Happy New Year, Again.

I’ve been meaning to write a little recap of post-Christmas happenings, and I just haven’t had a second to do it. So here are just a few highlights.

The boys and me. That Three Stooges poster behind us was a complete coincidence.

My boys and I got together the weekend after Christmas. The Christmas holiday was spent with their mom, so we got together for lunch.

They are now both living together in an apartment and sharing the responsibilities. I hadn’t seen their new place yet, so I met them there. It’s really a nice place. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms as well as plenty of room to entertain guests. After the tour of their place and some time in conversation, we decided to go to lunch.

There is a place right down the road from them. Nice place with a nice atmosphere and good food. They both grabbed boneless wings and an order of garlic parmesan French fries (delicious), while I grabbed a good burger. It was fun to just sit and laugh with them. They aren’t little boys anymore and it was surreal to be having adult conversation with them. We’re hoping to make it a point to get together more.

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New Year’s Eve was pretty quiet. Ella stayed at Sam’s mom’s house, so it was Sam, Andrew and me at home. How did we celebrate the new year? Andrew decided to have a date night with us and chose to get some Mexican food.

Then we made a trip to Meijer! Yeah, we really hooped it up! We stopped to pick up a prescription and then walked up and down the toy aisle with Andrew. Now, instead of having us take pictures of toys to add to his Christmas list, we add them to his birthday list!

We were in bed and asleep long before the new year arrived.

My dad made the drive up to give the kids their Christmas gifts this past Saturday. I had taken the kids to Home Depot that morning to do the kids workshop. They built a tow truck. My dad was already in the driveway when we got back home.

Due to schedules and such, we don’t get to see him as often as we’d like. The kids really were happy to see him. They both got remote control cars and watches that have games on them. Both of the kids had to show him what Santa brought and they talked his ear off. At one point, Ella just crawled up on the couch and started snuggling with him. It was so cute.

Ella and Papa discussing the Glinda doll he brought her.

I was so glad to get time with him.

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On Sunday, Ella had a play date with a friend. So Andrew and I spent the day together while Sam slept before work. We went to the Barnes and Noble because he wanted to look at books. We spent a good chunk of time there and had a about an hour to kill before going to pick up Ella. Knowing how much he loves tools, we made a stop at Harbor Freight.

I don’t think there was one thing that didn’t fascinate him. He thought vices were cool. He marveled at the many types of drills on display. His eyes were wide when he saw the amount of flashlights on the wall. Cement mixers, generators, hammers, crowbars, and even a bicycle pump all had his attention.

At one point, his love for the Three Stooges came out as he showed me what “Moe hit Larry with”…

That’s a big wrench! I was waiting for him to say, “Spread out!”

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Sunday night was a challenge. They had to be back in bed at their normal time because they had to be back to school. They were not too happy (or awake) when I woke them up. Honestly, I wasn’t happy or awake either!

And with that, 2026 is rolling right along …..

Cue The Music …

It does not take long for my wife to get into the Christmas Spirit. Longtime readers of this blog know that she listens to Christmas music all year round. Once November is here, the season is “officially” underway according to her.

I took advantage of a semi-warm day over the weekend and took down all of the Halloween decorations. I hadn’t planned on putting up Christmas stuff, but there is this big archway we have and I figured I would get that out of the way. Once it was up, that was the last I really thought of doing anything more.

Then, we woke up to the first snow of the season.

When the kids saw snow on the ground they went crazy! They HAD to go out and play in it!

They played outside for a little while in the morning and came back in for breakfast. As the morning changed to afternoon, the sun took care of what snow was left on the ground. It actually wound up being a bit mild the rest of the day, so I decided to put the rest of the outdoor lights and decorations up.

Our Christmas tree was given to my wife when she moved into the house a few years before we got together. It was old and on its last legs last year. We had talked about getting a new tree last year after the holiday and just never got around to it. We really didn’t want to spend more than about $100 on a new tree and most are a lot more than that.

My wife heard that Home Depot was having their Black Friday sales until the 26th of this month. One of the deals was a 7.5 foot tree that was pre-lit with LED lights. It was on sale for $99. I went and checked it out and decided to bring it home. What is really nice about it is that because of the LED lights, you can make it all solid white or multi-colored if you wish. It’s actually very nice.

It was a pretty good deal and I’m glad that we won’t have to look for a new tree for some time.

Perhaps this year we can put the ornaments on the tree. So far, the cats have stayed out of the middle of it. I may wait a week or so before deciding for sure ….

“It Should Be a Quick Job”

My father-in-law asked me if I would be available Sunday to help him swap a few deck boards at his place. “It should be a quick job. We’re only replacing a few bad ones,” he said. Well, it indeed started off with “a few bad” boards…

On the porch itself, we put in three new boards. On the ramp, we used 4 long boards to replace 7 boards. As you can see from the above photo, the thought eventually was to just go ahead and replace all the ramp boards. And we did.

It actually came out pretty good and only took about half the day. Then at some point, the decision was made to do the whole porch.

In the above photo, you can see the three boards we replaced. Once we knew we were doing the whole porch, we had to rip out the rest of the boards. It was a job! My father-in-law and brother-in-law ran up to Home Depot to get more boards and more screws while I ripped out the deck boards.

When they returned, they helped me with the remaining boards. We worked pretty much up until dinner time and we called it a day. We still had half the porch to finish which meant we were back at it on Monday afternoon. I stayed until about 6pm, and left because I needed to get the kids home, bathed and in bed for school the next day. They were almost finished when I left.

Tuesday morning, I had to stop over there after dropping Ella off at school. My wife bought something from a fundraiser and I had to bring over the money for it. When I walked up the ramp I saw that they had all but the very end board done. They didn’t finish it because my father-in-law was going to put in a different size board to avoid cutting the size they were using.

It looked fantastic. I can tell you, though, Sunday night I was sore. Monday night, I was stiff and sore. My hips were on fire, probably because we were hoping over deck boarding all day. My knees were killing me too because we were on them the entire time we were screwing in deck boards.

I’m always glad to help out my father-in-law. Lord knows how many times he has helped me! I’m happy it is done and that my mother-in-law is happy with the way it looks.

Now……pass the ibuprofen, please….

Life’s Little Moments

We’ve had a lot going on over the past week. I feel like I am just getting around to settling down.

Easter

I hope you had a good Easter, if you celebrate. My wife’s family did all the Easter stuff on the Friday before. I had to work, so I missed all the fun. They had an egg hunt for the kids, and Nana and Pa got each grandkid a little something. Andrew was in his glory!

He got his very own tool box! It is similar to Pa’s, and is better than mine! He told Andrew that he could come over and collect some tools to put in it later in the week.

My wife worked Saturday night, so Easter for us was Saturday Morning. The kids were excited to get their baskets.

They each got some cool loot this year, including special drinking cups – a princess one for Ella and a Paw Patrol one for Andrew. We spent the day playing and cleaning.

On Easter Sunday, I was told to cook the ham that was in the fridge. Honestly, I don’t know how many people my wife thought we were feeding. She bought a 13 pound ham! Andrew had some, my wife and I had some, but Ella is not a fan. Needless to say, there was a lot left over.

On Monday, I ran to the store with a crockpot recipe I found for ham and potato soup. I bought the ingredients we didn’t have and made it up. My goodness, it was delicious! It was so simple, too. I like simple. We’ll be doing that again.

Back to the Diamond

Last year, Ella said she really didn’t want to play T-ball again. Then she said she might. We signed her up and she’s already had her first practice. I was at work, but my wife said that this year, she is rocking it. Last year, she had trouble hitting the ball. I guess she nailed them all at practice.

Her games are all on days I work, so I’m going to have to figure out how to get to a couple of them.

Outdoor Play

With the weather warming up, the kids can finally go outside. They love riding their scooters and bikes. Ella, however, still wants to play with her Barbies. So this week, Sam told her she could bring out one of her Barbie houses and she could play with them outside. I think she liked the idea.

School Silliness

It is hard to believe that school is almost out for the summer. Ella has loved preschool. I have loved having mornings together. We all pile in the car and enjoy the drive to school. Sometimes she will talk about her classmates and sometimes she wants to listen to kids songs on the radio. When Andrew comes with us, it is always a hoot to listen to them talk about stuff in the backseat.

Ella mentioned while waiting in the car this week that we hadn’t taken a before school selfie in awhile. Usually, when we all try to get one, it comes out wonky because of movement or something. We had a magic moment this week …

Gee, Thanks, Dad

Andrew stayed at Nana and Pa’s house yesterday. Pa was putting in a new toilet. He was drilling a hole in the floor and that was all Andrew needed to see. He was going to stay and help Pa. At one point, they had to run up to Home Depot for something. Andrew LOVES tool stores! I can only imagine what that had to be like for my father-in-law.

At any rate, while they were there Andrew asked for something. Pa, naturally bought it for him. When my wife went to pick him up, she gasped when she saw him.

Pa bought him a REAL STAPLE GUN! Thankfully, there are no staples. The first thing my father-in-law said was, “Don’t worry. I made sure it was safe for him!”

When Sam did our nightly video call, she said, “Show daddy what Pa got you.” She turned the phone to show me him and he had it plugged in and he was pulling the trigger on the hardwood floor! I started to freak out until she told me that there were no staples! It just makes noise. He is in utter heaven!! He told me to wake him up when I got home so he could “show me how to use it!”

There truly is never a dull moment at my house!