Where the hell was I going?

Ho Ho Ho...    It's the Holiday time of the year again.  Just got home from my yearly pilgrimage down to my sisters in Vandalia.  Everything is about the same there...   Jo is moving out and on, Julie is doing good, her boyfriend Bruce is healthy and the animals are all Ok.

This was the first year that the Hopp family Christmas standard traditions have changed in 28 years for me.  Normally what happens is we drive down on Christmas Eve, have dinner at Grandma Hopp's, then go to midnight mass either at Grandma Hopp's or Grandma Flemings church(it alternates every year).  Go back to Charries sleep, wake up at 8am for quiche at Granda Hopp's..   Eat 'dinner' at 1pm, open presents as for the Hopp side and then pack up and head to Grandma Flemings.  Open presents there, then eat, pack up and head back to Michigan to do our own imediate family Christmas.

Well last year we lost Grandma Fleming, so instead of going there we went to Aunt Karens, which was very nice and we had good food.  It just felt very different, without Grandma Fleming pushing us all to be together as family the Fleming side of things don't feel as 'family' as they used to.  The other part that changed was that I didn't go back to Michigan with the girls, and Jodie didn't even go to Aunt Karens.  We (Julie, Jodie, and I) exchanged gifts that moring at the Hopp's side of things.  I went back to Charrie's that night and left for home at 4am the morning of the 26th.

Stopped in Appleton on the way home, did a significant amount of shopping.  Picked up things for the SASlings and for myself.  Incase anybody didn't know they are re-releaseing some of the orignal transformer toys that I played with 20 years ago.   I've bought all they have released, as well as some of the newer ones and now have I think 16 of them.  They are also making at new live action Transformers movie that will come out on 7.4.2007.  I'm pretty geeked about that.

It's late, and I've gotta work in the A.M. so I'm off to bed...   Will try to post pictures/video from xmas as soon as I find a decent picture resizer for vista that can do multiple pictures at once.

- addios

. Bought them their domain name, put up the website and helped them start it. Hopefully they do better at keeping this one up to date.

Been listening to a lot of PodCasts lately...   Some of them are: Best of the Left, MoPod Show, Democracy Now, Wait Wait Don't tell me, and Gay Pimpin with Jonny McGovern.  Quiet the mix, and definatly not for everyone but fun none the less.  Definately educational/funny.

Have some interesting questions from class that I figured I'd share with you and see what your answers were...

P.S: I know I haven't updated in awhile..  I'll try to change that.

1.    How would you define culture?
2.    What is something that is important to you in your culture? What is the importance?
3.    What are the attitudes or beliefs that are most characteristic of your culture?
4.    Have you ever lived in another culture? How long? What was that like?
5.    Do you think the media presents people from other cultures in a positive or negative manner? Can you give examples?

Class reunion for the class of '96 from Cassopolis High School(Ross Beaty High School) was this weekend.  Kristi and Amy organized it.  Was small, but that's Ok.  I'll be uploading pictures when I get home and have a decent internet connection.  Lots of people are married and have a kid or kids.  Some people have changed, others haven't changed at all.  Pretty standard.  A group of us who didn't have to run home to take care of kids and wanted to keep hanging out headed over to Hacienda had some drinks, then went out to the Brosman's for a bonfire till 2 in the morning.  All in all a good trip so far.  All next week I'm at my sisters house in Vandalia working on the house.

I'll post more about the class reunion when I post the pictures.