Christmas Time

Santa Claus was mighty good to the Kane household again this year.

Christmas started out sort of rocky, however, as I was supposed to get out of work at 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve. The company, however, made a mistake with our checks and I waited until 1:30 p.m. hoping to get mine. But, they didn't end up coming until 3:30.

Needless to say, some people were not very happy.

I ran up to the house and packed up the car while also picking up Erika for her parents Christmas Eve party. We picked Kasey up at my parents and went over to the party. We usually have a pretty good time spending time with family and friends.

Kasey got his first Christmas present from her grandparents - a little car that he loves.

We left around 8:30 and sprinted home to get Kasey ready for bed and prepare for the arrival of Santa. We forgot our camera and video camera at her parents, though, so Erika drove all the way back to get it so we could have some photos of Christmas morning.

I was pretty anxious about the next morning because I went a little overboard this year for Erika. She purchased me a Wii last year - so I thought I had to get her back.

Before I ran up to bed, I got one of her presents of the garage (that her dad had delivered earlier for me) and put it on the porch for the morning.

Christmas morning came and Kasey got a ton of presents from Santa and mom and dad. He got a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse toys, and of course the grandaddy of them all - his tricycle.

I had a very good Christmas as well - Santa Erika got me three Wii games (Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Wario Shake It and Lego Batman), a new wireless sensor bar and a cool new gaming chair (which I am still trying to figure out).
Erika got a Nintendo DS and a Mario Kart game for it, a case for it, the David Cook CD, an American Idol Wii game, slippers and a brand new bike. She had been throwing hints for awhile now that she wanted one - so I thought it was time. I think she enjoyed her gifts. And now we are even.

After tidying up a bit, we bolted to her parents for Christmas there. Erika's brother got us a very nice Steelers portrait that we need to find a place for. We also got a corner desk for our computer, once we get the room situated. Erika and I both got a Penn State beach towel, while Erika got a Penn State blanket and a new purse. Kasey got a ton of stuff - including some Little People gear and Sesame Street, well everything.

Then we rode up to her grandparents for breakfast (I was starving at this time) and some more Christmas. Kasey received some more cars, some books and a t-shirt. Erika and I got some money, while I got some movie passes.

Finally, we headed to my parents house for one final Christmas with my family. Kasey got a huge bouncy horse which I am trying to have stay at their house. And we are all going to see Elmo in Sesame Street Live. I got Sonic Unleashed for Wii, Scrubs Season 7, the new Indiana Jones movie and Dark Knight - and a new Steelers long sleave shirt..

I guess that's it. It was an amazing, yet tiring day. It always seems to be.

Have a great new year.

School & Christmas (Edited)

Well, I had been waiting to post here until I officially found out my grades for the semester. But, nothing has been updated as of yet - so I thought I would post anyway and if the grades come about I will edit.

Anyway, I completed my first semester back to school last Friday. I had a pair of finals on Tuesday, one of which was English that I had to go into class to take - then my math final which I took at Mark's house.

I believe I did pretty good on both. I had already finished my 20 book files and with the help of my friend Matt, completed a children's book (which again I hope to post at some point). I actually got an A+ on both projects - so I feel I did rather well in that class.

At the midway point in math I had an A-, and I did rather well the rest of the semester with a few exceptions on a couple of sections I was not quite understanding. But, I got a little help and think I did better with those on the final.

As for science, I had a C+ midway through, and in order to get the credit I need at Plattsburgh State, needed to get a B. I busted my butt the last few weeks of the semester, and got some help from Erika, and according to the site had an 85 at the end of the semester - so my calculations have me at a B. But, we will have to wait and see.

EDIT: I received my grades on Friday and managed an A in English, B+ in math and that all-important B in Science. It is a Merry Christmas, folks.

Christmas is right around the corner now and I am really looking forward to it. Kasey absolutely loves Santa (at least from a distance) and snow. He did rather well last year with Christmas, and another year older, I feel he will be pretty darn fun this year.

Tomorrow night I have my companies Christmas party and we are heading over to Erika's friends for a little while after that for another party. Saturday, I guess we are having dinner at her aunt's house. And Erika is hoping to finish her cookie baking this weekend as well.

Erika went shopping with her dad on Tuesday, so Kasey and I had dinner with my parents then went home. He actually wanted to get to bed early - so I wrapped Erika's and Cyle's presents while he slept and Erika was away.

We have also been doing our best with my 25 Days of Christmas movie watch that I started this year. You can check that out on the original Kano's Kogitation if you want. With so much going on and my final week of school, we got a little behind - but we are trying to catch up on them during the weekends.

Danielle and Mark got us a photo session at Sears for our Christmas present - and we did that last Saturday. I felt we got a lot of good shots, especially of Kasey. Not sure when those will be in, but I will post them when we get them.

We had tried to do family photos at Wal-Mart a few months back, but it went horribly and they did a pretty bad job. We were glad to get back to Sears, as they do a much better job, and having Dee take our pictures got Kasey a little more interested as well.

I guess that is pretty much it. I hope everyone has a great holiday, and we will do our best to get a posting about our Christmas.

Thanksgiving, Foundation & Beyond

Again, we have neglected this blog. I keep hoping my wife will post on here because she seems to do a lot better job remembering what exactly is happening in our lives than I do.

But, she has been major busy, as have I, so sometimes things get neglected.

Hopefully once the holidays die down we will be updating a lot more.

Anyway, Erika's uncle has put hardwood floors down in both our bedroom and Kasey's bedroom. The floors themselves look really nice. We were hoping to also do the eventual nursery downstairs, but we ran out of usable flooring.

Also, Kasey's room is on a bit of a slope, and he did his best to try and even things out - but it is still a little off. He went down in the basement to see why things were so off on that side of the house - and apparently our foundation is pretty much crumbling.

So, next spring we have to get our foundation repaired. Just add that to the huge list of things that always seems to happen - eventually we may end up ahead of the game, maybe.

Because of this, however, we were forced to cancel our cruise for next February. This was something I had planned on taking Erika on for one last hurrah before we decided to have another child. Because once we have two kids running around - vacations alone are pretty much nonexistent.

Anyway, despite not being able to go on a cruise we have come up with an alternative. Erika has to head West next year tovisit a few of her companies offices in both Blaine and Los Angeles. Well, her trip is paid for by her company - so I have decided to try and meet her in LA - just having to pay for tickets, food and whatever we do while we are out there.

I am actually pretty excited about this. I have never been west of Kansas City in my life - so this is pretty cool. Plus, one of my lifelong goals is to visit every NBA arena - and we have made plans to attend a Lakers/Clippers game while we are out there. So, one down - 31 to go. Haha.

Last week we had Thanksgiving. We were originally only going to my sister's house, but at the last minute we headed out to her aunt and uncle's for a Thanksgiving lunch. It was a pretty good meal - then we headed to my sister's and played some games before yet another meal for dinner.

We also for the first time, got to watch the Thanksgiving parade with Kasey. He liked seeing all the baloons, floats and singers. Of course, he wanted to leave though and I told him he couldn't leave until we saw Santa. So he kept saying, "Ho Ho Ho, I go." It was hilarious.

The only other major thing going on right now is I am wrapping up my first semester of college round two. I have two finals on Tuesday and a few things to wrap up as well before completing the semester on the 12th.

My friend, Matt, and I combined on a children's book for an assignment I had in my Children's Lit. class. I wrote up a story and he did the illustrations. In the near future I hope to have that up online so you can read it.

Anyway, guess that's all - try to update again before Christmas.