evanskey.com

UPDATE: Fixed the picture links!

The last few months seemed to just whiz by with very little time to sit down and write some updates for the site.

It looks like my last regular post was before Thanksgiving so I think I’ll start there. The three of us met up with my side of the family at my Grandmother’s house for a semi potluck style dinner and some hangin’ out and catching up with the family. It was good to see everyone and especially the ones we don’t see very often. Then, as a new tradition of ours, we took Jaden that weekend to meet Santa who shows up in the marina courtesy of his reindeer (actually the police and fire department step in for the reindeer while they get their rest for Christmas), where he proceeds to sing songs and read stories with all the kids. You’ve probably seen some the photos on my flickr site. If not I’ll set up a gallery of pix that showcases the events of this post.

December was super busy for us and we started it off with not one but two parades and back-to-back no less. On Friday, December 2nd, we headed out to see the Seal Beach Christmas parade for the first time with Jaden, Karen, Uncle Greg, Dianna, and me. Jaden seemed to have a good time even though it was lightly sprinkling through most of the parade. The next day we went back to our old stomping grounds in Belmont Shore and hung out with Cris and Andy who live down there in our old Toledo apartment. Lori and Laurel met us there and Cris’ family stopped by too. We hung out in there pad for awhile, stuffed ourselves on some good food, and then walked down to the parade where we had plenty of chairs set up and watched a really good parade. Jaden was much more into this year since Laurel, who is the same age as Jaden, was there this time. The two of them danced to all the marching bands and screamed for Santa when the big man showed up at the very end.

The following Thursday I met up with friends from my previous job at Prosofttraining at a Alcatraz in Orange for our annual holiday dinner/reunion/get-together. Anna and Graham, her new fiancé, were there, Jill was there with her son, Lisa with her two kids, and Patrick and Susan with their brand new bundle of joy. It was really good to see everyone again and hopefully we can do a summer reunion too. To everyone that couldn’t make it, I missed seeing you and Dave if you are reading this I’ll be sending more photoshop’d pix soon! (Who knew you were a Lord of the Rings fan too.)

This year, however, was a big one for Jaden, being that he performed in his first ever Christmas program! He was extremely excited and practiced all his songs for months in advance. He had five songs to sing and needless to say, there were two video cameras running (one in 4:3 full frame and one in 16:9 widescreen) and still pictures too. Mom, Dad, Uncle Greg, Grandma, Great Grandma, and our cousin, Katie were all there to support the future rock star and it looked like he was having such a blast up on stage. The kid is a good singer and seems to really enjoy performing (it must be all that singing Mom and Dad did for him when he was just a wee lad).

The next stop on our holiday travels is Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our holiday celebrations led us to Great Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve and we spent the good portion of the day with my side of the family playing games, eating the holiday grub, opening the gifts, and then the adults went to war with typical Christmas Stealing Game. One thing that is hilarious about my family is that they never ever get the rules right to this game and every year it is the same old same old. I tried one year to explain it to them (Christmas 2001) but they just won’t listen. Now I just watch them go on and on and enjoy the spectacle. Anyway, a good time was had by all and then we were off to home to anxiously await Santa’s arrival!

The next morning Santa hit the Evanskey’s house with many surprises and Jaden was jumping with excitement to open gifts. A King Kong Hot Wheels set that reaches over 3 feet high (with plenty of cars to go with it), a Spongebob Squarepants Big Wheel, and Leapster Multimedia Player for learning and fun, were some of the big items for Jaden. Later that day Uncle Greg came over for a little bit but had to leave cause he wasn’t feeling well. Then Grandpa stopped by and hung out with us the rest of the day and stayed for the turkey dinner.

New Years Eve we all spent at our friends Sam and Lisa’s house for a kid/adult party and everyone had a blast. There was lots of stuff for the kids to do and plenty for the adults too. However, we did have to sit through some of Carson Daily’s über New Years show and man can that guy be any more boring? I would get more enthusiasm out of watching rocks. Anywho, we ended up staying there overnight and had a wonderful lazy New Years day! Hooray!

Click on the pictures to check out the complete gallery of photos.

I’ll be back soon with a few new updates, including: Jaden goes to a new school, who knew kids could bounce that high in a “bounce around” and Gordon’s 30th Birthday.