Thanksgiving, twelve birthday candles on her cake and putting up the christmas tree.

2010 is the first year that we had Thanksgiving over our house. Teri insisted on it. I had my doubts on the idea mainly because we had never been able to cook a turkey and have it cooked on the inside and the outside. This year I guess god was cutting use a break because the Turkey came out very good. It was browned on the outside and cooked and moist on the inside. We had planned on a two pm dinner which in Muller time is three, three-thirty, so we were right on time.


Teri’s family came over for dinner and the girls and I and Tony went over to Eric’s after dinner to socialize with my family. It is a shame that I get to see less and less of them as time gets shorter and shorter. Life becomes more and more filled with have tos and got tos and I feel everything that matters gets lost or wrapped up in the doing and after it is over has lost the impact on me or my family that it was intended to. We do too much of what is expected and far less of what we need to do. And if you don’t understand that it’s ok, neither do I.

Nastia’s birthday was on Friday and she did a count-down for the last week or so saying there is only three days, two days… until my birthday. Then she would give that smile.

Well the four of us went out to dinner on Friday; I got out of work early. And we went to the hard wok, the Chinese buffet, that has crab legs that Nastia loves and she feasted on them.

Saturday, we had Tacos and invited all the rest of the family over and to my surprise everyone came. Thank you all for coming. Ruth didn’t come because she was in Florida and had a note from her doctor.

Today we set up the Christmas tree. After about four days of when are we going to put up the Christmas tree and how come not tonight? Teri and I finally decided to put it up. It was raining and there were blizzards in Buffalo (3’ to 4’ in 24hrs) and the roof of the metrodome in Minnesota fell in (it had 17” of snow on it again in 24hrs) so it was a good idea to stay inside and put up the tree.

We have a fake tree that we bought several years ago while still in the Nyack house. It is fake, but it is low maintance and familiar, so even though Teri said when we originally got it we would go back and forth between real and fake, I haven’t. Putting up the tree is a little involved. The main trunk is divided into three pieces and fits nicely together. The top piece has the upper third of the branches and is a pain to straighten it out each year, but putting it together is a breeze. The lower two-thirds have branches with letters on them, some of them. Over the years the branches began to unravel and I tried to tape them and on some the letters are missing or unreadable. There is also letters missing between the groups, so it is a little confusing. Each group has five or six branches that need to have the individual branches straightened. Then the branch is put in its proper place. Some years I have spent two days putting this damn tree together. Today it only took a couple of hours, not too bad. Then the lights went on. Usually on day three I would be putting on the lights and on the forth the ornaments would go on.

I have been collecting ornaments for my Christmas tree since just after my dad died and I moved out of my mother’s house( yea, I moved out late. I just didn’t know what I was missing.) so I have a nice little collection of ornaments some I got from my mother and are real old, one silver one is from when my dad was a kid in the thirties or there about. Others are one I remember from when I was a child and even though they are really junky I have begun to cherish them more and more with each passing year. And yes the girls have no idea how much I cherish them and how it kills me when they are miss treated and occasionally broken. So the ornaments are bought down and they both go tearing into them and the bubble wrap that has been protecting some for twenty years is threatened with being popped and the clear plastic that holds the ornaments in place is left out and in danger of being crushed beyond use. Do I lack Christmas spirit when I tell them to be careful and to not pop the bubble wrap and to be careful with the ornaments? I must admit from their view point it must seem strange, I can see it in their eyes, it’s only pieces of paper or bubble wrap, why can’t I pop the bubble wrap, you can get more. I guess I don’t say enough to them to make them understand the importance of these things. I stay silent until it gets me angry and I go off on them and they are left wondering what type of jerk their father is.

Well Christmas is a little less than two weeks away and I hope you all have gotten your Christmas shopping done, because I still need to get finished and I don’t want you getting in my way. Merry Christmas.
   Lastly w

Lastly we had the annual Cookie house decorating Saturday. Again Ruth was the only family to miss out on it this year. She was in Florida and yes she had a doctor’s note. About twenty-two people showed up and it was a crowded good time for all. The kids are getting a little older and it is a little tougher to send them outside so the adults can do their own thing, but they also don’t need supervision either as much.