Christmas 2016

And so 2016 comes to an end. While it hasn't been a bad year for us, it's definitely been my worst at updating the blog. According to the post count on the right side of the page, I've had 54 updates this year (55 after this one). The lowest count prior to this year was 2013 when I managed 64. Quite a ways from the lofty 201 new entries in 2008. Suffice to say, one of my resolutions for 2017 is to update more. God knows I've got a backlog of pictures!

Anyway, before the year comes to a close, I wanted to post the highlights of our Christmas season. First off, Lucas shows off our tree.

We went with a real tree again this year, buying it for $40 from the church up the street. It was a nice tree, and all the money went to charity so everyone wins, I suppose. We may go back to artificial next year though since it just tends to be more convenient, other than finding a place for the box during the year.

On Christmas morning, before we started opening presents, everyone showed off their stockings.

Then the unwrapping began in earnest.

The presents weren't just for kids!

Here was my big gift from Marilu and Lucas. Every year, I always end up putting together Lucas's Lego gifts so this year, they got me my own!

We always get Marilu a puzzle for Christmas, and this year, I decided to get one from Cabela's. It should be interesting since it's in the shape of a wolf head.

Marilu's big present was this, an opal bracelet. I haven't bought her jewelry since the early days of our relationship since she is not a big jewelry person, but I wanted to go with something different. She liked it a lot so I consider that a win. (FYI, opal is her birthstone)

Finally, a picture from later in the day when we were playing some of the games we got for Christmas. This was a particularly funny game called Speak Out, where you had to stick a plastic thing in your mouth and then try to say words without being able to move your lips. I'm not sure what was better: the game itself or how crazy we looked.

So my resolution for 2017 is to update at least twice a week, which should get me back up to the 100 post a year level. This week, I should have this year's update of Christmas Eve where all the boys grow up together on the couch. In addition, I have 2 more California updates coming. I actually uploaded the pictures several weeks ago, but I still need to add some text. So watch for all of those in the coming days.

Happy New Year!

Camo Santa!

This year, we went with a new option for Lucas's visit to Santa. Instead of going to the overcrowded and somewhat expensive ($20) mall photo, we decided to bring him to see Camo Santa at Cabela's. Yes, only at Cabela's would Santa be in full camouflage. Not only was the wait much shorter, the photos were free!

I even jumped in the second picture for the hell of it. Too bad Lucas was distracted.

Unfortunately, Marilu didn't want to participate (boo! hiss!) so you'll have to settle for just the two of us.

California 2016: Day 6 (Universal Studios)

The highlight of Day 6 of our trip to California was visiting Universal Studios. Probably the lowlight was getting there as traffic was CRAZY. As much as I liked growing up in California, I think the traffic alone would prevent me from ever living there again.

I'm not sure if it was because Marilu bought our tickets online, but we were able to enter the park an hour early to visit the newest area, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We've been reading the HP books with Lucas over the last couple of years--currently on #5--so it was fun for him to experience the magic firsthand.

After Harry Potter, we made sure to head straight to all the "big" rides. As a result, we didn't have to deal with much in the way of lines, and we'd gone on 90% of the rides (some twice) before it was even noon. The lineups were pretty long in the afternoon, but by that point, we'd been on just about everything we wanted to see.

In sticking with my theme of visiting breweries while in California, I had to get this picture in front of the fictional Duff Brewery from The Simpsons.

A nice picture of Lucas and Marilu with a Southern California backdrop (complete with smog in the distance!).

At approximately 45 minutes, the lineup for the Despicable Me ride was the only long wait we had. The rest of the rides were ones we either walked right on or waited, at most, 5 minutes. Definitely one of the best theme park visits I've had--from an efficiency standpoint.

Being a long-time fan of The Walking Dead comic, I had to visit the new TWD attraction at Universal. Worry not, Lucas and Marilu went on something else while I did this.

Probably the best picture of the day.

The end is in sight: only 2 more days of California pictures!