We had a fantastic Christmas with both sets of parents. The E-man made out very well, lots of new clothes and toys to play with. He wasn’t much help opening them, not surprisingly, but he had fun with the paper after we’d ripped it off!
Although the weather was too warm for our liking (in the 40’s with rain on Christmas day), we were still in the Christmas spirit. Here’s a few pictures of the E-man from our days up north with family (I have no idea why we put him in so many hats!!):




We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home, just the three of us, munching on goodies, watching Christmas movies (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Scrooged, and It’s a Wonderful Life), and relaxing. So started the eating-fest. We then had two huge and awesome meals on Christmas day, a third on the day after Christmas, and on the way home on Tuesday, we stopped at the Tin Pan Galley in Sackets Harbor and had breakfast with family, including the E-man’s cousin, his aunt, and his grandmother. I had the prime rib hash (absolutely unbelievable) and we shared the stuffed french toast. It was so good! I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday season as well.

So 2005 is drawing to a close. This has been one of the biggest years of my life, matched only perhaps by getting married. In May our son was born, ending 9 months of anticipation and beginning many many years of love and worry! I think that 2006 will be another big year for us as well. I’ll finish grad school and start law school. We’ll move to a new place and my wife will have to find a new job. The E-man with start to walk, talk, get bigger and bigger. I hope it will be as wonderful a year as this has been.

In other news, have you noticed that the vehicle inspection window has changed, starting in 2006? When you get your car inspected next year, the sticker will have not only the month when you have to get your car inspected again in 2007, but a date in the month by which that must happen. For instance, the 1st through the 10th, the 11th through the 20th, or the 21st through month’s end. There hasn’t been much press about this, I just happened to hear it briefly during a newscast. They say it’s because garages can’t handle everyone cramming in inspections at the end of the month, and that the DMV computers slow to a crawl. I know I don’t plan to get my car inspected too early in the month, and if lots of people do that, won’t most inspection stickers have the 21st to month’s end label?