Holidays

2009 is now here, and the whole Christmas season is already history.  First off, I have to say, this holiday season went by too fast. Now, if only the rest of the winter will do the same thing.  I’m not much of a cold weather person.  It’s this time of year when visions of Florida dance through my head…

After it’s all over I like to take a little time to write down the highlights of this Christmas season.  Since it all went by in a blur this list might be kind of short.

This year one of the funniest holiday memories comes from one of the silliest games I’ve ever seen: Flippin’ Frogs.  Up to four players take turns using a lily pad to shoot little rubbery frogs onto a plastic tree.  Sometimes, though, the game play isn’t as funny as the expressions, both visual and spoken.  Allison actually said once that her frogs “keep flipping each other off.”  So, that’s a nice visual to get in your head.

We didn’t go overboard with presents this year.  Tina and I got each other one Wii game.  I got Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for her, and she got Game Party 2 for me.  We played a little of each, and I am a little disappointed in the Jillian Michaels game.  It should come with its  own fan and vile of spit that ends up in your face from her “motivation” but the game just really doesn’t play all that well.  Game Party 2 is a lot like the original, but game play is a little faster and a little bit better.

We also got the classic board game of Yahtzee.  Not the Nintendo DS version of Yahtzee, nor one played on any type of screen at all.  This is the original comes-with-actual-dice-you-roll Yahtzee.  Complete with yellow chips we don’t understand when you would use.  But it was fun teaching the kids how to play.  Except for the chips.

Ryan received the Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga game for the XBox and Allison got Playground for the Wii.  The only one of these I’ve seen so far is the Star Wars game, and it looks pretty good.  I haven’t played it yet, I’ve just watched the kids play it.

New Year’s Eve was nice.  2008 left and 2009 came in, just like it was supposed to.  I heard about the Zune 30 issue that occurred on New Year’s Eve.  That’s pretty funny.  I wasn’t affected by it—wrong (or rather right) Zune model.  Who would’ve thought a leap year problem would occur in December? I wonder if the date counter just can’t handle a 366th day…  (“Wait! There’s only 365 days in a year!”)  Oh, the other thing about New Year’s Day… sitting in front of the television watching the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters marathon.  I couldn’t stop watching! I had to keep saying to myself: “Okay, this will be the last one! We’ve got a tree to take down!” Lo and behold, an hour later: “Okay, I mean it! This is the last one!”

Really, though, to me the thing that sticks in my mind most about this season is simply how fast it went by.  It just doesn’t seem possible that we performed “Sounds Like Christmas” on December 13, and now the holidays are over.  Just not possible.  Days, weeks, entire months just seem to disappear too easily.  I’ve got to find a way to slow all this down…

I hope everyone has a happy and joyous Christmas! Spend as much time as you can with those you love, and remember the true meaning of the season.

So, we’re getting down to the wire, and it’s almost 2009.  It’s also, almost Christmastime, and I am just now starting to feel like ‘tis the season.

We had our annual Christmas performance at Lumberport Baptist on Saturday night.  This year’s musical:  “Sounds Like Christmas.”  I played drums this year.  First time I used an actual trap set during a performance.  I usually use my Roland drum kit, but I really didn’t feel like lugging that thing around when the church has a perfectly good drum set right there.  Tina directed, as usual, and the kids had their parts as well.  There weren’t any “lines” to memorize this year.  The kids just danced and sang.

The church Christmas performance really seems to signal the beginning of the season for me, for some reason.  I think because before the performance, everyone’s really tense… like the week leading up to the show.  There’s always last-minute changes, and things to work through, and it’s always a little stressful.  So it’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit with those feelings.

On a different note, the Shinnston Community Band website has now been re-designed.  Hopefully I have everything up and running smoothly.  I’m sure it will evolve over time, and there are a few things I’d like to change already.  All in good time…

I just wanted to take this time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Whether you spend your day watching or attending parades, stuffing or eating a turkey, or just sitting in front of the television with your friends and family enjoying a football game, take a moment to give thanks for all that we have.

Only 28 more days until Christmas!