Christmas Wrap Up

The Christmas Season is over. Noel marked the occasion on Sunday by taking down the tree. "I'm over it," were her exact words. We had two delightful Christmas celebrations; the first with the extended Huber family (seen below, minus Mom and Dad as they were grabbing the grandkids' attention and snapping pictures, respectively) and the second with just us Indy Hubers on Christmas Morning.

The Annual dysFUNctional Huber Family Christmas (as Mom calls it) was a great time to catch up with the entire family. The wives put up with the Huber boys crude innuendo and inside jokes. Dad was nice enough to set up the trains for the young ones, but I think Greg and I had just as much fun with them.

A hat tip to my lovely wife for the idea of devoting part of the gift exchange to an As Seen on TV product. Gifts ranged from an Obama Chia Head to the Big City Slider Station. Mom cooked a wonderful meal and the grandkids managed to stain only half of the furniture (they'll circle back the remainder next year).

In Indy, Santa arrived on schedule on the 25th. We tracked him on NORAD's website for most of the afternoon before settling down for a long winters nap. The children woke up (early) to a beautiful tree (as seen at top) before diving under it to rescue the presents from their wrapping paper cocoons. The stars of the morning were the Zhu Zhu Pets that were located by one of Santa's more resourceful elves (with a big hat tip to Alan for showing the aforementioned elf http://www.slickdeals.net/).

We trust that everyone had a Merry Christmas and is looking forward to a safe, healthy and Happy New Year.

12th Wedding Anniversary

Twelve years ago today, I married my wonderful wife. As I look back on all we have been through, I would do it all over again. Thank you, honey, for sticking with me through thick and thin.

Culinary Elf

A culinary elf that goes by the name of Beth (my sister-in-law), graced us with some delicious jams for Christmas. Sour Cherry and Strawberry Banana! Yum!

Christmas Eve

Tonight we tracked Santa on NORAD's website and did all of the other things necessary to prepare for Santa's arrival. The kids made sure Santa had his milk and cookies along with reindeer food (dry oatmeal and glitter) that they made at school.


Let's hope Santa turns up to grant all of the wishes that were made over the last 60 days.


I will miss him. He is great leverage with the kids.

Note: I put Santa's milk in a lowball glass in case he felt like he needed to add anything to it to make the rest of the night more palatable.

House Dad

Being at home these past few weeks has taught me a great deal. Things like: an 'easy dinner' is not (unless you do the hard work the day before and have forgotten about it); entertaining a child or two for days on end takes patience, creativity and (sometimes) divine intervention or the house gets dirtier more quickly when one or more people are home all day.

But, it has been very rewarding. I have spent lots of time with Mallory this week as we kept her home from daycare to save a little bit of coin, using a 'vacation week'. Yesterday, we went to the Entemann's outlet and picked up some yummy baked goods (which are now frozen to maintain freshness!). After that, we headed to Babies 'R' Us and used our recall voucher to buy a crib (don't get any wild thoughts folks. We are helping one of Noel's co-worker whose house burnt down). Then we went to get the oil changed on the Pilot. She bounced up and down in the waiting room for 45 straight minutes before crashing. We had such a great time.

Alas, being a house husband and father is not for me. In between grocery shopping, dropping kids at school, applying for grad school and doing household chores, I have been applying for jobs. Yesterday, I received (and accepted) a job offer. I am not going jinx it by describing it yet but I start on Monday!

Thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers. As I look back at this past layoff, it may have been one of the best things to happen to me. We'll see if that is true. Only time will tell.

The Huber Family here in Indy extends the warmest tidings and hopes everyone has the Merriest of Christmases.

Chess Player

Mallory is home today. She let us know that she didn't feel like going to school by throwing up four times last night. So, it is Daddy's day in with the princess. We have read a Clifford book, watched The Flight Before Christmas (TiVo'ed so we can watch it over and over!) and we played chess; at least some form of it. This version involved putting as many chess pieces on the board as possible and them smacking them all over with a big arm swing.

Checkmate.

What fun!

Mason Plays Santa

Today, Mason did his best Santa impression as he delivered presents to his teachers/administrators at school. He was so excited after school he could barely contain himself has he fast-walked down the hallway (the speed limit in each hallway is 'walking', as posted). Like his mother, he can't get enough of the Christmas season.

As you can see in the picture above, Principal Cavolick's dog, Missy, loved her gift. It was a stuffed abominable snowman from the 1964 Rankin-Bass classic, Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer (more about that in a later post).

This is Why Banks Aren't Lending

President Obama, please take note.

Low interest rates don't make it attractive to lend to small businesses. In fact, just the opposite.

Why would a bank risk their hard-earned (or TARP-borrowed) cash by lending to a small business when they can go to the Fed's discount window and borrow money at 0.25% interest and then buy U.S. Treasuries that pay a robust 4.45%?

I don't know either.

Abacus Holiday Show

It is that time of year again when the little boys and girls of Abacus pre-school present their annual holiday show. Each age group graced us with a couple of songs before the entire group sang at the end.

Below is video of Mallory's two songs with her friends. The video is grainy but she is the one in the middle with the red dress and the cropped sweater. She didn't want to sing for the first song but she participated in the second.

We hope you enjoy (for those of you that get the email blast, go to www.doughuber.blogspot.com to view the video).

Many (More) Thanks to Mattress Firm

A week or so ago, I posted the fact that we moved Mallory to a 'big girl' bed. The fine folks at Mattress Firm picked up on this and left me a comment about wanting to make Mallory's bed extra-special with a teddy bear.

It arrived and Mallory loves it! The bear is stuffed with Tempur-Pedic material. It is super soft and comfy (here is where I hint to the folks at Mattress firm that I love the Tempur-Pedic material and I would be happy to blog more about it if they sent me a free queen-size mattress made out of that exquisite Tempur-Pedic material. I'm just sayin' ...).


Anyway, super-big thanks to Sandra and all of the fine folks at Mattress Firm. Your customer service at the point of sale and after the fact have been tremendous.

(Disclaimer: I have not been compensated in any way for these posts; except for the bear.)

Breakfast with Santa

Yesterday, we had breakfast with Santa at the Indianapolis Zoo. It was a delightful spread of french toast sticks, sausage, mixed fresh fruit and hot chocolate for Mason and Mallory.

Mason was happy to see Santa. Mallory, not so much.

Although, she warmed up to him once Mommy took over and after Mallory saw that Santa had Candy Canes.

There were plenty of activities including making reindeer hats and decorating cookies.

The Indianapolis Zoo always puts on a good event and this was no exception.

Paypal

Lisa/Denise,

If you have made it this far, you can see that there are no 'How to' instructions on Paypal or creating a usename and password for eBay here. But, while you are here, take a look around. This is my personal blog where I talk mostly about my family but always about whatever is on my mind.

For everyone else, please ignore this post.

Doug

The Onion Gets it Right (Again)

This isn't new but I thought I would share it as this 'news' clip from The Onion is now more appropriate than ever. For those getting the email version ofthis, go view the embedded video, go to doughuber.blogspot.com.


In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Hubercus Domesiticus

As I spend more time at home, I am becoming better (and by 'better', I mean 'less bad') at running the home front. Now, keep in mind that I am still terrible at it. I tend to place the mail in too many different piles, the sink always seems to be dirty (empty, mind you, but dirty) and I have managed to shrink/ruin/mess up a few articles of clothing along the way. Alas, I am working on it.

Between hunting for jobs and applying to graduate school, I have begun to cook dinner. My latest weapon of choice is the Crock-Pot. Whoever invented this thing was a genius. Even I can cook a meal that tastes like I didn't cook it with an Acetyline torch.

Tonight's dish: Pulled-pork BBQ sandwiches with fresh onion, topped with a blue cheese crumble cole slaw.

Before you get too excited and 'wowed' by such a delicious meal, it is as simple as throwing 2.5 pounds of pork in the Crock-Pot. Four hours later, mix in BBQ sauce, onion, brown sugar and lemon juice. Top with store-bought cole slaw. Serve.

Random Guess

My guess for the next Notre Dame head coach is Steve Spurrier. Why? Why not. Spurrier wanted to coach in the pros and it didn't work. Notre Dame is the next best thing. They think they are a pro team.

ESPN is reporting that the university may announce their new hire tomorrow.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Another Milestone

Last week, Mallory 'dismounted' her crib, when trying to reach for a blankie that was out of reach. At this point, Noel and I knew we needed to upgrade her from her crib and convert it to a day bed. As I was reading the instructions (yes, we keep the instructions for stuff like this), I saw an option to convert it to a full size bed with rails that were (of course) not included. I thought to myself, I wonder how much rails are? It would be nice to convert it to a big-girl bed and be done with it. So, I emailed the company and got this in response:

Dear Mr. Huber,

The model you have indicated has been recalled. You will have to contact the recall hotline and they will assist you the phone number is 1.800.646.4106.

Sincerely,

Customer Support Services

So much for that idea.


On to another. We decided on a simple twin bed. And, since I have plenty of time on my hands these days, I set out on a quest to give the young princess a fitting bed. After a visit to Mattress Firm and Target, I was all set. Here are the results.

The Envelope

Yesterday, Mason brought home an envelope that was addressed to 'Mr. Huber'. It wasn't a letter envelope, it was big enough to hold 8.5x11" papers flat. I was curious. Mason was very curious. 'Daddy, can I open it? Please?' 'Um, if you open it, can I take the stuff out? We can do it together!'.

After negotiating on who/how we were to open and distribute the contents of said envelope, we finally got it open. Inside, I found a wonderful surprise; 20 hand-written letters from the students and faculty of Stonegate Elementary. Each one thanking me for speaking at the Veteran's Day convocation last month. What a wonderful gift to receive. It made my day to see the hand-colored flags and the young children practicing their writing (with the older students perfecting their cursive).


One of my favorites was from Olivia. It simply shows the purity of a child's thoughts and feelings and how much they want to share with the world all they know and feel. Below is a photo of Olivia's letter (below that is the text of the letter, as written).

Dera Mr. Haber

Thak you for sainge (saying) that stur (story) abowt veachers Day.
it ment alot to me it was hart brackeing to me I loved it so much you rock on
and I am a kide (kid) and I am a geril!

Olivia

Thank you so much for the letters and the opportunity to speak to the bright students of Zionsville's Stonegate Elementary (where eagles SOAR!). I hope I am invited back next year.