Omnium-gatherum
Matt Hanson’s Brain Archive
February 18, 2006
“I can’t believe he did it!”
All parents will remember that first Christmas where their kid(s) first “got it”, that this was a time for excitement. The jolly benevolent man in red was coming down the chimney, and bringing gifts to fulfill our imagination! This was the year that Kaley was that kid who held Santa Clause in awe. She came down the steps Christmas morning and saw that bright red plastic fire truck, with Rescue Hero Billy Blazes on the ladder ready to hose down anything.
“He did it, I can’t believe he did it! The fire truck!”. It was a great day.
Christmas is a conflicting time for me. On one hand it is an exciting, fun time and I want to share it with my kids and have them experience it. I loved Christmas when I was a kid and wanted to share some of that with my kids. On the other hand, the excesses of Christmas around us have dwarfed the real meaning of Christmas. It’s now got two separate parts: the Christian part and the secular gift giving part. To complicate it further I no longer subscribe to the Christian religion, so am I a poser for still celebrating a part of Christmas? Maybe. But when I was a kid, it was religious; I was religious. So how do I reconcile these feelings? I’ll teach my kids the real meaning of Christmas, as I was taught. When they’re older they can make their own decision, as I did.
This gallery contains several Christmas celebrations from the end of December to into January: My family Christmas, Kim’s family Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. To me, that’s the real value of Christmas - visits with loved ones.
February 17, 2006
A new, New Years Eve Eve baby
It’s amazing that kids go from speaking a few words to having a huge vocabulary in a year. It was less then a year and a half when Kaley first started speaking and now she constantly amazes me with her word usage. Of all the milestones my daughters have reached none have been more satisfying then my Kaley’s ability to hold a regular conversation.
She loves crafts. Of course she loves TV like most kids, but it’s nice when she turns off the TV and comes to us and says “i want to do a craft”: coloring, painting, gluing, cutting…inside are pictures of ‘bubble crafts” - blowing bubbles with water color paints and pressing them to paper.
November and December ranged from Playground weather before the snow fell, to fort building weather after the snow fell. The end of the year brings birthdays for Kim and Maizy which means at least some pictures of birthday cake. This year we had an additional surprise. On Maizy’s first birthday a new baby was born.
Congratulations to the Crouses and a big welcome to Meryl, the Famous Crouse !
