Christmas 2011

My family and I had a very nice Christmas. It was loaded with food and family and was very relaxing.

Christmas Eve we had my mom come over for dinner and to play some games. We ate a ton of good food. Kristy made a cheese fondue and some meatballs and french bread to dip them in and Eggnog Bread Pudding for dessert. It was a very nice evening. After Logan went to bed, Kristy and I prepared the rest of Christmas and watched our annual tradition of Christmas Vacation.

The next morning we awoke and got ready for Church. It was only an hour and it was fantastic. I wish I could start every Christmas morning this way. We came home after visiting with a few people after the services and ate some breakfast and opened gifts. To say that Logan was excited was definitely an overstatement! We opened up our awesome gifts and then proceeded to stuff ourselves sick with candy. That evening we played games and watched the football game. Like I said, it was nice and relaxing.

I absolutely hate putting up/taking down lights from the Christmas Tree. I don't know if you can tell that from how I look.

Logan in his obligatory Christmas pic.

For Boxing Day we went over to my dad's to spend the day there. We ordered Chinese food and once again I stuffed myself with too much candy. I have a major weakness for fudge and (un)fortunately dad had a ton of it. I must have eaten a couple pounds of the stuff. We played cards and games and did our $5 Gift Card Pool. I got a K-Mart gift card which I traded for a Walmart one which I traded for an Amazon gift card. Which interestingly enough is the gift card which I purchased for the party. And I already know what I want to get!

So all in all I had a very nice Christmas. Unfortunately now that Christmas has passed, I have to get on with some New Year's Resolutions and lose the weight I gained and eat better!

Pic of the Week: Bittersweet

Day 66

We took down our Christmas decorations last night making the end of the season official. It is bittersweet for me, I love having all the decorations up and all the lights but after Christmas our living room is a mess. Taking down the decorations allow us to do some cleaning too.

It is nice to be all done and have a nice clean room to lounge around in but the room suddenly looks so barren and bare.

Before we took all the decorations down I made Logan get into his Christmas stocking so I can take our annual picture. That kid has sure grown, another bittersweet moment.

Christmas Memories: Fooled on Christmas Eve

Day 54

When I was younger we had another family tradition. One that would excite me and then suddenly dash my hopes the very next second. And I would fall for this every year.

Every Christmas Eve, after we delivered our plates of goodies we would settle in for a night of playing board games. My family had the best collection of board games. Probably my favorite board game we would play was Full House. This tradition has continued in my family and so has the Full House too. Kristy likes the game so much that she laminated all the guest cards. And this game has nothing to do with the crappy TV show.

After playing games we would sit around the Christmas tree and tell the story of the birth of Jesus. After that my mom would allow us to open one gift. I was so excited to open a gift. I would rip it apart, eager to see what I got. And every year it was the same thing. I got pyjamas. Every year I was fooled.

But then one year I was allowed to open up two gifts. One of them was pyjamas of course but I thought for sure that the second gift would be something cool. And it was sorta. I got a stuffed animal.

This tradition has been passed down to my family as well. Kristy will get us pyjamas and on occasion will make us some comfy fleece pyjamas too.


Logan still has problems getting his pyjamas on correctly. ;)

When I served my LDS mission to New York, my companion and I decided to open all of our gifts at midnight Christmas Eve. The neighbors upstairs were partying loud so we were not sleeping anyway.

Life with Logan: Growing with his Stocking

Day 53

Like I mentioned and celebrated yesterday, Logan was born very close to Christmas. While in the hospital, Logan was visited by Santa who brought him some neat gifts. One of the gifts was this large stocking that we could fit him in. He was certainly small enough, his legs were no where near touching the bottom (that is if you could make him stretch). We could have fit three Logan's in that stocking comfortably. We brought him home in that stocking too.

We now have a tradition of making Logan stand in the stocking so we can see how much he has grown. Every year we make him do it. And that will continue until he moves out. Maybe we'll send him the stocking and make him take a picture of himself in it before he gets any presents from us! We'll think of something.


It is so amazing to see how fast he grows from one year to the next.


I'll post the most recent one after Christmas.

Christmas Memories: In Pictures

Day 51

With Logan's birthday tomorrow and Christmas coming up, my time for blogging is getting shorter and shorter. Today is just a collection of Christmas pictures from my past.


Decorating the Christmas tree was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid. That has certainly changed, I am not a fan of it now. We always had a real tree when I was young, we would buy the spray cans of snow and blast the tree full of snow. We then would put our homemade ornaments (I had this duck I made when I was two) and we would put tinsel over it carefully to make it look like icicles. It took us hours to get our tree up and decorated.


My first Christmas when I was married was certainly a fun and unique Christmas. We lived in a trailer on the campus of Utah State University. We barely had room for us and we knew that a tree would be impossible. I came home from work one night and found that Kristy had taken our garland we used for our wedding reception and fashioned it into a Christmas tree that she put in the corner. It was so cute. Looking back, it was fun to be poor students.


One of the best Christmas mornings ever! As far as gifts go. This was the year I got a ton of hockey stuff. I got my first hockey stick, an Edmonton Oiler jersey (see? my jersey-wearing days started early!) and this cool hockey game. It was like a foozball game only it had hockey players. You can also see in this picture that I got a Super Merlin and a metal cast Star Destroyer (my favorite Star Wars ship) which I still have today.


Another fantastic Christmas morning. I was certainly spoiled. This was the Christmas when I got the Atari 2600 and some games. I was so excited! You can also see on the right that I got a ton of Return of the Jedi action figures and in my hands is a ton of hockey stickers. I couldn't wait to tear into the Atari.


We brought Logan home on Christmas Eve from the hospital. My dad was on the road (he was a trucker) and he came by on his way home for Christmas to see Logan. It was so nice to have my dad drop in on Christmas to see his first grandson.


Logan didn't want to sit on Santa's lap this year. He seems to be wishy-washy when it comes to this. But one year he surprised us all when he said he would sit on his lap. And we have photographic proof of it!

Christmas with the Breinholt's

Day 50!

Late blog today. It seems like the sting of defeat (which I should be used to since I am a Jets fan) has killed any motivation to blog today. So I have been putting it off and now I am forced to blog about something.

Yesterday we headed down to the annual Breinholt Christmas Party! And as usual it was a lot of fun. I am so lucky and blessed that I have such great in-laws. The party was fun with all sorts of traditions.


Every year we read from the Bible of Christ's birth. All the grand kids take part by helping setting up the Nativity set.

Every year Steve leads in singing Christmas carols. Some more loudly than others.

Every year we have great food.

Every year the neighbors wish they had soundproof walls. It can certainly get loud in the house.

Every year we exchange family gifts. This year we got a Chili's gift card and Logan got a Nerf gun. "You'll shoot your eye out!" And I did; I shot Logan in the eye just today.

For the last few years a policeman came over. My bro-in-law is a cop. ;)

Every year the in-laws hear the same story from the Breinholt siblings.

Every year mom tells us to be quiet. And every year we ignore her. But I am getting better.

Every year mom says that she will talk to us "when your voice is as low as mine." And every year I speak in a deep, bass voice to mock her.

Every year since Andrea came into the family we "people watch". I guess that would be "family watch".

Every year I tease Cassie (my niece) for hating me.


Ahh... memories.

Can't wait till next year!

Pic of the Week: Yummy Christmas Ornaments

Day 49

I think this is the soonest we have decorated for Christmas. It seems like the last few years we get it all done about two or three days before the big day. I have to admit that this year I seem to be a little more excited.

I remember one year we were decorating for Christmas in particular. It was about four years ago. We were in the back room decorating the tree. Logan was trying to help but being so young it was more of us doing it all and watching him to make sure he was not into something he shouldn't be. We were hanging some ornaments on the tree when suddenly we heard this "CRUNCH". It sounded like glass breaking. We immediately look over at Logan (knowing full well he would be the source of the sound) and he had taken a big bite into one of the glass ball ornaments!


We picked him up and Kristy sat him on her knee and I fished around his mouth taking out shards of glass. We don't think he swallowed any, we had recovered enough pieces of the glass ornament that we could probably glue it back together. It was a scary moment and the next day Kristy tossed out all of our old glass decorations.

EDIT: That is the actual glass ornament that Logan chowed down on.

Matt at Work: The Rigged Christmas Party

Day 47

When I look out the window or go downtown and see all the Christmas decorations, it reminds me of some of the office Christmas parties that I attended and one in particular that I will never forget.

Now I am not a paranoid person, I am not the type that thinks everyone is out to get me. I do not have conspiracy theories for everything either. But I believe that the last Christmas office party that I attended at my former employment was rigged.

Let me give you some background first. During my first year of employment there, we were all invited to take a confidential anonymous survey of how we thought that company was doing and how the leadership of the company rated. Then it was discovered that these surveys were really not anonymous. On the back and at the very bottom was a very small number. We looked at other department's surveys and they all had different numbers. So they may not be able to tell who took the survey, they would at least know what department it was coming from. And when your company had about twenty employees it would be very easy to figure out who was who. Especially when it was hand written. My department, along with a few others, typed our surveys on separate pieces of paper. Smalls (our HR representative) really tried his hardest to make it look innocent. But who would believe him when the evidence was so blatant. There were many other incidents (and future columns!) like this that made everyone in that company a little paranoid.

So at the Christmas party in 2006 it was revealed that our CEO was going to give away his BMW Roadster to one of his employees. Why? We all knew it was because he had no success in selling it. So why not give it away and write it off as a business expense? But still, it was a great prize for a lucky fellow employee.


So what is the catch? There wasn't initially a catch. At the next Christmas party he would draw a name and they would be a winner. Employees were given ping pong balls. If we were Employee of the Month we were given a ball. At the Christmas parties, awards were given to employees and so next year they would get a couple of balls. And we were also given balls based on our performance reviews which we had twice a year. All of the balls would be placed in a barrel and into a random drawing.

During the next year, my company basically said nothing about the contest. There were not any reminders or any other opportunities to win more balls. I thought that was a mistake, they really should have pimped that more. By hardly saying hardly anything, it became suspicious. But in the end, EVERYONE there knew who was going to win it anyway.

So anyway, we really only had our performance reviews and that was part of the catch. Performance reviews at this place were from the Bizarro World. My very first review was good but the longer I was employed there, the worse they got. Part of my review was how good I knew our product. I was in Sales, so naturally I was the one with the most knowledge. My first review was great, I got high marks but every review my scores got lowered. So somehow I was losing knowledge. Somehow I was becoming more dumb. When I asked about it I was told that the CEO didn't like giving high marks. He gave out low marks to make the employee more motivated to score higher. So basically if I worked my butt off, I was told to work harder with little or no appreciation. I could devote a column to these all on their own! If you don't believe me, I can post all my performance reviews, I still have them. So that is one reason a lot of people would be screwed out of the contest. High marks got you (if I can remember) about 4 balls. I had the most balls in our departments (Sales and Marketing) because we were the evil corner of the building. But I only had 6 of them in it. I think I had more balls than everyone in the Sales and Marketing Departments combined. And yes, that is what she said.

One of the rules is that you had to be there to win. Which was sad, morale at this place was really low and I think them making this rule was more to get people to come because they were afraid attendance would be low. Maybe it is because we all knew who was going to win beforehand?

The party was nice, the food (catered by the Copper Mill) was fantastic and the company at my table was awesome. The White Elephant gift exchange was as always very funny. I got a cool Homer Simpson key chain that had some of Homer's quotes. I gave away a jar of my Pickled Bums. And then they awarded the usual year-end awards and I was thinking maybe they were taking a big step here. Maybe they had changed. The people that won those awards fully deserved those awards.


Finally the big moment came. They announced the winner of the BMW Giveaway. And all my hopes were crashed the moment he pulled out the winning number. He pulled out #14 and we all looked at the big board. Chris laughed as he "spotted" the name and sure enough. The person we all thought that would win, that we all called last year, won.


And he was not present either. He was living in San Diego. So they called him on his cell phone and it seemed like the winner was not surprised either. He responded with an unconvincing “you’re kidding”. And no one else said anything. Some people nervously laughed, others shook their heads.

So why do I think it was rigged? A couple of reasons. The first being we were right in who won. Now he was a good worker and was quite smart. But he was also crafty, it wouldn't surprise me if a deal was made LONG before the drawing. He was also Chris's good friend too. And he got anything he wanted and we all knew it since he was very vocal about it.

Also, the barrel of ping pong balls was already filled before anyone got there. A couple of employees claim that they saw something in Chris's hands before he reached into the barrel to pull out a ball.

Personally, I think they loaded the bottom of the barrel with his number. They had some employees shake the barrel but when it is full, the balls won't move. I can also picture Smalls testing this out in his office. While there were other balls, the chances of pulling anyone else's ball out the bottom were not good.


Do I sound bitter? Sour grapes you might say? Well, that may be true but trust me, I have a TON of other stories which I will share on this blog that will show why I was so paranoid working there.

Christmas Memories: Christmas Eve Goodies

Day 46

The last few days I have blogged about some of my favorite Christmas traditions and now I will share another one that I have not done for many years.

When I lived in Edmonton, every Christmas Eve my family and I got together and we went around delivering plates of treats to some of the people we know. We would just knock on the door and run, leaving the plate of goodies on the steps. These were not your ordinary treats either. This was a huge plate loaded with my dad's famous Baklava (Baklava is a Greek pastry. Loaded with butter, honey and chopped nuts and topped with a clove), my mom's famous Snowball cookies and Grandma Anhder's famous Fruitcake.


I remember one Christmas Eve in particular when we also picked up a Christmas tree and delivered it anonymously to a set of newlyweds that were very poor. It felt good delivering these treats. And the smell of Baklava cooking fills the house and just reminds me of those simpler times.

I asked my mom for those recipes so I can post them here. During this week I am going to attempt to make some of them. The Snowball cookies are the easiest to make so I am going to start there. These recipes originated from my Aunt Helen. Yet again, I am stealing an idea from a fellow blogger. Thanks Jennifer!


SNOWBALL COOKIES

1 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla
2 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Finely Chopped Pecans
Confectioners Sugar

Bream butter, sugar and vanilla till fluffy. Add flour and salt to creamed mixture blending thoroughly.
Add pecans and mix well. Shape into one-inch balls and place on baking sheet.

Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes. Do not brown, they should be light. Cool and then roll in powdered sugar. Yields about 6 dozen.

I'll have to let you know how they turned out.

Christmas Memories: The Movies

Day 45

Christmas is full of traditions and one of my favorite traditions is watching my favorite Christmas classics. There are a few but I am mostly talking about National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

My mom and I saw this movie in the theatres when it came out. We met my Uncle Kurt and we saw it together. I never laughed so hard, sure it was a funny movie but what made it even more funny was the old lady sitting in front of us. She must have been my Grandma's age and she absolutely loved it. She laughed and laughed loudly during the whole movie which in turn made us laugh even more.

There was one part that I will not forget. It is when the SWAT team and police crash into the house and yell "FREEZE!" That old lady laughs out "Look where her hand is!" (I am sure you know exactly what scene I am talking about!) and she laughed about that all the way to the end of the credits.

Every Christmas since then we have a tradition of watching that movie sometime before Christmas. I can't wait to see it this year!



Another movie I manage to catch almost every Christmas is "A Christmas Story". Such a cute show.



Another one that I am going to make a tradition of watching is "The Muppets Christmas Carol". Last Friday night we had what Logan calls "Family Movie Night" and we watched it. It was still as good as I remember and I think it made an impact on Logan.

We still have a Charlie Brown Christmas and of course, How the Grinch Stole Christmas to watch. And not the crappy movie, the best, the original cartoon.

Christmas Memories: The Hamster

Day 44

This month is going to be loaded with Christmas memories. One Christmas I remember in particular is when my sister Jennifer got a hamster for Christmas.

I remember sneaking out during the middle of the night to look around and see what Santa brought me. I was curious that on this desk that Jennifer got was this round, red cage. I looked in but could not see anything, it was still dark. So I had to wait until the morning.

Jennifer got a hamster that she named Midnite. He was named that because he was up and running around at midnight and because he was this beautiful creme color, opposite of black.


Jennifer and I loved this hamster. That is until it chewed through one of her favorite stuffed animals. I think it was a koala. All I can remember is hearing the yelling. I came into her room and Jennifer was so mad, I thought she was going to bounce that hamster off the ceiling.

I also remember one time Jennifer was at school so I snuck in her room to see her hamster and there was this note pinned on the cage. It said "Leave me alone!" I was so crushed. I wanted a hamster too! But that is okay because karma came around and I did get a hamster of my own. But that is a separate column.

Speaking of karma, I remember Midnite biting me hard on my finger, making me bleed. Jennifer said it was because Midnite didn't like me. She claimed that he would never bite her. So she held him upside down by his hind legs and kissed him on the nose. I guess Midnite didn't like that because he nipped her right between the nose holes. Oh karma, I sure love you!


Midnite was a good pet. We were sad when he finally died. We buried him in our backyard in the sunflowers. We never had a pet before and it was so sad to see him pass away.

Sunday Confessional: Christmas Edition

Day 43

One of my favorite things to do for Christmas is snooping. I admit it, I love to snoop for my gifts. Half of the fun of getting gifts is when you find out beforehand what you are getting. It makes me even more excited for Christmas morning to come.

I know, I know. That is a horrible thing especially at Christmas. We should be finding happiness in giving gifts and not the receiving. And I do get a lot of joy giving but I'll be perfectly honest here. I like getting gifts and who really doesn't like getting gifts? But for me, the best part of getting gifts is doing the detective work, narrowing down the suspects and finally seeing the evidence firsthand.

I am notorious at this. I have done this for as long as I remember and I was taught by the master.


One night my parents went out on the town, if I remember right they were attending the opera. My sister Jennifer was in charge of babysitting me and as always we had a great time. My sister and I looked for our Christmas gifts and she found them in the hall closet. One of my gifts was this helmet, I think it was either a policeman or fireman's helmet. I tried it on and played around. My parents must have come home early and found me still wearing that helmet.

Did that ruin my Christmas? Not at all, in fact knowing just made me anticipate Christmas morning even more!

This sort of behavior has continued all throughout my life. But then I was taught how to snoop without even looking around the house. Just grab your mom's purse and look for the Christmas list. That made life a lot easier since you can find it all in one place but the only bad thing was that if your mom's purse was at home, she was too. So you had to wait until the middle of the night or when she was really busy.

My parents got a little smarter, they started to hide the presents at their offices at work. So I might not have found the actual gifts themselves but we still had the list in the purse.

Kristy hides the lists (now that she has found out that I like to snoop through the purse to find the shopping list) and she also wraps all the presents weeks before. In fact, just the other night she wrapped them all. So even if I do find them, they will be wrapped. But that won't stop me much from looking for them. And the Christmas Season is not the only time that I will look for goodies. I do this around my birthday too.

I do want to apologize to my family for faking how surprised I was Christmas morning. I had fantastic parents and even with all the snooping and list-reading, they still had a few surprises.

And this year I have not snooped at all.

At least not yet...

Pic of the Week: Decorating for Christmas

Day 42

We finally got around and decorated our Christmas tree and I am especially excited because this is the first year since I have been married that we have a real tree. We also got all of our lights, garland and stockings up. We also cleaned up everything after so it is all ready for Christmas. I think this is the earliest we have decorated.

I am a sucker for lights. We have about six sets of lights going. I just love Christmas lights. I tried to put some in our window but it just wouldn't work. We have enough lights now that I can easily read!


This was our wedding garland. We put all of Grandma Anderson's homemade decorations on them. The picture just doesn't do it justice.


Logan was in charge of decorating the window. He did a good job.


Kristy was in charge of putting the lights on the Christmas tree. While I do like lights, I HATE putting them on the tree.


And because I love lights so much, I was in charge of of putting lights up. And of course I went overboard. I used the branches we had to cut off the tree and mixed them with the lights.


If Logan acts naughty I get out the large silver Christmas Punishment Spoon!


I put all of our snowmen decorations (we have a ton of them) on our fireplace mantle with a candle behind them. And of course, more lights!

Starting today and ending on Boxing Day, I will have a Christmas-related column. It has been fun trying to think of some Christmas columns. Lots of memories I can share.