Stinky and Stanky

I was thinking how have I gotten this far into my blog and not mentioned the adventures of stinky and stanky.  Jynx's mom who we refer to as Mimi bought a lime green little pillow for Little Man and we placed it in his crib.  One day when I went to get him out of his crib in the morning he leaped back to grab the little green pillow and that was the first time I noticed his attachment to it.  Little Man began carrying around the pillow everywhere and soon the pillow found it's way to his teething mouth and all that saliva.  You probably guesses it by now the pillow began to stink and stink good but he loved the thing and wanted it with him especially when he was asleep.  We did our best at times to wash the pillow but the drool would have stinky back in condition before long.  Stinky became essential for sleeping and it would be a long night if stinky was not in the crib that night.

Little Man sleeping with Stinky and Stanky

We went one night to a restaurant and stinky came along for the ride we had dinner and then ran some errands but that night we found stinky had been left behind.  I called the restaurant in the morning and they did have him but they were not open until later that day.  I walked into the restaurant that night and asked about the little green pillow and the staffs eyes opened wide, they started to whisper to one another, one started to empty the garbage can and another told me a manager was looking for it and soon would be out to talk with me.  I had no doubt that stinky a beat up little green pillow was now in the trash and my only hope was that they would remember what bag he was tossed in.  I was just starting to think what we were going to do with out stinky when suddenly one of them produced stinky.  I honestly did not care what happened to him I was just glad we had him back.  Yes, we went home and washed him before he was reunited with Little Man.  This was the last time Stinky went out to dinner with us in fact we don't let him out of the house much.
Stanky is the same type of pillow only purple and is cherished the same as stinky.  We took both pillows to Florida with us for Little Mans first birthday.  We told the family down there about the pillows and how valuable they were and our rules that they do not leave the house.  It was Jame's cousin Sara that inquired more about the pillows and we told her how we named the one Stinky and if you told him to go get Stinky he knows who that is and would grab him.  Sara asked what we called the other pillow but we did not have a name for that one.  Sara sat there for a few seconds and she started calling them Stinky and Stanky.  We all had a good laugh and the adventures of Stinky and Stanky were born. 
Now both pillows are cherished and they are both heavily guarded, we do not let them out of the house for fear they will be lost.  Stinky does not live up to his name much more thankfully but occasionally he does need to be washed and we get worried every time we place him in the wash that he holds together.  I'm not sure how long this will continue with the two but I feel if they last we may have to place them in a trophy case when they are finally retired.

Merry New Year!

We traditionally have people over to our house on New Years and play a game called "Screw your neighbor" it's a simple card game.  Everyone is dealt one card, the ace is the low card and a king is the high card if you are dealt a king you flip your card over immediately and you are

safe for that round.  The Pearson to the left of the dealer starts they can decided if they want to keep their card or trade with the player to their left.  The entire object is not to have the lowest card.  The game goes around the table and everyone gets a chance to trade with the person on their left the only exception is if the player has a king the that person is stuck with that card.  The play ends with the dealer and usually a low card has made it's way all the way around to the dealer.  The dealer is then allowed to either keep the card or take another off the top of the deck.  We usually play for three dimes if you have they low card you place a dime in the pot, you are out of the game when you loose all three dimes.  It's a simple game and is a lot of fun on New Years.

This year with the nice weather I decided to fire up out turkey deep fryer and deep fry just about everything.  I had read on Thanksgiving that after you take out the turkey and your waiting for it to rest that you could do some onion rings.  I tried to do onion rings and some sweet potato fries, needless to say they did not turn out to well and as usual when something fails for me I become obsessed in figuring out what went wrong.  Yes on New Years I redeemed myself with some beer battered onion rings that were fantastic.  We also did some fish, poppers, chicken wings and mozzarella sticks.  After welcoming the New Year we deep fried some Twinkies and Oreo's that also turned out great.  2011 showed up deep fried pretty funny for a year that I'm gonna try and loose some weight in. 

Christmas

I'm sitting here the day after Christmas watching Polar Express for what seems like the 500th time.  Don't get me wrong I love this movie but even the DVD is getting tired of playing.  If you haven't guessed Little Man loves the movie of course it's because it has a train in it.  He loves everything trains Polar Express,  Thomas and Dinosaurs On A Train.  Yes there is a show called Dinosaurs On A  Train just look it up.  I know I laughed as well the first time.

We tried Little man with Santa again but no luck more screaming and running away, oh well maybe next year.  Christmas Eve we went to church driving through a snow storm to get there that night with little man dressed in one of his many Christmas outfits.   He quickly found his Grandpa Jim and brought him a book to read.  Little Man kept us all entertained during the service, I don't think we heard much of the service that night.  We drove home again through the snow, it reminded me of all the Christmas movies and the beautiful snow fall in them.  My ideal holiday season would start snowing a bit everyday from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas and we just about had that this year.  I do have to admit it was nice putting Christmas lights up before the snow hit.

Christmas morning I awoke with the mission to clear the drive.  Our house sits on a hill so the drive up can be a bit treacherous with the snow.  Little Man's Grandpa Jim and Grandma Rose asked for a ride over to our house for Christmas day.  After clearing the drive I loaded up Little Man and off we drove in a Christmas wonderland of snow.  The snow was gorgeous as it glistened as we made our way over to their house.  When we arrived at their house they opened the door to reveal all the presents they had bought for him, it took a bit but we got them all loaded up and headed home.

Little Man began opening all of his gifts.  This year was great he got into ripping the paper off the gifts and even delivered gifts to everyone else.  I happily spent the evening putting together different toys with Little Man pitching in to help out.   I'm not sure what his favorite toy was for this year, he had fun playing with all of them.  

As I walked through the house this morning I got a feeling of what it must of felt like for my parents wondering what in the world to do with all the new toys that have entered the house.  We know have a pup tent, a rocking horse, a tricycle, a couple of trains and several books that we need to find homes for.  Little man did spend a good part of Christmas on the rocking horse in fact he almost fell asleep on it.  This morning I never thought I would ever stop pushing him on his tricycle and he did eventually take a nap in his pup tent.   

Once again Christmas has regained it's magic in our lives and as much as I would like to say it was the best Christmas I know that for years to come Christmas will again be magical in our household.  Merry Christmas.

Shopping

As always we are racing around trying to get ready for our Christmas party.  We went to the grocery store last night with a big list and little man.  It was late enough that his favorite race car shopping cart was sitting and waiting for him, not the broken one bu the one that still has a steering wheel.  Little Man went directly for his cart and hopped into the drivers seat and off we went.  We were not out of the produce section when Jynx suggested that he might want his own cart.  I had seen the carts before but never thought of them for Little Man.  Off Jynx went and returned with a little shopping cart and Little Man got out of the race car and behind the cart.  He has pushed the big shopping cart before but I had not seen him use his own little cart.  Little Man walked over to the produce and grabbed an artichoke and placed it in the cart, he then went back and grabbed a turnip placed it in the cart.  That was just about the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, I stood there in the grocery store laughing.  This continued for several aisles and other customers got a good laugh as well.  We did our best to put items back but sometimes we did not see it right away and it went back in a different place.  I'm sure some stock boy loved us the next day as he found ginger cookies in the toilet paper aisle. 

MSI

We made a promise that we would not decorate as much in order to spend more time this holiday with Little Man but, the boxes and boxes of decorations came up and out.  The village I set up did not go up but all the rest of the decorations made it up.  After spending more time than I wanted decorating and the house nearly finished; I decided to spend a day at the Museum of Science and Industry.  I wanted Little Man to see the huge train layout since he loves trains.  I've lost track (no pun intended) of how many times we've watched The Polar Express.

The next day we got Little Man up and ready to go but he did not eat much of his breakfast and even laid back down a few times.  We drove to the museum and entered to see the zephyr train and his eyes light up.  "DAT!" 
We went into the museum which has changed a bit since we were kids a few more things added and some things no longer there.  We started out tour but Little Man just did not seem the same, no smiles for the camera, no running around or his now famous "DAT!" 

As the day went on it was clear that Little Man was not feeling well but was doing his best to make it through the day.  We did go to the trains and he was excited to see them and watch the model trains.  We took him over to the train engine that he was able to sit in and play with all the knobs and levers. 
We then headed to see all the Christmas trees and he faded quickly.  He took a bit of a nap in his stroller and woke up to see the weather center and the tractors at the end.  I hope he had a good day but I felt bad for him not feeling well at all.  We got in the car and he fell asleep on the way home and did not want to eat much.  That night he slept and slept and slept.  I'm glad we got a chance to get to the museum but I wish Little Man was feeling better to enjoy it more.  I'm still hoping to take him downtown to see the windows but with all the global warming oops sorry freezing temperature's I'm not sure if it's going to happen this year.  Maybe we'll stay in and decorate more.

Santa

Little man got to meet the Big Fat Man.  The meeting did not go well at all but was very funny.  We were at the Johnson girls cookie exchange and little man was having a great time eating and then playing on the organ with his girl Bayle, when Santa arrived.  It was Santa's first appearance of the season and he was showing off his new Santa belt with his name in the buckle.  Little man took one look at Santa and headed for the other side of the room, he was having nothing to do with him.  Santa walked around took pictures and greeted all the other children but little man still wanted nothing to do with him.  After working the room Santa needed to make his exit and the decision was made that he may scream and cry but Little Man had to get a picture with the Big Man.  Mom was not happy about it but she brought him over and the screams and tears started to flow.  The photos snapped and little man was away from Santa as fast as he could go.  A few minutes later Little Man noticed dad out in the parking lot and started to cry for him, he did not settle down until dad was back in the room holding him.  How funny if he only knew.  Yes years from now we will have another laugh about this day.





Mom feeling bad for handing over Little Man to Santa



Running from Santa



Turkey Day

One of my favorite holidays has become Thanksgiving, nothing like creating an entire day around eating.  The massive amounts of food that is cooked and served at our house has become legendary.  I cooked three turkeys last year and did the same this year.  At 7:30am I started the first turkey on the smoker.  Last year I over smoked the turkey and wanted to redeem myself.  I thought if smoke was not coming out of the smoker I was not cooking it, so I kept shoving more and more wood chips into it.  Not the right way to smoke, the turkey was okay but a heavy smoke flavor.  The second turkey was baked the old fashion traditional way but this year I got a roaster on sale and put it in that to free up the oven.  The third turkey was deep fried.  I deep fried last year for the first time and it was great this year I had problems with the auto timer they put on the deep fryers and had to get a new one.  The auto timer shuts off the gas after 15 minutes unless you press a button to give another 15 minutes but, on a busy Thanksgiving day it's easy to forget about it and then your oil cools down.  I got a new one with a mechanical timer, still a pain.  It also had a stand to lower the turkey in the oil.  I tried the stand but like the bucket from my old frier and eventually put the turkey in that to finish the job.  Three turkeys done then we also had a ham, lasagna, broccoli, mac and cheese, mashed potato's, cranberries, fried squash, butternut squash soup and more that I'm surely forgetting.  We also had about 4 pies for dessert.  Yes and we still have leftovers.  I was happy about the leftovers since I usually would leave home at 4am the day after Thanksgiving to direct football but not this year and I have made up for all the turkey sandwich's I missed.
Little man seems a bit overwhelmed on Thanksgiving with all the activity in the house.  He did good but was tired by the time dinner hit the table and after eating some the trictafan kicked in and he passed out there in his chair.  Of course we did what every good parent would do and shoved a turkey leg in his hand and took a picture.  Now come my real dilemma, we took a great picture of little man just days before thanksgiving and then we took the turkey leg photo.  We are not sure which picture to use for the Jame Jack 2011 calender.  Help us pick one for the month of November, tell me which one is your favorite.  The 2011 Jame Jack calender is going to be great!

Stump

Turkey Leg