Padawan Dad

A week has never flown by so quickly. But I suppose when the week is your last week off from work, for some time to come, they pretty much take forever to begin and seem to always end in a heartbeat.

And although most of the day has been quiet, and the rain has made this depressing final day of my vacation worse than it was already, I got to end my vacation with a bit of humor. Tonight Judy and I went to see Bill Engvall live at the Northshore Music Theater (a birthday present from Judy.)

What a funny man! I really never paid much attention to his stand-up; yeah, I caught a bit here and there on TV, and watched a few of his sitcom episodes, but I never really gave him a chance. But after tonight… I’m a fan. Not only is the man funny; he is tasteful and didn’t utter a single four letter word to support his humor. He was on stage for about two hours, and kept us going for every minute of it. We also had great seats (fourth row.)

Aside from watching a great show, it was really nice to get out of the house, and have a date with my wife. As much as you love your kid(s), you really need to enjoy the company of each other from time to time without them :o)

“JANUARY 1966 — “Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.” – Wikipedia

Well, we stayed put on “Black Friday,” this year, while many shoppers treaded out at 4am for the latest Christmas sales we slept until about 9:30am.

For us, it is tradition to put up the family Christmas tree on this day, begin the Christmas music, and just hang around the house. You wouldn’t even know that we had Thanksgiving here just yesterday, I moved the dining room table into the kitchen and set-up the tree in the dining room. Now we have a pretty large area to enjoy the tree, and open presents on Christmas morning!

I remember hearing a homily from a deacon regarding how people jump into the Christmas season too soon, specifically decorating, shopping, and music on the radio. He seemed to be against it all. To some extent I agree, but also disagree. I think that people can get lost in the materialism, and the secular sensationalism of Christmas, and with radios beginning Christmas music in October, and materialism running rampid in today’s secular society, it is easy to speak in a negative aspect about the early entry into the Christmas season. However, I look at it in a different manner. For me it means getting all the work, running around and stress out of the way so that I can have peace of mind for the advent season. Maybe not for everyone, but it works for Judy, and me.

Anyway, the kids both loved the tree, and surprisingly, Mary, and more shockingly, Luke, did as they were told, and kept their hands off of the tree… hopefully this will last throughout the season.

Judy and I did spend some time doing some online shopping (the best kind if you ask me,) and I helped my nephew Alex edit a video project that he was doing for a college class. Helping with the project made me remember all the home videos that I need to edit, and transfer onto to DVD… someday…

For the first time in my life, I actually hosted a party/get together… and it was Thanksgiving at that! We had all of my family, with the exception of my brother Shawn, who lives in Florida, and unfortunately could not make it up.

Everyone helped out by bringing something for dinner. It was my job to prepare and cook Tom Turkey. It really wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be. Actually, the most difficult part was the clean-up afterward.

Judy, and I started cleaning the house, and cooking some desserts a day in advance. Thanksgiving eve, I made some of my KFC biscuits. That took me until after midnight. I set the alarm for 6:30am, and had Tom in the oven by 7:30am. I cooked him for about 5 and a half hours, and he came out pretty perfect for a first try.

Right after Tom came out of the oven, my aunt called and asked if she could cook her Turkey in our oven because they had lost the electric in their house.

Mary had an absolute blast with Tica, Papa, her cousins, aunts and uncles! However, she wouldn’t let Bianca leave her line of sight; and even though she loves all of her relatives, she just can’t get enough of Bianca.

After dinner, dessert, and some fun conversation, we headed over to our aunts to see some more of our  relatives (My cousin Brian blogged about it here.) After Luke received one of the worlds longest hugs from a one year old (cousin Kevin,) they played, and we socialized for about an hour, then headed on to the next location of our Thanksgiving day tour: Gram and Pep’s house. Well, at this point, both Luke and Mary had gone all day without a nap, and were completely exhausted. Luke crashed on Judy, but Mary kept on ticking, and summoned cousins Alex, and Justin to play with her.

After getting home, we were all completely done! We got the kids ready for bed and we all crashed for the night around 10:30ish.

Although a very tiring day, it was a blast; and for me, it was extra special to host my family for Thanksgiving dinner. It was great to have everyone in the same place at the same time… it felt like old times.

Being a McCain supporter, it is obviously a disappointing day for me. Admittedly, I am not a political buff, or enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination; I really can’t discuss much beyond the views of each candidate. My opinion on the general election, was, in one word, “What?”

Here were my observations of last nights election coverage (jumping channel to channel.) Not once did I hear anyone mention the views of either candidate. Many of the young people, if not all, voted for Obama because “They wanted to see a black man in office for the first time.” McCain won this state because he had the white vote, and Obama won that state because he had the black vote. One anylist, an evident Obama supporter, actually said that Obama won one predominantly white, republican state, because he minces words better than McCain, and sold the state with his charm. WHAT?!?! A teen was interviewed and he said, and I quote: “Dude! It is just so cool that a black guy is going to be our president.”

As a Catholic, I could vote no other way BUT for McCain given my knowledge of Obama’s pro-abortion views, wich in my opinion, border genocide, and without a doubt are unconstitutional. I did, however, like some of Obama’s other hopes, but the abortion issue, from a Christian point of view, is a major deal breaker.

I fear that this election was greatly cheapened by a heavy focus on race and making history, rather than the candidates issues. The focus was always “The first black president.” I really believe that this “sales pitch,” based on the election coverage, was what motivated a lot of individuals to come out to the polls. I also found a lot of the younger crowd (interviewed by the media) to be oblivious to the issues. Obviously, just an opinion, as everyone does have one.

I do pray that Obama will make good decisions as the nations leader. Admittedly, this is the first election year that I have actually had a sense of fear within me. However, life goes on, and I will put my trust in God, and pray for the best.

I went out to vote early this morning, and was pretty surprised at the initial turn-out. City hall opened at 7am, I arrived at 7:15am, and there was a line going out the door of about 60-70 people. I also talked to some people at work about the turn-out, and someone told me that his City Hall had about 90+ in line when he arrived a 10:30am. This one seems to hold a bit more interest than past presidential elections, which is always a good thing.

We have been attempting to get Lukes 1st haircut for the past four, or five weekends. It seemed as though every weekend the kids were sick, or Judy and I were not feeling well. Poor Luke couldn’t even eat without getting food in his hair, or his hair in his mouth. He had kind of a “grunge” look going on, but it was getting annoying.

Anyway, we finally got to Snip-its today for Lukes 1st haircut! Snip-its is a shop that caters to kids hair cutting. For a Saturday afternoon it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it may be. We may have waited about 15 minutes before Luke had his turn.

We really didn’t know what to expect from Luke. I thought that it would either go really bad, or really well. Well, it started off a little rocky for the first 2-3 minutes, then Luke was content with the whole haircut business that was going down. The girl cutting his hair was fantastic, and everyone that worked there seemed very professional and friendly. They didn’t even mind the obnoxious video, and photo taking through the entire haircut.

Luke can now see, and eat much better. Maybe now we won’t get as many comments about how cute our little girl is.