How did we spend our Christmas Monday / Boxing Day? Relaxing at home. Nums and the kids watched lots of Christmas movies in the morning and the early afternoon. I remember napping for a bit with Nums in the afternoon. In the evening, I made a quick grocery run to pick up some supplies while Nums made a beef roast for dinner.
The 3-day weekend went awfully fast, and little too busy for my tastes. I hope New Year’s is a little quieter.
Chistmas morning came awfully fast, since I hadn’t had more than an hour of sleep. Someohow, I woke up. We opened presents, and then surprised the kids by taking them upstairs to see the new beds. They were pretty thrilled, video posted below.
Suprising the kids with their new bunk beds from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.
How did I do overall this month on Christmas presents? Pretty well, I think.
We went to church in the morning for services, and then spent the rest of the day at home relaxing. We also got to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol, which we recorded from Friday night.
It was IKEA field trip day, and Christmas Eve with my in-laws day.
The Ipes @ IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ
Now, I haven’t shopped at IKEA in years. I haven’t needed one of their Swedish-named, everything needs an Allen wrench, “How is that bookcase in such a little box?” products in a long time. I think the last item I was there, I went with my former roommate Doug to pick up a Swedish wardrobe for the apartment we shared.
This all comes back to the secret gift for the gifts. Yes, we got little gifts for them already, such as a Derrick Rose / Chicago Bulls jersey, toys, etc, but my wife dreamed up getting them bunk beds for their bedroom. The idea was that the kids would camp out Christmas Eve in the living room, we put the beds together Saturday night, and surprise them Christmas morning. Of course, we had to go to IKEA first to get two twin-sized foam mattresses, new bed linens, blankets, etc. We spent a nice day at IKEA perusing the wares, seeing all the stuff, and $563 later we got all of our needs. We also had a pretty nice lunch at IKEA — the food court is a lot better than I remember. They used to only have hot dogs and Swedish meatballs.
Trying out the beds at IKEA
[Side bar -- I've been on the hunt for a new, bigger, faster, stronger home office desk for nigh on three years now. I'm pleased to say I found it at IKEA. They have this VIka model where the customer can selec the table top and the legs, and put it together yourself. I found exactly what I wanted for about $130, so I expect to pick that up separately Q1 of 2012. Happy happy joy joy.]
Christmas Eve with the Davids
In the evening, we drove over to my in-laws for dinner and presents and all that. The in-laws were there, my sister-in-law and her family as there, etc. We had conversation, dinner, the kids ran around, and plenty more presents were opened.
And now commences the Great Bunk Bed Odyssey. The kids camped out as planned in the living room, but my wife fell asleep next to them. Okay, I get it, she’s pretty tired. So I guess I’m doing this myself. I still had the original mattress, box spring, and all the furniture in the room, so it was some tight quarters when trying to put two beds together. Still, I was prepared with all of my tools.
As usual these days, the almighty Allen wrench is the primary tool to screw everything together. I don’t know why, but it is. At around 3am, I needed to I woke up Nums, as I had the headboards and footboards together, as well as the first bed together. However, there was no more room until we could get the old bed out of there. Once we did that, I spent the next three hours getting the second bed together, putting the ladder together. I woke up Nums again around 5:30-6am to help me get the top bed lifted onto the bottom bunk. After 6 hours of Allen wrenching, my thumbs/hands were achy and nearly non-functional.
The new bunk beds for the kids
Why? Duh, some of the screws go in smoothly, while others need a lot of elbow grease to get them in. I overcame most of the hurdles, until I hit the last wrinkle — the holes between the ladder and the two bed frames didn’t line up, and not just a little. At least a good inch off. Argh. Well, what to do? I tried using smaller screws to fasten, instead of the large joint connectors provided to me, but they didn’t work.
Solution? I said “Screw it!” literally. I figured I’ll drill the requisite new holes, and use the same joint connectors. I didn’t what was wrong, but I didn’t care at 6:30am. Finally, the bed was done. I woke my wife up again, told her to finish with the bed mattresses and linens, etc, and I’m going to put my head down for a nap, and fell asleep briefly next to the kids on the living room floor.
Busy, busy day. I worked from home Friday in the morning, and we got a notification of early dismissal for 12 noon. That worked out great, because my sister and her family were coming over for the annual “Christmas Excellence” dinner that night. There was much vacuuming and dusting and cleaning up to do in preparation. “Cleaning up” also included getting the secret present for the kids out of the downstairs hallway, and into their room.
Fast-forward to the evening, and Christmas Excellence went off without a hitch. I made sliced meats, cheeses, and crackers for appetizers. Namita made a roast, stuffed, pork loin, and her patented carrot souffle, and green beans / potatoes / bacon / onions side dish. It was all delicious. For dessert, my sister brought over homemade cookies. We opened presents, and I hope everyone was satisfied with their gifts. If they weren’t, they aren’t saying.
Julie, Robbie, and Joshua @ Christmas Excellence
I don’t know why getting a family portrait can be such an ordeal. It should be a simple act of scheduling everyone, getting everyone together, and taking a good photo. Instead, twenty different variables come into play.
We’d gone to the Sears Portrait Studio at least three times, and I feel that we never learned our lesson. Inevitably, after paying all that money, it ends up with me paying for one 8×10, scanning it in, and Photoshopping the beejezus out of it to get it respectable. Then send it to Walgreens, and hope the Christmas cards come out well.
This year, no more dealing with lousy Sears. We scheduled an appt with Artist House down in Bellmywr, NJ, which we’ve seen often when going to visit my sister. I mean, there’re a professional photography studio. They have to be better, right?
Luckily everything worked out. After a busy morning of dance classes and soccer scrimmages on December 10th, we dressed up and drove down to south NJ for our photo sitting. Not only were we taking a family photo, we were meeting my sister and her family there. Why? We were also having a photo taken of Josh, Lily, and my niece Abigail.
I’m pleased to say that the photographer was very experienced and professional. He took the time to make sure our pictures came out well, instead of rushing us. He accurately judged when the kids were tired, and all of our photos came out very well.
We just got the photos back today, and they look very good. I had to drive down tonight to pick them up after work, but it was worth it. In my mind, we’ll certainly go back next year.
Family Portrait 2011
Lessons learned:
Kids opening up their gifts
We had our Christmas party with friends on a busy Saturday evening. Luckily this time around, I wouldn’t have to cook anything like last time. I was DJ’ing, so I only had to collect some song requests, download them, and throw them on my iPod Touch. Of course, I had to help pick up gifts for Secret Santa, but my lovely wife took care of most of that. Hey, I gotta enjoy the perks of marrying a capable and thoughtful woman.
As I mentioned, we had much going on that day. Besides all the gift-wrapping, we had a morning service at the church celebrating the new ministry of our new Rector. After lunch, we rushed home to get ready. We got up to our friends Plexy & Sheba’s house, and we were thankfully neither the first nor the last guests to arrive.
Just to summarize the evening,
Our first Christmas tree
In 2005 after Josh was born and we moved into our first house, we wanted to have our very first Christmas tree. We opted for a pre-lit artificial tree. It was fairly easy to set up, turn on, and get on with life. In subsequent years, the lights would stop working, and we would buy additional strings of lights. Last year, all of the lights failed, I took the time to remove each dead string, and we decorated the old fashioned way.
Earlier this month, I pulled the tree out of storage in our basement crawlspace, and discovered that our dear kittens (one of them at least) had “inappropriately eliminated” on the tree while it sat in pieces in the cardboard storage box over the summer. It may have been in the Fall, as they both reached their sexual maturity, and may have felt the need to spray. I have two knuckleheads for cats. I tried cleaning it, but to no avail, the smell was burned into the plastic faux pine needles. Out to the trash it went.
It took us a week or so, but we decided to try our hand at getting our first real Christmas tree. No, not a fake one. An honest-to-goodness actual tree, real pine needles and all. Monday, December 12th, we drove out to a nearby garden center, and bought ourselves a Frasier Fir tree and a tree stand. It’s been a few days, but the tree is up and now decorated. So far, it’s pretty nice, but I’m constantly vacuuming up the pine needles off the carpet.
BTW, the cats are ridiculous about having a tree in the house. Constantly eating the needles, drinking the water, knocking down ornaments, and climbing the tree. Argh. I know cats will be cats, but it’s a bit annoying at times.
Christmas Excellence continues to reign supreme. In hallowed tradition, my wife cooks up a nice lunch/dinner for us, and my sister and her husband Robbie come over to partake and exchange gifts. I don’t remember the exact name for it, but this year she made some sort of braised pork loin filled with ham and gruyere cheese, covered with an awesome mushroom/carrot/onion gravy. The sides were roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes. My sister made some delicious flan for dessert.
Christmas Excellence Dinner
Another fine Christmas season, my friends. Another fine Christmas seeing family and friends, being on vacation, and getting new toys.
 Opening presents at my parents' |
 At my in-laws' |
 With my niece Abigail |
Some weekends are lazy, some have one event to keep us busy, and others are very popular. This past Saturday was one of those busy weekends. In the early afternoon, we had a birthday party for friends’ two-year old son. Afterwards, we had our traditional Christmas party for a specific circle of good friends.
In the morning, I had to run errands, and prep my entree for dinner that night. Somehow during the initial planning process, the men were drafted to do the primary cooking, while the women were taking care of some other small items. While I do simple cooking for the family, my wife is the expert when it comes to fancy food that guests eat. My dishes are easy, simple, and every-day-type cooking. I was surprised that this was really happening.
Luckily, my wife wasn’t about to let me hang out there to dry. She helped me by picking up the necessary groceries earlier that week, and then directing me that morning in how to make tandoori chicken — skin the chicken, here’s how to make the marinade/paste, etc.
Calum's 2nd Birthday Party
After the food was prepped and in the fridge, we all got ready for both parties, and hit the road. We dropped off the food with our dinner party hosts that evening, Pradeesh and Sona, and went to the birthday party. The party was very nice, and the kids had their faces painted. It was also good to converse and hang out with friends we haven’t seen in person for a long while.
In the evening, we went to pick up some champagne and other items, and went to the dinner party. All of the men’s food came out great, but so did everyone’s. My tandoori chicken was a big hit, and was finished in about 10 minutes. Nobody could believe that this was my first time making tandoori chicken, but I explained that I had a lot of help.
My Tandoori chicken
The highlight of the dinner party was the Secret Santa Gift exchange. This year, Vijay handed over the mantle of “Christmas Santa”, and Pradeesh was now “Christmas Pappa.” All that actually entails is setting up the participants in Elfster, and ensuring that everyone gets matched up appropriately. Interestingly enough, Nums was my secret santa, and got me a classy black winter coat and a nice dressy sweater to match. I’ve been waiting to get a nice coat for work, so this was great.
Great party, and we got home around 1am. Phew, it was a long day. I didn’t take too many photos, so the ones published online are courtesy of Master Photographer Sunil.
