But this One Goes to Eleven

The Two Broccoli Cheese Soup and Onion Dip Fiends in My Life

And So This is Christmas

Christmas Balls

A few years ago, Pat purchased some Temple themed Christmas balls for my parents' tree. When Dan came home from school that semester, he thrust a box of ornaments into Mom's hands and announced, "I heard there would be Temple balls on the tree this year."

Over the years, there would be a contest to see which college made it higher on the tree... Temple or Penn State. (I don't think there are any Drexel ornaments on the tree.)

This year, I made a set of Macstrong balls and will be giving them as gifts.  I think he'd be pleased to know that there was a little bit of him at every house. And I can only imagine the off colored jokes that he'd be making about balls.

Merry Christmas, Buddy.

Handle with Care 2

Reading Laura's post about the various trees this year made me want contribute to the blog again. I've been raking my brain trying to think of something else to say since the last time but so much got in the way.

This was the first year I've taken pictures of individual ornaments on my tree. My collection grew so much I felt the need to share, especially after all that's happened. As much as I wanted my tree to show some of my own personality, I wanted it to also have bits and pieces of my family represented as well. More than anything, I want to share some of the ones that reminded me the most of Dan.

Dan's favorite Looney Tune – Taz, figures since they were both wild and big eaters

The Yarn Raccoon – for years, this was one of Dan's favorite animals. He was one of my first ornaments I bought at Crate and Barrel. I specifically got this fellow to remind me of Dan. He was the first on the tree this year.

Dan use to tease me about where we both went to college. He was always proud he was a Penn State alum.  One Christmas we both gave Mom ornament balls with our college logos on them. He especially teased me by always hanging the Penn State balls higher on our parents' trees. I made sure to hang a Penn State ball on my own tree. Laura thought it was one last joke he was having.

As Laura mentioned, the first party I had in my apartment was having our parents, herself, Ben, David, Dan, and Shannon over to decorate my tree. This was part of a set of the first ornaments I ever got as gifts from Dan and Shannon. For the first tree he got with Shannon for their home, I got him a Curious George in a Santa hat.

The Fisherman Nutcracker – Picked this fellow up in Stone Harbor. Originally, he was for all my family and me going on the fishing trips. Looking at him now, he reminds of all the times Dan would go out of his way to go fishing, whether it was on the Red Baron trips, the Winter trips, river fishing with our uncles, or going out to the creek with his friends and bringing back God knows what.