Nalani on the Radio!

Here's Nalani reciting the pledge of allegiance on the radio stations of Door County Daily News.com...

 

Congratulations Nalani!

Christmas Faces!

When you have six children, inevitably each of them have different sleeping habits.  So the early morning risers get up early on Christmas morning like every morning, but the sleepy heads sleep in as usual.

This leads to a most interesting picture as the early risers desperately want to know what Santa brought, but they stand around staring because nobody is allowed to touch anything until everyone is up...



Malia is a bundle of joy as she opens presents...



Especially when she gets the thing she wanted most - her very own art kit...



Kekoa insisted we start a fire so he could stay warm next to the fireplace.

Of course, starting a fire in our house means flipping a switch on the wall to turn on the gas.  He liked it anyway...



And what more can a guy ask for than Star Wars lego stuff...



Bret Jr. wanted clothes for Christmas.

Seriously, he's 13 and he wants clothes.

So we bought him clothes.  Look at how excited he is...



His Christmas spirit was overflowing...



The excitement was just unbearable...



His Christmas list asked for lots of clothes from Aeropostale, and that's a lot of what he got...



His older brother David, on the other hand, had some very unusual things on his list...



David has some pretty great faces when he opens Christmas presents...



You'd think he'd be an actor with all these faces...



I guess I'm too old to understand the joke, but he really wanted this shirt and he got it...



Alyssa is home from the East Coast for Christmas, and she has some good faces of her own...



I'm not exactly sure what her opinion is of this particular gift...



But when it comes to opening gifts, nobody does it quite like Nalani...



We take turn opening presents, and Nalani makes everyone wait while shakes every gift, sizes it up - all while she has the most unusual of expressions on her face...



I'm not exactly sure what she thinks she's going to hear...



Pondering which one to open next...



Sizing up another present...



And her overjoyed excitement when she opens the wrapper and finds a white box...



That's Nalani for you.

One of the Christmas presents for the whole family are tickets to American Folklore Theatre's beloved Guys on Ice...



They play is about a couple of guys who go ice fishing.  One of their deep insights into life is that if hell is hot, the heaven must be really cold.  And if it's cold in heaven, then there must be ice fishing.

As for me, my kids bought me this terrific book...



It's all about the 1990s dynasty of the Dallas Cowboys, which most football experts - including broadcaster great Pat Summerall - consider the greatest dynasty ever.  It was only the foolishness between Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson that kept them from winning 4 or 5 Super Bowls in a row instead of just the 3 in 4 years that they won.

What a great Christmas present!



Happy Holidays!

Christmas Decorating!

It's the day after Thanksgiving.  While that certainly means my wife went shopping at some ridiculous hour this Black Friday morning, it also means we set up for Christmas.

The day began with our annual walk through the woods of the Christmas tree farm to find that perfect tree... and as we like to point out each year... to find it, cut it down and kill it.

But we like to stick it in a pot of water for a month to prolong its agonizing death.

Here we are decorating this year's victim...



This was the biggest tree we've ever had.  The entryway to our home goes up two stories, so the tree seems tiny even though it's too tall for any single story room in our house.

And like the hunter who shot some enormous 16 point buck, our kids wanted to take pictures next to their vegetarian prey...



Gotta admit that it looks great all lit up...



And while we're not over the top crazy with lights, we do like to do a little something outside...



Merry Christmas!

Sturgeon Bay Beats Algoma!

The Sturgeon Bay Clippers (in white) finish their epic comeback against Algoma.  Well, as epic as a 7th grade basketball game can get.

Bret Jr. is #35, and he's on the bottom right on the screen setting up to rebound as the video begins...



Go Clippers!

She's Leaving Home

I think it's going to rain today.

Kekoa's Ready for Some Football!

Football is back!  And Kekoa is playing more this year than ever.

He's #22 - and lines up at wing on the offense...



On defense he is now the starting safety...



Kekoa's a little smaller than most of the kids.  So when he makes a tackle, he has to throw his whole body into it.  Here is a series of images of Kekoa helping to bring down the running back...









Naturally he ends up at the bottom of the pile!

Congratulations Kekoa!

He's Got Marty Feldman Eyes...

Here is my son David's newest video...



Makes me think of that 1980's classic, She's Got Marty Feldman Eyes...

"Home Alone" - starring David Bicoy

Our son David was home alone...



That's my boy!