Twas the Day After Christmas

Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the house,
Every creature was hurting-- even the mouse.
The toys were all broken, their batteries dead;
Santa passed out, with some ice on his head.

Wrapping and ribbons just covered the floor, while
Upstairs the family continued to snore.
And I in my T-shirt, new Reeboks and jeans,
Went into the kitchen and started to clean.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the sink to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the curtains, and threw up the sash.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a little white truck, with an oversized mirror.
The driver was smiling, so lively and grand;
The patch on his jacket said "U.S. POSTMAN."

With a handful of bills, he grinned like a fox
Then quickly he stuffed them into our mailbox.
Bill after bill, after bill, they still came.
Whistling and shouting he called them by name:

"Now Dillard's, now Macy's, now Penny's and Sears
Here's Walmart and Target and Best Buy -- all here!!
To the tip or your limit, every store, every mall,
Now chargeaway-chargeaway-chargeaway all!"

He whooped and he whistled as he finished his work.
He filled up the box, and then turned with a jerk.
He sprang to his truck and he drove down the road,
Driving much faster with just half a load.

Then I heard him exclaim with great holiday cheer,
"ENJOY WHAT YOU GOT ... YOU'LL BE PAYING ALL YEAR!"

"How I Spent My Christmas"
by Milo Davis



Mom thought that I would look "so cute!" with this horrific Santa hat on. You can see how I look at her with clear disdain in my eyes for being forced to wear something so childish.









Fine, I'll give her one decent picture so she'll take the damn thing off. Ooh, she has Scooby Snacks...







Yes! I managed to get the hat off and run upstairs before Mom can catch me!








Die, hat, die!!!









You think I"m chewing the hat?? No Mom, I'm just making sure it's clean by licking it. No Mom, seriously.








Bitch, you come any closer and try to put that hat back on I swear I will slice you. Or chew another strand of Christmas lights.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!!

So another Christmas has come and gone. Is it me or does it seem like every year it feels like Christmas less and less? I don't know if it's because it didn't snow this year, or celebrating Christmas without loved ones tends to take a bit of the twinkle out of the holiday. In either case it was still Christmas which only means one thing: lots of gifts!! Oh, and that whole "birth of Jesus" thing too. Kidding Mom! I respect the holiday and I'm not a blasphemer!

Anyway, for us Christmas is a two-day affair. On Christmas Eve we go to my in-laws and exchange gifts there. We all got some really great gifts...Kim and Brian got us a gift certificate to Longhorn (mmmm, steak); Bill gave Brian and Craig each sanders (regular and orbital); and I got one of the best gifts ever: a KitchenAid mixer from Bill!!! I think I honestly felt my heart stop when I opened that one. For those of you who don't see me too much, I love to cook and bake, so that mixer will totally come in handy when I need to make any kind of dessert or pierogies. Damn, now that I think about it, that means Kristen and Brian will bug me year-round for my homemade pierogies. But no worries, that just means I can make some for me and Craig too. :)

One of our traditions for Christmas is to have Christmas Eve dinner at my mom's, where we eat homemade pierogies. Normally my mom makes the dinner but since her hands are still weak from her double carpal-tunnel surgeries, yours truly made dinner instead. We then do wishes for everyone at the table for the New Year and then sleep till it's time to go to midnight mass at St. John Cantius in Tremont (church where Craig and I got married at). It's a BEAUTIFUL church and at Christmastime it is even more so.

Christmas Day started with Craig and I opening our gifts to each other and Milo opening his. This year Craig and I decided that instead of getting each other a ton of gifts, we'll get little ones and then take the money we saved to get a water heater for the house. Ours is 17 years old and is slowly starting to be not as efficient. Anyhoo, Craig and I opened our gifts and Milo opened his from Santa Paws (aka me and Craig). Damn dog made out like a bandit with the treats...in two hours he started refusing to eat his regular dog food and whined for the treats. Damn pig.

Then we went to my mom's for gifts and dinner there. We really did get a lot of useful gifts and there were so many that I really liked that I can't list them all here, so I'll list the ones I can remember off the top of my head: gift certs for me and Craig to a variety of stores (will definitely help when we look for a water heater), this awesome mosaic bowl from Rachel, "America (The Book)" from Angie (which is effin' HILARIOUS), and Euphoria perfume from my mom. There's a bunch more but that's what I remember as I type. Oh, and an ornament that Angie made for me that said "Aunt" on it...Rachel got one too and my mom got one that said "Nana."

After gifts is dinner where my mom made an AWESOME buffet of prime rib, popovers, roasted potatoes, veggies, and pierogies from last night. My mom is a great cook anyway but this year was maybe the best in the last 3-5 years. Just phenomenal. Then we went to Brian and Kim's for a second dinner and then we came home to chill. As I'm typing now Craig and Milo are crashed on the couch. See?



I know that this has been a long post so I'll wrap it up. I want to wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas and I hope that you are spending it with the ones that you love. There are people who I wish I could spend Christmas with but can't, so to them I say I love you and I wish you were here. Have a great night everyone!

Greetings from Milo...

Hello everyone, Milo here. I haven't been on in oh, a month or so, so I thought I'd give you a little photo diary as to what I've been up to. And before I forget, I turn 2 on the 22nd so you can send all treats to me, care of Mom and Pops. Peace out!


Here I am inspecting and ensuring the quality and freshness of our new Christmas tree. I am also looking for any defects since said defects, aka branches, will be promptly torn off by me, thus guaranteeing a fun game where Mom chases me around the house trying to take forbidden items away from me. I get quite a workout since I'm so fast (or she's old and slow, I can't decide which. She also does have short and stubby legs...).


Mom drags the tree in and sets it up herself (she wanted to see if she could do it without Dad's help). I sit on my throne and give her directions which she misconstrues as annoying barking. However, I maintain a watchful eye and keep a vigilant watch on her progress since I don't want people to think I live with a bunch of idiots who don't know how to put up a tree.





Man, Mom looks tired. I'll take a nap for her. She'll appreciate it. Why does she seem so happy now that I'm not talking to her?






Now that I wrapped myself up in my blanket, I can finally take a nap in peace (the blanket muffles all the noise Mom's making). Sheesh, can't she see that I'm trying to sleep? All she's doing is putting up an 8-foot pine tree all by herself. Wimp.




Anyhoo, that's it for right now. It's been a bit quiet around here so that's pretty much been my fun lately. If I don't see or talk to anyone before Christmas then Merry Christmas! Brian, I have my gift for you the next time you come over...let's just say that it involves the mistletoe that's right by the front door. Wink wink. ; )

Some food for thought...

I've been thinking about what I've wanted to post for a while...I didn't want to do something Christmas-related since I'll do that later, and it's actually been sort of quiet for a while (knock on wood). Then I found an email with a bunch of quotes...normally I just delete those emails but some of these really resonated with me, especially with the way life has been lately. So in no particular order, some words to live by that everyone can use:

1. It can always be worse (a favorite of mine right now)
2. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened
3. Don't try so hard...the best things come when you least expect them to
4. Don't waste your time on someone who isn't willing to waste their time on you.
5. Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you
6. There's always going to be people that hurt you, but you have to keep on trusting and just be more careful about who you trust next time
7. To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world
8. No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is won't make you cry

And finally, a paragraph that I stole off of a friend's blog...I thought it was so good that I printed it out and posted it on my fridge:

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back. Don't be afraid your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.