Coolest Gift Ever ...

Every family has holiday traditions. Regardless of how lame, exotic, common, or just plain weird, every family has them. Some traditions are so ingrained into the fabric of the holiday that they just seem normal. Some traditions go unnoticed for years before everyone recognizes that its been ongoing and finally it is recognized for what it is.

The latter occurred several years ago with our family. For years my father went out of his way to give someone a gift that would make them cry with joy (generally my mom or my sister were the target).

A few years ago, I became the target with more of a joke gift, but a really cool one all the same. The gift was a plain white long sleeve t-shirt with a picture of Rusty sitting in my lap asleep (both of us) minding the smoker grill. Across the top of the shirt it reads "male bonding". By the way, I still have that shirt and it still fits.

Suddenly, it hit me that the whole point of Dads little quest was to find the coolest gift that really meant a little something more than "here I bought you something". In fact, the gifts are often something that he bought years ago or something that was once given to him or he acquired in some manner.

Over the years, we have exchanged some really neat gifts and some really weird ones. I wonder if Dad ever drank that Jones cola "Thanksgiving meal" set (imagine Turkey cola, mashed potato cola, asparagus cola, etc).

This year, Mom jumped into action and got me the coolest gift ever! Check out the following sequence of pictures with comments ...

1. The little guy below is a nutcracker (the nutcracker is hidden by his shirt) all dressed up for a day of grilling. Notice the little grill in front of him, it contains a little surprise. The little guy came with the clothes but Mom had to paint him, the grill and the meat on the grill. The little base where he stands proudly proclaims "Grill Master".

2. Below is a close up of the grill. There is copper wire forming the grate, and check out the grill stripes on the hot dog and the little flipper fork in his hand. Also notice that the customized grill even comes monogramed!!!

3. Now, the first thing some people say is that this little guy isn't authentic to my look when I grill. Starting at the top, we've go the cool blue baseball cap, plaid shirt with denim shorts, old school knee high socks with black saddle shoes. That is definitely a high fashion statement. However, nobody ever comments on the cool outfit but they always notice that the little guy's beverage of choice is not the same as mine. Dr. Pepper is my favorite soda!! Mom just couldn't bring herself to paint the official beverage of grilling choice, Natural Light.

4. Now for the surprise. When you open the door to the little grill, it is an incense burner. There are a series of holes drilled into the grate of the grill to allow it to smoke up the grill giving this guy the authentic look (not authentic smell when burning strawberry or jasmine incense though). The smoke was a little tough to capture in the picture.

5. Here is a close up of the grill "smoking" up some hamburgers and dogs. You can really see the Grill Master in action with this shot. Almost makes you wish spring and summer was here, doesn't it?

I've never ever wanted to have a doll!!!! I felt the need to make that clear. However, this is without a doubt the coolest gift ever.

In addition to this little guy, Mom also created a "Puff the Magic Dragon" incense burner for my brother. His dragon stands about 12 inches tall and the smoke waffles out through the dragon's nose.

I tip my hat to you guys for this gift.

Whew ......

Why is it we look forward to the holidays with such anticipation only to be left feeling like a tornado ran us over afterwards? Driving to everyone's house, multiple Christmas parties, shopping, more shopping, family, cooking and eating and everything else ultimately wears you down (at least me). Thankfully, I am off this week to recover!!!!

The Lee family had a great Christmas this year. Thanks to everyone that helped us to have such a wonderful holiday.

Here is a little timeline of the fun ...

6:00 AM Christmas Eve morning - The girls woke us up to open their presents. All of the girls were going to their "other" homes for Christmas day, so this was our Christmas day. Why they felt the need to get us up that early I will never understand (they are teenagers, shouldnt they sleep late?). As usual, Santa Claus was too kind and the girls really enjoyed it.

9:00 AM Christmas Eve morning - Start breakfast for my family. We cooked a "little" breakfast; three packs of bacon, twelve eggs (we actually used eighteen but six landed on the floor), a pound of sausage, another pound of sausage, and baked a sausage roll thing, twenty biscuits, and more. After our "little" breakfast, we played the Wii and spent time as a family.

10:00 AM Christmas Eve morning - Rusty was outside running the nephews around. Rusty was so happy to have someone new to chase, through balls, etc.

2:47 PM Christmas Eve afternoon - Elizabeth finally sat down for a couple of minutes before she cracked the whip on all of us to get ready. The girls and I were playing the Wii before she cracked down on us.

4:00 PM Christmas Eve afternoon - Elizabeth's family started to arrive for the big Christmas Eve family party. Each year we all gather on Christmas Eve for a family Christmas. As usual, their was an insane amount of food in the house, and one or two adult beverages to be shared.

6:00 PM Christmas Eve evening - I don't know how she managed this, but Elizabeth actually timed / orchestrated / whatever getting all of the food cooked, shredded (great BBQ), baked, plated, etc (Big thanks go out to Danita and Kim) at about the same time that the final groups arrived. It was party time!!! For Christmas Eve, we draw names for all the "kids, and the adults play dirty Santa. As you can imagine, there was great fun and fellowship had by all.

8:00 PM Christmas Eve evening - Rusty was wore out. My boy crawled up under a chair and table to rest. He snored through most of the gift swapping, etc. He did manage to wake up in time for a family picture. Funny enough, he joined the picture on his own and laid down in front of everyone and looked at the camera. I cant wait to see that picture.

10:00 PM Christmas Eve evening - The kitchen was clean. The furniture was returned to its rightful place. The Wii was turned off, and Rusty was worn out! Jessica and Brooke caught a ride to their "other" house.

10:15 PM Christmas Eve evening - Big E and I took Lil Bit back to her "other" house.

10:45 PM Christmas Eve evening - We arrived at home and sat in our favorite TV spots for a few minutes of rest. Rusty was so tired that he left us and went to Lil Bit's room to sleep.

11:00 PM Christmas Eve evening - Tired, we made our way to bed.

6:00 AM Christmas Day morning - You don't really think that we got up that early do you? Remember, our girls were at other houses, we are childless. Actually, Rusty finally saw fit to come join us in bed. Yogi was already sleeping on my hip, so he took his usual place at Big E's feet.

8:30 AM Christmas Day morning - I managed to sneak out of bed. I had a little work to do. I managed to fill Big E's stocking, and was getting another gift setup when I heard her calling. Apparently, I was not as sneaky as I thought.

9:00 AM Christmas Day morning - We made a little (really, just a little) breakfast for ourselves and exchanged our gifts.

10:00 AM Christmas Day morning - Back on the Wii!!! Man, that thing is addictive.

11:00 AM Christmas Day morning - We packed up the gifts and headed to Mom and Dads house. We had a great afternoon of food and fun. My grandmother (Nana) spent a couple of hours with us. We had an awesome lunch and exchanged gifts. I got the coolest gift ever and I will devote a special blog to it soon.

3:00 PM Christmas Day afternoon - We met Big E's family at Shoneys for a little conversation (Ok, there was a lot of food there too, but we didn't eat any).

4:00 PM Christmas Day afternoon - We arrived back at home to play .... the Wii till 11:00 PM. We would have played longer, but Big E has to work this week!

Wwwwhhhheeeewww ... A two day whirlwind of fun, food and family.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas. We definitely did and look forward to doing it all over again next year.

Love

The Lees

Girls, not women, girls!!! And Christmas presents too

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been another week in the Lee Household and everyone has survived. In the spirit of the season, I planned for this entry and the rest throughout the season to be centered around Christmas. However, I need to get a few things off my ample stomach before getting into the fun stuff. Hopefully you won't mind, and if you do click the next blog button (its actually pretty surprising where this can land you).

I admit that the general gist of this blog is to make fun of the fun that I have living with one woman, three girls, and my little buddies (Rusty, BooBoo and Yogi). In doing so, I have to make fun of myself, my wife and our girls. With that being said, over the course of this week, I have learned several things ....

1. Lil Bit has a boyfriend.
2. One of our daughters feels the need to be the center of attention at all times.
3. One of our daughters is spreading her wings and beginning the seperation process.

Acually, I don't like ANY of those things.

1. Boyfriend number 1 is actually a nice kid. In fact, he actually believed that I had been to prison and that I truly wasn't scared to go back (he actually asked Lil Elizabeth if that was true!!!).

The boy (I dont want to give away his name) was smart enough to open her door when they left (Yes, I was watching). Then, after arriving at home from their first date (alone), he came straight over to me to insure that she was home on time!! I should have taken advantage of this but I didn't have the heart to do so.

Thankfully, Big E and I are the "cool" parents. Those are not my words, they actually came from the mouth of one of the girls "friends". I learned this philosophy from a former boss and all around smart guy, who once told me that he and his wife always tried to throw the cool parties for their daughters because it meant his kids were at his home. At the time that didn't mean anything to me, but now it does and I appreciate the word of advice (Brad, you know who you are and I appreciate it).

2. Every kid goes through a stage when you will not like them. Don't get me wrong, I love her, but I don't like her. That may be blunt, but it is true. Right now, our youngest is in one of those stages. You would think she is an only child. I don't understand this, and I have no intention to do so.

3. I guess this is my most conflicted (least and proudest) moment of the three. I don't really know what I want to say about this one. I like Jessica, most of the time even though she and I are too much alike.

She is really becoming our "little miss independent". I hope that we manage to raise fully independent women, but do I really need to see that occuring at the age of seventeen?

Enough ... Christmas is coming ...

Christmas is a very big thing with my family. Each year, we gather at Mom's house for a fun day of gifts, food (my favorite) and fun. As always, I am looking forward to this day. Regrettfuly, my sister won't be joining us for this big day.

In Big E's family, it isn't as big a deal, but we do get together each Christmas Eve as a family to celebrate and have some fun. This year it will be at our house. I am looking forward to the annual party! Also, I hope that Aunt Bobby doesn't steal my gift this year!

Do you have someone on your list that is difficult to shop for? I have several people like that. I've gone to all the idea sites, spoke to mom and dad, and even tried bribing their kids to help me with ideas but to no avail. If you are one of those people (and you know who you are), I am publicly asking for your help. Send me some ideas.

Also, does your family have an unwritten competition to see who can give and get the "best" gift? Years ago, my dad started priding himself on finding a gift to make one (or more) women in the family cry (a good cry, not a bad one).

In addition, we have exchanged a couple of really goofy or super sentimental gifts between us. I don't know who is on top with that one, but I do know who will give MOM the "best gift ever", this year!!!

ME!!!!!! Can you feel the pride?

I know this because she already told me so. Wanna know what it is? Maybe after Christmas, I will tell you. In the meantime, I MUST say thanks to my dad for helping me with it. I may have bought the gift, but it would never have come to fruition without him.

To Heather, it is official, I am the favorite kid now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the meantime, here are a few ideas for me ...

1. Patience
2. Understanding
3. Beer (again, I am sorry Mom)
4. Front row seats to a really cool concert (AC/DC would be nice, next year!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Until next time, be kind to someone that you don't know ......

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I'll get back to the title of the post in a moment, but I have a few other things to get off my fingers first.

1. As I mentioned previously, Big E and I went to see Keith Urban last weekend. Here is a link to a video of Keith playing a guitar solo and if you look closely, you can see Big E in the video too.

The video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyc_EopBax4

In the video there is a guy in a red hat slightly to the right of the stage. At the 26 second point of video, you will see Big E appear suddenly appear in the video near the bottom right hand side of the video. She is the "hottie" with her hair pulled back and the red top and she disappears around the 30 second mark. Simply notice the location of her to the stage ....

That is the distance that she managed to leap, cut in front of, interupt, snub her nose to and screw it, she was going to touch him, not them.

2. By way of documentation, Big E has made two points of fact to me since that concert; the first is that there will not be another Keith Urban concert until she loses twenty pounds, and the second is that the next seat (and all future) shows will be that close or closer.

Remember, I love my wife, and I am happily married!!!!

• 1. Neither of us lose weight very well.
• 2. The additional cost to purchase close seats to see Keith Urban is better than some and worse than most.

I wont say which, but she is seriously working to complete one of those two bullets. I better figure out the other one.....

3. I've finally opened the comments section to everyone. I appreciate you actually reading these posts, so I figured I would give everyone the freedom to respond. Please be nice!!!

Enough, lets talk about the Wiiiiiiiiii ...... That thing is evil.

Have you played the Wii yet? Too their credit (whomever they are) that thing is addictive and evil to those in poor physical condition. My butt hurts (no sick jokes here please), my arms are tired, my legs hurt, my everything else hurts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I now understand why this was the family gift for Christmas. She needs to lose some weight. I need to lose some too, and this evil machine will insure that it happens. Bowling, tennis, boxing (pure evil), carnival games, and everything else is designed to make fat asses (sorry mom) like myself get up and move.

The bottom line, the Wiiii equals higher bills at the massage center. I hate spending money, so this willl have me"working out".

Have a great Christmas! Enjoy the moment, they are fleeting! Remember, Rusty, BooBoo, Yogi and I, we dont use fleet (yet!!!), but we need all the help we can get.

Stephen

There and back again ...

So, I am a little behind on the weekly update. I've been traveling this week through the great state of Georgia. Before you get excited for me, this wasn't for pleasure, it was for work. Although, it was nice to be away from the office, the nearly eight hundred miles that I spent driving from small town to next small town was more taxing than being in the office. I did enjoy meeting the various people along the way.


Jessica turned seventeen on Wednesday. All birthdays are big days at her age, so I hate that I wasn't here to celebrate. Luckily it wasnt a big number, like sixteen or twenty, etc. As is our tradition, the birthday girl gets to choose the location for her birthday dinner. As is usual, they ate at the Kabuki resteraunt. I dont know what it is about our girls, but they eat more "ethnic" food than they do "American" food.


As for Lit bit, that girl snagged herself a boyfriend. A boyfriend!!! I shouldn't be surprised, but this is her first boyfriend (at least that I know about). I hope he remembers what I told him ... I aint afraid to go back to prison.


Lastly, tryouts for the track team were this week. I am very proud to say that Brook made the team again this year. I doubt we will see a 6:00 minute mile, but I bet she will try her best.

Another week (or two) with good news, the girls are doing good and they havent convinced Big E to string me up for the insurance money. Thats a good week!!


Now, for the two fun items of the week ...

First, on Friday night, I was able to get away a "boys night out". I friend of mine and his band were playing at a local dive. The "Honky Tonk Hustlas" play a cool blend of old school honky tonk music with a modern day "we dont give a ...." attitude. Most of the songs are about drinking, drugging, mean old women, and other heart breaking issues like a screwed up tatoo or something. If you recorded the music and played it backwards, the dog would return, the truck would run, and their wife would be happy (HA HA HA that is some funny crap right there). Anyway, look these guys up on MySpace and give them a listen (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=168869931).


You know, its pretty damn (sorry momma) scary that at 38, I am actually starting to listen to the same kind of music that my daddy listens. I dont know if its because I am acutally starting to understand the music, if the alcohol has kicked in, or if its just a cool trend?? Hell (again, sorry momma), I still love heavy music, but I think my ears are starting to get old and slow????


Now, Big E made it clear before I left that I needed to take it "easy", so I listened and did as I was told (wink and nod). Her reasoning was that I needed to be home before the girls, so I could meet this young man (Elizabeth's boyfriend).

Her real reason was that ...



We were going to see Keith Urban in concert on Saturday. For anyone that knows Big E, then you know about her "love affair" with Keith Urban. I dont know what she sees in him; great accent, nice body (apparently he fills out his jeans well), great looks, good music, money, talent, OK so maybe he has a couple of things that I dont? Anyway, she was lucky enough to get seats on the thirtenth row, five seats from the "catwalk" stage that extended out from the regular stage.


This was her second time to see Keith this year. If you've ever seen old movies of girls going to see the Beatles or Elvis; well, then you've seen Elizabeth's reaction to being at a Keith Urban show. As for me, I drank a six pack before entering the venue and at least that many during the show. Like I said last time, this is my opportunity to be excused from drinking too much and staring at other women.


Upon arrival, there was a high school drum corp playing outside the venue (actually, they were warming up for their on stage performance during one of Keith's songs). Elizabeth was in a hurry to get inside as she wanted to know how close she was to the "catwalk" stage. The level of excitement was quickly turned up a notch when she realized that she was close enough to almost "touch" him.

"Almost touch him" .....

Throughout the show, Keith would run up and down that catwalk stage, and she would try to stretch out her hand to no avail. Finally, during the encore she had enough. With one swoop, she was on top of the chair for the person in seat 1 and she touched him. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She touched Keith Urban....

For the two hour drive home, all I heard about was her touching Keith Urban!!! Luckily I was able to sleep for most of the drive but I could still hear her telling me about the sweaty touch. In life, it is often the simple things that count. That touch, as simple as it sounds was her brush with greatness, and I can understand and accept it.

Lastly, with Christmas just around the corner, I hope everyone can remember that there are those that are not as fortunate as the rest of us. I want to send a shout out to everyone that works in the same area as Elizabeth. Their teams "adopted" two famalies in need and managed to raise around 1500 dollars to provide a Christmas for each of the families. That is awesome!!!

I'll see you next week. Until then remember that while some weeks are slow at the Lee house, there is always some level of excitement, and me, the dog and the cats need your prayers.