We have video of every wiener dog race heat – they were super cute and funny – but here is just one and also some of the barrel and stein races too.

Josh’s actual Birth Day.  (Not really, this is a few days later… after the blizzard of ’78 was over and Josh & Judi could go home.)  So this is George, Big Brother Thadd & Josh:

Baby Josh & the Fam:

Here Josh says, “I am 4!”  (I wanted to put a pic with Shan in!  Jackie & Grandma & Grandpa Mates are helping to celebrate the big FOUR.)

Here Josh says, “I am 4 (x 8)!”  Ha.

Becky got this awesome Celtics green tee for Josh!

And now Josh won’t be so cold with these great gifts from Mom & Dad!

And these South Africa guidebooks will be so useful! Thanks again Mom & Dad!

Watch out Dave!  Josh is going to beat you in shuffleboard now!  (Thanks Mom & Dad Allen!)

Manhattan is thrilled for Josh’s birthday.

As is Magellan.

Thanks again for the gifts and cards and phone calls and texts and Facebook wall posts.  It was a great birthday.  We finished it off playing Josh’s new Wii game (the shuffleboard and darts are our new favorites!), and cooking a great dinner that was made even better thanks to a Christmas gift from Shan – Argentinian wine, carted across the globe in her backpack!  A great way to celebrate 32 years.

This was our first Christmas holiday not spent with our families.  We’ve missed our families dearly and been conscious of not having them nearby.  As a part of keeping our spirits up, we have been really deliberate with thinking about our first Christmas doing our own married couple thing, getting to start our own traditions.  So while we are missing all our family and friends back in the Midwest and Northwest and San Francisco, we are enjoying our first solo married couple Christmas too.

We began our tradition-making with Josh wrapping his last minute gifts that arrived today while we drank Starry Nights and watched White Christmas.  We also opened presents with our Fiala half of the Fiallen family over Skype!  George, Judi, Shannon and Thadd are in California for Christmas.  It was great to be able to see their faces and exchange gifts with them “in person” even though we couldn’t be there with them.

More pictures of our Tree and our Skyping follow the jump!

We finally cooked in the kitchen last night.  I was afraid to use the oven without the oven liner (we had it lined with plastic bubble wrap until the liner arrived – I didn’t want to cook with that in there).  We actually only used the stove top, but that in and of itself proves I put the burner coils back in right, I guess, when I replaced the drip pans.  And the burner covers were a godsend for having more space to work.  The second picture is supposed to be proof of last night’s stove top usage for sauteing onions and browning potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves and such.  (We’re having a red wine roast tonight.)  I know some don’t think I cook.  And maybe the slow cooker doesn’t count.  You can decide for yourself.  BUT the second picture does allow me to point out Becky’s Venetian glass wine stopper she gave us, in use, and Thadd’s lovely house warming gift of champagne and champagne glasses on the pass through.  (Just ignore the dirty dishes in the sink and the messy bedroom in view.)

Still on the list of things to do:  eradicate rat poison from under fridge, clean the fridge, organize food shelves (right now things are thrown in), get a spice rack and recaulk the counter.

More pictures after the jump.