MichaelandChrissy.com

We did send out a Christmas letter this year, but I wanted to post it to the web site anyway.  Who knows, maybe somebody who isn’t on our holiday mailing list would like to know what we were up to this year?  If you’re not on our Christmas card list, and would like to be, please let me know!  The “online version” is now enhanced with links back to blog posts that give more details.  Click “Continue Reading” to read the 2008 Christmas Letter.

Chrissy turned thirty on Thursday, December 4th.  It’s a big milestone in a person’s life, to be sure, but we couldn’t celebrate then because she had a Master’s class that night.  So, we decided to mark the occasion with a trip to Chicago on the following weekend.  I had gotten her a new Canon Powershot A2000 camera for her birthday, and we wanted to put it to good use during our visit.

On Saturday afternoon, Chrissy and I drove out to Chicago for our reservations at the “Chicago Chop House“, a highly rated steak house.  Our waiter, Glen, was very knowledgeable about the food and wine.  We settled on a bottle of German Riesling, which was very tasty.  The food was fantastic: I had a “Cowboy Cut” Prime Rib, seared and seasoned with Cajun spices, and Chrissy had the hand-prepared “Surf and Turf”.

We thoroughly enjoyed the food, and we are one of those weird couples that feed each other during the meal.  I always end up wishing that I had what she ordered.  We finished up with dessert: Chrissy had a hot fudge sundae and I had a huge slice of “Chocolate Triple Play” cake.  It was a great meal, but easily the most expensive one that Chrissy and I have ever had.

After dinner, I had planned on going to the Hancock Building to have a few drinks at their lounge on the 96th floor.  We also had the option to attend a symphony on the University of Chicago campus that night.  However, Chrissy was full and happy, and anxious to get home to our kids.  So we cut our Chicago outing satisfyingly short.  Even without after-dinner plans, we had a great time and enjoyed each others company.

Aiden got a wood shelf with his name on it for his birthday.  Aunt Paula has been having these made for the grandbabies in the family, and I was hoping that Aiden would get one because they’re very well done.  The shelves come “naked” though, so I decided to finish the shelf before putting it in Aiden’s room.   It took a while to find some free time (Aiden got the shelf in August), but I finally got around to it.

There’s a fine art to finishing wood. I started last weekend by removing the letters and sanding each individual part.  I then stained the shelf and the letters in two different colors.  I went with a dark stain for the shelf, and a lighter stain for the letters.  This turned out pretty nicely, but the shelf didn’t stain as nicely as the letters.  This usually cleans up once you apply a coat of polyurethane.

Everything got two coats of polyurethane, with a light steel wool sanding in between coats. Drying takes the most time out of the whole process. After the pieces dried for the last time, I put all the shelf back together.  I finished a lot of wood for our oak baseboard, window and door trim, so this was a fun little exercise.  The shelf turned out very nicely for Aiden, and we’ll hang it in his room soon.

In honor of Aiden’s second birthday today and in retrospect of the hornet activity on the morning of last weekend’s birthday party, I wrote a fictional short story about a little boy who inadvertently causes an international honey shortage (among other things). It’s much longer than my usual blog post, so click “Read More” below to read the whole story.

We threw Aiden a birthday party this weekend, even though he doesn’t turn “2″ until next weekend (we had it early because next weekend is Labor Day and people might be out of town).  Aiden had a sports-themed party, complete with a White Sox baseball birthday cake, a basketball hoop in the yard, and decorative pennants for all sorts of sports.  Aiden’s favorite word (next to “Uh oh!”) is “Ball”, so sports seemed the way to go this year.

The weather channel said that it was going to rain on Saturday, so we had made alternate plans to pile everyone into the house.  Luckily, there was no rain.  The sky did darken a little bit, but that was kind of nice because it cooled things down (it had been muggy and powerfully hot all day).  Timely, that was when we let Aiden open his presents in the back yard.  He got plenty of birthday gifts, but he really wanted to run off and play towards the end.  Just a few more presents to open, buddy!

Everyone had a good time, especially Aiden.  The only ones who didn’t appreciate the party were the group of hornets that took up residence on our deck.  Chrissy noticed them in the morning and her dad “relocated” them (to hell).   Thankfully, they were gone before guests started to arrive.  There were a lot of little kids over that day, and bees would have complicated things.

Things are getting exciting here, with only seven more days before the arrival of our new son, Gavin James Wilson.  Since Aiden was born by an emergency C-section, Chrissy opted to deliver Gavin the same way.  The hospital has asked that Chrissy arrive at 5:15AM on July 22nd to “prep” for the surgery, as the doctors are scheduled to begin cutting at 7:30AM.  We are not thrilled about doing this first thing in the morning, but that is when they told us to be there.

Aiden was born around 4:30PM, the late afternoon being perfect timing for Chrissy. She was in the recovery room until about 6:30PM and then got to visit with family until the end of visiting hours at 8PM.  It was nice to see Aiden and visit with Chrissy’s family before going to bed.  After forty-eight hours of back labor, Chrissy was happy to sleep the night away, heavily medicated.  Everyone was shocked at how quickly she recovered and was soon up and moving with little pain.

Since Gavin will be born so early in the morning, Chrissy will unfortunately spend the entire day in a drugged stupor as family and friends come in and out.  She would rather sleep off the anesthetic overnight like she did last time.  We have already requested that visitors wait until the next day, but that, of course, doesn’t include our immediate family (who will probably be there before she gets out of recovery).  If only we could reschedule until later in the day.

I will still be calling everyone to propagate the good news though.  And although the birth won’t be simulcast on Twitter, I will definitely be posting timely information on our web site.  And photos, possibly movies this time too.  Watch this space for details!

Aiden’s first birthday party was on Saturday. The weather turned out to be agreeable, 75 degrees with slight clouds, so we put tents up in the backyard for the event. Predictably, we went with a Transformers theme, and Chrissy went all out on the party favors. Everything had Transformers on it: plates, tablecloths, napkins, streamers, and other decorations. After much searching, Chrissy even found a Transformers cake with a transformable Optimus Prime on it.

The best part about the cake was that it came with a smaller “smash” cake. This one had a single purpose: to be demolished by Aiden. We got lots of pictures of the sugary carnage, and Chip took some video for us (we’re going to try to get on YouTube soon). Aiden had blue and red icing all over his face and arms. I had to hose down the high chair afterwards.

A little over thirty of our closest friends and family came for the party, so Aiden had plenty of gifts to open. He was pretty spoiled. We tried to send him back in a huge “monster” gift bag, but he wasn’t too happy with that idea. Special thanks to everyone who brought something for Aiden! It was a great day and we’re happy that we could share it with you all.

Chrissy’s birthday is tomorrow (December 4th), but we usually celebrate it on the weekend before or afterwards with her family. Her parents bought her a water-tight, fire-proof portable safe. It was big enough to put hanging files in and that makes it very heavy (too heavy to have on your lap!).

Her sisters got her some gift cards and some Christmas ornaments. Chrissy got a really nice cake, but I messed up trying to record the candle-blowing on the new camera. I settled for some good still shots.

Afterwards, I gave Chrissy a few things for her birthday: the walkthrough for Neverwinter Nights 2, the “Temporarily Unbounced” Tigger figurine by Enesco, and the “Pooh and Piglet with Cut-out Hearts” figurine by Enesco. She liked them, and I actually remembered to buy a birthday card this year. She says that I’m the best husband ever.