Happy Birthday, Meghan!

So, I'm a bit late. We were busy with Christmas stuff.

I've been posting old vids of Meggie and thought for her birthday we should have a current photo, but it took me awhile to have time to sit down and do it.

We love this kid. She's our household sunshine. A bit of a drama queen at times, but mostly pretty cheerful with a silly little sense of humor. She's still young enough to skip down the hall, but old enough to be a great helper. She likes to cook, play the piano (which she does pretty well), concoct surprises for her family, listen to "old fart music" with her mom (she's a big Frank Sinatra fan), dance and run. She wants to know everything about everything and reads science and math books for fun. She also loves fantasy books, though. She's very creative and artistic and it's all we can do to keep her in arts/crafts stuff. She adores her big brother and her grandmas and they spoil her right back.

Most important to us, though, is that she really wants to be a good kid. She tries hard to be nice to everyone, reminds her mother to "not say that" when the s-word slips out, and reminds us about family prayer when we forget. She's usually especially kind to kids that are littler than her, and has quite the little gaggle of 3 foot groupies at church.

Happy Birthday, Meghan, to the best Christmas present we ever got! (It would have been a better Christmas present if you weren't two weeks late, however!)

Christmas, Birthdays, etc

Haven't had much time to write this week, and still don't. But, Emily's love/hate post about Christmas reminded of what I do like this time of year...

1. I LOVE Christmas music. Nothing better than good Christmas music cranked up on the stereo. No Neil Diamond Christmas, though. As a fan, I thought I'd like his Christmas album, I was wrong. IT's wrong. He should stick to Hanukkah songs or something.

2. I LOVE getting everyone's Christmas pictures and letters. I'm terrible about sending them, however, only getting them out every 3rd year or so. Just when they think I've dropped off the face of the earth....I pop back up again. Downside is that when people don't hear from you, they don't write either. I really need to get better about that.

3. I LOVE playing Santa (not literally of course, that's Sam's job). I love picking out gifts and filling stockings, etc. I love that Meghan is still not quite sure if there's a Santa or not. She may just be humoring me, though.

4. I LOVE a good Christmas light display. Not too over the top, though. We haven't really done much with Christmas lights outside because you can't see our house until you're here, anyway, we're too far off the road. Sam made a giant Christmas star last year and put it on our chimney, and high winds trashed it the next day. We have lots of lights in the house, though. Two Christmas trees and a lighted garland on the stairs.

5. I LOVE a good Christmas party. We had a dessert potluck get-together for the First Presidency broadcast and we had a great time. We had a gingerbread house making party at a friends last weekend. A family in our ward has a blow-out open house every year for hundreds of people that is always fun. We have Christmas Eve morning brunch when we're home for our friends and to celebrate Meg's birthday. The Elsberry White Elephant party is always a blast, although I do need to bring an inhaler most years because I laugh so hard. My cousin Margot, who I only see at that party, is one of the funniest people on the planet.

6. I LOVE that I have a Christmas baby. And I love that she loves it. My brother has the same birthday and he's always hated it. I do hate that she's growing up so fast, though. She'll be 11 this year.

7. I LOVE going to the Mesa Temple to see the lights and the live nativity. I especially love it when we get to go the night they turn them on for the first time.

OK, I'll stop. In honor of Meg's birthday (and really because she's the only one we ever took videos of), I'll post another of her when she's about three. I love her as a 10 year old, but i really miss three-year-old Meghan.

Nuova Company Party

I am really not a fan of company parties. OK, I have to qualify that. My company parties were fun, but I actually knew the people there. I don't like Sam's company parties. We're on about the 6th or 7th company he's worked for since we got married and they're all about the same. They pretty much amount to hanging out with drunk people that I don't know. This company has a high number of practicing Muslims, so they have fewer drunks, but it's still not exciting. The only highpoint is generally the dinner, which is usually at a restaurant we couldn't afford to eat at otherwise. And, we've not usually been disappointed in that respect.

When we got the invitation this year, I was even less excited. The theme for the party was "Casino Royal 007" . The invitation said that there would be a casino, where you could gamble "Nuova Bucks" for prizes. The usual menu wasn't attached, so I looked up the restaurant online. Mostly Mediterranean cooking....Lebanese, Greek, etc. Not surprising, given the number of "mediterraneans" working there. However, nothing looked that exciting (no crab or salmon) and I didn't see a thing I thought my caper, broccoli, fish, mushroom, spinach hating husband would eat. So I wasn't impressed with the food choices, and I don't gamble or drink. Fun.

But, Sam really wanted to go, so we ponied up the $30 for a babysitter...not an easy thing to find for a late night on a TUESDAY (geez, who's idea was that?). We finally asked a poor starving student couple with a newborn, and they agreed. Oh, did I mention Palo Alto is 90 miles away?...so it cost a half a tank of gas, too.

When we got our "party packet" the day of the party, we got $1000 of "Nuova Bucks", two tickets for two free alcoholic drinks (yippee), and a ticket for a "gift" that we were supposed to claim at the end of the night. It said that the dinner was a buffet...that explained the lack of menu.

We got there about half an hour late. The company had reserved the entire restaurant, and even late there was hardly any there yet. We found the "casino":about six blackjack tables, a couple of poker tables, one roulette table and one craps table, all staffed with professional looking dealers or whatever you call them. There were several little appetizer buffets. all with about the same things on them. We got a couple of mystery bites, and found a place to sit. After a while, the place had filled up, but only a couple of guys from Sam's department were there: Chinese guys, hanging out with other Chinese guys, speaking Chinese, of course.

So, we finally decided, what the heck, it's not like we're gambling with real money, anyway. We'd go play until they served dinner. Big problem, though. Neither of us knows anything about gambling. OK, I know a little about blackjack, but that's about it. So, we decided to start at a blackjack table where no one else was playing. We told the dealer that we hadn't a clue what we were doing, and he was very nice and explained all kinds of strategy. We started out betting $5 chips, and were about breaking even. Or at least, I was. Sam couldn't catch a break and just got crap for cards. Eventually, I kind of figured out what I was doing and when to split and when to double down, etc, and I ended up about $500 ahead.

We decided to try the craps table. However, by this time, there were so many people trying to play that we couldn't both squeeze in. So, I sat down with my fifth or sixth diet coke (soft drinks were free, woohoo!) and chatted with some lady that I didn't know, with some thick accent I could barely understand. After about 20 minutes, Sam came back and said that he'd lost $100 in about $10 increments, but he still didn't understand what he was doing or why he lost, so he'd quit. We wondered when they were going to serve dinner. It was about 8:30. The appetizers had improved, and there were some little crispy pizza-like things with pears and gorgonzola cheese that were really good, and some salmon with sesame on a stick. But, we wanted to save ourselves for the buffet, so we didn't eat too much.

We wandered around watching the roulette (worst odds in the casino, according to our blackjack coach), the poker and other blackjack players. There were more players at our original table, so we went to play some more and socialize a bit. I did pretty good, and was up almost $2000 at one time (I got brave enough to play $100 chips instead of $5 chips), but Sam was still down a couple hundred, he really does have bad luck. After a while, I noticed that the appetizers had changed to cakes and tarts. I mentioned it to Sam, and then someone told us that the appetizer bars WERE dinner. Great, the few non-dessert appetizers were on their second hour..the cheese on the pizza was congealed, the little potato things wrapped in puff pastry were cold...the really good stuff was gone. The cheese and fruit bar had only one kind of cheese we liked...and we're cheese lovers. Asians must have picked them out, I had about 8 asian roomies and none of them even liked cheese.

About 9:30, they took the tally to see who had won the most "Nuova Bucks", and passed out prizes to the three top winners. Then they told us to pick up our "gifts" on the way out. Two 50 cent glass wineglasses with colored tissue paper stuffed in them to make them look festive.

So for about $50 we got free soft drinks and appetizers, free gambling lessons, learned that I should NEVER let Sam play in a real casino, exchanged small talk with the five people there that speak English I could understand and couple that I couldn't, and spent 3 hours in the car getting there and back. Oh, and cheap wine glasses. We should have sold our free alcohol tickets for $500 chips and at least maybe we could have won one of the prizes..

But, it was a date. Something to be said for that. I think next time, we'll put Meg to bed, buy a six pack of diet Pepsi, a box of Jalapeno poppers and I'll play blackjack with him....or something.

The Good Old Days

Sam and I were discussing Mark's "I remember post" and we came up with more stuff that we remember about the "good old days".

1. I remember the "gas crisis" in the 70's when gas went up to 50 cents a gallon. (Oil was up apparently to a whopping $12 barrel due to some maneuvering by OPEC). I remember lines of people waiting to fill up their cars, gas stations running out of gas, etc. Although most of that didn't happen in my hometown, the places where the lines were worst were all over the news. I just remember being annoyed because it was taking an entire $5 to fill up my Datsun B210 Honeybee. That's was 10 hours of babysitting!

2. Which reminds me...I remember when babysitters made 50 cents an hour, didn't matter how many kids they watched. The going rate here is now $4/hr for 1 kid, $1 more for each additional. According to a friend who just moved here from the East Bay area, it's more like $7 up there.

3. I remember the first time I heard Dolby sound. The first Star Wars movie opened in 1976/77 ish, only playing in one theatre in town, The Cine Capri. That was an incredible theater with the biggest screen in the valley, curtains that went halfway around the theatre and opened up for the show. I didn't even want to go to see the movie, but my not-quite-old-enough to drive brother was dying to see it and finally bribed me to take him. (My only sci-fi experience prior to this was the first Star Trek series on TV and I hated it, so I was not interested). From the first time a big ship flew over my head in that movie, I was hooked.....on Dolby AND Star Wars.

4. I remember when you could drop little kids off at the movie and not worry about them. There was an old theater in Phoenix a couple of blocks from a JC Penney. Mom and Mrs Ozias (our next door neightbor), would drop us off with the Ozias kids (I was the oldest at about 9 yrs old) to watch a movie while they went shopping at Penney's. I saw Snow White at a matinee at that theatre....The Fox, a great old fancy theater with the balcony and murals and chandeliers, etc etc Sam remembers going to the matinee at the Tejon theater in Bakersfield...you got a double feature for 40 cents. They even had ushers with flashlights to show you to your seats. And if you wanted, you could stay and watch them again.

5. I remember my mom pulling me out of school for my birthday, when I was in kindergarten. We went to a matinee of a new Disney flick, "Mary Poppins". That's the earliest movie memory that I have. Sam remembers going to the movies to see the Sinbad movies.

6. I remember Dad waking me up to watch when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

7. I remember when we got our first color tv, when I was 16. So we missed the Disney/Tinkerbell color thing Mark was talking about. We had a black/white Curtis Mathis that wouldn't quit working (dang it all) so my parents couldn't justify a new one. Dad got rear-ended in his '66 Datsun, and the insurance payout bought us a new COLOR Curtis Mathis. He called it his "pain and suffering" prize....I'm sure mom would have chosen a different prize, but Dad won out that time.

8. Sam remembers when the Kern county fair had freak shows. (so politically incorrect, now) and you could pay 10 cents to see the bearded ladies or the sword swallowers.

Ok, that's all for now, it's time to get these guys outta the house for the day.....

We've been tagged....

Sam says everybody already knows everything about him. But here's his six things....if he can't think of six, I"ll think of something. I told him that "I like to take pictures" doesn't count.

1. The sound of people eating makes me insane. Which, since i work with lots of slurping indian and asian people means I can't eat in the lunchroom. It grosses me out.

2. If I ever break another bone, just kill me. Or sedate me until I'm healed. I'm talking general anesthesia until I'm healed. I found out the one time I had a cast that it made me claustrophobic.

3. I'm going to be an astronaut when/if I grow up.

4. I was once a mall Santa. This was back when I actually needed a pillow for my tummy.

5. Once I pushed a car about 15 miles from the coast to Pisa, while teaching the discussions to a drunk. It took about 8 or 9 hours.

6. I've been to more weddings and funerals than anyone else I know. (I worked at a murtuary and as a wedding photographer)

7.. (Bonus) I voted for Nixon in the first election I voted in.

Sam is tagging me, Meghan, Becky Nish and Cristin Carter. We can't find anyone else who hasn't already been tagged....

Meg's list:

1. I like the series "Guardians of Ga'Hoole".
2. I made a comic strip about Tobie and Totie Toadstool.
3. I like the author Cornelia Funke (wrote Inkheart).
4. I love Christmastime. I play Christmas music on the piano all year.
5. I have my very own Christmas tree with my own ornaments that I'm collecting.
6. I absolutely HATE being bored. And I really hate it when Mom makes me clean my room because I said I was bored.

Shel's list:

1. It drives me nuts to have someone looking over my shoulder when I'm on the computer, unless I'm trying to show them how to do something.

2. I spent a few hours in jail once. I won't elaborate, but it was pretty humiliating.

3. I hate when anyone touches my feet. No pedicures for me. Ugh!

4. I'm a terrible procrastinator. I always think I'm going to have ALL kinds of time, then something always happens at the last minute. I can't tell you how many all-nighters I've pulled in my lifetime. It's getting harder and harder, though...us old people need our sleep.

5. We probalby have the most disorganized house in the world. We have three disorganized, possibly Attention Deficit people living here. We manage to keep the front part of the house somewhat presentable, but the rest....yeesh! It doesn't help that Sam and Meghan never throw ANYTHING away. Sam has all the ticket stubs from every movie he ever saw, for example.

6. I love to cook, but I hate doing the dishes. If someone would just clean it up every time, I'd cook every day.

Family Video

This is my first attempt at posting a video. This is Meghan, taken when Ryan was on his mission. She was 3-ish. (I'm not sure what's with the date on the vid, there's no way she's five in this.) She starts out OK, but when she runs out of words that she remembers, she starts making them up and it just gets stranger and stranger....

Hi, family. Not much going on out here except for Christmas preparations. Meghan has about a 3000 item wish list, Sam has about a $30,000 wish list. I just want to be able to park in my garage. And world peace, of course.

Our Stake has Ward Conferences coming up starting in January, and I have to speak at two of them...one in Spanish. That should be interesting. No schpreken zie espanol. (Or German for that matter.) However, I do have Spanish speaking connections and I can read spanish fine. So I got elected. Lucky me. I hate any kind of public speaking, even in English, so this is always a challenge.

Sam took this picture the other day when we were doing family pics for some friends of ours. It's a storm blowing in over Monterey Marina. He's taken tons of pictures at this spot, but the light is always changing and he never tires of it. We got a bunch of great pictures at Liz's house over Thanksgiving weekend, hopefully I'll get to those over the weekend and will post a few.

I'm trying to get Ryan to either start a blog, or tell us where he already has one. Email him at emperorbailey@yahoo.com and bug him.

Sam's Gallery....

Sam has been in the process of updating his website. He finally has the gallery part up....if you have a minute go take a peek.. www.samsgallery.com.

Merry Christmas

Christmas kind of snuck up on us this year...as did Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. I hate how time seems to go so much faster when you're older. That's when it really needs to slow down, so my slow brain can wrap around it.

However, we started the Christmas season with a bang...the Monterey Symphony and Chorus did the entire Messiah last night. We have connections with the Chorus, so we got freebie tickets. I have to say, for an orchestra from a pretty small town, they were fabulous. The guest conductor was from Austria....can't remember his name....but he didn't waste any time, either. It can take as long as three hours...but he got it all wrapped up in about 2 1/2 hours. The soloists were great and the only thing wrong with the whole thing was that it was really tough not to sing along. Oh, and the seats in that venue were made for someone who is 5' tall, not 6'. Good thing the conductor hurried along!

So, Merry Christmas....I'll snag some Christmas pics from last year's Streets of Bethlehem festival and post them to get us in the spirit.

Maybe I'll get to put up my tree today...I shoulda had it up a week ago, but life kept intervening. I hate that!

Well, here we are. Joining the blogging world. I'm not sure how we'll find time to write anything ...and we lead SUCH exciting lives.

But, since Emily gave me the links to everyone else's blog, it's been a blast keeping up with ya'll.

It's 3 am, though, so I'm gonna go take a nap before the Boy
Scouts get here in the morning to practice archery. I plan to stay inside...the thought of a bunch of 11-12 yr olds with lethal weapons makes me nervous.