Today is my birthday! Hard to belive another year has rolled around. The kids couldn’t wait to open the gifts they gave me. They just don’t quite understand that they are supposed to watch me open the presents they gave me. Anyway, they had a lot of fun. As always, there were a couple of gag gifts. Mathew gave me a picture book then claimed it as his own.

Last year:

This year:

A patriotic evening concert. It was quite the show presented by the first through third grades from Nathan Hale School. This year’s choral concert theme was USA. All of the songs were patriotic or historical in nature. The show lasted about an hour. Unfortunately for Michah, that was about 55 minutes too long. He wanted to play with the other siblings sitting in the audience. For once, I didn’t bring a camera so I could enjoy the show. It turns out my daughter is a real ham. I guess we are going to have to watch out when she gets older.

Last night I was supposed to attend a Chicago NACE meeting downtown. As it was snowing, Sheryl took a while to get home. As soon as she arrived, I left for the meeting. I got as far as route 83 before deciding it was best for me to turn back. After an hour of driving I was back in my driveway. On a nice day, my route would have taken me no more than 20 minutes.

When I arrived back home, I changed and shoveled the driveway for about the twentith time in the last four days. With all of the rennovations going on with the house, the garage is being used to store our household items and there is no room for the snow blower (or cars). Even if I could get the blower in the garage, there is a huge dumpster in the driveway and I still would not be able to snow blow the drive way. So the driveway has be shoveled manually. I sure do appreciate that snow blower on days like today.

Recently, I read a Sunday comic where the kid says that it is a fantastic forecast. Meanwhile, the parent can’t understand it because there is a blizzard on the way. Last night we went to bed with a raging storm. At 5:30 AM, the phone rang. It was the room mom telling us it was a snow day. Fantastic forecast for the kids. Not so great for dad who now has three house bound kids to entertain for the day. Let alone get Michah to the Dr. for his 18 month check up and shots.

Which by the way at the appointment we found out he is in the 75th percentile for height and 97th for weight. Just goes to show you that each kid is different. Just 6 years ago, we were worried that Meghan was not growing properly because she was off the bottom of the charts. Now, we have one that is threatening to go off the top!

Meanwhile back at home, the snow day continued. When I put Michah down for his afternoon nap, it was time to shovel the driveway. By this time Sheryl was finally home from work. During the worst of the storm last night, she was called into work for an emergency heart case. Due to driving conditions and the time the case was over, she spent the night at the hospital. Meghan and Mathew decided that since daddy was outside, they wanted to play outside too. Well play soon turned into help daddy. Well for just a little while. They quickly realized that shoveling the driveway was work and gave up to build a snowman. Eventually, we all went inside for hot chocolate.

Just a quick note to let everybody know we’re back from Florida. We had a great time and I learned so much at the photographer’s convention. As it is quite late, I’ll update the blog later with more information.

I wish everybody a Merry Christmas. As I suspect this will be my last post before vaction, Happy New Year to everybody!

Can you tell I’m getting excited. All of our boxes we shipped two days ago. Over 40 pounds worth of boxes are on the way to Florida. I’m glad I don’t have to carry that in a suit case through the airport.

I mentioned in a previous post that we have family traditions. Another tradition relates to photographing our family. We have a spot in each park where we take photos of the kids and then the whole family. The idea is that years from now, we can put the photos together as a way to see how the kids grew and changed over the years.

We’re planning nine days as Disney World. After Disney World, I will be attending Image, a national photographers’ conference in Tampa. While I’m working the rest of the family will be playing. Sheryl wants to take the kids to the beach at Clearwater. I’m not sure what else she has planned but in the meantime, I’m also looking forward to seeing what’s new and exciting for wedding photographers.

During my absence, Magical Moments Photography will be closed. I will not be checking e-mail but will check voice mail for any emergencies. The studio will reopen on January 11, 2008. Please plan accordingly.

In two weeks we leave for vacation. But this weekend is going to be busy. Since we will be in Florida for nearly two weeks, we decided to ship our summer clothes to Florida. So this weekend is going to be spent organizing and packing. According to FedEx, we need to ship the box on Monday to make sure it is waiting for us at the hotel when we arrive.

We all know about holiday traditions. But did you know our family has some vacation traditions related to Disney World? Everytime we visit our first park is always the Magic Kingdom. It does not matter what time we arrive or when the park closes. If we can get in the gate, we’re there. Next, our first sit down meal is at Tony’s on Main Street. I’m not sure how this tradition got started but it goes back before Meghan was born.

Tony’s is just inside the park right next to the train station. In a way, it provides a nice transition from the normal world to Disney. We arrive and then sit down for a meal, Disney style. During our meal, we have a chance to find out what’s happening at the parks and plan. All too soon, and yet not soon enough our meal is over and it is time to leave Lady and the Tramp for the rest of Disney World.

We do have other family traditions… more about that another day.