Show Mommy How the Piggies Eat

We had mini-strawberry shortcakes for dessert last night. Ben didn't want the cake or the Cool Whip. He only wanted the strawberries. And he wanted to eat them in a most peculiar way.

Planting the seed

If you remember during Allison's pregnancy, she had little to no cravings. I'm trying to work on that now for the next pregnancy.

HOLD UP!!! Let me stop you right there. I am in no way making an announcement about an upcoming baby here. I'm not even announcing that we are trying for another one. Although when we do start trying I'm not going to announce it either. We very well could be trying right now, and you wouldn't even know it. But we're not...but we could be...but we're not. Seriously, we're not.

Anyway, back to the story. Just like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, I struggled for just the right pregnancy craving hint: (6:30 into the clip)


My hint.
Me: You know, my friend Melissa craved ice cream every night during her pregnancy. Her daughter had all her teeth by 6 months, was walking by 10 months and is currently 18 months and writes perfect cursive.

Allison: WHAT?

Me: Oh nothing. You look pretty tonight. (cough ICE CREAM cough cough) (I may have overplayed my hand)

I was very disappointed during the last pregnancy that Allison didn't have cravings. I was very excited to make midnight runs for ice cream or a jar of pickles. Or rush to the supermarket and buy a box of cookies and cool whip just as they are closing. You know heroic stuff like that. Nothing! Well not this time. I LOOOOOOOVE ice cream and of course the main and real reason, is that I want to do nice things for my pregnant wife. ;)

I'll let you if my tactics work when the time comes...which if you remember from above, is not yet. Have a good night.

Christmas Eve

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I'm very excited about Ben's first Christmas. I know he won't know what's going on, but I'm just excited to spend 3 days home with him and Allison. And to take tons of Christmas pix. He's starting to show symptoms of teething. I may be looking forward to going back to work on Monday, but I doubt it. He's awesome.

December really went quickly. I wanted to do a few more posts about my favorite Christmas things, but I'll have to cut it short. Tonight will be the last installment. Tonight's list, my favorite Christmas movies.

You have to live under a rock to not know this movie. A Christmas Story. I think this will be the 13th year of 24 Hours of a Christmas Story. I usually watch it 2 or 3 times. There are so many funny things in this movie. I'm not sure if it's as funny for women as it is for men, but I love this movie.
Here are some of my favorite scenes:

1. The "Oh Fudge" Scene
2. Ralphie's Fight Scene - I used to get into a lot of fights as a kid...it reminds me of my youth as a bruiser. Also immediately after the fight "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie"
3. The I triple dog dare ya! scene
4. Whoooopie a Zeppelin
   
5. Aunt Clara thinks Ralphie is 4 yrs old and also a girl. "He looks like a deranged Easter Bunny. He looks like a pink nightmare"
6. Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra Chinese Christmas Dinner
7. The Santa Scene - Ralphie fights his way back up the slide tells santa about the Red Rider BB Gun and makes that crazy smile...then gets kicked down the slide.
8. He gets his BB gun...and proceeds to shoot his eye out.
9. "Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window.."
10. "Show mommy how the piggies eat"
    

Next up are two movies people sometimes forget about or forget that they are Christmas movies. Die Hard and Jingle All the Way. Die Hard is just an awesome movie. Tons of action and a tag line I should not have been repeating in the 8th grade.

Jingle All the Way had Arnold and Sinbad in it. It was an OK movie but what really made me get into the movie was the bit Conan O'Brien did when he was the host of Late Night. He did this bit for about 10 years. I think it's funny.


Elf and Christmas Vacation are two more of my favorite movies. I watch these 2 movies as often as I can. The DVDs have been in the player since the night after Thanksgiving and they will stay there for 3 more days. Tomorrow night we'll probably watch them both again.
Some Elf scenes:

1. A guy is hailing a cab, Buddy goes into the street and waves to him and keeps saying "Hi"
   
2. There's no singing at the North Pole
3. Worlds Best cup of Coffee. Funny story. I was in Victoria's Secret a while back and they had a sign that said World's most comfortable bra. So I said to the sales lady "Congratulations, you did it! World's most comfortable bra! Great job!" She gave me a funny look and backed away.
4. Does syrup have sugar in it? Then YES!
5. I like to whisper too.
   

Christmas Vacation:

1. "Can't see the line can you Russ?"
   
2. "Lot of sap. Looks great! Little full, lot of sap"
3. "Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah"

I could go on all night, but I have to stop. Big day tomorrow and It'll get tricky to watch both of those movies, plus we also have to have time for Home Alone, A Christmas Story and my all-time favorite movie...It's a Wonderful Life.
I hope I don't ruin the end for you...but this is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time.


"Hello Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas Movie House!" Sorry this post is all over the place tonight...I guess I'm a little more excited about Christmas than I thought. I won't be posting again until after Christmas, so I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas. Come back in a few days for pix of Ben's first Christmas and my list of goals for 2010.

Santa & Hanukkah

We aren't going out of town for Christmas and nobody is coming from out of town to visit us, so there was no need for me to take any time off Christmas week. Instead I took off today.

Let's start at the beginning. I slept in until 7:00, took Molly out then went back to bed until 8:45. Normally I"m at work by 7:30, so this was a wonderful start to my day. Next we went out to breakfast. A trip to Friendly's. Benjamin's first trip to Friendly's. Hmmmm What should I get?
The breakfast food was good, but I prefer a Big Beef Cheeseburger with a 5 scoop m&m sundae. I think Ben enjoyed his first visit. He passed out about halfway through.
(If you are wondering, NO, Ben did not have coffee or pancakes)

Next stop on our busy day Disney's Marketplace to visit with Santa. (see 31 seconds)


There was about a 30 minute wait. That's not bad for any Disney attraction. Rumor has it that this was the real Santa. Disney spares no expense. They flew him in from the North pole. That's what we told Ben anyway. He was very excited while we waited online.
He finally made it through the line. He sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted. I couldn't really hear them, but I imagine it went something like this:




After Santa, we decided to see some of the Christmas decorations in the Disney Hotels. We went to the BoardWalk, Yacht Club and Beach Club. The decorations were made out of chocolate and gingerbread. They all smelled delicious. Disney as always thought of everything and put up a sign.
Lastly, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. Ben's 1st Hanukkah.
I made Allison a traditional Jewish/Hanukkah dish. I whipped up a pretty mean Chicken Souvlaki. LOL (for those who don't know, chicken souvlaki is not a Jewish dish)
Allison said the prayer and lit the menorah. It's going to be interesting when Ben gets older to celebrate both holidays and explain the differences in the religious beliefs, but for now all we need to worry about is presents. We didn't get Ben a present for each night. We'll probably give him the same gift for the next 7 nights.
He looks pretty excited. What could it be?
It's a phone! What do you guys think is a good nickname for him? Baby Phoneguy or Phonebaby? It's a cool toy and to be honest, I think I had more fun with it than he did. I was pretty proud of him tonight. It's for children 6months+, but he was pressing buttons and having fun.



That's all I have for now. Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate.