the house. My wife had ordered a coffee table. She asked if I would put it together for her. Andrew and I worked together and assembled it. It was a fairly easy job and Andrew loves to help. It didn’t take long for Mabel to make herself at home with it.
The turkey is in the fridge thawing out and should be ready for the oven by Thursday morning. We always cook it in a bag, and it usually comes out ok. I’m looking forward to a simple Thanksgiving holiday.
I’ve always loved this picture of Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson from Sanford and Son
I follow Joe Lennon Cartoons on Facebook and he’s had some great cartoons on his page. He did a whole month of Halloween themed cartoons and he’s posting Thanksgiving themed ones now. Two favorites:
I was sad to hear of the passing of a Detroit Tiger great – Willie Hernandez. He was part of the amazing bullpen that helped us win the 1984 World Series. He had just recently celebrated his 69th birthday. He was so fun to watch! Rest well, Willie.
We had some Christmas photos taken last week. The kids were crazy! They would hardly sit still. Ella, who went to the doctor today, may have been at the beginning of her illness for pictures. She was not her “smiley” self. They should be available for download by tomorrow, but a couple preview pictures wound up on our photographer’s Facebook page.
Can’t wait to see the rest of them. I pray we got at least one good family photo for Christmas Cards!
Speaking of Christmas, I was reminded by my wife that after Thanksgiving, the Elf on the Shelf has to make her return. Last year I really struggled to come up with fun ideas. I don’t even know what to do this year! I guess Sam bought some Elf shirts for the kids that “Twinkles” will bring with her when she returns. I probably should have been planning for the month of Elf stuff long before now….
We’ve had quite the run of germs at our house. First, Andrew had the runny nose, cough, and ear infection. Then Sam got a wicked sore throat that seemed to last for days. Ella has been congested, coughing, not really sleeping and fevers off an on. I have a nasty sinus infection with a cough. It’s not been pleasant!
No parent likes to see their kid sick. Ella has really had it the roughest. She is just miserable. Sam went as far as to say that Ella is like me when I get sick. She’s right. I don’t do sick very well. Ok, honestly, I’m a big baby. All I want to do is sleep. It’s not pretty.
We used real life as inspiration for Twinkles (our Elf on a Shelf) this week.
We were supposed to have some Christmas pictures taken this morning, but with all of us sick, we had to call and cancel. We’re hoping that we might be well enough to do them on Monday, so our photographer moved our appointment. Our fingers are crossed that at least the kids feel better by then.
Rest is best, so I think we’re all going to just hang in pajamas all weekend. Nothing wrong with that, right?
At midnight tonight, we’ll start a brand new year – 2022. Some have compared a new year to a book. The book with 365 blank pages – one for each day – and said that the book is ours to write. There is truth to that.
As I looked back over my “book” entitled “2021,” I see that (despite the pandemic and all the crap that came with it) I really did have a good year. Bear with me, he’s the recap:
January
January started with some snow. It actually looks like we should be getting snow again this week. Ella absolutely loved being outside in the snow. It was fun to watch her try to figure out just what all the white stuff was. Today, when she sees it, she get’s excited and yells, “Snow! Snow!”
In mid-January, we scratched our heads and wondered just how Ella was 11 months old! I mean, it seemed like she was just born!
The pressure was on as we closed in on her first birthday. With Covid, we weren’t quite sure if we’d even be able to have a party for her.
February
As we got closer to Ella’s birthday, Sam was just not feeling right. 3 days before Ella’s birthday, we found out that baby #2 was on the way!
This took us both completely by surprise! There was great excitement all over again. The hardest part was keeping it a secret…
Ella’s first birthday was a fun and busy day. We ditched the pink blocks and marked the birthday with a HUGE number “1” balloon. This was followed by a trip to the Sea Life Aquarium, the Build a Bear place, and cake at Nana’s house.
We were glad to be able to get some professional “1st Birthday” pictures, too!
March
In March we got our first look at the baby we now know as Andrew/AJ and announced Ella’s promotion to big sister.
Ella also got her first haircut
March also consisted of many walks around the neighborhood and stops at the park.
April
Big brother, Dante’ turned 19 this month! Before that, Easter fell on my mom’s birthday. We got Ella all dressed up in her Easter dress, stopped at the cemetery to visit grandma on her birthday and then went to Nana’s for an Easter Egg hunt!
Ella is so very blessed to have wonderful people in her life. Aunt Margaret is one of them! (She will kill me for posting this picture, but I just love this!!) She and cousin Marissa came to visit and the highlight was watching them read books together.
We also found out the baby’s gender, but that wouldn’t be revealed until May.
May
Birthday’s have never really bothered me, mostly because I opt for the Jack Benny attitude and say that I am stuck at 39. However, in reality I turned 51. 30 was big. 40 was tough. 50 a bit hard to swallow. Over 50? Well…..I examine my own mortality every day.
The month started warm enough that Ella got to spend lots of time in her sandbox and pool.
We revealed that Ella was having a baby brother and got another look at him on an ultrasound.
Ella and I worked on a special project for Sam for Mother’s Day and we got to visit the Detroit Zoo.
May also brought Ella her first taste of corn on the cob!
June
My second oldest boy celebrated his 14th birthday in June. We got to spend Father’s Day together by visiting Crossroads Village. They had a Classic Car Show there and we walked the village and rode the train. It was such a great day with my kids!
It was SO hot that day!!! By the end of it all, Ella was physically exhausted. June was a hot month and we did get to get out and enjoy walks in the park and a day at the splash pad.
July
By July, Sam was 5 months pregnant and was so sick. The pregnancy was a rough one on her. The heat didn’t help things. Despite that, the middle of summer was packed full of amazing things and our family had loads of fun.
We celebrated America’s Birthday, Ella had her first visit to the public library and bowled for the first time, and we all visited the Saginaw Children’s Zoo.
August
As Summer drew to a close, we continued to squeeze as much into it as we could. I got to spend a perfect day doing a daddy daughter picnic, my name was finally on the board at the Corner Cone for a free ice cream, Ella spent lots of time drawing with crayons, and our stress levels were through the roof as we took Ella in for her ear tube surgery. We also got another peak at AJ and had a visit from my brother.
September
Fall! My favorite season of all. I was glad to be able to get together with Margaret, Walt and my buddy Chris at Margaret’s house. Since she’s already mad at the one picture I posted, I’ll just share the one she told me I could share. Hopefully, that makes things a little better….
We always love going to get pumpkins and decorating the front of the house for fall. Ella seemed to like it, too.
Ella and I also got to take one last trip to the Saginaw Zoo before it closed for the season. It was a great day for us, and Sam actually got to relax a bit.
October
We had been told more than once that there was a possibility that the baby would come before his due date. He held out almost until the date! Just two days before he was born, Ella and I got to go outside and enjoy the fall colors.
On October 11th, AJ entered the world. I watched in awe as my son was born and all the pride of being a daddy again filled my soul. We weren’t sure how Ella would handle it, but she welcomed him with open arms.
They still did not have a photographer at the hospital, so we went to JC Penney to have some newborn pictures taken. AJ looks spiffy in his outfit!
While this wasn’t Ella’s first Halloween, it was the first real Trick or Treating adventure for her. She was happy that big brother was there to walk with her. AJ was obviously way too young to attempt to go out this year.
November
Fall walks are among my favorites. I love looking at the colors. Ella and I took many fall walks and there were many instances where she’d just play in a pile of leaves! AJ kept us all busy and so it was just Ella and I making the trip to Bronner’s to get his ornament for the Christmas tree. We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at home and got the house ready for Christmas.
December
The final month of the year brought many happy memories. Professional Christmas pictures, my annual reading of Dickens, AJ turned 2 months old, a visit from Papa and Grandma, Christmas Eve with my boys, Holiday lights at Crossroads, our first Christmas as a family of four, and the anticipation of a brand new year.
Blog highlights included my entries to the 2021 Song Draft, salutes to Soupy Sales, my grandpa, and Ernie Harwell, a guest blog from my pal Max, silly blogs about hats and Bernie Sanders’ mittens, fishing memories, my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, and a blog about an amazing cartoon Dog Dad.
There were many sad moments in 2021. I lost classmates and friends to cancer, heart disease, and of course, Covid. If the past two years have taught me anything, it is that life is precious and another day is not promised. You never know when it will be the “last picture,” the “last phone call,” or the “last visit.” It takes me make to that quote that my band director wrote on the grease board my senior year. I have quoted it many times. “Live every day as if it were your last. Someday, you’ll be right.”
Life is too short. Live. Laugh. Love.
As we welcome 2022, I pray that it is a good year for all of us. May we find it full of happiness and good health. May God bless you and yours in the upcoming year.
Get ready. The Book of 2022 awaits. Grab your pen and turn to page (January) 1.
Over the weekend, Sam and I took Ella and AJ to get Christmas pictures done. We scheduled them a few weeks ago. We had a few different outfits that we wanted to get their pictures in, but we weren’t able to do more than one. We went back and forth as to whether or not we wanted to take them in their PJ’s or the dress outfits. We opted for the dress outfits and they came out great. So why only one outfit?
There was some sort of water main break at the mall and they closed the mall for a couple days. So they rescheduled people’s appointments for the weekend. In essence, they were double/triple booked. Our appointment was at 11:30am, which should have been the second appointment of the day. There were two families in there when we arrived for our appointment. The lady that was there was obviously already frazzled. She stated that her help had not arrived yet.
She had finished the first set of photos and the parents of the first child were in front of a computer clicking their favorites as she took the next family back. That second family had like 4 kids and they were doing family pictures as well as individual pictures. We were basically told that it would be a bit before we got called back and that we could walk the store, which we did.
It was not easy keeping Ella and AJ happy, though. We were close to lunch time and nap time, so the longer we waited, the more cranky they could become. It was closer to 12:45p by the time we got to go back. The entire time we waited, Sam and I were getting ticked. We thought for sure that because they were so overbooked, we’d be rushed in and rushed out. Thankfully that did not happen, and we got some really nice shots.
Kudos to my wife for this idea. You wouldn’t know that Ella would not really stand still for pictures. She was running all over the place. We love the one above because it looks like she is pointing at AJ.
The photographer asked her to give her brother a kiss, which she did. What makes me laugh is that he is still in the “return to Santa” box, which almost makes it like she is kissing him goodbye.
We got a couple of each of them alone, too, which came out nice.
Next up, pictures with Santa. Cabela’s has contact free photos and we’ve made our appointment. Hopefully, those will go well.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 