Christmas in California

Traci and I boarded flight 102 on Friday evening and headed for California. This is where I am originally from and I make every effort to make it home at least 2 times a year. Christmas is always a good reason to visit and I can always count on one of my sisters to plan an "event" to bring us back a second time. My hometown is about 100 miles North of Sacramento and is named Paradise. The town was named for the gambling that took place during the gold mining years.

We spent Friday night with my sister Linda and had the opportunity to catch up with her and the Molina family.

Linda and Bill

It's always great to see the little ones in our family and see how much they have grown. Most of them are at the stage where they are just learning how to walk, talk and remember faces. Unfortunately, since our visits are so infrequent, the remembering faces is not working out so well and we end up having to re-introduce ourselves to the younger nephews. Linda and Jason worked with Noah prior to us arriving and when we walked in, he knew us as Uncle Bill and Auntie Traci; however, when morning came, we were the new people.

Saturday morning Jason, Noah and I took Noah's new tricycle for a spin in the parking lot. This wasn't the same tricycle I had when I was a kid. Mine was all metal with hard tires. Noah's tricycle had pressurized tires, a wooden deck on the back for push kicking and a ringer to warn people he was about to run them over.

Noah and Bill

Saturday we drove to Paradise and had an early lunch with my aunts, uncle, sister Brenda and mother. My mom is an incredible cook and loves to make me a meal when I come home. It is a good thing I only come home for about a week or I would ended up looking like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka... Good home cooking will do that to a person. :-)

While at my mom's, Traci and I had the opportunity to "try" and bond with another nephew. Issac is the very tall 22 month old child of Brenda who had just woke up from a nap. Traci was able to engage him in a level-5 game of peek-a-boo and I got him to stand still for a quick photo. He is such a smart kid. A few of us were going to watch a 70s band play at the local casino and were going to leave Issac with Grandma. He could sense that we were going somewhere and that the key to us not leaving was to keep Brenda within arms reach.

Brenda got him to sit down and watch "Cars" and then said she needed to go into the other room. Her plan was to sneak out the back door but Issac knew better... He jumped up, hugged her legs and began to moan and groan about her leaving, I let him know he was lucky that he was staying home with Nana and watching a great movie. He looked at me with his squinty little eyes and shook his head back and forth very slowly. :-) We ended up making making a run for the door and enjoying a night of 70s music and getting caught up.

Chocolate covered Issac

We are looking forward to our remaining days in Paradise.

A "Wild Night" in the midwest

This past weeked we had a few people over for drinks, music and "Cat Entertainment". If you do no have a cat, you really do not know what I am talking about... So allow me to explain.

Cats are very needy... when they want to be. They will come around when they need love and attention and stay at arms length when they have had enough. Saturday night was a night when Connick and Asia needed lots of attention.

The night started off with Connick climbing up the middle of the Christmas tree and wedging himself between two branches. His favorite thing to do is to get into tight places and make himself fat so that it is just about impossible to pull him out. There is only one sure way to get him to come to you and that is to shake his favorite toy. The toy is pole twith a string attached to the end and on the end of that string is a stuffed mouse with a bell inside of it. He loves to chase it, chew it and lay on it.

Connick in the Christmas tree

He is not budging

When he really gets going, we can get him to jump a few feet in the air. Asia has been watching for the past few months and if starting to get into the act. The cats are good for about 10 minutes and then need a quick break to catch their breath and then are ready to pounce back into action.

Traci and Cora warming up Connick

Super cat

Asia giving it her all with Connick cheering on in the foreground

Needless to say, if you have a party and want to liven it up, you will need the following:

1. Cat toy --> on a stick.

2. (2) Cats that need lots of attention.

3. Friends who have nothing better to do that sit around with you on a snowy Saturday night, drink beers, eat food, and watch the "Cat Entertainment".

Hope your Saturdays are as exciting as ours. :-)

Bill and Traci

The Wedding "South Dakota" style

It has taken me most the day to begin feeling "normal". Traci and I attended Jamie and Mitch's wedding in Baltic and then reception in Brandon at the Holiday Inn express. The wedding ceremony was perfect! It was held in the Lutheran church in Baltic and about a 100 people were in attendance. The only thing that could have made it better was warmer temps outside. It was about 10 degrees out and all the roads in Baltic had a sheet of ice/snow on them. Jamie is Traci's sister's husband's sister and Mitch is.. Mitch. :-)

Jamie and Mitch

Traci, Hunter and Saige braving the cold for a picture

The reception was about held about 20 miles away in the city of Brandon. http://www.brandonsd.com/ The food was great and there was about 2 hours of open bar and two kegs when that was gone. This was the first reception I have attended where I stayed until the last dance and had the lights come on after... That is always a scary event! Bright lights combined with sweaty people, running make up and the effects of alcohol on every one's smiling faces. EEEEKK!!

Bill and Traci at the reception

Bill and Hunter on the dance floor

Did I mention that it was an open bar?

Alex VanHangover and Jimi HenDrinks showed up later that night

Dave, Saige and Zoe cutting a rug

We spent a short amount of time in Mitch's parent's room drinking beverages and getting to know each other (this was the first time I met them). After that, it was off to the gas station in about 0 degree weather to pick up a bag or Doritos for Dave (my new BFF and Nikki's Husband) and a Rice Crispy treat for Traci. By the time we walked back Traci was ready for bed and Nikki (Traci's sister) was already 1/2 asleep. Dave and I spent the next hour munching on the bag of chips and surfing all 75+ channels on the T.V... I believe that is something that only men would find enjoyable. I finally crawled into bed about 3:30 and got up around 9am to a knock on the door. It was my two nieces Saige and Hunter with a plate of food. The food hit the spot and I was back in bed within 10 minutes. I called down to the front desk around 10:30 and requested a late check out of noon as we were a bit behind in getting packed up. You can request a late check out at most hotels without an extra cost to you.

4 hours later we ended up at Debbie and Richard's house where I mosied off to our room for another 2 hour siesta. :-) I woke up to the smell of Prime Rib and other foods being cooked up in the kitchen. As I mentioned yesterday, we are celebrating Christmas early and part of the Dybvig tradition is a family dinner. Unfortunately, Grandma Dybvig was unable to make it do the extreme cold weather and the fact that she fell a few days ago. she didn't get hurt in the fall only a bit bruised.

Dinner was excellent, as Debbie is a fantastic cook, and the company couldn't have been any better. After dinner, we sat around, opened gifts and enjoyed watching the kids tinker with their new toys.

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. A big ice storm rolled through Kansas City and most of the cities that we will be driving through received snow tonight and will continue to accumulate snow until about 4am. We roll out of here about 8am and will take our time. I will report on the drive and post some pictures from the wedding and our early Christmas when we get home.

Bill

One more time

We made the long drive to South Dakota again. This time for a wedding and an early Christmas with the Dybvig and Wirkus families. Everyone agreed to an early Christmas as we will be in California on the 25th and the wedding made it convenient to celebrate early.


The drive up was not as bad as the last trip. It snowed last night but the road crews did a fantastic job of cleaning the roads and the trip was not as scary as our last one. We saw about 10 vehicles in the ditch... there was everything from small pick-up trucks to a huge U-haul pulling a car all on their sides and covered in snow.

Last night Traci insisted on driving since she is 1/2 Eskimo and knows how to drive in the snow and ice but conceded this morning when the roads looked pretty good. I was thankful as I am pretty much a control freak when it comes to driving. I am confident that the control freak comes from being in too many accidents where I wasn't driving.


Today was also a celebration of our 1 year engagement anniversary. It was difficult for me to decided what day to ask her to marry as I needed the day to be easy for me to remember and also one that Traci would not guess (she is a very good guesser). Pearl Harbor was the perfect day as it is a day that I can remember and one that Traci did not guess.

We hope all is well with you and Merry Christmas (early).

Getting into it (The Chrismas spirit... that is)

Last week Traci and I spent some quality time putting up lights around the house, staging lighted reindeer around the yard, and putting the finishing touches on the tree.

This morning I decided it was time to get a picture with Santa. It is a surprise and Traci has no idea that I took Jezebel to meet with the white bearded man. Santa Paws is an event that is held by the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. They fly Santa into town for about a week to sit with all the good cats and dogs from the KC area. The print out and put the picture into a card for $7 and will send you a copy for an additional $10. All the money that is paid, goes to a good cause.

For those of you who have not met Jezebel, she is our runt Min-pin that has been a part of Traci's life for about 8 years and mine for 2. She loves walks, burrowing in her favorite blanket and hanging out with her brother and sister Connick and Asia.

I figured it would be safe to post the surprise on here as I know Traci doesn't read our blog as often as I write in it. ;-)

Hope you all are getting into the spirit of the Holiday season. If you are not, maybe the photo below will help jump start it.

Bill

Jezebel and Santa 2007