Amy's assembling and shipping out the Christmas cards and she did a top-notch job this year. In fact, she got a little fancy; she did up three different style cards with three different pictures, including one somewhat goofy shot (my personal favorite) to buck the trend.
Amy has announced, in an unbiased manner of course, that these are the best Christmas cards in the history of the planet.
Here's a preview of the shots, one of which will be arriving soon to a mailbox near you...
After basketball practice this morning we drove out to Dzen's Tree Farm in South Windsor to cut down the family Christmas tree.
There was even more inspiration to find "the perfect tree" this year than usual in light of last year's unexplainable Charlie Brown Christmas Tree fiasco.
And I'm happy to report that our efforts paid off and we nailed it! It's big and lush. In fact, there's a strong posibility that there's a squirrel living in there somewhere, National Lampoon-style!
On the downside, it was the most miserable Christmas tree expedition yet as we were forced to conduct the search and the project of installing it in the living room during a steady, cold rain. But the fact that the tree's a beauty more than makes up for the yucky weather conditions.
There's a small photo album on the right...
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OK, this report is a bit tardy, but I wanted to update everyone on the Keenan Boys' secret plan to take over the international world of athletics.
First, it was a historic moment as all four Keenan Boys competed in the Race to Fill the Pantry 5K right here in Glastonbury on November 15th. In the Kids' Fun Run, which was about 300 meters, Owen managed to finish in 4th while little Shanie took 4th-to-last, which wasn't too bad since there were only about 12 kids and he was the smallest of them. But Owen and Shane were rewarded with certificates for free ice cream, which allowed them to replace all of the calories that they burned off during the race, and then some.
In the 5K it was a pair of silver medals for Daddy and Cameron. Daddy did battle with a sizable pack of young punks (he swears he once was in his 20's too!) and thwarted all but one of them, finishing 2nd place overall in 16:51. Meanwhile, Cameron took 2nd in the U12 division. He clocked a solid 22:06, good for 38th place out of 151 runners!
Next up was the Turket Trot 5 Miler at Arlington High School (Uncle Rob's old stomping grounds!) on Turkey Day. Daddy accompanied Cameron on a brutal 5-mile course which featured a continuous stream of solid hills. But Cameron put in an effort that would have made Clone Captain Rex proud by finishing in 39:33, which put him in 88th place out of 300 runners! No hardware though, since his division was U18. But Cameron was, by far, the youngest runner in the race with the next youngest runner being 14!
In fact, grown-ups were coming up to Cam after the race letting him know that he was an inspiration. One lady told us that she kept saying to herself, "If that little kid way up ahead of me can handle these hills, then so can I!" Can you tell Daddy's a tad-bit proud?!
So, as you can see, the Keenan Boys' plan to dominate the sporting world is well under way. Although I can tell already that basketball is going to be the toughest sport to conquer. Anyway, we'll keep you posted!
It appears that we have a new weblog category...Owen's Universe. For some unknown reason, Owen is now giving us occassional and unprompted updates on what's going on in "Owen's Universe". We're not entirely clear on what inspired him to create his own parallel universe. What we do know is that it sounds like a pretty cool place.
For example, yesterday he announced that every item for sale in Owen's Universe costs a dollar or less. The whole place is like one big dollar store! However...and he strongly emphasized this point...the really cool stuff (like real battleships) are two dollars. Interesting economy in OU.
He also informed us that the military in OU utilizes cannons that float in the ocean. That way if the enemy takes out a naval vessel then the OU Navy can continue firingaway. Ingenious!
So...we'll keep you posted about OU as best we can. Might be a neat place to escape to as the holiday season chaos builds!
Yesterday I was very thankful that I'm a marathon runner! After Amy recharged her batteries with a NYC day trip on Saturday she returned to town pumped to start the holiday season. After going to church in the late morning we took a whirlwind tour of three different holiday events in three different towns.
We started off by going to "Christkindlmarkt" (no, that is spelled correctly) at a German societal club in Newington, CT. This was after accidentally going to an event at the Portuguese Club across the street. Anyway, we checked out the German holiday arts and crafts, enjoyed a traditional bell ceremony and munched on German hot dogs and beer.
From there we trekked out to Chester, CT for the "Holiday Market" which is held there every weekend in December. Chester's a cute little artsy town near the river with some bohemian shops and local farms set up stands in the town center for the Holiday Market weekends. This stop in Chester included a trip on an old ferry across the Connecticut River to get a glimpse of Gillette Castle (which was unfortunately closed).
Next on the list after the sun went down was the big holiday celebration in Essex, CT where we marched with our lanterns in the Christmas Lantern Parade which went straight down historic Main Street. It was a thrill to march directly behind a colonial fife & drum corp playing Christmas tunes. The parade ended at the river where we watched another parade, this one comprised of boats all lit up in Christmas lights and doing loops in the river in front of the harbor. We also got to hang with Santa in his sleigh and Owen politely informed him that he would like a bulldog for Christmas!
We finished the day off with a nice restaurants.com certificate and a scrumptious meal at South Tavern, which is just 150 meters down the road from the house. It looks like the Tavern is now more of a sports bar with a lengthy craft-brewed beer list and plenty of big-screen TV's, and since it's within spitting distance of the house I may have found my new watering-hole! It would also be my first watering-hole.
Anyway, we'll be keeping a running Christmas photo album on the top of the right sidebar this season. There's only 13 shots in it now, but since Amy tends to have ambitious holiday weekend agendas I'm sure there will be plenty more by the end of the holiday season. Dude, it ain't even December yet!
Amy took a day-trip today with her buddies to NYC, which meant that the boys ran the show at home!
We spent the first half of the day working on Cameron's book report and playing a half-dozen board games. Then it was adventure-time as the boys loaded up their backpacks with various and sundry plastic firearms and swords and we drove over to the Blackledge Falls trail system at the other end of town. We don't hit these trails very often, but they're beautiful...one of the town's best-kept secrets.
Amy had recommended doing some letter-boxing, but I think the boys have just as much fun trekking into the woods with no grown-up-generated assignments. Not to mention that letter-boxing triples the administrative issues for me!
Anyway, we simply hit the trails and I let them set the agenda; they decided which trails to explore, what pace we traveled at and how many breaks we took. It's hysterical to watch and listen to their minds soar as they plunge into the jungles of Vietnam, the beaches of Normandy and the deserts of Iraq, all in one hike.
Meanwhile, after a stressful morning of playing Mr. Mom I got to take a break and relax a little bit by strolling through the forest and clicking through my MP3 player. Whoever thought that Yo-Yo Ma could make such a great hiking companion?!
Anyway, we had a blast on our two-hour hike. The highlight was spotting a buck with a pretty good-sized rack. The low-point was little Shanie falling face-first into a small stream. He stood there in his soaked pants and coat and screamed for a couple minutes before instantly shaking the whole thing off and rejoining his brothers so that they could continue the expedition.
We celebrated the hike with ice cream and Playland at McDonald's. Tonight's agenda includes a major four-boy effort at straightening up the basement, followed by "Movie Night", complete with hot chocolate and popcorn in the newly-cleaned "Downtown" area.
And mommy thinks SHE's having tons of fun!
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