Winter Wonder Land

So, in some places, Christmas comes twice a year.  This morning as Nicole and I woke up we found much to our pleasant surprise that today was a snow day.  Was there snow? no.  Was there a 40% chance of precipitation with temperatures somewhere around freezing? Yes.  Now, ordinarily I might come down hard on the state of Virginia for being weak, especially having grown up in MN where they only got out of school last week for actually having snow and temperatures that were literally 80 degrees colder.  However, being that it means we get a long weekend together extended, I'm not complaining.

 

I'm no George Washington, but at least I can take that Plasma screen off your hands

As many people know, these are trying times. These are times when ordinary people are required to do extraordinary things of their own accord for the betterment of the country. Because of of who I am and how I was raised, I was prepared to do just such a thing yesterday. As many know the US is in a recession. Things are so bad that Circuit City announced this week that it would be closing all of its stores and liquidating it's inventory. As the United States government knows, there is only one way out a recession--you have to spend your way out. You have to spend like you have money even if you don't. You have to spend as though Armageddon will happen sometime next week and the day of financial reckoning will never come. Being patriotic, and knowing that there was a big-box electronics retailer in great need, I decided it was my duty to help in the the recession recovery effort by stretching our budget little further and spending a little extra during these hard times. So singing God bless America, Nicole and I climbed into the family station wagon and set off for Circuit City to the liquidation sale prepared to spend $80 for a 52" LCD TV that no one else wanted to buy; perhaps we could even go the extra mile and spend $7 on a blue-ray player as well.

Much to our surprise, we found that we were not alone; the greater Hampton Roads area is filled with many good Samaritans. However, we also found that Circuit City doesn't know what the term 'liquidation' means. 30% off office furniture and 20% off dvds is hardly a liquidation. Although they did get the "all sales final" part right, if it was to be a true liquidation, by making a purchase, I should get the same wonderful feeling inside as a looter who just backed his pickup into the store front window and is loading it up with free stuff. Instead we left empty-handed and disappointed as did just about everyone else I observed--obviouly in these dire times, management still didn't get it quite right. So although I didn't get to watch Transformers in HD this weekend I am comforted to know that even in our dismal economy that natural selection process of capitalism is still alive and well. Although we still grimace when we watch the lioness rip out the neck of that lame, old, obsolete wildabeast that is too old and arthritic to keep up with the rest, we still feel warm inside when we watch her drag the carcass back to her cute little cub named Best Buy.

It's Me, Macol

I have not blogged in a while, it's true. But if y'all (I'm from Norfolk, or Gnaw-fik as we say it, I kind of feel like I'm cussing) haven't realized, Matt is a blogger. At first he may have thought, huh, Nicole has found a new enterprise in which to employ her quick wit and talent in a semi-female dominated activity, where mostly mothers converse back and forth about what their children are doing and so on. However, after a little time, I think he came to realize that blogging is actually a blank canvas for his witty comments and fanciful infatuations. I saw this subtle domination coming on a few months ago, but I was so stressed with school, and anything that would have come out of my fingers may not have been that creative, so, I let him do it; and I think it has served our blog well. We have many viewers and receive many (but not near many enough *Nathan, Christian, Chad, Lynne', etc*) comments and I think overall he has excelled at blogging. And I love him. I officially dub him... Bloggerboy,... or Gooner, whichever he chooses (see Kindergarten photo caption to reference real name of boy 'Gooner', bless him.

At the 2009 Auto Expo sitting in the BMW M3 that we'll own someday,

after Matt sells a kidney and we stop buying cold cereal.


Getting my New Year's kiss. As you can see we spent it with close
friends and family at the Las Vegas Airport.

A very chubby baby in front of a very full tree.

Everyone came out with a load. This one came out naked. But who needs clothes when you've got a Dora backpack.

All 19 of our stockings

Thanks mom and dad for a great Christmas!!

These Ones Go to 11

Well we're back into the swing of things here. I start school again tomorrow and Nicole has already been back at it for a week.

Firstly, I think I should mention that we had a fabulous holiday. We booked the computer room in the Shurtz family hotel in Enoch, UT for Christmas. Besides being cozy accomodations for Nicole and I and everyone else that needed computer access, we were also fortunate because, unlike all the other guests, we had internet in our room. Beyond the wonderful acuitriments, with 19 people from the Shurtz family there, we were happy just to have a room. We were scared that like Mary and Joseph, we were going to be sleeping out with the horse.

Christmas was a little different for me this year than it has been in the past because I was now responsible to shop for a wife. I am learning to force myself to walk through women's clothing sections and fabric stores. However, when Nicole is not with me and I'm walking by myself looking at women's pajama pants I still feel the need to tell everyone passing by, "these aren't for me," or "I thought my wife might like them." At the very least, I find myself scratching my face and shoulders a lot with my left hand so that people will hopefully at least notice my wedding band. Maybe I'm paranoid of what the other shoppers think of me...or maybe I'm scared that I might think, "this pink velour sweatsuit actually looks good."

Anyway, Christmas was a fun time. We played a lot of games, played in the snow and ate a lot of junk food. After Christmas, we got to head up to Provo for a couple more days and hang out and visit some people. It was a really good time. We had some wonderful food cooked for us by Jessica Morris. She is a phenomenal cook. We also got to see my grandparents a little more and some of our old friends.

On Wed. it was time to head home. So we packed up the Noonan's van and headed off toward Vegas. The trip down was uneventful except for the part where we got pulled over for not having lights on and James managed to convince the officer that even though he didn't have any sort of proof handy, he did have car insurance somewhere. To James', and more specifically Monica's credit, there was proof and it was even in the car in James' lap, he just overlooked it.

Well we safely arrived in Vegas. James had to fly out early the next morning, so he was staying the night in a hotel with Nicole's parents. We, however (after a brief nap), went right on to the airport to fly out at 12:40 on New Year's Day. Some may ask, why would you fly out on New Years; especially when you could be on the strip watching Robbie Kanevil jump the volcano at the Mirage? The answer to that is easy. We saved over $200 dollars flying on New Years and for those of you who are slow with numbers, that equals over 800 quarters and about 6,000 empty airport slot machine seats.

Actually, there was another benefit to flying on New Years at a ridiculous time. When we arrived at the airport, one of my worst fears was confirmed...we had packed too much Christmas booty. I had weighed the bags before we left for Las Vegas with the precisely instrumented "old scale that has a family of mice living in it that we keep somewhere down in the basement...are you sure it's not there...maybe it's outside under the deck" which is accurate to +/- 10 lbs. Anyway, I was sweating it out as we were trying to check into our flight. I wasn't sure what to do. I decided not to say anything about it and if challenged I would either 1. let her know that her scale must be flawed or 2. cry. Well, some of you might might have heard the phrase before that 'close' only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades. Well friends, 'close' (defined as less than 8 lbs over in one bag and 7 in the other) also counts with Sheila the disguntled Jet Blue employee who is happy to stick it to the man for making her work on New Year's eve instead of watching Robbie Kanevil.

Since we've been home, things have been good. I've taken up playing on a city soccer league with a couple of guys from church. It's going pretty well. I'm playing defense which is a little different for me as I'm much more accustomed to mid-field. I am happy to note that I still have the endurance to play the entire game even though walking was painful for almost a week afterward. So far our record isn't too stellar, but I think once the team play more together and starts scoring more points than our opponents we'll start doing a lot better.

Nicole has started taking dance classes at a new studio. It's a little bit of a drive, but we enjoy the time together in the car and the studio is head an shoulders above the others in the area. So we feel it's worth the trip.

I also got to go biking again this week. If I haven't said so (I think I did in a previous post), but I love my bike; it goes to 11. I went to York River State park. It was a great place to ride. It's incredible to me that the trails I was riding on were battle grounds for both the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

Anyway, life is good.

two hot chocolates and a baby please--make it virgin

This week Nicole and I entered a new social realm...that's right, celebrity status.  Saturday was the annual Hampton City Holly-daze parade.  The Hampton city ward's entry was a float depicting the Nativity scene.  We were asked last week to play the parts of Mary and Joseph on the float.  I was of course chosen for my superb ability to grow facial hair.  Since the early age of 17, I have progressed from shaving every other week to every other day.  However, in about a week, with some extra effort and concentration and a slight diet change, I was able to produce this beauty.

Nicole, on my left, made an excellent Mary.  The parade was on Sat evening.  It was actually fairly cold.  We were able to hide our excess layers under our ultra-frumpy robes that we wore.    We were joined on the float by the three wise men, two shephards, and a little angel.  Thankfully with the added help of some hand warmers and some hot chocolate from our thermos we were able to keep warm.

During the parade things went well; Nicole knelt on the float and I knelt behind her.  I spent most of the time trying to look pious and waving and pointing at the crowd while shouting things like "Merry Christmas,"  "Great to see you," and "How you doin'?"  I must say, that being famous is a lot of fun, but it's a lot of hard work.

Also this weekend, we went up with the youth from our ward to DC again to see the lights at the DC temple.  It's no Temple Square, but 450,000 lights is still extremely impressive.  On an environmental note, all of the lights on display this year were LED instead of incandescent.  I am behind this move 100%.  Although these bulbs consume less power than traditional ones, they put out a great deal of light.  So much in fact, that when you're close up and your pupils are already dilated because it's dark outside, you can smell your retina's burning.  It's kind of like looking at thousands of little laser pointers all at once.  

We were also fortunate because Nicole was able to come along as well, which was great.  On the way up, everyone stopped at a place called 5 Guys.  5 Guys is a my favorite place to get a burger.  It's like the In and Out of the East Coast, but much tastier.  We then stayed the night again at my brother's.  On Saturday morning we went out to eat and had some great French toast with cinnamon sugar and almonds.  It was so good.  Anyway, here are some pictures of our trip.

A peek inside my soul

As many of you may recall, a while back on this blog, I mentioned a certain Porsche video that I saw as a youth that permanently altered my way of thinking. Laugh if you want, but this video has a very special place in my heart. Anyway, after literally years of searching, I have finally found it online. I should note a small correction that the commercial is actually for the 1995 911 993.

Without further ado, here it is for your viewing pleasure. I would recommend that you have a box of tissues nearby as you watch it.

We drove 32 hours to Black Friday, and all I got was this lousy ice scraper

Well it's been about two weeks since I posted last, and I know that there's at least a solid 1-2 people who might or might not be wondering what has been going on with us. I will attempt to fill you in.

First and foremost, I should mention that we had an excellent Black Friday. This year we decided to go the Champaign, IL Walmart for to do our Black Friday shopping. Conveniently, Nicole's brother and sister live in Champaign, so we decided to stay with them where we were also joined by my family. The drive out was good. I picked Nicole up right at work and we immediately set off. 12 hours later, we arrived at our destination. I would like to mention that I am grateful for energy drinks--I was wide awake all the way there.

To kill time while we waited for Walmart to open, we celebrated Thanksgiving. As per tradition, on Thursday morning, I went with Nicole's brother-in-law to play football. I scored four touchdowns and had a handful of interceptions (I also threw about six interceptions). Anyway, needless to say, all that awesomeness isn't cheap. As any of my professional athlete colleagues will attest, dedicating your life, or at least one day a year of it, to excellence in a demanding sport such as 4 on 4 two hand touch football extracts a heavy physical toll. My body was stiff for the next four days and my stride was reduced from 'confident twenty-something' to 'nursing home patient shuffle'. Thankfully, over the holiday, I was able to focus on my recovery by eating and sleeping and eating a lot.

The food at Thanksgiving is always some of my favorite and, as always, was very good and very plentiful. Nicole and helped prepare the turkey.

On Black Friday, we got together with the rest of America, loaded up in a minivan, and went to Walmart. We arrived at 9 am or so and found lots of people. We spent a little time walking around and marvelled at Walmart's generosity for putting things on sale for so cheap. As we got to the checkout I was definitely in the Christmas spirit. In the checkout line, we waited and watched our cashier scan items one at a time as slowly as possible for the three customers ahead of us. However, I almost didn't notice the half hour go by because I was so full of Christmas cheer. It wasn't until he finsihed with the lady in front of us, turned off his light, and said "Sorry, I'm closed," that the little light of 'Christmas joy' and 'peace on earth' went out. Anyway, another register line and a few choice words later, Nicole walked and I shuffled out of Walmart. We also made stops at Circuit City and the mall. All in all, we made some very good purchases; unfortunately, due to the sensitive nature of the season and our readership, the only deal I can tell you about was the really great ice scraper we bought at Walmart.

Friday, we played games with the family. I won at Settler's of Katan; which I have never done before. Settler's is fun game that is a sort of a cross between Monopoly and Risk, but in the same spirit allows you to win through ruthelessness and being oportunistic. For example, as I was wondering what resources were in the game, the following took place:

Matthew's Sister: I'll trade you three grain.
Matthew: You have three grain?
Matthew's Sister: Yes
Matthew: Good. I'll play my monopoly card. I'd like all the grain please. (evil laugh)

While playing together, we enjoyed a lot of good snacks. My favorite was the Parmesan and Roasted Red Pepper cracker spread. Some may ask, "isn't it wrong for one person to eat half a pound of cream cheese spread and a box of Wheat Thins in an hour?" Maybe.

Anyway, to cap off an already excellent weekend of excess and indulgences, Sat. we went to Springfield to see some old friends and have a fat night. Fat night is a Cragun family tradition that now involves multiple deep fat fryers, two gallons of cooking oil, and anything you have ever thought of that has been fried. This time we did mostly classiscs such as shrimp and onion rings, as well as some new fare such as green beans.

When Sunday came, it was time for us to head back. In order to give ourselves plenty of time, we left at six o' clock. As punishment for driving on Sunday instead of going to church we were given 20 hours of misery to feel guilty and repent. When we went out to the car on Sun. morning, we found that two-three inches of snow had fallen on the ground. It made for very sloppy conditions. At Indianapolis, the snow changed to rain and continued to rain to Columbus. Columbus to West VA was decent, however, once in West VA, the rain started to stick and freeze again. Then traffic started backing up outside of DC. We spent about an hour sitting outside of DC. We dropped Eric off in DC and got to take a break at his house for about half an hour. That left us with the remaining trip from DC to Hampton. Things actually went fairly smoothly until we go to Fredricksburg. Unfortunately, there was an accident in Richmond and I-95 was backed up 30 miles to Fredricksburg. After two and a half hours of stop and go traffic, we finally made it to Richmond. From there the traffic cleared up and we made it home at 1:00 am. Fortunately Nicole could sleep most of the way because she had to work early the next morning. All said and done, having the opportunity to be with family for a few great days made it worth it.

Since then, school has been winding down for me. I had one final and have one more this coming week; then I'll be all done until next semester. Work has had it's ups and downs for Nicole, but the week finished on a great upswing which was nice.

On Monday, for family home evening, we got our Christmas tree. Because we were pressed for time, we went to Walmart. To display there selection of trees, they tie a rope to them and hang them from the ceiling like dear carcasses after a hunt that are about to be gutted. We walked around and found a really nice one. It's actually flat on the back, but that worked out great because it means it sits closer to our wall.


On Friday, we went to downtown Newport News where we saw the Holly-daze fireworks show. It was actually very good. The setting was nice because the display was low to the ground at a small pond in the middle of the downtown. On top of that, it was surrounded by buildings so the results were a great display that echoed enough to knock your fillings loose. I must say that NN put on a great show, and if I wasn't worried about being stabbed or shot, I might consider living there.

Anyway, Christmas season is in full swing in the Cragun household, and it's shaping up to be very merry with lots of Yule Tide cheer.