Live Long and Decorate

Christmas is almost here. Are you ready? Have all of the cards been sent? Presents wrapped? Cookies made? And then eaten? And then made again?

Well, in order to save some time with this year's preparation, Number One Son volunteered to put up one of our Christmas trees. As you may remember from posts past, we usually decorate three Christmas trees. In early December, with Sweet Pea's help, I was able to assemble, light and decorate two of our trees but ran out of weekend for the last one. So as another busy Sunday night had us running Sweet Pea to volleyball practice, I offered N1S a project to keep him from thinking about the Wii time he had already spent.

"While we are gone, you can put up the tree to help me out.", I asked.

Surprisingly, he said OK.

On the drive back home, I wondered what kind of job N1S did. Would the small branches be on the bottom? Would anything break? How bad would the tree lean?

My fears, however, were unnecessary.

He did a pretty good job. It even looked like he started to shape a few of the branches. Like maybe about three. But then decided on the natural scraggly look with bare spots to show off the metal pole.

And just like any good assembly job, you always are left with a few spare parts right? I asked, "Wouldn't these three branches fit?"

Distractedly he answered from the couch, "Oh I don't know. They must have been extra."

I thanked him anyway for saving me time and effort this season. We decorated the trees the same way as last year. The only difference being that Sweet Pea did most of the kid tree decorating.

If you look closely you'll notice that Mr. Spock must have gotten a puppy from Santa this year to help him at his science station.

As did Dr. McCoy.

So boldly celebrate Christmas, where no one has celebrated before!

Sand, Surf and Spock

We were planning on a low key Father's Day, so we decided to make Father's Day Eve our day of excitement.

On Saturday, we started out the day by sleeping in. Pretty exciting start, huh?

We then made our first trip of the summer to the beach. There is a state park close by with a man-made lake and beach area. The water was a little cool but not too bad once you got used to it. A couple hours of swimming followed by a picnic lunch thanks to Lady Di pretty much wiped me out. I also got my first sun of the summer and got a little pink on the shoulders.

Later that afternoon, we visited our neighbor boy's high school grad party. They had a real slushy machine which was very exciting for the kids who mixed the blue with red to get purple brain freezes.

We ended the day by taking in a movie. Lady Di and Sweet Pea voted to see Night at the Smithsonian. Number One Son and I chose Star Trek. So, for the first time ever, we split the family down the middle and saw different movies. Boy, did N1S and I ever pick the right movie! I have been a Star Trek fan since junior high. But not one of those nerdy fans. No, I was one of the cool fans. You know, one of the cool fans that has seen all of the TV shows and movies up to this point. One who knows each actor's real name and can quote the Vulcan motto. One who had a Spock birthday cake for his 25th birthday. That's not nerdy, right? At least I did one thing a Trekker would never do. I left the movie right in the middle to refill N1S's root beer. I sprinted it in under ten seconds but I still did it.

Also, in my defense, I can say that I have never attended a Star Trek convention and have never worn an expensive, authentic character costume.

Although, after seeing the latest movie I may have to rethink my position on costumes this Halloween. It also may be difficult to convince Lady Di to dress as the hot alien chick with green skin to go with my Captain Kirk outfit.

Overall, it was one of my best Father's Days yet. Even though it happened one day early.

On Sunday morning, Sweet Pea surprised me with breakfast in bed. Grapenuts, toast and orange juice. She helped me finish the toast while we watched Little House on the Prairie together.

I am very fortunate to be a dad with such a great family. Everyday seems like Father's Day to me. Even if I don't go to a Star Trek movie every day.

Happy Father's Day to all fathers. I hope you made great memories today and everyday. And as Sarek would say, "Get old, and thrive." (I'm paraphrasing, ST nerds will understand)

Live Long and Prosper

Is anyone's church as cool as mine? Tonight, for our Lenten service, our pastor started off his sermon by talking about Star Trek. Honest! I can't lie about church now, can I? You should have seen the kids' eyes bulge and their neck hair stand straight up when they heard this. They both looked excitedly at me, as if to say, "Is this real?". I gave them a look back that said, "Oh, Yeah! This is going to be cool!" Pastor was talking about a Star Trek episode called "Mirror, Mirror" I think. Anyway, it's the one where Kirk and the crew use their faulty transporter, which is always breaking down, and end up on a different Enterprise space ship. This Enterprise is identical to their own ship in a parallel universe, with the exception that all of the crew is evil. Evil Spock even has a cool goatee. Our pastor was comparing Jesus to Captain Kirk, being in a place where everyone should be acting nice, but the opposite was happening. And then my mind drifted to Jesus firing a phazer and giving the Vulcan nerve pinch to Judas. Isn't that a nice thought before Easter. I'm not claiming to be a biblical scholar by any means. The kids usually make sure I only hear every 4th word said in church, so I usually have to fill in the blanks. My problem is, I fill in the blanks with stuff like Jedi Knights, baseball, and Frank Sinatra. I don't think Pastor has started a sermon with Frank yet, but I'll bet it will be soon. Maybe, it would be about Jesus and his 'Rat Pack' of disciples. Cool!