"Daddy, Did Santa Come Yet?"

So at 7:50 a.m. Boy 1 yells out from his room "Daddy, did Santa come yet?" I thought it was much earlier than it was. I did get my Christmas wish that the boys would sleep til 7:30, which would be about 40 minutes longer than a normal day off. Boy 1 came into our room to force us up, thank god we have a gate at the top of the stairs that trapped him in while we got Boy 2's diaper changed before heading down.

I'm gonna take the easy way out and not describe everything that happened Christmas morning, just think back to when you were a kid. Everything started so nice and organized and then blew-up! You can write your own stories from the pictures. Though I will tell you, the train table was the biggest hit..............not the lite saber.

The Stocking Were Hung by the Chimney with Care

So everything was in place to mark that Santa had arrived. The cookies had been eaten, milk was finished, ash was sprinkled outside the hearth, the fireplace doors were left open, Santa hung candy canes on the tree, all the gifts were placed, stocking filled and to take it that extra mile. I gnawed on the ends of the carrot we left out for Santa's deer and placed them outside to be found on Christmas by the boys.

Christmas Eve at Aunt Sheila's

Well it all kicked off last night about 4 o'clock at Aunt Sheila's house........the present parade! By Christmas night I suspect we will have crammed more stuff into our house than we know what to do with. Most of this weekend will be transferring old toys from the living room to the basement and then waiting for our yard sale in spring/summer.

Boy 1 has been engorged in Star Wars talk for quite some time now, in fact the only thing he asked Santa for was a Lite Saber, blue in color. We will have to see what Santa brings.

Everyone appeared to have made out very well in gifts, televisions, DVR recorder, luggage, Sea Dog tickets, gift cards, Root Beer (that's an inside story) and toys, toys and more toys. It became very apparent that Boy 1 is just go, go, go..... playing, running, screaming and in your face. Boy 2 on the other hand is just content to lay on the floor playing with new trucks nice and quiet.


There is nothing suttle when you get 3 boys together. Grampy Dave is fending off 2 of them pretty well, but the 3rd is coming up quick.














So somewhere between leaving our house and getting to Sheila's I seemed to have lost a gift card for Kevin to a video game store, so all he opened from us was a couple pairs of socks and a shirt, not the most exciting things to a 12 year old boy.

It's Begining to Look Alot Like Christmas

Well last Saturday we got the apple tree decorated and thank goodness we did.

About 3 hours after finishing we got our first snowstorm of the year. Something happens in the mind of Boy 1 when it snows, it is just like Christmas morning. A few weeks ago we got about an inch of snow one night and that next morning Boy 1 went bizerk!! He flew out of bed and got himself dressed in a hurry. He remembered from last year that he wore long-johns before going out. Apparently he didn't remember what order his clothes went. He ended-up putting them on over his clothes and would not slow down to fix it...........he just had to get outside. Although that first snow melted by 9am he wore his snow pants, boots and all other winter items to daycare. The snow was melting so fast he had more wet leaves on his clothes than snow.

This is a great picture. Carey says it is one of those that we will look back at one day and realize how small they once were.

Sorry, no pics of Boy 2 yet!!! His first adventure in the snow did nothing but piss him off. He's not moving so well in the snow yet. He wasn't in a very photogenic mood!!!

Last One Out, Shut Off the Lights

Well Saturday the last two P-3 Orions left the Brunswick Naval Air Station (BNAS) and I gotta say it makes Carey and I sick to our stomachs to think of the base closing. Though it doesnt officially close until May 2011, the runways close down January 2010 and Saturday VP26 was the last squadron to leave.

I just keep thinking back to when the BRAC process was happening and all of our State and Local officials kept saying they would rather see it closed than re-alligned to another military function. I wonder what everyones thought would be now that the economy has tanked. The area economy is losing hundreds of millions of dollars from those working on the base, an uncountable amount of volunteer time given by military members and some great memories we had as kids.


Now all that is left is the various failures of base redevelopment and god knows what to the 700 empty military housing units. Though it will be fun to watch the social elite liberals of Brunswick squirm when the lower class move into the housing. Because liberals care so much about helping others, but just don't move them into their backyard.

When we were kids the Blue Angels were always a highlight and treat. I can recall many times either going out on the base or watching from somewhere that gave a great view. I always remember watching from Hunters field here on Foreside Road, which to this day has great views of the base.

We were lucky in the last few years the Blue Angels were here, so we do have some pictures of Boy 1 and Boy 2 at the airshows. That will be their only memories of the base and the many different aircraft that used to fly in the area.

I was able to get two pictures of the last P-3's as they took off yesterday. I almost forgot about them until Boy 2 was looking out the living room window and started howling like he does when he sees them in the sky.

Douglass Child Labor Camps

Here at the Douglass Child Labor Camps we pride ourselves in having one of the earliest age groups of any Child Labor Camp in the world. We don't wait until they are five years old to work in the sneaker sweat shops like they do in China.

In our 18 months old program we allow them to believe they are having fun, but we really know the truth. You wanna fling peas at the supper table you gotta clean it up. Some kids in sweat shops don't get to eat vegetables, Boy 2 needs to know how lucky he is.

If you would like to sign-up your little darling for our labor camp, tough!!! We can't handle anymore..............they're your problem!

Trick-or-Treat

Finally, after several costume changes in the prior weeks for Boy 1 Halloween night has finally arrived. Boy 1 since the beginning wanted to be a robot and Boy 2, well he just wears what we tell him. Carey put alot of work into the robot costume. The body is a box wrapped in duct tape with various cut-outs from the Internet for the computer functions. The helmet is a spray painted plastic container with headlights (Dollar Store specials) on top with Dixie cups for ears. I must say it was quite a hit!! Boy 2, since his nick name is Grady Monster was an obvious choice to be dressed as a monster. Great find on clearance from Macy's. The perfect topper for the costume were the red Chuck Connors Converse sneakers. What made the outfit really nice was you could simply unzip it for a diaper change and keep moving on as if nothing happened.

Boy 1 had been very excited to go Trick-or-Treating right up to the moment of actually having to do it. That all changed when he quickly remembered that you get treats when you do it. Aunt Darcy brought her treats to the house, he refused to do it at first and after the first treat was given he kept going back for more.

The classic moment of the night was when Boy 1 was climbing a set of stairs and fell over like a stiff rod. Apparently, Carey didn't care for me busting out laughing..............god I wish we had video of that. No tears were shed and Boy 1 just slid out the bottom and kept moving on.

Although I am incredibly biased, I don't think you will find cuter Trick-or-Treaters out there.

When we get pics sent to us from our various stops I will include some more. We were lucky to get the ones we got.