The Labbe's 8 days of Christmas

Season's Greetings!

 Christmas is never just a one day event, it just couldn’t be considering the size of most people family’s, mine being no different.

Christmas this year started in Sunday 21^st with Church in the morning and the Mueller/ Higgins celebration in the evening.  My day went like this, get out of work at 7am, sleep for about 90 minutes, go to church, drop the kids at their mothers, go home, sleep about 2.5 hours, go to Higgins’, go home and sleep 90 minutes, get up and go to work…I was tired.  The kids were in the Christmas Pageant this year with Canaan as a Shepherd and Addison playing Jesus’ mom Mary.  The kids did a fantastic job, sang wonderfully, and I’m truly very proud of them.  The Muller/Higgin’s shindig was a lot of fun and featured a great meal.  Mama Mueller got a good sized prime rib and cooked it like a roast, it was fantastic!  Jonny really liked his gift of a Colt Cabana shirt, Kate got some Chocolates, and I got a gift card to Target.  Kate’s cousin Thomas, his fiancé Anna, and her daughter Lera are visting from Russia and it was very nice to see/meet them.

Monday the 22^nd Kate and I had dinner with Jay, Amy, & Erin Willoughby at the Liberal Cup in Hallowell.  It was so nice to see them and have that time with them.  The food was delicious, the tar box cream stout was the best, and it was simply a great time!

Tuesday the 23^rd I ended up having the kids for a few hours in the morning.  We ended up watching some great holiday classics with “A Christmas Story”, “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and “Jetsons Christmas Carol” before their mother picked them up.  That evening Kate and I continued the holiday classic’s marathon with “It’s a Wonderful Life” and later while I was wrapping presents I watched the 1938 version of “A Christmas Carol”.  I hadn’t watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” for many years and I must say it’s a darn fine movie from beginning to end.  One of those timeless classics that’s for sure!

Wednesday the 24^th, Christmas Eve was our day to have Christmas with the Kids.  I picked them from their mothers at noonish, Kate got home from work about 1:30 and we commenced with Christmas.  Of course it was over in a blink, but that’s how it is.  The kids really liked what we got them and Addison had everything put away and in its place before you knew it!  Mrs. Mom, Mr. Bob, & AJ came over for a nice visit and to give the kids their gifts.  Mom & Irving got their after mom got out of work and we proceeded to have Christmas with them.  It was a great day and it was nice to have the time with everyone.  I managed to get in a nap before heading into work my shift, where it was quite dead.

Thursday the 25th, Christmas Day, when I got home from work Kate and I exchanged out Christmas stockings were I received a large supply of toiletries that will keep me well supplied in the coming months.  I also got a bad ass Godzilla t-shirt!  We went to Kate's parents for Christmas morning and delicious home made cinnamon rolls!  SO GOOD! Emma & Caleb came over and it was a really nice morning.

We had to go home so Kate could make yeast rolls to take to Aunt Carolynn's that afternoon.  I managed a quick nap.  We got to Aunt Carolynn's for 1pm for a turkey dinner.  Attending was Mrs. Mom, Bob, Andrew, AJ, Emma, Caleb, The Chases, Krista, Seth, Will, and of course Jack & Aunt Carolynn.  The meal was wonderful and we all had a great time.

 

It was absolutely gorgeous outside, and with the sun being out for the first time in days I took the time to head down to the pond and enjoy the crisp fresh air.  I took the time to grab a few photos including this one. 

Saturday December 27th - We traveled to Litchfield to see Gram-Gram and have Christmas with her.  It was really nice to see her and the kids hit the jackpot with some pretty awesome posters for their walls.  Addison got two Frozen and a big Frozen coloring book, Canaan two Star Wars posters and a Star Wars the Clone Wars movie event, The Return of Darth Maul.  Mom and Irving came down and it made for a couple nice photos.  

After Gram-Grams we traveled south towards Topsham for Christmas at Nana's.  The sauce in Nana's meatballs was really, really good this year.  It was nice to see my two Gram-Nana's in the same day. 

Sunday December 28th - Our official last day of Labbe Christmas, and it was spent with Labbe's.  Dad & Linda, and Adam, Nell, & Frederick came over after the kids got back from church.  We had some great food including what I feel is my best batch of meatballs ever.  They were indeed a hit!  It was a really nice afternoon seeing everyone and spending sometime together.  I would like to do it more just to spend some time together. 

After the Labbe's left Canaan and I took the tree down.  As of this writing it  now sits on the front lawn awaiting Bob to pick it up.  

It was a wonderful Christmas this year and doing a little each day was much nicer than trying to cram everything in, in one or two days.  

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Later Readers!

another blog about Christmas Past

Greetings!

Christmas is almost upon us and like most I tend to get nostalgic this time of year thinking of Christmas past when I was just a youngster.  Christmas morning was always spent at my Mom’s house until my Dad picked me up.  Dad would take me around to various relatives before ending up at Nana’s for the large family gathering and then home to his house where I we would have our Christmas and by that time I was pretty tuckered out.

Because my Dad picked me up Christmas morning I never got to experience the traditions on my Mom’s side of the family.  One year I almost did as I was determined to stay with my Mom for Christmas and see what exactly they did.  Once Christmas Day arrived though, I was super sad that I was not going to be with my Dad or go to Nana’s that I broke down and cried and asked to go to my Dad’s.  I’m still not sure why my Dad didn’t come pick me up, but instead Mom & Irving drove me to my Dad’s house that morning and we had Christmas in reverse starting at my Dad’s and ending at Nana’s. 

Now a days with my family being splintered and big it would be impossible to celebrate with everyone on the same day so we celebrate on and around Christmas when I have the kids and when it works out for everyone’s schedules.

Kate and I are making a conscious effort to establish our own traditions by doing things together that we had not done with anyone else before.  The first one being Kate’s idea last year when we celebrated our first Christmas together being married was making popcorn strands to trim the tree with.  I love this idea because it’s a very old Christmas tradition and they look really good on the tree!  It is a bit time consuming but we can get them done in one evening. 

I have a certain set of Christmas Specials that I like to watch every year, in no certain order;

A Christmas Story – Jean Shepherd’s classic story of Ralphie and his red ryder BB gun, how can you not like this movie!? 

 

Garfield’s Christmas

 Charlie Brown Christmas

 Muppet Family Christmas – It’s the only time the Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, and Muppet Babies were all in one special, capped with a cameo by Jim Henson at the end it’s THE greatest Muppet production ever!  I have the Canadian bootleg edition with is a complete uncut version.  When it originally aired they only had the rights to use certain songs for the initial broadcast so when they home video version came out they had cut scenes and entire songs while adding in a few scenes.  This version I have someone seamlessly cut together a crisp DVD release with a high quality copy recorded off TV. 

Twas the Night Before Christmas – 1974 Rankin and Bass cartoon that has also suffered over the years from harsh editing.  This time though and entire song was edited out because the lyrics used the word gay to describe happiness. 

Prep & Landing – the newest addition, these tow half hour specials and 1 short are just fantastic!

Love Actually – a British flick featuring a wonderful ensemble cast of multiple intertwining stories of love during the Christmas season.

 

A Christmas Carol - the 1938 version with Reginald Owen as Scrooge.  I first saw watched this in my early teens on Turner Classic Movies and now watch it every year on Christmas Eve.  There have been several other outstanding versions of the classic Dickens story that I truly enjoy, but this one has always been my favorite. 

I try to watch each of these with the kids in hopes that they will also grow to love them as I have.

That’s all for today, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and until next time,

Later Readers!

Mike

My favorite Christmas Song

It's the Holiday Season

I haven’t posted a blog in a long time apparently.  I even wrote a blog back in November about moving, but never got around to posting it. 

Like I said we moved, it was to a cute home in Randolph, we’ve been there over a month now and we love it!  We celebrated our first holiday there in Thanksgiving. Normally I go to any number of placed for Thanksgiving, never going to the same place every year and it depended on my work schedule.  Kate usually goes to her mom’s church for Thanksgiving.

This year Kate wanted to make dinner for me at our house because I worked 3pm to 7am and wouldn’t have been able to go anyplace because I needed to sleep.  So we invited Emma and Caleb and Caleb’s Parents.  It might seem strange meeting people for the first time by inviting them into your home for Thanksgiving but I think it’s great!  Caleb’s parents are wicked nice people and we had a wonderful meal! 

Kate worked so hard and everything was delicious!  The turkey was cooked to perfection, juicy and tender seasoned beautifully!  Along with it we have fresh made yeast rolls, corn, carrots, mashed potato, stuffing, & sauerkraut.  Pies were pecan, raspberry, cherry, and chocolate cream with homemade Oreo cookie crust!  Emma made me the Chocolate pie, it was so good!  Just fantastic!

I’m so grateful for all of Kate’s hard work to prepare us Thanksgiving dinner.  We even ate on our fancy china we got as wedding gifts. 

It’s been ridiculously busy time for me overtime wise in November, it’s thinning out in December, but November was excessive. 

We are officially out of the apartment getting everything out and the place cleaned by the end of the month.  I got my whole deposit back, oil for the house!

Managed to squeeze in two IWE wrestling shows, November 24^th in Palmyra and December 6^th in Fairfield.  I hit the Palmyra one alone that was headlined by former ECW World Champion: Justin Credible.  December 6^th I was accompanied by Canaan and Alex, featuring Justin Credible and indy stand out AR Fox.  I now have attended 6 shows this year, down from 2012’s 21 events. 

With Christmas coming I’ve gotten the majority of my shopping done and I know what else I want to get, I just need to find the time to get it. 

We set up and decorated out tree this past Thursday.  It marks the 7^th Christmas in a row that I purchased my tree from the same lot in Farmingdale run by the British couple who own the Fish and Chips truck. 

Kate and I wanted to start our own tradition so we made popcorn strands for the tree, they are quite labor intensive to make actually!  Between the two of us it took us the better part of 5 hours to complete them.  But they look so nice on the tree!  We will put them out for the birds when Christmas is over.  We let the kids decorate the tree with most of the ornaments.  They did a great job!

I look forward to having the kids on Christmas Eve/Morning this year, who know when I’ll have another one off if ever!

Later Readers!