Sorry for the interruption but I was out of town for most of the holiday (we left the 26th for Chicago, but thats a whole post on its own!). I did however, want to brag about some of the Christmas Gifts that blessed our house this season though.

Amy’s big gift this year is to have the Master Bath and Bedroom repainted. When we bought the house from her parents, we inherited the DEEP red color of the bath and bed room. Its a dark red (think maroon) that is hard to match colors with. Now we’re going for a lighter, beachier look and are painting them Beachnut (its a lowes color). The master bath is done (Amy found some Votive candle holders at a store in Nashville), next on to the bedroom!

Grace had a very Hannah Montanna Christmas. She got a Hannah Montanna Guitar Game (like Guitar Hero) that plugs in to the tv, a Hannah Costume, and doll. Its pretty cool and she likes pretending to be a rockstar. Maybe someday. I like playing her game (since I haven’t bought Guitar HEro World Tour yet) and she’s getting better at it.

Mose got a Trampoline. One of her favorite things to do is jump. We’d wake on Saturday mornings to the heavy thud of emma jumping up and down in our door way. Now she can do it all she wants and it doesn’t make the house shake. Its pretty cool and Grace and Emma take turns on it. Amy wanted to try it out, but its for people under 80 pounds (and neither of us meet that requirement!

The girls also got some tinkertoys, and some other little odds and ends that they like to play with, but the coolest by far is my Ultimate Wall-E Robot.

We saw the movie in the theaters and we’re big fans (mose loves him). We had seen the Ultimate Wall-e at the Disney Store but we weren’t going to get him because of the price tag. Needless to say, Santa found him on Sale and he was wrapped and under the tree for me on Christmas morning. He has fun dancing, chasing the dogs around and just exploring on his own. If you haven’t seen one yet, I’ll work on some video and see if I can get anything posted. Its pretty cool though and the way he can respond to voice commands or find his own way around the room is fairly smooth.

Was there one gift that you prized more than the others??

I’ve recently decided that online contests are cool (we’re running one here if you haven’t heard…). There are blogs dedicated to contests. Some are blog related (make a post on your blog, win a prize) some are comment related and some are video contests. I haven’t gotten in to the realm of videos yet (at least not for making them and posting them on the blog). I’m not a fan of the way I sound on tape and I haven’t found a goon willing to be in the videos yet (maybe I could get grace to do it…) but when I do, I’ll have to check vidopp.com out for some things to enter.

The contests are good for several reasons, the biggest being the boon to traffic that they seem to bring. Vidopp scours the web and puts all the current video contests in one easy to find place which is nice (much like contestblogger or other contest related sites). Best of all, they do the hard work for you by reviewing the rules and small print on each contest and all you have to do is post your videos.

When I was in High School, I dressed up and went as President George HW Bush (the current president’s father). I had a pretty good imitation voice for him too. I ended up with a ton of candy. Since then, every president has had a mask made of them for halloween (after all, who wouldn’t want to dress as the man in charge?). Well, there was A Poll done over the weekend and Hillary won again.

This time though, she was voted Scariest Halloween Costume. How funny is that?? Also coming around, Colbert was campaigning in the only state he’s running in, South Carolina this weekend. He declared himself the Favorite son of SC (a title Edwards picked up in 04) and declared that

In the 19th century, South Carolina was the first to secede,” he said. “In the 21st we will the first to succeed. First to secede. First to succeed. I own the copyright on that phrase, if you use it you must pay me a royalty

Despite his Links to Doritos I would really like to see him an option in more states. I bet he’d win.

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It sat in the hallway. Nestled between a coat rack and a table full of trinkets my grandparents had collected through out the years. Every fifteen minutes its melodious notes would ring out reminding us that the time we had was slowly drifting away like a toy boat out on the current of the creek in our backyard. I don’t know where or how grandfather clocks came by their name, only that it seems every grandpa I know had one some where in their house that would ring out when it was time to go home.

Their melodies were never quite the same either yet whether it sounded the Westminster Chimes, the Whittington Chimes, or the Saint Michael’s Chimes each one had a soulful story it could tell in a matter of seconds. Reminding those listening of times spent in Church or on a town square. It always seemed reassuring as well, when I would stay at their house for a night or two, when those chimes would sound. Majestic, careworn and loved, my grandfather’s clock was a timeless treasure I’ll always remember.

In college we’d have a party every thursday night called Thirsty Thursday. It was a rockin time even though we were on a supposedly dry campus. Our RA would be busy that night and he’d keep the other ra’s off the floor for us (or let us know when they were making there rounds). It was a good time and one that we repeated as often as we could. Thursdays though, pale in comparison to the parties these five brave souls threw.

I think number one is my absolute favorite, I’d love to have a punch bowl where people have to paddle around in a canoe to stir the drink and serve it. You know the kind where only a shot of Botox for migraines would cure the hangover (much like my bachelor party…). I couldn’t even imagine having Drunk elephants there. What was your wildest party like?