Fireplace

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Greetings

Look for a video of two of the Noisykids performing "Oh Holy Night" later this week.

Postings for the rest of this week will be of greetings from various personalities who have appeared on this blog.

New blog entries - and NO MORE tacky videos - will resume in 2007.

My son, Histor the Wise extends his wishes:

"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"

We at Scorpion Stalking Duck would like to wish you and yours a

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year!



From our lone technician manning the Help Desk over at

Duck Stalking Scorpion,

"we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe anesthetic!"

From the bears behind the scene at Noisykid Kitchen,

"we wish you a blessed Christmas and a happy and nutritious New Year!"

And finally, from the various creatures who inspired and encouraged me to put their stories out there on the internet, and who daily bombard me with enough material to make this a full time job, the committee from SSD/MetaltrAch send you this greeting:



"May God bless you and keep you, now and in the years to come.
May this Christmas bring you closer to the Christchild, and may your heart be always open to Him.
May the the coming New Year be one of great blessings to you and your kin, and if it should be one of sorrow and pain, may you find consolation in the cross of Christ.
May we all meet in Heaven when this journey through life is over!"

Why Parental Control of the Internet Is Necessary

Mr. Hedgehog sent me this disturbing Christmas Greeting.

He ought to be arrested.

Christmas Scenes

Out here is North Texas
the weather is cool
the mornings are chilly
we're done with home school

For soon comes our Savior
He is here to stay
Our little Lord Jesus
asleep in the hay

The cattle are grazing,
in our neighboring field
their barn will be shelter
where shepherds will kneel

But Jesus, He'd rather not
sleep in the hay
He came to dwell in our hearts
and there to stay

But some see his birth
as just some holiday
a time for a party
and not time to pray

We love Thee, dear Jesus
and for this we pray
You dwell in hearts
not in musty old hay

Please help us dear Jesus
to see through the fun
not be like these bears at the
local Alberston's

Help us Baby Jesus
to thank you each day
for the road to our salvation
began in warm hay

"The Beginning of the Accomplishment"

Check out this related site

If you want, you too can get Scorpion Stalking Duck in German!

Merry Christmas from...

...Captain Merrill Stewbean and Mr. Crabbe: "Don't forget to pack your toothbrush for the Christmas Cruise!"

Sing Along!

You know you know the words!

If only I could find the version sung by Captain Kangaroo!






Yes, I will go back to more serious fare during the Christmas Season. But first another serious video:




One deserves another:

Guess What I Am!

I'm a Porsche 911!

You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I behave more like this:

Anonymous Moose sends his greetings

"Merry Christmas! I hope to get my own box of shiny plastic things for Christmas. And I want a name, and a beard like Mr. Moose, and a car of my own like Mr. Moose, and...."

Winter Wonderland, Part 3

More Mortification without headphones.

If you look carefully, you can see a younger dadwithnoisykids in the Mosh Pit.



Thanks to Raulito, who discussed an issue with leasing cars that I never considered. As a punishment, he will have to be listed....

Now I shall include a teaser, a line from an older family newsletter, just to let you know what the newsletters are like. This one is from 2004:

"I am now 40 years old and have started on the 'B' side of life: Balding, needing Bifocals, Belly out to here, Bacchanalian,Boring, Bankrupt, Bizarre, Bearded(Itried), Bloated, Blunt, Blotchy, Boorish, Brazen, and Bozo-esque"

Aardvark Christmas wishes

Wishing all you drivers a safe and blessed Christmas!

Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum?

The Little Drummer Boy, sung by one of the strangest duets:






Kinda makes me wish David Bowie sang more stuff like this.

We had our own Matachinez celebration yesterday, when the three youngest boy Noisykids(3, 5, and 6) went out front and marched around, beating a large can and dancing while holding the baby Jesus from the nativity scene pictured below:












The five-year old was singing Jingle Bells to Jesus!

We all would benefit from dancing around making space for Jesus in our hearts.

Mobile blogging experiment

I will be trying out mobile blogging with my cell phone/PDA/paperweight.

True Mortification!

They took Billy Idol singing 'White Christmas' off of YouTube.

So I bring you the man who inspired Billy instead:








No, not him. THIS guy. Ladies, isn't he just DREAMY!?!










Not very PC, was it?

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start mobile blog

cool?

A Penitential Sojourn Through a Winter Land of Wonderful Things

This is the time to truly offer up these mortifications.

Imagine the time off from Purgatory my wife gets just for being married to me!

PRAY and be sure that there is room for Christ in your hearts this Christmas!

Gaudete Sunday IT IS!

This is the third Sunday of Advent, when we all need to realize that our time of penance, prayers, fasting, and almsgiving is almost over. That is why the Church has the priest wear the ROSE colored vestments, and we light the ROSE colored candle. For the life of me I can't remember what this is called; Laetare or Gaudete Sunday are the two names that come to mind.

Anyways, it is at a time like this that we should take a spiritual break, stretching the soul and maybe take a short break from the rigors of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for just a moment. I am not suggesting that we put our spiritual exercises on hold; rather, I recommend that we change the pace, step out of the norm, for a few minutes in order to return to our spiritual exercises with a bit more energy and perhaps a newer, fresher perspective.

Twenty-six years and seventy pounds ago, when I used to run cross country in high school, we would do something similar to this, where we would pick up the pace on a long run for maybe a mile or so, just to get the heart beating just a little bit faster.

With this in mind, I bring you this video, courtesy of our seperated brethren(actually sisters), which will hopefully revive your tired video watching souls and make you want to get off the computer and onto your knees instead.

Thanks to Gerald Augustinus:







Say Amen, Somebody!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas(NOT!), Part 1

Sing along, if you wish, as you watch this musical number!

Save the Christmas Tree Monkeys

This Advent, if you find one of these monkeys in your tree, please don't chase it off. Instead, respond to this blog and we will arrange for a Christmas Tree Monkey Rescue. Many want a monkey, but for various reasons cannot have one. Make someone's Christmas extra special this year.


He told us to call him "Gleek the Wondermonkey"

Here is a video he would like to share with you:

You may need to take a breathalyzer test after watching that.

Quiet Thursday

First a bit of mortification with some seriously happy women:





Dig that accordion solo!

In other news, I switched over to the next book of the Breviary, as seen in the picture below. Thanks to Mr. Hedgehog and this unidentified moose for helping me out:

December in Texas changes every day. Today it was warm. I shot these pictures of the kittens born in late September. Here they relax, soaking up the last rays of the December Texas sun:

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Here some of them try to ignore me as I get a closeup. The black cat was actually from another litter, but she was adopted by the mother of this litter.



After this, we went into downtown Dallas and acted like the country folk we are. We had our picture taken outside of the restaurant where we ate. All the while, expensive cars zoomed past. We saw a building at least five stories tall!

We were celebrating the birthday of our 8 year old girl Noisykid, whose birthday is really tomorrow. We only had tonight where the family would all be together, and we don't eat meat on Fridays, so we went to a Mexican restaurant tonight to take advantage of the meat-filled menu. The restaurant was so quiet that I did not have to resort to my tactic for getting seated quickly at table. Try this: If you can't get a seat, let the host(ess) know you and your large clan of Noisykids will be in the bar. Considering that the bar has the highest revenue-generating potential per barstool, and children don't order mixed drinks, one will speedily find oneself seated in a nice table.

We are so blessed to have our daughter with us. She was our last baby born in the Air Force, so she can call herself an Air Force Brat if she wants to, but we think of her instead as a sweet little bundle of love, enthusiasm, and energy, always with a smile and a warm word for her siblings. She, along with all her siblings, brightens my day and makes me thankful for the privilege of being her father.

The Dallas area we were in was so well-to-do that they had valet parking at the McDonald's.

Christmas Concert

Check this out:

From this site, thanks to Antonia.

We went to a concert this evening. I wanted to take pictures, but could not get the video thingy on my cell phone to work properly.

So I give you this version of one of the songs they played:

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

VIVA DE VIRGIN DE GUADALUPE!!!!

VIVA!!!



Tonight we went to the Mass at St. William the Confessor in Greenville, TX for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady is the Patron for all of North America, not just Mexico. I have to remind myself of that every now and then. She is Mother to us all, even us transplanted Irish Catholics living in Texas and trying to get by speaking bad Spanglish to those who do not speak English.

Here is the copy of the Tilma that was placed in the church. I am not sure why there is a scratch on the face of Our Lady.

These are some of the dancers representing those Aztecs who converted to the Faith after the Spanish overthrew the Aztecs. Dr. Warren Carroll has a great book on that subject - Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness.

The dancers' movements tell a story of the people and their love for God. It is an elaborate dance accompanied by drums which keep the beat - quite a fast tempo.

This is perhaps the only kind of liturgical dancing I could see as being appropriate. Note in the picture below the dancers are genuflecting in front of the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle:

The emphasis was on HIM, not the dancers. They only led the procession into and out of the church - no dancing during any other time of the Mass.

This evening reminded me of just how truly catholic our Catholic Church is, especially when you consider most of the people in the church tonight come from a different culture than mine. Yet they are also part of the church, and their traditions and patron saints are ones which can be an inspiration to me and my family. I also started thinking how Our Lady of Guadalupe came to St. Juan Diego in order to bring the Mexican people to Our Lord, and it made me think how it wasn't that many years ago that St. Patrick was in Ireland, bringing the Faith to my ancestors. At the same time, Europe was being converted, too, so that my wife's ancestors(the French, Italian, Hungarian and whoever else) were also learning the good news about Christ our Savior. Our ancestors were just like the Aztecs at one time, and needed to be brought to the Faith and shown how to know, love, and serve God. It is humbling to consider our fallen nature, and how far we can trangress, and that we all need the Sacraments(especially confession) to bring ourselves ever closer to God.

Sorry, no tacky video clip tonight. In honor of Our Lady, I will skip it tonight.

VIVA DE VIRGIN DE GUADALUPE!

VIVA!!!!!!!

My wife, the ORTHODONTIST

Saturday night, while the world slept and I was making the world better for children, my wife was engaged in her secret pastime: Orthodontistry.

An orthodontist is a dentist who specializes in straightening teeth. For those of you who have seen my dazzling smile, you know that I have never seen one professionally.

The anatomy and physiology involved in the practice of orthodontics is rather complex, but I will try to explain the basics:

1. A series of devices are attached to the teeth by means of some sort of superglue - recall the advertisements with the man's helmet glued to a 2 x 4.
2. Very strong wire is then connected to the devices in such a manner that pressure is exerted, and over the course of months of therapy, money is withdrawn from my checking account until either the teeth are straight or the money is all gone.
3. After the final payment, the wires and devices all fall off, revealing a set of straight, shiny teeth.

Late on Saturday night, one of the devices fell off and the wire started cutting into the inside of my oldest daughter Noisykid's mouth.

Wifeofdadwithnoisykids swung into action. After consulting the instruction manual (How to make the MOST out of your braces) and trying wax, she had to take drastic measures. She would have to cut the wire.

Searching the tool cabinets resulted in one pair of wire clippers that looked as if they had been used for turning compost. Wifeofdadwithnoisykids had to make a midnight run to the local 24/7 hardware store to get the tiniest wire clippers that would fit into the mouth of Miss Noisykid. After buying three different types of pliers, she found the perfect clippers. Within minutes of arriving home, the wire was cut and the crisis was over.

By this time, the eastern sky was beginning to lighten up. As she slid into bed, she heard the noise of the front door open as I came in from work. It was 6:15 a.m.

"How was your night, dear?"

"Oh it was just awful, wifeofdadwithnoisykids, just awful. I am tired and want to go to bed."

"Yes, dear."

"And honey, tell the Noisykids to keep the noise down. After being up all night, I need some rest. Someday you should see what it's like to be up all night."

"Yes, dear."

Of course this dialogue was made up....except the part about me being self-centered could have happened.

I will be backing off on blogging while I compose the Family newsletter, which may or may not show up on this blog.

Now, how about a bit of something to watch: