all the news that isn't

I’ll keep the commentary to a minimum. The mess was at a maximum!

After opening some presents, we took a breakfast break. Mallory of course insisted that her new baby doll sit beside her at breakfast. Sorry for the crappy photo!

Then back to the fun!

For Christmas dinner, we continued our (tradition?… I think this is the second year in a row…) of eating at our favorite Chinese restaurant. As should be expected, the place was packed (eating Chinese on Christmas is a big Jewish thing, if you didn’t know – I certainly didn’t before I moved out East!). We arrived a bit late (5:30pm), and thus had to wait a while for a table. We were finally seated and waited a very long time just to get menus and water – which only came after we asked for them. The tea kettle was put on our table, but no cups. It looked like there were a total of 4 wait staff working the entire room of maybe 200+ people – they were severely understaffed! We ordered and eventually got some food, but after waiting a while one dish never showed. It was already 7:30pm – past Hannah’s bedtime and quickly approaching Mal’s. We finally gave up, I went to the front door guy and settled the bill – learning our last dish was not on the order, so we would have never gotten it – then walked back into the kitchen to obtain some carryout boxes to pack up food, and left. This all sounds like a great disappointment, and it was pretty frustrating for Adrienne and me, but I have to say there’s a great bright spot: both of the girls were awesome! Very well behaved, and that made this parent very happy. Plus we have leftover Moo Shu Duck.

Bonus shot. Not the keeper, only because it can’t be properly cropped to standard photos sizes. Bummer.

To do my part of sharing the Christmas joy, I thought I’d share some outtakes from the traditional family picture. We’re, uh, frugal, so we do this ourselves and thus we get a lot of outtakes. So starting today and leading up to Christmas, I’ll share some each day!

Two days ago, any time Mal would want help going down the stairs or walking on uneven terrain, she’d reach for my hand and grab a finger. Yesterday, when I put my hand out she grabbed my whole hand and held it like… a big girl. And she’s done so every time since. Ah, how it all changes so quickly!

After a 12-hour work day and than a 16-hour work day, I took a day off and we finally got out to get a Christmas tree. We decided to try a different place than the last few years, as I’ve never been fully happy with the experience and product at the place we’d been going. So we headed south, and on the way to Manalapan we stopped at the Bridgewater Diner for lunch. Mal loves “smiling” for the camera. And Hannah is always goofy and happy. A nice way to spend the day. Too bad it’s back to work tomorrow!

They say good fences make for good neighbors. I also think good hearing protectors make for good… quiet times!