Well here it is New Year’s Day. Last night Sheryl and I did not do much except take care of our kids, just like any other night. Sheryl made the mistake of telling them about the ball dropping so they had to stay up until 11:00 to see that. Then she mentioned the Chicago fireworks at midnight. So the great procrastination continued for another hour. The kids saw the fireworks and then went to bed.

Today, we visited the Shedd Aquarium. This was something new for the kids. Mathew really liked the dolphin show. In his own words, “They were funner” After the Shedd, we went to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks show which started at 7:00. The show was nice but all too soon the day was over, we were off to home and put the kids to bed. Meghan wondered where her winter break went. Tomorrow she has to go back to school.

The holidays are almost upon us. It is fun to see the excitement on the kids faces. Each morning Mathew wakes up and asks “Is it today?” No matter what I say, he runs downstairs to see if their are any new gifts by the fireplace and then counts them all.

This afternoon, was Meghan’s class holiday party. Being the room dad, I was in charge of the party. The theme of the day was “Santa’s Cookie Factory” Before we got started, I swore them all in as Junior Elves. We started with a game of Santa Says. I never realized how hard it is to be the caller. At the end it was two kids and they were really good listeners. I used every trick I knew to get them to make a mistake. Eventually there was one.

After that it was time to make the cookies. Yes we actually had cookies. The night before, Meghan and I baked sugar cookies for her class. At the party, the kids frosted and decorated the cookies. The best part of being a junior elf was eating the cookie to make sure it was good. We also had coloring and made rice cake reindeer. All too soon our time was up and the day was over. Awwwwwww!

Now what am I going to do with Meghan for 2 weeks?

I love holiday shopping at Barnes and Noble. There is a book there for everybody. No matter what their age or interest, somebody has written a book. Last night I spent a little under an hour at one of the local Barnes and Noble stores and knocked ten gifts off the list. It was easy. All I do is walk up and down the aisles and look at the sections and then the books being displayed. Sometimes a book just jumps out at you and says “I’m Steve’s gift!” Othertimes, you walk into an area and think a cook book would be good for Aunt Sue. Then you look throught the books to find just the right book for Aunt Sue. I would have knocked more items off of our list but I ran out of time. The store closed. I guess I will have to go back for more gifts.

My how times have changed. In just over 15 years, the Kier Khronicles have evolved. At first in the late 1980’s they were individual hand written notes on your holiday card. Next came the hand written copy which was photocopied. 1994 was the debut of the formal Kier Khronicles as word document. Now 2006 is the next evolution of the Kier Khronicles, the on-line blog entry.

The early changes were an effort to reduce writers cramp and get my holiday cards out sooner. Later versions were just to neaten up the hand writing and this latest change reflects both a time and cost savings. The nice thing about his blog is that it is updated constantly. Now you no longer need to wait for the annual holiday card to obtain the latest news from the Kier family. A search of previous blog entries will allow you to see greater details of what has occurred over the past year. Another improvement allows you to view recent photos as part of the blog instead of in a seperate password protected gallery. I’m sure that there will be instances when a gallery will be used, but the blog not only allows in-line photos, but allows descriptive text to be included.

For those of you who received our annual holiday card, by now, you’ve noticed the recent addition to the family. It was about this time last year when we discovered we were expecting a new addition. This was a compelete shock to us as we had to work real hard to conceive our first two kids. This one came along totally naturally. After the shock wore off, everybody was excited and waiting for Michah to arrive. Naming him was a chore. His name needed to begin with an “M”, be six letters, 2 sylables and have an “H” in it. After a long search we settled on Michah Robert. The Robert is in memory of my mother Roberta who passed away two years ago. On July 28, 2006 Michah arrived.

The rest of the year was pretty uneventful. Meghan completed Kindergarden and entered first grade in the fall. It is amazing to see her just beginning to read. Pretty soon she will be reading up a storm. She loves school and has two first grade teacher who job share. She has Mrs. Carlson on Mondays, Tuesdays and alternate Wednesdays. On the other days, Mrs. Polezoes is her teacher. Meghan adores both of her teachers. Full day school has been a slight adjustment for Meghan. The biggest ordeal has been learning to eat lunch in the amount of time they are provided. But it appears she has finally gotten the routine down.

Mathew is also doing well. He continues to be obsessed with trains and Thomas the Tank Engine. Everything is Thomas. All of his clothes. His toothbrush and toothpaste. Even his silverware is Thomas! Thomas is everywhere in our house. Even though obsessed with Thomas, Mathew is learning. He learned his numbers and colors from the various engines in the world of Thomas. Mathew continues to grow and amazes us as he grows and shows us the things we take for granted all anew.

Well there you have our year in a nutshell. It has basically been raising the kids. There are far more details i previous blog entries and we invite you to view the archives. In the mean time, I wish everybody a happy holiday and a great new year!

PS. Be sure to check back for the lastest news, photos and thoughts posted on my blog.

I was just going back to bed at 5:00 AM this morning when suddenly the phone rang. I thought it was Sheryl calling to remind me of thing she forgot to tell me when she left just a few short moments ago. It turned out to be somebody from the school PTA asking me to activate the class phone tree to let everybody know school was closed. We have a snow day!

I made my calls and went back to bed but not before turning off all of the alarms set to wake Meghan and me up in time for the bus. The next thing I knew, Meghan was waking me up saying she needed to get ready for school. When I asked her if she wanted to goto school today, she said, “Yes, we get to play in the snow at recess!” Then I asked her what time it was.

It was a teaching moment, I just couldn’t resist. She looked at the clock and noticed it was after nine. Over an hour after the bus would have normally picked her up. She was upset she missed the bus. I let her suffer for a moment and then let her know school was cancelled. Her face lit up and she did a little dance. When I asked her why she was not disappointed as she had said she would, Meghan replied, “I changed my mind!”

A couple of hours later, I finally was motivated to move and fed everybody breakfast. By noon, we were all bundled up to enjoy the 10 inches of snow which had fallen overnight. I cleared the driveway while Meghan and Mathew played in the backyard with Baloo. Once I was done snow blowing, the kids joined me in front with their shovels. It seemed they knocked more snow back into the driveway than they cleared.

Then I noticed the our neighbor’s, Yolanda, snow covered steps. Yolanda lives by herself and is not able to clear the snow. I sent the kids over to her house to clear the steps and learn the value of doing a good deed. After I was done with the driveway, I went over to help the kids finish the steps. Yolanda noticed we were done and came out to give both Meghan and Mathew a dollar. At this pace, uncle Rick and his snowplows had better watch out!

Well here we are at another Thanksgiving. I have some great memories of Thanksgiving from my youth. We used to alway visit Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Grandma was/is hard to describe. On one hand she could be very sweet and then next moment she would come out with a real zinger or two. I think she became “crustier” as she got old. Sheryl is convinced that it was an act right until she passed away.

Grandma and Grandpa, moved from Spring Valley, NY to the Syracuse area to be close to, at the time, their only grandchildren. Once they arrived in Syracuse, we would spend all of the major holidays at Grandma’s house. Boy did she love to cook. Born in 1906, she relished her role as a homemaker and the holidays were her shining time!

No matter what time we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, the turkey was not ready. My brother, Rick, and I would alternately run around the house playing and then ask when will we eat. As the food started appearing on the table, we would try to grab a bite and be chased away. Finally it was time to eat. After feasting, Rick and I would play some more. Sometimes, we would play with the kids in our grandparents’ neighborhood.

But time marches on and now I have a family of my own. Our family tradition is to meet my in-laws, at a restaurant in Gurney, Illinois, called appropriately enough, “The In-Laws” They have a nice buffet and it is half way between Schaumburg and Milwaukee. Melissa’s (Sheryl’s sister), family visits Melissa’s mother-in-law for their Thanksgiving meal so neither Harriet or Sheryl typically want to cook. With the three kids, this works well. I expect that as the kids get older, we’ll modify our tradition and go from there.

All in all it was an enjoyable day. There is much to be thankful for. That in itself is something to be thankful for! So I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving and don’t be like a turkey and gobble too much!

The kids had fun. Dad had fun. I walked from house to house and the kids ran. Meghan caught up with her friend Kaylie and they trick or treated together for a while. I talked with Kaylie’s mom, Tracy as we watched the kids go from house to house. Sometimes, we had to ring the door bell because the button was too high. Now that Halloween is over, I think we have enough candy to last until Christmas.

During the day, I played room dad for Meghan’s class. During the school costume parade, I setup the room for the party. I got there a little early and the teacher asked me to take a photo of the class. For once I didn’t have my camera with me. I thought it would be too much to bring the goodies, Michah (yes Michah attended his first party) and the camera into school. Of the three, the only item I could leave home was the camera.

After the parade, the kids came back into the room for the party. I team with Mrs. Weirs as room parents. She had some styrofoam pumpkins which the kids decorated with glitter. It was a big hit. Then we fed them all sorts of sugar ladden treats and then played a game. All too soon it was time to clean up and send the hyperactive kids home to their parents. It was a lot of fun.

What about Michah you ask? Well he slept in his car seat through the whole party! Anyway it is back to work.

Well it is hard to believe that Halloween is almost upon us. Around here that means the growning season is over. While I may still need to mow the yard once more, there’s not much left to do but bring in the harvest. In case you came in late, Meghan and I planted a garden this year. We planted corn, watermelon and pumpkins.

I think the squirrels enjoyed the garden more than we did. We ate about 8 ears of corn out of over 60 corn stalks which sprouted. The rest went to the animals. At one point we had three pumpkins. Today, there was only one left which we could decorate for Halloween. Finally, we had a late entry of one watermelon.

I figure I spent about $75 plus countless hours in that garden for 8 ears of corn, 1 watermelon and 1 pumpkin. All of that costs less than $10 in the store. But somehow sharing the garden with Meghan made it all worth while. There was a certain thrill in her voice when she came back into the house after discovering another pumpkin or that we finally had a watermelon. As the commercial says “priceless”

Now it is time to get ready for Halloween. Meghan will be a fairy princess (what else would she be?). Of coarse Mathew will be Thomas the tank engine and Michah will be a pea in the pod. This year I’m a room parent for Meghan’s class and so I get to celebrate Halloween at school. That should be fun.