Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

Happy New Year from the mil10s!

Everything Old is New Again

Yesterday the mil10s traveled to Canton to see all of the crafts and wares that were being peddled at First Monday Trade Days. It was great weather for walking around and doing a lot of looking. Somewhere amongst all of the stuff, we saw a typewriter. EK was pretty sure he needed one. We talked him out of it because they were pretty proud it.

You may be wondering why a ten year old would be wanting an old fashioned typewriter. Never mind that the boy has fairly constant access to multiple computers and laptops, he was sure that he needed a typewriter so that he could write super hero stories.

After contacting someone about keeping an eye open for an inexpensive but working typewriter at estate sales, we were soon contacted that there was an old typewriter available for our use! This morning we went to Baby b's and Auntie M's to pick it up.

 EK was so excited to have a typewriter that he carried it all the way home. He didn't want to let it out of his hands.

The first thing that EK "had to" type was a thank you letter.

This was the first thing that he wanted to type.

Random thoughts on Christmas Eve

-Tonight was the annual Christmas Eve service at oil church. It opened with Oh, Come All Ye Faithful and closed with Silent Night. These are two of mr. mil10's all time favorite Christmas songs! The service is always a nice time to concentrate on the real meaning of Christmas and to observe the Lord's Supper. I must say that this is the first year I have seen a man wearing a kilt to the service.

-At this point in the season, I guess I can give up any hope of catching A Very Brady Christmas on tv this year. If it hasn't come on yet, I don't figure it will. Yes, it includes a touching moment when everyone sang Oh, Come All Ye Faithful. Yes, those Brady kids grew up and they had their own grown up problems. I don't think everyone liked seeing them like that, but they had to grow up some time. I guess it doest help that I am a sucker for tv reunion movies. Anyway, I thought I would settle for It's a Wonderful Life, but mrs. mil10 is changing the channel. She says he does too much screaming. I thought that was just at the end of the movie when he hollers at all of the buildings as he runs through the street. "Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!" While looking for another "Christmasy" movie, she found War of the Worlds and Jaws. Come on television companies. I am sure you are not looking for a big audience on Christmas Eve, but there is probably something a little more appropriate to the season in your library. Probably. She found The Santa Clause. We're watching it again. I think this is at least the third time we have seen it since Thanksgiving.

-I think the whole hoopla over the silver polar bear Coke cans was silly. For the first time ever, Coke cans went white and silver to promote saving the habitat of polar bears. I cant say that this is something that I am that emotional about, but it was at least interesting from an artistic viewpoint, as much as soft drink cans can be interesting. Anyways, people were not happy with the white and silver cans. What was all the fuss really about? The name Coke is on the can. The box said Coke as you took each can out. Just because the can is silver doesn't automatically make it a Diet Coke. Coke caved to the whining and changed the Coke cans back to red. Hey, Coca-Cola, here is an idea: let's ditch the polar bear cans next year and just bring back the Santa packs. You know, the cute cans with the nostalgic Santas that looked like something that Norman Rockwell would have painted. Sure, some would argue that Christmas isn't about Santa. It isn't about polar bears either and I don't see Coke cans with a baby Jesus on them coming to a Walmart near me anytime soon. Can you imagine baby Jesus Coke cans one aisle over from the beer? As neat as that would be to see, I don't think it will happen. What would you do with a Jesus can anyway? Throw it away? Crush it? Recycle it? Because tossing those cans aside seems odd, would you keep them and have an ever-growing collection of Jesus cans? All of those options seem kind of weird. Santa packs, please.

-Who would have thought our ten year old would have been so into Elf on a Shelf? This was our first year to have one. Several of his friends had one this year so we got one as well. Peer pressure, I think! It has been fun to see him get up each and every day this month to find out where the elf was and what he was doing. Reading a book, hanging out in the ice box, rearranging the throw pillows in the living room, or hanging from a ceiling fan. That elf was always up to something. The bad thing is that if he comes back next year, he will have to find over twenty new things to do!

Enough for now, it is almost Christmas morning. Rest is needed for those three Christmas celebrations tomorrow!

John Michael Milton

Trotting with the Turkeys

This Thanksgiving the mil10s participated in the largest Thanksgiving Day event of its kind in the country.  The 44th Annual Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot draws nearly 40,000 participants each year.  mr. mil10, mrs.  mil10, and EK were among the many that participated in the turkey day tradition.  Unfortunately Modie took ill and couldn't join us in the day's festivities. 

Lots of port-a-potties for lots of racers!

When we left Home Town, Texas, the visibility was 0.  

It wasn't much better in Dallas when we arrived.

 The pre-race activities took place in front of Dallas City Hall.

Many people got ready...

...by donning a turkey costume...

...in order to set a new Guinness World Record 

for the most people dressed as turkeys at an organized event. 

 

 Ready to race!

There were many unusual hats!  It was hard to take their picture without being obvious.

On you mark, get set, go! 

 As you can see, the fog didn't burn off as much as they expected.  

The unusual weather did provide many unique views of downtown Dallas.

Looking up into the fog.

After the race EK and mr. mil10 fought through the crowds of people 

to pick up a few post-race snacks.

Our next stop after the race was Highland Park Cafeteria for Thanksgiving lunch.  We were greeted by an employee serving their popular zucchini muffins to patrons as they waited in a line that extended out of the building and around the corner.  Although mr. mil10 jokingly (and somewhat seriously) expected to be dining with a bunch of sad and lonely people, the restaurant was filled to near-capacity with families of all types.  The couple waiting behind us in line drove from Tyler, Texas to eat their annual Thanksgiving meal at HPC. Compared to everyone else, the mil10s were considerably underdressed as we were still wearing our race apparel.  However, we were not alone as we spotted at least three other Turkey Trotters dining at HPC as well.

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We will probably trot again.  We will probably eat at Highland Park Cafeteria again.  We will definitely continue to be thankful for all of the blessings God has given to us!

Ten Years Old

2001 

2011

It is hard to believe that our boy is now in the double digits!  Yesterday, he officially became a ten year old.  Everyone always said to enjoy the time you have because it will pass by quickly.  Boy, were they right!  Time has definitely flown by.

Happy birthday, EK!

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"Too bad there hasn't been an #nba season. I kinda miss cheering for the #mavs!"

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Happy Birthday

Today was an unusual day. mr. mil10 had the day off from school while mrs. mil10 and EK had school as usual.

Since EK's birthday takes place during the upcoming school holiday, today was the day for mr. mil10 to take a Harry Potter cupcake-cake to EK's school for an afternoon snack for EK and his classmates.

EK stood in a chair at the front of the room while the class sang happy birthday. He then had the job of separating each cupcake from the cupcake-cake and passing out a cupcake to each classmate. After passing out the first one, EK realized how messy his job would be. His fingers were covered in icing! If you were responsible for passing out cupcakes to everyone in your class and had messy fingers, what would you do? EK's solution was to lick the extra icing right off of his fingers! As gross as it seemed to me, it didn't seem to bother anyone else.

Happy birthday, EK--germs and all!

If you look closely you can see Harry Potter catching the golden snitch!

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"243 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes packed and ready to ship! #SamaratinsPurse"

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Stationery card

Color Me Merry Christmas Card

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Tuesday Night Lights

It is Tuesday tennis practice at Hometown High School. EK wasn't too excited when he found out that his team would be wearing purple shirts.

Fireworks

For the Fourth of July Hometown, Texas put on a nice firework display.  Everyone drove to the park or to the nearby Lowe's parking lot to watch the display.  We opted for the parking lot.

Waiting for the sun to set.

Auntie Em and Baby B found us in the parking lot and came by for a quick pose in front of the camera.  Could that me a Peru shirt she is sporting?  She says even though it was questionable to represent another country on "our birthday," she had to wear it since she had already worn all of her patriotic clothes and it was the only thing she had left that was red.

Playing with my camera settings in the dark, I was not totally sure what setting I was using and I wasn't sure if any of the pictures would look very good.  Over the course of the show I used about fours settings.  About three of those settings were used accidentally.

Of the 99 pictures I took that night, many were either not in focus or caught the firework explosion too late or too early. Anyway, these were the best.

Happy birthday, America!

All in all, we were quite impressed with the display!

Firefighter Night

Tonight the local Chick-fil-A was having it's weekly children's night. There is always the "buy an adult and the kid's meal is free" promotion. Sometimes there is a craft, snack, or other activity for the kids.

Tonight was firefighter night. The hometown fire department was there to show off the truck. It was fun to look over the truck and see all of the supplies they use when fighting fires. Somehow mr. mil10 managed to manage to hold his to-go cup with one hand and the cell phone in order to capture a few photos. He passed the opportunity to take a picture of the package of Marlboros that were under the driver's seat.