Spreading Some Holiday Cheer.

Ok...I "advertised" it. I put the address to the blog in our family Christmas letter.

This was originally supposed to be a little private blog for the parents, sister and the crew in Sioux Falls...but in the back of my mind I knew that if you put something on the web it was for the world to see. If I wanted it private I would have e-mailed it, right?

Well, it seems that the little link drop in the letter worked. I have a "hit counter" on the website and it has been rolling up like the national debt in the last 3 weeks.

We had a great Christmas...we were a bit depressed on Friday, it didn't seem like we had any big plans and none of our family was coming into town, but that mood changed quickly.

Saturday was a great laid back day. Maxim and I went out on the ice and it was perfect weather for making snowballs and snow angels. We had an epic battle that ended with me getting a snowball shoved down my sweatshirt! Maxim won. It was cool, last night you could still see our footprints on the snow covering the ice from that battle royale.

Sunday was the church play, Maxim and I both remember our lines...I was the Mayor. After we partied with Eric and the Gross crew for a while and closed the night out up the gravel road at Steph's family's party. The boys basically passed out that night from exhaustion.

Monday, we hung around the house in the AM and went into my folks for lunch and supper. Brent, Vicky, Aaron, Sheila, Lynn and Gloria came over to join us and Grandma for supper. Brent and Aaron are the party starters! Never at a loss for stories and they keep everyone laughing.

Jim, Linda and Scott (AKA - Waldo) came over later for dessert and some cowboy quickdraw shooting. My dad is a fastdraw cowboy gunfighter, and he has this range set up in the garage...the neighbors must have

been gone, because it was a loud night! Tons of fun with Scott...he might be the only cowboy gunfighter that holds his .45 pistol like a gangsta.
The boys had a great time opening presents from family, and once again were blessed beyond what we could ever imagine.

We have no plans for New Years, so that should turn into a Festival Con Vaquaros...or something epic like that.

2007...

Merry Christmas!

For those of you that didn't get the mailed version of the Christmas letter and photo...here is the picture. We are standing on the ice on the lake behind our home.

Steph's knee scope went great, the Doctor thought she should be perfect in a few weeks. She started PT yesterday, just easy stuff. I have been juggling work and helping with the boys. Did I ever mention that being a stay at home parent is more work than going to work? It is, and I am so thankful that my wife has given up a great banking career to stay at home with the 2 chipmunks.

Maxim and I have been skating on the lake lately...it is so surreal sometimes...the quiet, the openness, the bond of 2 hockey players enjoying the ice together. Maxim loves it when I chase him and hook him with my hockey stick and then pretend to check him. In 2 more years there will be 3 of us out there.

John Denver's "Country Roads" just came up on my playlist. I think that song sums up the year. With the exception of the West Virginia thing.

It's rain/sleet/snowing outside...things seem perfect in this world.

Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth.

Here is a couple of links to consider during this time.

www.heifer.org

www.buynothingchristmas.org

Kitchen Progress

The sheetrocking of the kitchen is shaping it up nicely I am over half done and should be finished in theory by Friday. It always amazes me how sheetrock changes the look of a room. Sometimes it makes a big room feel small and a small room feel big, but our kitchen with sheetrock still looks huge.

576 square feet of kitchen/dining area. Most people in the world have about half that to call home! We are spoiled in America.

The sunrises at the lake have been super beautiful lately...I could use a blanket of snow to make things a bit more wintery, but that will come soon enough.

The boys have been great, with the exception of Maxim and I loosing our PlayStation 2 playing rights for a while. Seems when it was time to shut it off the other day, Maxim threw a bit of a fit and Steph put it away. She is a great mom...I wouldn't have the well-behaved children I do if it wasn't for her.
Brecken is doing some amazing things...standing on his own for 3 or 4 seconds, feeding himself finger food and his bottle, using a little bit of sign language, SOOOOO BIG and bye-bye are super easy now.

Last Saturday was an amazing December day...54 degrees (F)...so we were all outside, Maxim and Brecken drove around in the Jeep, I put up some Christmas lights and Steph made a star out of plywood and then put rope lights on it. Maxim wanted a star, and Steph gave it to him. It looks super cool when you are driving up to the house...you can see it from about 3 miles away! Makes you think about the real Star.


Steph has the house decorated to the hilt. I only wish we could have people over to our kitchen to enjoy some holiday cheer at our new home...maybe for NewYears Day? Or Steph's Birthday? For sure 4th of July!

Christmas Letter Season.

My writing for personal reasons has taken a backseat to work, being a husband, dad, carpenter and hockey coach. My last entry was more than a week ago. May be the newness of the blog thing has worn off.

I couldn't believe it when on November 29th we got our first Christmas Letter/Photo in the mail. It was insane. I wasn't even done with leftover turkey, and Little Miss On Top Of Things (Name Removed To Protect The Properly Planned) had already dressed the gromets up the same, gave the dog a bath and talked her husband into wearing a sweater for a picture.

I think it is funny, and I am guilty of it as well, but our lives all sound so "Leave It To Beaverish" in Christmas letters.

For example:
Joe got a promotion in his company, he is now a Facility Engineer (aka-janitor).

I (the wife speaking here) enjoy my time at home with the kids keeping the house clean, and running them to football, soccer, gymnastics, swimming and piano (aka - I watch a lot of Oprah and Dr. Phil, and then ship the kids off to activities so I don't have to put up with them for a few hours).

Johnny is an 8th grader and loves math, science and is a great athlete (aka - we held Johnny back in 5th grade, because he wasn't starting on the YMCA league basketball team).

Mary is an active sophomore and dad is doing a good job to keep the boys away (aka - Mary is on her cell phone with girl friends all the time, but the boys just aren't calling her).

You get the picture...so I thought, I need to write both versions of the Christmas Letter...I'll send the one that paints the beautiful and then Blog the one that tells the reality of some things.

I'm doing them both in the same format.

January - I worked some crazy long hours at work, and watched a lot of TV. Steph turned 30 on the 30th and I completely missed her birthday. She is still mad about that one. Maxim got into some trouble at day care for hitting and not listening.

February - Steph ran a red light and totaled her brand new Yukon, broke her ankle, banged up her knee, but thank God that her, Maxim and unborn baby were protected. My highlight was that my bonus gets deposited in February...believe me it came in handy for the hospital bills...by the way we met our deductible this year.

March - I looked at some Christmas pictures we had developed and I realized that I was a fat tub of crap, and instantly launched myself into a workout routine...I weighed 228 and had the body of a 38 year old...happy to report that now I am 202 and benching over 260 pounds. Steph was starting to be ready for the baby to be born in March...she did a lot of nesting during this month. She made me start finishing our basement. Maxim went through a spell in March where he would not sleep in his own bed, because it was "nary, nary scary". So instead of fighting it, we let him sleep with us. We are still on occasion trying to break that habit.

April - April was great...Brecken was born, Steph was at home with the boys...the month kind of flew by.

May - My little cousin got married in May...so we all (our family and my mom and dad) packed up and drove to Chi-town together. My dad at times was completely annoying. I think he wanted to punch me about 4 times during the trek. We always end up loving each other.

June - Maxim turned 4 on June 17th. Steph went back to work, and we started to contimplate a move...and on a whim we decided to move to a lake...Lake Byron north of Huron.

July - I do not remember a single thing about July...except it happened, and the 4th of July was during this time...I think we went to Pickstown and wakeboarded a ton.

August - Dad and I went to the Knoxville Nationals...great red neck fun...We put the house on the market and sold it for full asking price in 30 days. Moved our stuff to my parents house and storage in Huron and started on the extremely big project of fixing up the house at the lake we bought.

September - Wake me up when September ends. I think this is when Steph had her gall stone surgery...or was that in August. I can't recall.

October - More house work...Maxim swore 2 times this month...where he heard that from, we have no idea. It is pretty scary hearing a 4 year old use the f-word and s-word properly. (See now that's something every parent would leave out of their fantasy world Christmas letter, but it happened and it was a big deal so I included it on the blogmas letter)

November - Maxim started hockey...to my pride, but he started hockey with tears for the first 5 practices and didn't want to go, and wouldn't skate without someone helping him...he is one of the best 4 year olds on the ice now! Brecken started feeding himself, and standing up...he will be walking in early 2007.

December - Steph is having her knee scoped, and holiday cheer...stuff like that. But for real, things have been great this year, I just need to hurry up and get the kitchen done in the lake house before Steph yells at me again. I guess when you take away a woman's kitchen it's like a man losing his garage.


Happy Holidaze
The Fam



There both versions...if you were not among the people on the list of mailed letters, I apoligize for that, but you were invited to the blogmas letter.

By the way my sister rules. (There Sal, now you have been mentioned like 4 or 5 times on the blog)

Stupid Chain e-mails.

If you are like me you delete most chain e-mails, no matter who they come from...I'll wade through the jokes and funny videos, but if I have to hear one more time about the Free Mason's rule over America based on the markings on the back of a Dollar Bill, I'm gonna puke.

Anyway, my buddy Mike S. sent this one today, and for lack of sending out more crap mail, I copied and pasted.

Participate with me on this. It's actually quite interesting. Ionly sent this to folks whose answers are bound to be clever!This is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be LAME and spoil the fun! Just give in and do it. Copy, not forward, this entire e-mail and paste it into newemail. Change all the answers so that they apply to you then sendthis to a whole bunch of people you know *including* the person who sent it to you. Put your name in the subject. The theory is that you willlearn a lot of little known facts about your friends. It is funand easy questions to answer.

1. FIRST & Middle NAME : Thomas Robert
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER SOMEONE? Doubting Thomas??? I have no clue?
3. Do YOU HAVE A BEST FRIEND? Steph
4. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? During the movie "Luther" (Life of Martin Luther, great movie by the way) I got choked up...full on cry, no idea.
5. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? YUP I WRITE IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME, AND MRS. GROSS, MY H.S. ENGLISH TEACHER HATED IT WITH A PASSION!
7. KIDS? Maxim 4, Brecken 7mo.
8. WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? some days
9. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? www.livingonliquid.blogspot.com yes, I'm a blogger
10. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Whenever I can, I did go to rehab for it one time
11. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? yes
12. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? yes
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Peanut Butter Crunch and Smores...on the healthy side "Blueberry Mornings"
14. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? depends on if I tied them when I put them on...most of the time you don't have to untie flip-flops or Tevas...
15. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I can bench 250# 5 times, but I don't feel strong
16. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Rocky Road
17. SHOE SIZE? 11 in Teva/tennys and 9 in ice skates
18. RED OR PINK? Red...if you know me you know about the red and black addiction
19. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My ability to be super laid back...but ironically, at times, it's also my favorite thing about me.
20. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My sister, and her family
21. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? kind of, kind of not
22. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? old blue jeans and barefoot
23. LAST THING YOU ATE? Do you eat coffee?
24. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? a mix of Radiohead, mewithoutYou, MxPx, Roper, Beck, Nodes of Ranvier and Showbread (Pretty typical for me) http://www.last.fm/user/glanzer77/? youchartstyle=sideRed you can see for yourself
25. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? BLACK
26. FAVORITE SMELL? Campfire, coffee and when someone smokes a pipe and it is that sweet smelling tobacco...love it.
27. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Steph and Maxim...He calls to ask if he can play with the Playstation 2.
28. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? eyes
29. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Love him, just wish I could see him on the golf course more.
30.FAVORITE DRINK? HOT: any coffee COLD: Coke or room temperature water out of my Nalgene31. FAVORITE SPORT? Hockey, soccer and board sports32. HAIR COLOR? brownish with a smattering of salt
33. EYE COLOR? blue
34. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? since 1986
35. FAVORITE FOOD? Johnny Carino's Spicy Shrimp and Chicken Pasta, and Qudoba's Steak Classica...home grown Steak on my grill
36. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? Happy endings
37. SHOWERS OR BATHS? Showers
38. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING: blue
39. WHICH CELL PHONE COMPANY DO YOU USE? Verzion
40. HUGS OR KISSES?? are we talking Hershey's little chocolate morsels here...if so, I am a hug
41. FAVORITE DESSERT? O'Henry Bars, my mom's recipe
42. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Skipper, he has way to much free time
43. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Skipper...he is a horrible typer
44. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? just finished Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
45. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Napoleon Dynamite picture, a good friend hooked me up with this one.
46. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? I haven't watched TV since like Tuesday of last week.
47. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Maxim's feet running around the house, Brecken's cackle laugh, and the sound a boat makes when it pulls a wakeboarder out of the water.
48. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles
49. THE FURTHEST YOU BEEN FROM HOME? Chezch Republic
50. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I can do the back spin, and the worm...Breakdancing was big for a month or 2 in Huron.
51. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? 1972, Wessington Springs, SD