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.
July 24, 2005
Bear Brook, then the Beach
This was our fourth year camping at Bear Brook and this year we decided to go for a week instead of just a few days. With a two and a half year old and a 6 month old it was fairly difficult, but mostly due to Kaley being sick with an intestinal virus. We came home yesterday, a day early. Most of the days consisted of the same stuff, swimming, playing on the beach, cooking food, doing dishes, feeding the baby, resolving fights between Kaley and her cousin Lyndon, and having Smorittos at the fire. Bear Brook has some of the best mountain bike trails in the area and I got to go twice. We always camp at the same time as some of Kim’s family, Aunt Terri and Gloria, and the Flanagans.
It was a hard week, we had enough yesterday and came home a day early. We’ll still go back next year.
I’ve also tagged on the following weekend’s visit to Camp Ellis, Maine where we visited the Flanagan’s.
July 3, 2005
May 29, 2005
May 15, 2005
February 27, 2005
December 28, 2004
December 22, 2004
November 26, 2004
September 30, 2004
Family Visits
Here’s a couple set of pics taken in September. We went over to Portland to visit my mother one weekend. I finally got some good pictures of Kaley with her. Then Kim’s uncle Keith (Tarleton) and family came over one saturday to see the new house and we had a BBQ. It was also the last day we used the pool, which was a steamy 68 degrees…brrr.
August 28, 2004
Children of the Corn (Maze)
We went to Liam Flanagan’s 5th birthday party in Concord. We ate ice cream and did a corn maze!
July 31, 2004
New Camera Time
July was filled with lots of people coming to visit us in our new house. Family, cousins, friends, all came to see the house, go swimming, and have BBQ’s. This was also about the time I got my new digital SLR camera (Nikon D70) so I had fun playing with that.
July 28, 2004
The Bear Brook Rats
Starting a couple years ago we started going camping at Bear Brook (state park east in Allenstown, NH) for a long weekend in July. We had a good time this year with everyone. Kim’s aunt and cousins (Flanagans) were also there as were the Belangers. To make things even better I got in some great mountain biking while there.
July 3, 2004
It’s a BBQ Christmas
Here are some pictures of yet another BBQ we had in July (because lots of people coming to see the new house), but I took a lot of pictures at this one in particular because I had just gotten my new camera.
June 30, 2004
Grab Bag
There’s a bunch of miscellaneous pictures in here including Rick Morrill’s birthday, Kaley hanging around, Jeff and Kaley together, and a couple pictures of us moving (just pictures of the U-Haul actually). I wanted to take more pictures of the move but I was, too busy moving.
