Hollywood

We enjoyed a George Clooney movie today. He is a big star who has been around for a long time in film and television. My wife told me he did some stints with television shows including Roseanne and later ER. I suppose it takes a while to "make it" in Hollywood and that probably most Hollywood stars have humble beginnings in the film and television industry.

Home-Made Food

Home-cooked stuff tastes great. I just added home-made meatballs (that included carrots and other ingredients cooked by relatives) to our spaghetti dinner and it tasted great. For dessert, we ate home-made bread pudding made by a friend and it also tasted great. We also tried home-made sweet potato pie and, of course, it was great.

Still Christmas

Today is the day after Christmas, and we're still in the Christmas spirit. We're still listening to Christmas songs, and we went out for dinner at a nice affordable family restaurant. We enjoy Christmas festivities and the love and sharing that goes with the Christmas season.

Christmas Day

DEC. 25 (FRIDAY)-CHRISTMAS:
Merry Christmas to all! I'm late with my blog today because we just got back from a Christmas dinner with the family. The kids had a great time with gift exchanges and playing the WII video games. It was a late night for the kids, but I'm willing to let them stay up every now and then for special occasions.

OMSI Eve

I am glad OMSI stayed open today on Christmas Eve because I wanted to get the kids out of the house. Outdoor activities are more limited during the winter, so OMSI and similar places provide a great alternative. The kids had fun inside OMSI where it was warm and dry.

Spacing Out Gifts

To ease the kids' anticipation, and to not have them have too much presents on one day, I am allowing the kids to open one gift per day leading up to Christmas. They just opened one gift tonight. They'll open another tomorrow. Now, their gifts are spaced out in a way that allows them to enjoy all of their gifts.

Christmas Countdown

We're doing our form of countdown to Christmas by reading a bedtime story book that has a short story for every day until it gets to Christmas. The kids enjoy the daily stories and their anticipation, I'm sure, increases with every passing day. But we always remind them of the reason for the season and try to have them remember that it is better to give than to receive.