Tag Archives: Christmas

Office Christmas Party with Jennifer Aniston

Friday I had my every other Fridacation and Heather didn’t do her Friday morning Zumba gig so we could go have breakfast together and go do some Christmas shopping.  So most of the plan worked. We had breakfast at Full Moon on Peoria, one of our favorite spots and then we checked out Lululemon right next door but they didn’t have much of any sales going on but they did have their music crancked up considerably, I mean the music was not being able to think loud.

So we went up to Athletica at Utica Square. They are just as cool as Lululemon but the music, although not quite as cool, was a lot lower in volume. Also they had a little bit of a sale going on. Turns out that they offer exercise instructors a 30% discount. So we shopped a little bit and Heather is going to get her certification in hand and we’ll go back and do some serious shopping. I guess cuz we are cheap. So then, heck with it, lets go to a movie. We were wanting something fun so we went to see Office Christmas Party.

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The movie is entertaining. There is a story line but the story line is not important, the party is important. The company’s Chicago branch is about to be closed and so they decide to throw a party to end all parties so open bar, lots of decorations, a DJ, and things rapidly get out of control, clothes end up on the floor, Bad decisions are made, office relationships are deepened, and in the end it all works out. You have the all the office types there, the burned out old guys, the striving young guys and gals, the enthusiastic interns, the overzealous HR goons, spoiled out of touch executives. They all play a part.

So everybody makes a lot of bad decisions but it all is well in the end. The evil management sees the light and the branch is saved! Yeah!!

Keep the kids home on this one. Rated R and deserves it and lots and lots of bad language. Also, you have seen before in movies where people sit naked on the copy machine, well in this movie, they make use of 3D printers. I’m not going to spell out what they were copying with the the 3D printer for you. Isn’t technology great!!

I’ve never been to a wild office Christmas party but I have been to parties where people have drank too much and made bad decisions. I’ve been to a lot of nice Christmas parties. One year, a former employer flew Heather and down to Houston for a company party at the the Hyatt Regency downtown, that was nice, very nice. And everything in between. Usually it was a nice sit down dinner and a cocktail or two. Nowdays its a luncheon at the office. I’ll take it.

How about you? Does your employer have a Christmas or “Holiday” party?

Oh, yes, the movie. I loved it, Heather didn’t. So you are on your own!

Back to the Grindstone!

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My barber of 24 years finally retired so Logan and I now have the same one.

I took a lot of time off this Christmas. About two weeks in all. 

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I always love following Heather around the grocery store taking photos of her in action. She never seems to enjoy it as much as I do.

I didn’t do a whole lot, mainly just hung out the family, including my Mother-in-Law we watched movies, ate a lot of great meals and spent a lot of time together.

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Ginger discovered the joys of the fireplace. She doesn’t like sharing it with LJ the cat though.

Our spoiled critters got even more spoiled.

 

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We celebrated Christmas in almost all the senses, the spiritual,

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and the Family.

So I had a good time and I’m looking forward to getting back to work.

Christmas 2015 – In the Books

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Christmas happened this year. Hear you go a rare shot of me in my snuggie. 

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The kid with his Nana. The kid is getting taller and taller. Is there something we can spray him with to slow him down a little bit.

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Heather and Nana, quite a team.

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I got a candid shot of Heather. She said she hated it but then she made it her profile pic on facebook. Should I hit her up about royalties?

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I captured Nana also.

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Before the Christmas meal. We decided to have it more informally this year in the kitchen. Lots less work that way.

ellen scan christmas in th 60's

My sister Ellen posted this on facebook today. She’s the cute one in the middle. I’m the good looking guy on the right and brother Bob is on the left. I’m guessing mid 1960’s in Price, Utah. We always had a great Christmas. Often we would load up afterward and head up to southern Idaho to see our relatives there. That was fun, or we would head down to Phoenix and see people down there. That was fun also. Bob and Ellen, with her husband Irvin, spent Christmas in Idaho with my dad this year.

ellen scan christmas in the 80's

She also posted this picture of her three girls. I’m guessing in the 1980’s.  Dana is on the left. She and her husband Adam are in Australia visiting his family with their little girl who was born this year. Adam is an Australian citizen you see and their little girl has dual citizenship which I think is totally cool.  Jillian in the middle is also visiting my dad, her Grandfather for Christmas in Idaho. Her husband Brian is in the Army serving his country overseas this season. Mary on the right spent Christmas in Colorado Springs with her son this year.

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This isn’t a Christmas picture but it is Ellen and her Husband Irvin with Logan back at the turn of the century. 

Son, Dad, Brother

This is also not a Christmas pic but it shows my dad in between Logan and brother Bob.

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And this is brother Bob and me with our mother a long time ago in Coyote, New Mexico.  She is never far from our thoughts.

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Hey you know, when we celebrate Christmas we celebrate it with the critters also. This is abby our sweet but not very smart mutt.

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And Rascal, he is sweet and smart. You can see that he has been reading the paper.

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And our sweet but perpetually cold mutt Ginger. My niece Dana pictured above lives in the Phoenix area and I think Ginger would like us to move there also.

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And Nana’s dog Fiona. She always enjoys visiting us, but is ready to go home when that times comes also.

That was our Christmas this year or at least part of it. I’m big into Christmas not running into a huge stop on Christmas Day so I’m going to go ahead and everybody a Merry Christmas.

Christmas Moon 2015

Christmas Moon 2015

I’ve been reading about the Full Moon that we were supposed to get Christmas night. The big deal is that it is the first full moon on Christmas since 1977. We are supposed to have some weather blow in so I was wondering if we would even be able to see the moon at all but low and behold we could.

So I got my new camera out and put it on the tripod, the Nikon D5300 and went out there but it didn’t seem to be getting it done so I grabbed my Canon SX40 SuperZoom and tried it out. Even with the tripod it took a long time to get a decent shot where I got good magnification yet kept got the whole moon. This is at about x68 magnification. The camera does x35 optically and the rest digitally.

And just because it is Christmas I will tell you that I ran the the photo through Topaz Lab’s Adjust software first to bring out the details and second to give a little color range to the details.

it is kind of hard to beat the Canon SX40 for moon photography. I couldn’t make it work until I consulted Mr. Google and I learned to just put the camera on “Auto” and let it do the work. I did and it works great.

So, did you have a chance to go check it out this Christmas night?

Related articles

Christmas Memories

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Digging through the files. This is Logan when he was two. He has always been a Christmas kid. 

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One year we got me Logan some Thomas the Tank Engine track and cars. I He loved it until Heather took it away from me he outgrew it. Sniff.

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At least two out of the three of us can smile.

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Boompa and Nana with Logan. Boompa, Charles, was the word’s greatest FIL and a heck of a great guy. He and Logan loved each other and were best friends. He was taken away from us suddenly years ago and we still miss him every day. Boompa loved Christmas and he loved his grandson.

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This is my mother, Granny, with Logan when he was about six months or so. Nobody loved her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids like Granny did. She is also gone now.

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We are moving forward though making new memories. We are confident that we will meet up with Boompa, Granny, and others again and the memories will be that much sweeter.

For new classic singers can anybody beat Michael Buble?

For great Christian Gospel Hymns check out my friend Driller's Christmas Music Marathon, going on now.

Decorated for Christmas

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I love Christmas decorations and Nana, the world’s greatest MIL does it right. This is her tree in the entry way. 

Nana's front room tree

This is the tree in the “front room.”  I used the Hipstamatic App on my Ipod Touch to make most of these pics. I love low fi photography.

Nana's Cast Iron Stove

This is her cast iron stove in the entry way. I lovet greenery and the Merry Christmas sign. 

Heather's Boots

And on the upper level of the stove are my wife’s first cowboy boots. Her grandparents owned a ranch and horses in western Oklahoma (that is still in the family btw) and of course she had to have boots. I love seeing these ever year.

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This isn’t a Christmas decoration. This is son Logan at my employer’s Children’s Christmas Party when we first moved back to Tulsa a long time ago. I sure miss those days. A big part of Christmas to me is memories and there are lots of great memories and lots of sad memories of people who are no longer with us. Christmas is also a major Christian holiday. Sometimes I think it is just too much for one day, we need to spread it around to several days.

If you celebrate Christmas, how is your Christmas?

Closing out with my very favorite Christmas Song. “Last Christmas” by Wham. I guess that I consider it an old song but it came out in 1984. So it is an oldie.

Weekend Reflections – Christmas Lights

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There is something out reflections at night when it is pitch black outside. It is very disorienting and beautiful at the same time.

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Looking down into the water you don’t see the water, it seems like if you jumped in you would fall forever.

Linking with Weekend Reflections

Rhema Bible Training College Christmas Lights

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Sunday after church I spent all afternoon putting our modest collection of lights up on the house. It always amazes me how long it takes to drag the stuff out, untangle everything, see what works and what doesn’t, run to the store to get what you need, drag the ladder out and then climb up and down the ladder a gazillion times. That takes 90% of the time, the rest of the time is actually putting up the lights. And then you get to make the adjustments and replace bulbs that decided not to light and well you know. Here we are.

So, we loaded up and and went to the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow to the campus of Rhema Bible Church and their gift to the community of a pure over the top Christmas lights show. (And yes, check out the web site, don’t tell them Yogi sent you unless you want to be prayed over, a lot, and then escorted off the campus.)

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Their web site say they have two million lights and that seems like an undercount to me. There are lights everywhere.

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I hope they get a discount on their power bill because even with led’s I bet that Public Service Company of Oklahoma is keeping an extra generator going.

Gingerbread Man

They have trees wrapped and all sorts of characters like the gingerbread man above.

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Heather and I liked the tree wrapped above with all different color lights. I wonder what the story is.

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They do all this for free. It is just amazing and it is very popular.

Noah's Ark

And an ark.

Merry Christmas

And a Merry Christmas sign

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And there is Logan and Heather. And no, she is not shrinking. It just looks like it.

Rhema keeps the lights going from 5:30 to 11:30 nightly through January 1. Go check them out if you are close.

A Belated White Christmas

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Hey we finally got a little bit of snow here in Oklahoma. The kind of snow that I like. It covers the grass and trees but doesn’t stick to the driveways and roadways.

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Just enough to get some snow pics but not cause any disruption.

#snow #holly #berries #red #igersok #tulsa #oklahoma

I’m not a big fan of disruption.

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It is amazing how fast the snow shovels and sleds appear  and mild and bread disappear at grocery stores with the first hint of snow.

I’m doing a transition out of Christmas and into New Years. I’ve even quit using my Christmas coffee mug and started using my New Year’s mug. All I need is a few hours of warm weather so I can take the Christmas decorations down.

Have you started your transition yet?