Wooden Nickels

Archive for December, 2008

DSC_0001,
originally uploaded by skitoman.

Ho ho ho Folks,

Here’s the set of photos for Christmas: so much fun!

We went out to Tracy for Christmas Eve for a stellar meal with Emily’s family. Boy can those folks cook: a proper ham feast… so perfectly Christmas-ey. I took a shot of the ham and posted it on my Facebook profile – it was hilariously delicious.

The girls of course were in rare form. So much adoration is difficult to handle, but somehow they do so with grace. They’re at this perfect developmental stage – one of those periods of time when you’d like to freeze them in time and keep them from ever growing up. Just sheer unadulterated joy, complete trust, and untempered instinct turned into action – and sharing it all with you like a gift. Makes a Bumble humble. True joy!

Opening up gifts Christmas Eve was a hoot. Bella and Livvie made out like bandits, and everybody got something they dug. Em got a couple of camera’s for Christmas – she scored a still and video camera – so we’ll be incorporating those shots into the blog soon I hope. Paul scored TWO new instruments – a mandolin and a ukulele. Stoke! So we rocked the Eve.

Christmas day was all about lounging around the house with the fam. Nonna and Nonno came over, which is always a treat, and Don made the HUGEST prime rib roast I’ve ever seen cooked in a home kitchen. My slice must have been 4 inches thick! The girls were properly spoiled with yummy tastes of pie and cookies, and a grand feast and time was had by all.

Eventually, we ran the girls down, loaded up the van, bid our thankful adieu to the Dianda clan, and let the girls sleep en route to Fairfax. We still had plenty of Santa-ing to do at home: Jackson was due in the morning, and all of our gifts to exchange, and the gifts from my family yet to be opened… it was time for Christmas 2.0!

In the morning, Emily had already laid out the tea set for the girls on their new table, which kept them fairly busy until Jackson showed up. Then it was “go” time for the kidlets to tear into their booty. The girls got the best stuff: great books, coloring sets with little crayon purses, sweet hats… again: showered with it. Jack scored heavy -Star Wars toys, video games: the works. A true potlatch. We should hide half these toys and trickle them out over the year! Much to everyone’s delight - most notably Jackson’s – Santa brought a Wii, and we fired it up as soon as the debris from opening was clear.

We’ve been dealing with the fallout: where to put all this stuff? We’ve got stuff to get rid of, so our friends with younger daughters than ours will soon find some hand-me-downs coming their way. But we got some great developmental stuff for the girls.

So, we’ve got new Year’s coming up, lots of work to do in the next few months at work for Paul, and we should get to Tahoe some time here soon, eh? Stay tuned: it’s going to rock!

Cheers,
PAZ

Hi Folks,

Well, I haven’t been very diligent about keeping up with the blog here. Scads of images have gone up, but I haven’t felt much like writing – trying to break back into it here.

My father – Dr. Henry Carl Zabierek – died on Halloween this year. I think I’ve been kind of using that as an excuse not to write, which is complete BS. He was a good man and an excellent father, and an incomparable friend, and I miss him very much. I could go on and on about it, but that would only be for me. For him, I think I’ll leave it with the above: that he was an exemplary human, and the best role model a patriarch could possibly hope to ever be.

In our little lives here in Fairfax, the weeks leading up to Halloween looked like this. Lots of fun, and the kids in costumes, pumpkins… October saw beautiful, warm weather.

With Dad’s passing, we made the trip back east for his services in Brookline, some of which is documented in this photo set. There are also some hilarious shots of Em and I taking the girls to see Santa – too funny.

Recently, I uploaded a few old timey shots I’ve found laying around: see them here. Shots of me as a kid, my Mom – Marilyn Doyle – as a young woman, and my parents on their wedding day. Sweet stuff!

The latest set – seen here – is just the kids playing in the yard. As always, there’s a classic shot or two or three in every bunch.

I’m hoping we take a lot of shots in the coming days and that I get them posted online ASAP, and back into the groove of life again. It’s been a hard time since Dad passed for me – but I’m pushing myself forward. So stay tuned: things will return to their usual, madcap, insane pace soon!

Merry Merry,
PAZ