Christmas 2010 and Oh, What a Little Cutie

I ventured out in my truck this morning and picked up our Sunday paper at the bottom of our driveway on the way out. Today is Monday. I never made it beyond our living room couch yesterday.  I awoke out of a sound sleep at 2:00 Sunday morning to an awful, nauseous feeling. Rather than waiting to see if it would quietly go away I quickly made my way to the bathroom and stood bent over the toilet for just a moment before my insides exploded. I spent the rest of the morning until after 7:00 repeating the above at least hourly. I'll spare you the details. The rest of my day was spent curled up on the couch with our pups.

I was concerned for my mom because she was exposed to the bug as well while at our home Christmas Eve. Our littlest visitor that night had just gotten over the illness (or so we thought) and he must've infected many of us. Tammy tried to get a hold of Mom but her phone was off the hook. I texted Tim and he confirmed that she was sick in bed. Rachel texted us from her dad's home in the early afternoon to say that she too was sick. Keith and Tracee? They're sick as well as is Kelsey, Cole, Dustin, and Clayton. Ah yes, the sort of thing memories are made of.

I'm better now but opted to stay away from work one more day just in case I'm still contagious. Madden appeared fine too when Keith and Tracee brought him over so I'd rather not chance exposing others to this.

Speaking of Christmas Eve; we hosted it at our home again this year. Tammy didn't find out until a little over a week ago that her hours had been changed to a later shift, 1:30 to 10:00 PM, so she had to miss out on most of the night but did manage to join in on her breaks.

Tim dropped Mom off at our home and Rachel and I brought her to Hosanna with us where we met Erin, Clayton, and Anja. Hosanna once again had camels, a donkey, a llama, and other assorted animals on stage to try as best they can to bring the manger scene to life. They do a good job but not everybody thinks it's necessary. Mom and Rachel could do without it and I can't say I disagree with them. I made a comment to Rachel after the service that I really love our church but she countered with the thought that they put too much emphasis on the materialistic side. She caught me a little off guard with that. She used the billboard off 35W as an example. Why the emphasis on live animals to draw people to the church and not a living savior? She has a point. I'm not afraid to admit that sometimes she causes me to pause and reevaluate things. Sort of like when I have a trainee at work who shows me a different or better way of doing something, usually computer entry related. It happens. When they start showing me how to better handle traffic then I'll know for sure it's time to retire.

I'll let the video and pictures I took from Christmas Eve tell the story of the night.

Santa (Tammy) was very good to me this year. After hijacking Tammy's Kindle a few weeks ago to read a book I'd downloaded to it, I got hooked and thought I'd like to have one of my own. Santa must've read my mind. My camera was an early Christmas gift so I could get familiar with it before Christmas Eve. I've spent several hours going through the tutorial and I'm still not finished but I've got a good idea of what I'm doing.

This December is going down as one of the snowiest on record for the Twin Cities. If we keep getting snow at anywhere near the rate we've been, I'm not sure where they'll put it. The snowbanks at many intersections are already dangerous because they're so high causing you to have to cautiously nose your car out into the lane to see traffic.

I'm slowly working my way back to normal after coming off the prednisone more than a week ago. My workouts have been lacking any sort of kick to them but that's expected. I mostly just go through the motions, knowing that my adrenal gland is likely still in a state of dormancy having been put there by the drug. I have a theory that staying as active as I do causes it to spring back to life sooner but some days I have to wonder as I'm left pretty whipped by the end of the day and I lack the energy levels I'm used to throughout the day. I can still sense that I'm more irritable than normal and that's probably the thing I dislike the most.

Tammy and I watched Gremlins a few nights ago. I remember seeing it at the theater in Huron, SD when it was out but as I watched it with Tammy there was nothing in the show that I could recall. It was like I was seeing it for the first time. That's how I often am with movies unless they really do something for me; movies like Breaking Away. I can recite numerous lines from that film. We watched one other movie this week that I won't soon forget: Hachi: A Dog's Tale. The preview of the movie gives too much away so don't read it. Just rent it and be amazed. It's a true story. I had a lump in my throat the size of a tennis ball at one point in the show but then I'm a dog lover who believes God gives us these incredible creatures to teach even the most hard-hearted people about love.

I've seen a few bloggers making a list of their top ten posts from the past year. In looking back at mine I'd be hard-pressed to find ten that really stand out. I did finish a series of writings about my time in the Navy that I found a lot of satisfaction in both recalling and writing about. I began the series a couple of years ago but didn't finish it until last fall so I suppose it qualifies for 2010.  There are 14 posts in total. Follow the prompts at the end of each to find the next one. Here's the first: 1975 Revisited.

Thanks for your interest in my blog and best wishes to you all in 2011!