Christmas Traditions

Less than a week until the Jolly Fat Man makes his global delivery run - if only UPS were as efficient (or maybe they are since they basically make global runs every day and it doesn't take them a full year to get ready for them). So I've been thinking about Christmas traditions. Here are some of my favorites.

No rankings, other than how quickly they come to mind:

As Kids:

Midnight Mass - beautiful service, choir with all the Christmas favorites (except Rudolph), we got to stay up late and have cookies before service, and.... we didn't have to go to mass on Christmas day!

Reading the Gospel of Luke's account of the birth of Jesus before opening ANYTHING. We would pray & Dad would read it to us. As a young kid it was right up there with the movie/camera lights (see below), but as we got older I appreciated it, and we'll do it with our kids too.

Decorating the tree - "He who names it hangs it" game : Dad did the lights; we all did the boring glass balls; then we got out the "special" ornaments, most of which were given to us at one point in time. Mom would hold up an ornament and whoever could name where it came from got to hang it. Jeremy was excellent at this game and I was usually pissed off and whining about 30 minutes into it. Glen was too busy sneaking See's Candies to care.

Christmas eve opening of 1 gift - pajamas "you kids should wear those tonight so you have on nice pj's for tomorrow's pictures." Every year. 'Til I was 18*.

"No coffee no presents" - Mom & Dad's rule on Christmas morning. Somehow, being up 'til 3am (having to put out Santa presents after midnight mass and us not going to sleep immediately) and then us being up at 5am wanting to open presents made them a bit groggy and in need of caffeine. Once we got old enough we'd make the coffee and bring it to 'em after.....

Christmas Morning board games!!!!! Once we could tell time Mom & Dad set a "do not disturb until Nam (N = 6:30 usually, but sometimes 7). Well all three of us were up at 5am, so what were we going to do that was quiet? Castle Risk in the freezing upstairs bedroom! Risk & Monopoly were too long; Sorry didn't allow you to properly dominate your brothers; Nerf Hoops wasn't quiet (and led to fights and we were smart enough not to wake parents with bloody noses on Christmas morning). So most years we played Castle Risk!

Setting up the movie/camera lights before opening presents. Mom/Dad, really, you guys couldn't get those up on Christmas eve?


Jamey & I's traditions as a married couple:

Annual Christmas Tree Fight! I've got another post planned for this one, but I'll tease it a bit: It involves fishing line, 8' trees in living rooms with 7-1/2' ceilings, a man trapped between trees and frozen ground, lost trees, $10 differences, and lots and lots of lights. Newly married guys - a little advice, if your wife doesn't object, get a pre-lit fake tree. It will pay for itself in 3 years monetarily, it will pay for itself in utility cost immediately.

Big Christmas Eve dinners! This one comes from Jamey's family. Her grandparents were married on Christmas eve during WWII while her grandfather was on leave from the Navy. So every year they were together they celebrated their anniversary with a big Christmas eve dinner. Gumbo was often the choice, and I now look forward to Gumbo for Christmas eve every year.

Day after Christmas shopping - OK, this is J & her mom, but it means that for the first 6 years of our marriage, I had the day after Christmas all to myself. I could spend hours playing my new PlayStation or X-Box games. I could sleep all day. I could ... well, do whatever! Now it means I'm in charge of the kids, but that's OK - pancakes for breakfast, frozen waffles for lunch, and Mac&Cheese for dinner makes the day easy!

Recently developed : Thanksgiving Weekend Get Ready For Christmas! The year that Trenton was born, I took the Monday after Thanksgiving off to extend that weekend and help Jamey out a bit. We decided to take the kids down to the mall for pictures with Santa so we could give them for gifts. The mall was empty! We had Santa all to ourselves for 15 minutes. We have now done it each of the last 3 years and will continue to do so. This year, with a late Thanksgiving, we put the "Christmas Prep" into the weekend. Jamey shops the day after thanksgiving (this year I did too since her mom was sick & my folks watched the kids). Saturday is work day - get out all the Christmas decor. J&C decorate the inside. T&I decorate the outside (lights for the house & a string of snowmen). Put away all the non-Christmas decor. The tree didn't get put up this year, but I think it will next year. Sunday is relax and enjoy the day with a little work on the inside. Monday is Santa & lunch at the mall.

*From 13 - 18 it was a new pair of sweat pants & a sweatshirt, not footed bunny jammies.

Subprime Mortgages for AP Stats students

Here is a very basic explanation of what the media is talking about when they talk about "subprime" mortgages and what the effects are. Its Arnold Kling's econ blog. He's a well known economist and he testified before Congress yesterday about the mess. He introduces this post with "Because yesterday's hearing ran so late, I missed my AP stats class. Here is the way I would explain what went on to my students." If your in need of some good basic understanding of the mess, this is a good link. It helped me.

Food Poisoning

Since a member of the Foster family seems to have been hit with it this week, and since my primary job function is to prevent it, I thought I'd talk about it for a few minutes and give a few links that are useful.

First, for any and all bacteria questions, consult the FDA's "Bad Bug Book" (seriously, that's that its called). Its a fantastic link and I consult it often.

Now, a few tips that you probably already know to avoid food poisoning:

1 - WASH YOUR HANDS!!! It is without a doubt the best way to prevent food contamination.
2 - keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Most bacteria grow between 40 and 120F. They grow best between 75 and 95F. As food you cooked cools down, if there is even a small number of viable bacteria, they will begin to grow exponentially. When you take food out of the fridge its about 37F. As it warms past 40F, bacteria will grow exponentially.
2a - to kill bacteria, you need to elevate the temperature of the food above 160F ALL THE WAY THROUGH! 160 is pretty much the magic number here. There are time/temperature scales for bacteria killing, but if you get the entire dish above 160, its sterile for all intents and purposes. Heat basically blows up the cells.
2c - Freezing does NOT kill all bacteria. Many bacteria can form spores and once the temperature becomes comfy for the bacteria they start growing again. Listeria (which is a pretty nasty bug) doesn't form spores, but doesn't die and has been known to grow at temperatures as low as 30F.

3 - (not so) FunFacts:
CDC (Centers forDisease Control) estimates 76,000,000 cases / 325,000 hospitalizations / 5,000 deaths annually in the US. Using some poorly applied statistics here, if we assume 300,000,000 people in the US, 1 in 4 people will experience food poisoning every year.

4 - symptoms - Do I really need to list 'em?

5 - onset - how fast does it happen - useful for figuring out what caused it. This is tricky because it depends on what's getting you. Most people think about the last thing they ate and that's not usually the cause. See this page in the bad bug book for a list of onset times based on bacteria. Generally its about 8 hours to onset but it can be longer. So think about what you ate during the last day and then figure out the likely culprits.

6 - bacterial hot spots - Some high risk items :
undercooked red meats - I still order my steaks medium rare, but my hamburgers at Chile's & Islands get ordered medium or medium well.
Undercooked chicken - if its still pink send it back (even if you're significant other cooked it).
Undercooked or uncooked seafood - I still eat sushi, and I eat at sushi bars from time to time, but I know that there's a risk there
cold hot foods or warm cold foods - see #2 above - this leads us to...
buffets / pot lucks : All you can eat restuarants should be fine, they should know what they are doing, but if it looks like its been sitting there for a while, or the potato salad isn't cool, pick another option. Pot lucks are notorious for this - Aunty Bee's potatoe salad being left out at the family picnic and Uncle Tony coming for a last serving 3 hours after it was set out is a recipe for disaster. Tuna salad / chicken salad / shrimp flavored dip are all big time trouble spots. They are probably best to avoid.

So there you go - probably nothing you don't already know, but here it is in one quick reference point. And seriously, take a peak at the Bad Bug Book! Your Tax Dollars at work.

f-18 crash in SD

I'm overreacting. Be warned upfront. But an F-18 crashed into a home 2 miles from ours and destroyed 2 homes. I know, 2 miles is a long way away - its not like it was the same street or even in the same neighborhood. The pilot was on a training flight over the pacific, had some sort of problem and was on his way back to Mirimar AFB which means that the flight passed over the vicinity of our house.

To give some perspective to my semi-freak out here:
*We see fighter jets nearly every day from our home and from one of our favorite parks.
*The Miramar Air Show has flight pattenrs directly over our house (get a great look at the Blue Angels for a week).
*There are 2 confirmed deaths and 2 people missing - reports say its a "grandma, mom, & 2 small kids" (that combo never happens at our house).

Here is a Googlemap that shows our house in relation to the crash site.

Like I said, I'm overreacting.

Christmas is Coming!!!

Well, we are officially "ready for Christmas!"

The tree is up, the outside lights are up (I still need to put the plastic lawn snowmen out, but that should get done tomorrow night), the "snow villiage" is up (will try to get a picture posted tomorrow), and all other decor in the house is doing its decorative thing. Jamey has completed a major portion of the gift purchasing (wait, I actually helped this year so "we have completed...").

Basically, all that's left to do is the celebrating!

As soon as we get pictures of the kids decorating the tree developed (I know, buy a digital camera or use your phone dummy) I'll post a couple here.