Playing Catch Up

Phew, it's about time I posted. Happy New Year to all. Since its been a month since the last post, this will be a bit of a hodge-podge catch up.

Christmas was great. Emily was in hyper-excitement mode. This was probably her best Christmas yet. She was so excited about Santa she could barely contain herself. I'm surprised that she even slept a wink on Christmas eve. Katie was pretty excited too, but kept it somewhat under wraps.

Santa was good to them. The big gift was Nintendo DS handheld game machines. I didn't know much about them, but lots of their friends have them, and they really love it. Mom & Dad treated them pretty well too with Hannah Montana concert tickets. [side note: no, I did not spend the $2000 some people were getting for tickets, although a quick trip to eBay could have paid for Christmas - and then some. I scored some last minute tickets in a box in Newark through a work contact.] Alison's family came over in the afternoon, and it was overall a very nice day.

Next up was the above-mentioned concert. For anyone without girls aged 5-15, Hannah Montana is a character on the Disney Channel played by Miley Cyrus. She's the hottest thing going right now, and her whole tour sold out in minutes. Nose-bleed seats were going for $300-400 per ticket! The kids were extremely excited. We drove to Newark's brand new Prudential Center (which is very nice, BTW) for a 4pm show. Being in a box was good. At the Pru Center, the boxes are at mid-level, not way up, so you are part of the show, but have your own space. Most importantly, we were not surrounded by screaming fans. That said, I'll admit that Miley Cyrus' music is not too bad. She has talent, and her songs are not "sticky" despite being Disney generated. The kids crowd in the box was subdued, which kept our kids from dancing or singing, but I'm not sure they would have anyway. Nevertheless, it was clear that they enjoyed themselves.

Best of all we got back home before kickoff of the Giants/Patriots game! 16-0, what more is there to say. The next day, I trekked back to Newark with the kids, another dad, and his two kids to watch the Jets/Chiefs finale. Hmmm, what can I say about the game? Both teams have good punters? The kids had fun going to a game - but we only made it through less than two quarters. It was a great atmosphere. The kids got to learn new phrases like, "Kellen is an asshole!" and "What a shit call!" Almost every third word out of the mouth of the guy behind us was "F*ck." That's the Meadowlands for ya. Katie asked a fairly perceptive question, "why do they tease the players?" My response, "That's just the way it is here."

New Year's Eve was decent. We - and two other families - got a room at a local restaurant at the last minute. It was nice. We were all home by 10, and Alison was asleep by 11:30.

Finally, the kids are skiing again. We took a day up towards the Harriman State Park. Once Katie regained the hang of it, she was able to cruise on the green trails. However, she needs to work on turning. Occasionally, she would just shoot down which is dangerous to her as well as others. For a daredevil, Emily was surprisingly cautious and sometimes scared. She took two lessons, and rarely skied without being held. However, she gets the concepts, and it will come. Considering I just bought some new skiis, I'm counting on them being skiiers since Alison isn't one.