Two Nifty Christmas Gadgets

I am almost ashamed to be doing this, but Janene and I finally found a light tester that really works! This year we put up the set of garlands on the stairs. They came pre-lit from Costco several years ago, but this year half of the lights refused (adamantly) to light. So I guess this was now a post-lit set. Anyway, Janene worked on it for days trying to find the problem. For almost half the season, the set sat on our table. We finally put it up without lights, and then a few days before Christmas, Janene put on an additional set of lights. We took this tool over to the set, plugged it in, pulled the trigger, and Presto! Working Lights!! It cost us $10 at Home Depot. " It's worth a hundred bucks if it fixed it that fast!", Janene exclaimed. It has some other features that don't seem to work much better than the other tools that find, or are supposed to find, shorts and other problems, but this feature that allows it to send a burst of electricity through the wires and bulbs, fixes the most common problem with the bulb shunt failing. Pretty cool, we think.

The other gadget is this Nativity set from Bavaria that Heather gave us for Christmas. The bottom level is a Nativity scene with Mary, Joseph and Jesus, with wise men and animals that circle them. The next level has sheperds and their flocks. The upper level has the angels and the heavenly host.

Light the candles and the blades start to spin. It is no time at all and they are really moving fast. The whole thing started to spin with only one candle lit. We are going to enjoy this new gift. There will be more to post about this Christmas. Suffice it to say for now that a grand time was had by all until a certain grandchild had to go get staples in his head at the emergency room.

It's not a contest, but here are the answers.

Lots of people thought they knew who the Cy look-alikes were. Some of the guesses were no better than the facial recognition software was able to do, so here are the real answers. Enjoy!

Rock a Bye Baby

Caleb was excited to come to Grandma's house. He sat in his carrier and cooed and talked (don't ask me what he said) and in general played the part of the perfect baby. If he was having so much fun, why not put him in the jumper and let him have more fun? I got the camera ready and we started him swinging.

Two seconds later - and he was sound asleep. If you moved the jumper, he would act startled for a second, one eye would open, and he would be sound asleep again. I liked him better when he was talking.

So much for facial recognition software

I was so excited to find that Picasa has a facial recognition sorting feature. I couldn't wait to try it out. I picked one of my favorite pictures of Cy out and then turned the program loose to find all of the pictures of Cy on my computer. Here is a representative sample of everyone it found. There are four generations of Cy in my computer.

Here is the funny thing. If you go look at each one of these other people's folders, pictures of Cy are scattered throughout. I can't figure it out. How could it mistake Shon for Cy? Or Michael? I just can't understand it. All of my children and grandchildren are so distinctive. I could never imagine anyone not being able to see the difference.

All I Want for Christmas ....

Maybe I should ask Santa for two of these?

Or maybe I should get three of these?

Elsie is the latest to want two of them.

Laura thinks these are all the latest fashion craze.

I think that this year, Santa must be spending all his time conferring with the Tooth Fairy.

A Party for the Grand Old Dame

How did it happen? Sharon has turned 50? Sharon's children graciously allowed us to join them for a celebration of Sharon's 50th birthday at the lovely home of the Brewer's. Marie was able to get all of Sharon's family and friends to write letters to her and then compiled them into a book (sounds like she would make a great editor) for Sharon. When she gave it to Sharon, they both cried. I got this great picture of Sharon with her make-up all run and looking kind of sad. I didn't have the heart to post that picture, but I couldn't resist posting the one below.

I am just not sure why she got this gift. She is 50 after all.

A German Christmas Celebration

As the choir started to sing in the Granite Tabernacle in Salt Lake, I leaned over to David and whispered "I don't understand a word they are singing. They must be speaking a different language." " That's kind of the idea", he replied. They were singing in German, and everyone in the place but me understood every word, including my little grandchildren. In fact, I would soon see two of my little ones singing for all the congregation. I tried to put up a vidio clip of the children singing, but can't figure it out now that Blogger has changed. I got a short video of Laura singing a solo, but our camera went on the blink just as she started singing. Janene said " Just relax and listen to her sing." It was worth every minute of the trouble we had driving into Salt Lake, sliding up and down the driveway, and leaving our other grandchildren to hear them sing.

Two Revealed

Here are two of the answers from "The Eyes Have It"

I would print the other two, but I cannot find them. There are only about 9000 photos to sift through. If I had an Apple computer, I could set my facial recognition program to work and find them for sure. Oh - I can dream, can't I?

The Eyes Have It - or how to get free hockey tickets

Who is #1 above?

Who is #2 above?

Who is #3 above?

Who is #4 above?

Jeepers Creepers!!! Here is how it works. Identify who belongs to the peepers shown above. All of them are in our family. The first person to identify all four will win the big prize - FOUR TICKETS and a Parking Pass to see the Grizzlies play the Idaho Steelheads on 26 Dec 2009 at the E-Center. That's a $98 value. Just figure out who they are - it could even be you! You can either post a comment - or - send us an e-mail at robinandjanene@gmail.com

Thoughts on PRETENDING TO BE SANTA

On the face of it, it seems pretty simple. Dress up like the fat guy and spread a little cheer. Make a few kids happy for a day. After all, I had pretended to be Santa for years with my own kids. It seemed to work with them.

All, that is except Chelane. She was too young to know that the big hairy guy was really her dear old dad in a funny suit. So I accepted the job. When they called, I was a little reluctant. How could I pretend to be Santa for a bunch of kids I didn't really know? They said I would have a great time, so off I went to the Central City Community Center. Here was the plan. Every kid got a candy cane and a pair of gloves for the winter.

The kids loved it. It was a magical time. The children told me everything they wanted. I smiled and told them Santa would do his best. Somehow I knew they wouldn't get the puppies or the ponies, but there was an outside chance they might get the toy truck or the Barbie doll. They were thrilled to get the gloves and candy. I went home feeling pretty good and had some fun with the kids - and their mother.

The next year they called me again and I jumped at the chance. This was going to be fun. This year the kids would get candy cane and a pair of socks. The kids were a lot of fun, but at the end, one little boy's mother came and sat on my lap. She said " Santa, can you bring me a man? - I want a man that won't beat me and my boy". I started to cry as she started to cry. I knew there was nothing I could do for her. This time when I left, I wondered if I had done any good. The next year when I got the call to go again, I told them no. I couldn't do that again. It would be too hard. Now I look back and wonder if I made the right decision. Someone else got to share the fun with the kids that year, and maybe someone else was able to make a difference. Somehow Christmas had to be something better than a candy cane and a sock.

Years before, Janene and I took Christmas goodies to an older woman from Scotland who had no children in our area. Somehow we found out that she loved the heather on the hills of Scotland. After scouring the valley, we finally found a heather plant and took it to her. I don't remember her name, but I do remember how happy she was. When we had a little girl later, the name Heather seemed like a beautiful name for our darling little girl. We didn't solve that woman's problems, she still lived in a dumpy cramped house and nobody ever called to visit her, but for one night there was a smile on her face. Maybe, just maybe - that's good enough.

The Long and Short of it

We start with the long. Long and lanky #6 child - Chelane came over to help dear old Dad put up The Christmas Tree. Come to think of it, the tree is kind of long and lanky by itself. Weighing in at over 400 lbs. and about 15' tall (counting the angel), it is the tallest tree I have ever seen in a home. Even some of the homes I worked on in Park City didn't have trees this big ... and they could afford to have Modern Display come over and set them up for them. Of course, most of the owners were Jewish. That could have something to do with it.

We love our tree. We love the feeling that comes into our home when we set it up - correction - after we have set it up. There is usually a period of wailing and gnashing of teeth as we struggle to haul it in from the garage where it resides most of the year in three specially made coffin sized boxes. This is usually followed by several profane epithets when we discover that several sections of lights (it has about 4000) have failed to light again this year. This year we were lucky - we planned ahead at Chelane's request since she is so short on time, and got the replacement lights ready. We didn't need them this year. Only about 30 lights failed to work and we know about where the short is located. We decided to hide that section at the back of the tree.

The short of it comes with Janene. Her efforts to decorate the tree this year will probably be limited to the height of a third grader's reach. The most important ornaments go at the bottom of the tree each year. These are the ornaments the kids love. They love to touch rattle and tweak all the ornaments they can reach. We just remember to put the irreplaceable Russian ornaments on the top and leave Neil Armstrong in his space suit down low. "Houston - Tranquility Base here...." The decorating will be a little slower this year, but it will get done. I promise.

Thanksgiving Bonus - 1 - 2 - 3

While we were preparing for our Thanksgiving dinner, Brooke and Steve came over to make a short visit. Brooke made special shirts to show the birth order of their kids. There was just one small problem. We thought they only had two kids. Silly us. We should have known better. I have to admit that this time I didn't know before today. I have been able to tell when all of my daughters have been expecting before they told us, but not this time. Mikey says he is going to have two more brothers. Hopefully, there is not a #4 hiding in there somewhere. Sometime around the end of June we will all find out if Mikey is right.

Baking with Grandma

Mikey decided to help Grandma bake an apple cake tonight because she is sort of an invalid.

Mostly Mikey wanted to sit on Grandma's tall drafting chair that lets her sit in the kitchen. Of course, that meant that Grandma had to stand on one foot or use her crutches to do her baking.

He got to not just lick the spatula, but he got to keep reloading with fresh dough to lick off. MMMM Good!

38 Short Years - The Grand Adventure Continues

It seems like just yesterday that I first met Janene. I had just celebrated my 15th birthday when I met her. I remember coming home from our summer science class after spending a whole day with her in the mountains above Coalville and finding my mom in the utility room of our new home in Bountiful. Mom was sorting clothes and ironing. I told mom all about this wonderful girl I had met. She sounded a little worried, but ended up telling me I was just twitterpated.

Three years later and we were married. That was 18 Nov 1971. Being married to that girl was the grandest adventure of my then young life. I would come home from work and marvel that I got to be with this girl all the time. We could do what ever we wanted ( so long as we could afford it). If we wanted to stay up all night, we could. No one could tell us when to go to bed - or not to go to bed!

Over the years, it has come to be a little more normal, but every morning I wake up and think "I am the luckiest man in the whole world!" It has been 41 years since that day I told my mom that I had found the girl I wanted to marry, and I am still "twitterpated". What a ride!

Janene is still recovering

I took a picture of Janene when she was not feeling really well. She had been working with the girls making fruit bouquets (as seen in the picture). This is how Janene eats dinner. She has to put her foot up on the table to keep it elevated. Because she was feeling crummy, she thought her face was not as pretty as it should be. She told me I would have to find a prettier face to put on the picture. "Just do a cut and past with Photoshop" she said. It turns out I am not smart enough to do that - so I did a real "cut and paste" with pictures and scissors. Isn't she lovely? I think the hemorrhoid cream is doing wonders for the bags under her eyes, don't you?