The Cahill's

Brian and I had our own party on New Year’s Eve. We started out with the Jones tradition of having fondue for supper. Why do we have this tradition? I’ll tell you….I don’t know.

After a great dinner we cleaned up the dishes and cracked pecans for a while and just talked.

To end our evening we had ice cream, chocolate and a good game of Tennessee for Two – where Brian soundly beat Amy (maybe the ice cream distracted her). We then went to bed at a decent hour.

The next day we got up early and went for a run. I made a hearty breakfast – biscuits and gravy, then we looked up a few things on the internet and decided to hit the town while crowds and traffic was at a minimum.
Brian checked out a few computer stores while I hit WalMart to start a baby registry. Brian joined me and started looking at bikes (his finally bit the dust).
 Next stop: Babies R Us!
   
We got to take advantage of special parking and  try out the rocking chairs. It was really nice to see several of the bigger items in person so we could make better judgments on what we needed.
  
  Then, of course, came the fun of scanning things – so many choices, so few decisions.  It was also handy having Brian around to try on the baby backpacks – they sure have come a long way since the one my parents had! It’s amazing to see all the “stuff” you can get for your kid!
 The store offers some freebie classes every month and one sounded especially intriguing; a baby and Mommy exercise class. You use your baby as a weight while you exercise, singing nursery rhymes and stuff instead of workout music. It sounded really sweet and a good way to bond with your child while saving you money of getting a baby sitter while you go to the gym.

  Looking at all that stuff really worked up the appetite (at least Brian thought so ) so we found a FreeBirds and stopped for lunch. In getting there, we made a U-turn where we didn’t know we shouldn’t have, right in front of a Police man and got pulled over. God was gracious however and he only gave us a warning (Brian said it was probably because I was in the car with him ) Anyhow, lunch tasted a whole lot better when it didn’t cost over 100 dollars and we finished out the day with thankful hearts and tired bodies (Brian hasn’t done this much shopping in a long time ).

P.S. – You can check out our regisries here:
          Walmart
          Babies R Us

  Well, since it’s almost time to put all the Christmas decorations away, I thought I’d do a little photo show of what we had this year.
  Things went up in phases as we added new pieces to our collection so this year’s display really wasn’t complete until after Christmas.

Phase one was the tree and stockings (Nativity scene came later).

Phase two was Christmas lights! These came after a trip to my parents house where they bestowed upon me my portion of the Christmas light inheritance left to us by our grandfather. (I’m sure if I need any next year they will be happy to part with a few more – Papaw left us with at least ten tubs of lights he repaired).

The last phase was started by my family during their visit the weekend before Christmas. I was given a nativity craft and in Tom Sawyer fashion, I recruited the help (and glue gun) of my mom and sisters. I even got Brian in on the act, building the manger – a manly sort of job. I made the two sheep.

Here’s the finished set – now just to keep it out of Tadpole’s reach next year!
Thanks to all who made our decorations possible!

Following a time honored tradition, Dad Cahill built a barricade in the hall late Christmas Eve. Originally started when the kids were young and would wander the house at all hours during that night, it has now become a cherished event and grows more complicated as the guys get older.
4:00 am finds Benj. knocking at our door summoning us to the challenge – can we get through without waking the parents?

We were faced with the blank side of a refrigerator box – on the other side were cardboard blocks, milk jugs and other stuff precariously piled, ready to make noise if we made one wrong move.

Daniel and Brian cautiously dismantled the barricade, piece by piece and handed them back to the rest of us who quietly stacked them to the side.

Unfortunately, the hall floor is really squeaky and we made a few wrong moves as we tried to break through and woke up dad who called out “ah, ah, ah, no peeking!” 

We did eventually disassemble the whole thing and make it out to the tree! Kevin tried to go back to bed but Benj. pulled him out for this picture.
The parents weren’t worried enough to actually get out of bed at such an hour, so we decided to return the  favor while they slept.

Too bad we didn’t think to block the other exits to their room.
Having accomplished all of that before 5:00am, and no one else was going to show their face for at least another two hours, we had nothing else to do but settle down and play some games.