Why, oh why.....

...didn't someone get me this for Christmas??



12/31 UPDATE: Sorry, I had to take down that ANNOYING video!!

A Very Merry Christmas

Greetings everyone...it's been a while.

Like many of you, we here at Streaming Egans have been wrapped up (hah, get it? wrapped up?!) in all things Christmas for the last month or so. Between sending out cards, searching online and in stores for the perfect gifts, baking cookies, and wrapping presents, December's been a bit of a blur. Fortunately, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day slowed down to a perfect pace. I feel like I got to really enjoy the holiday this year, due in no small part to the fact that it was Matthew's first Christmas. While I did experience the last minute "Oh my God, I don't have enough gifts for him" that parents sometimes feel, I think everything worked out pretty close to perfect. It sounds cliched, but there's nothing quite like seeing Christmas through your child's eyes, and I can only imagine it just gets better every year. I'm looking forward to many, many more.

I hope you all had a blessed and Merry Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate at this time of year. Hard to imagine it's almost 2009.

I'll leave you with a few (OK, a lot) of photos from our Christmas celebrations. If I get around to it, I'll post a slideshow later of the pictures my brother took during our Bright Nights tour - they came out too great to not share.

Christmas Eve at Nanna and Poppy's

Christmas Day at our house

Christmas night....checking out the luminarias in West Side. This neighborhood of three streets all set out luminarias, typically on Christmas Eve, although it was postponed to Christmas night this year because of the rain. They represent a hope among Christian believers that the lights will guide the spirit of the Christ child to one's home. Pretty cool, right?

OK, and I'd like to meet the genius that invented these....practically every toy Matthew got was secured by these contraptions. Yeah, they're kinda like those childproof caps on medicine bottles. Completely impossible for adults to open.

OK, and last but not least, for those of you who voted in my last post that the snowperson in question was a woman, I submit the following....

Notice how in this family of snowpeople the woman is wearing a kerchief style head covering and the man is wearing a tophat? I rest my case. You must admit that the stocking holder is a man. Unless, of course, you're like my husband and insist that this must be a lesbian snow family....

Need your help....

OK, folks, I need you to help settle a dispute in our household. Can you please tell me....

is this a man, or a woman? And, what makes you think so?

Thank you very much.

Getting ready for Christmas

Like everyone else, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas. We went last weekend to get our tree. Sadly, our favorite place - where you ride out to the fields on a horse drawn carriage, singing Christmas carols the whole way - was closed. I'd stumbled upon the owner's obituary when I was searching the farm out online. Their sign says they'll be open next year - I sure hope so.

So, we headed off to another farm that we've been to before. They had some great trees, and we ended up picking the very first one we stopped at. Now, don't misundertand....we didn't cut it down the first time we saw it. Oh, no...of course not. We tredged through the fields for another 45 minutes or so, only to come back to the original tree. Thank goodness no one else had snagged it.

Matthew had a fun time. He loves being outside, and enjoyed traipsing through the fields. Naturally, we snapped some pictures, it being his first time picking a tree and all. Here are a few...

Here's a quick video of my favorite part....

A few pics from inside the car after....

We've been slowly working on getting the house decorated. We have A LOT of Christmas decorations. One thing I've developed a fondness for over the last few years is door hangers. I've got a bunch of different ones, and almost every door in our house has one on it. Yes, even the bathrooms.

Here are a few of my favorites...

and this one...that always goes on our bedroom door.

But this year, I've finally got the perfect place for this one...

Matthew's bedroom door. That just sums it up.

Christmas Music snob

OK, OK, I'm posting...... =) It hasn't really been that long, has it?

This morning on my way to work I was listening to a new CD of Christmas music that I picked up the other night. I decided to be adventurous and try listening to something other than my old stand-bys, and this CD seemed like it had potential. It boasts songs by Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, and has a few of my favorite songs that you don't find on many CD's out there. So, I popped it in and got ready to belt out some tunes while cruising down the highway. Sadly, I found myself skipping past every song - each one worse than the last. In a word, it SUCKED! Guess that's why it was only $2 at the register in Walgreens.

I've come to realize that I only like certain Christmas songs sung by certain artists. When I hear a song sung by someone other than the singer I'm expecting, I just can't enjoy it. Likewise, when I hear a singer I love singing a song other than one I'm used to hearing them sing, it's just not happenin' for me.

Here are some song/artist combos that I think just shouldn't be messed with...

White Christmas - Bing Crosby

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole

Home for the Holidays - Perry Como

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reinder - Gene Autry

Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms

A Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee

I'll Be Home for Christmas - Perry Como

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas - Perry Como

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams

Is it just me, or do any other versions sound like they're just not right? How about you? Can you listen to any song by any singer, or do you have a hangup about Christmas music like me?

And yes, I do know there are a lot of Perry Como songs in my list. The man was a genius. And for the record - best Christmas album EVER? You guessed it......

Let us give thanks....

I've been meaning to get back to this...

A while back, in my Six Random Things post, I mentioned that I had a humongous curl in the middle of my forehead. Here's a picture Dennis snapped that day....

What's the significance, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya....

My mother used to recite this poem to me as a kid, and it has always stuck in my head. I never knew until a couple of years back that it was by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They say he composed it while holding his second daughter in his arms. It goes like this...

There was a little girl,

Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad, she was horrid.

Quite appropriate, wouldn't you say??! Hah!

What fun!

This afternoon we made a visit to the WGBY Book Fair at Barnes & Noble. I'd seen it advertised a few times while watching Lidia, and was so excited that Curious George was going to be making an appearance. I was really excited to go, not only because of my own fondness for him, but for Matthew's, too. You see, he has this thing for monkeys, and is familiar with Curious George from the various books he has.

Curious George was scheduled to appear at 2:30, so we arrived at B&N with about 5 minutes to spare. We walked back to the Children's area, assuming that's where he'd be. Much to our surprise, he was already seated at the front of a group of about 50 kids and adults, with a woman beside him reading a story....the end of a story, at that. I don't know what happened. Maybe WordGirl, who was scheduled to appear at 2:00, got a flat tire on the way or something and George had to step in to calm the masses. In any event, we made it just in time to get in line to get up close and personal. I wasn't sure how Matthew would react, seeing a life sized version of him. But, as soon as he spied him over the crowd, he got a huge smile on his face.

Here are a couple of pics from their interaction....

After we took our turn, we did a little shopping. As part of the Book Fair, a portion of our purchase would be donated to support WGBY. Can't beat that. We picked up a stuffed Curious George dressed as a firefighter (as in Matthew's favorite Curious George story - Curious George and the Firefighters), which he LOVED. We also grabbed a few Christmas favorites - can't wait to read these to him!

As we headed home, the sun was already setting, and the sky was just gorgeous. Here's a shot I snapped as we cruised down 91...not bad for being taken from a moving vehicle!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Uh-oh....

Ummm....yeeaaaahhhhh....can you say BABY GATE?!

Fall Cleanup

Well, today we tackled the leaves in our yard. We have massive trees everywhere, so our yard just gets clobbered with leaves. Fortunately, Dennis rented a giant leaf blower, which was such fun to play with. With all the rain we had yesterday, the leaves were pretty heavy, so even the limited raking we had to do was a little tougher than usual.

Matthew supervised much of the operation from his perch in his activity center. He yelled DaDaDa over and over again, and just laughed and laughed.

Once we got down to the last pile in the back, we decided to let Matthew experience playing in the leaves for the first time. He loved it - he bounced around and laid down in them - and he didn't even try to eat any! Check him out...

I couldn't resist picking him up and jumping in with him!

He really seemed to enjoy getting dirty!

Here's the pile out on the tree belt. Dennis will call a landscaper tomorrow to come pick them up. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't get too windy between now and then!

I myself am going to make some calls, too, to see if we can rent a couple of these...

or maybe a couple of these....