Holiday card shortage.

I'll double up since I'll be offline most of next week.

As of yesterdays mail, we'd received 10 Christmas cards (not counting the ones from our insurance agent, newspaper guy and several email cards.) We'd sent out about 85 last week. Now, I'm not asking for a 1 to 1 ratio, but what's up? Are people not mailing cards anymore? Did we just not make peoples lists this year? Maybe we've got more in past years because we sent our cards out in late November or early December and the cards we got back were sent because people felt bad when they got ours.

Also, when you receive an e-card as part of a bulk email, should that really count as getting a card? I'm leaning toward no, but not sure.

I miss the keggers!

I thought I was all grows up when I offered to give my sister a break and host the family Christmas Day get-together. I was wrong.

Now we've hosted parties at this house before, but this will be the first one where most people are not out on the patio or on our huge sofa to watch football. (Also, a chunk of the sectional has moved to make room for the tree.) This time we have to figure out how 22 people are going to sit down, at a table, and eat at the same time. Unless the kids eat at the picnic table in the back yard, the math is not working. Maybe I should have asked Santa for an addition on the house.

Anyway, as my office is about to into a guest room when Ddolls folks arrive for Boy time, I won't be online much for the next week. So... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Forever Young?

The Boy was listening to the radio in the car with Ddoll the other day when he heard an ad for an upcoming Rod Stewart concert at Key Arena. Now he wants me to take him to the show! Say WA? Let me list my issues with this development...

- How did it get to be just me/him and not the the three of us? Mostly our special guy trips are to the recycling center and/or transfer station, not a date.

- We've taken him to quite a few concerts and other live performances over the last couple of years and usually I end up in the lobby with him for big chunks of the show. The Duke Ellington concert and last year's Nutcracker show spring to mind.

- Just in general, taking a 6 year old to a arena rock concert... What could happen?

- $60 and up plus service charge to sit in the noise bleeds of a basketball stadium. If you're watching the concert more on the big video screen than you are looking at the stage, why are you there. I'm a fan of the small venue.

- Rod Stewart? While I don't mind him, as far as aging rockers go, he's not quite the Stones or even AeroSmith. But really, once they start using your songs for Pamper commercials, should you still be touring? (This reminds me of the time when some friends took Ddoll & me to a Jimmy Buffet concert in Irvine. She had no idea Jimmy was so long of tooth until he took the stage and she squawked about it the whole show.)

That time of year again

The dreaded holiday letter, we've been doing them since we had the Boy and now it's time to write this as I'm picking up the cards from Costco tomorrow. I think that we have done better letters over the years than most of the stuff you get (mostly be keeping it relativly short... never more than 1 page and never less than 12 point type,) but I'm confused this year. How do I keep it from being redundant to DDolls blog? I know most of the folks we send cards to are not readers of her blog, but part of me is thinking, "If they really cared, wouldn't they read it?"

Oh well, atleast using MS Word, I'll have my spelling/grammar crutch, unlike Blogger. I know I should look it up, but if it does not have a red line under it, it must be right, write?