Chef Jackie

Jackie is really enjoying her new pots and pans, along with all her other wonderful Christmas gifts. Let's watch her play...

Lounging

Santa brought Jackie a new chair that matches the living room furniture. Jackie is practicing her best daddy impression by lounging about and playing with her new remote control courtesy of Uncle Joe.

Elf

A little elf snuck into our house last night. She loves cookies.

 A Terrible guard dog... letting these elves in and what not.

McIlhenny's Gold

More free swag from Tabasco today! I recieved in the mail, an early Christmas gift of liquid gold. The 2011 family reserve. This bottle retails in their webstore for $25 bucks, and they shipped me one for making a few clicks on facebook. What nice people!

By the end of the weekend I'll have earned my free gallon. I will of course make another post bragging of this when it arrives.

Nerd Christmas

I haven't seen Jackie awake in like four days because of a fast track project in Paterson I'm working on. Overtime all week, but we got everything done, and now I'm looking forward to a relaxing week at home together as a family.

Last night I got home around 10 PM, and I sort of forced Alison into helping me get the tree set up. It's been in the house about a week, but we haven't really had the chance to decorate it since I've been so busy. I didn't think we'd get the chance tonight because we have a family gathering at her sisters house, and tomorrow is Christmas Eve... so I had to strike while the iron was hot. Alison strung up the lights, I unwrapped ornaments, and then we both got to work on the tree... it was not the most pleasant tree trimming experience of my life, we wrapped up around 1 AM, and I was just totally exhausted. I tried to come to the office early today but just couldn't get out of bed it's been a rough week.

While we were trimming, I noticed (as I notice each year) the extreme quantity of nerdy ornaments that I've accrued over the past 20 years or so. Mostly Star Wars centric, I also have a ton of NASA themed ornaments that do the various light up/noise tricks when plugged in. This year we didn't plug any in, but they are all on the tree.

Jackie and Santa

Here is the annual Santa photo with Jacqueline, I can't believe how much she's grown since last year...

She looks like a little baby doll compared to how big she has grown.

Butterfingers

Alison and I made the trek out to Giants MetLife Stadium, we were very much looking forward to attending what we thought would be an easy victory for our beloved Giants as they try to make the playoffs this year.

We ended up having to park in a lot that seems to be closer to my parents house than the stadium.

When we finally got into the game, after our long trek to the gate, and having to avoid a redskins fan in the line, that had a little too much holiday cheer before entering the game, we were treated to several hours of sitting in meat locker. At least the bathrooms were warm, I've never seen so many people actually hanging out in a public restroom at a sporting event. Had the Giants played a good game, it would have been tolerable, but the lackluster effort on the field, the poor officiating, the inability of the Giants receivers to actually catch the football, made for an excruciating afternoon.We stayed to the bitter end hoping for a miracle, but Eli Manning didn't have any fourth quarter magic for us today. 

On a side note, the ladies at the beer stand near our seats seem to know my name now, which I can't decide is a good thing or a bad thing. We probably won't be back to the stadium this year, I wonder if it will be the same two ladies serving up cheese steaks and plastic bottles of Miller Lite next year.