Christmas Repost

from 12/24/05....

The following post is from a story writer of the Milwaukee Journal by the name of Charlie House....a long time ago.....Like before I was born..which was a long time ago.

I am sure that he wrote this, published it and maybe never thought about it again but if one of his kids ever googles his name I want them to know that it has been used in our family for close to forty years and will be used when my kids find out. The following is from my Mom....

“I found this article in the Milwaukee Journal newspaper (we were living at 2227 N. 7th Street in Sheboygan). I’ve read this story to each of you children when it became apparent the proper time had come for you to hear it. You then became part of a
Very special secret and were allowed to stay up late on Christmas Eve, bring the gifts out from their special hiding place and place them under the tree for the rest of the family as they slept."...Mom

With that, here you go. A Andrews Family Tradition.

When you were littler than you are now, you believed in Santa Claus. Now that you are bigger, you may be wondering about the beautiful secret of the really, truly Santa Claus. You are old enough to know, so this is a real story. It happened. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a baby was born in a city called Patara in a place called Asia Minor. The baby's name was Nicholas. I think they called him Nick. Except for one thing. Nick was just like other babies. He laughed some. He gurgled some. He cried some. He did all the things that other babies do. But the very one thing that was different about Nick was that he was going to grow up to become the really, truly Santa Claus.

Nick's father had a funny name; it was Epiphanies. Nick's mother had a pretty name; it was Joanna. Nick's name wasn't Santa Claus; not yet, anyhow. He got that name in a very funny way, which I will tell you about after a while. Nick's mother and father knew that Christ had come from heaven and that Christ was wonderfully good and kind. He loved people on the earth, and the people always tried to do the things that Christ wanted them to do. Nick's mother and father believed in Christ, so they called themselves Christians. They taught Nick to be good and kind, and to help people. As he grew from a baby to a boy and then to a man, he was always good and kind. One day some people came to Nick. They asked him if he would please come to work in their church so that he could help people. Nick said that he would like to do that, so he did. After a long time people saw what a wonderful person he really was. They asked him if he would come to a much bigger church in a much bigger city, which was called Myra. Nick did; and then, after a while, the people started to call him bishop, because that is what you call a person who is at the head of some churches. Bishop Nicholas was very happy. He liked big people and he liked little people; but most of all, he loved children. Sometimes he carried candy in his pocket so he could give little children a present when he met them. It was fun for him to see little children happy. Other times when Bishop Nicholas learned about people who needed something, he would go to their house and drop the something down the chimney. He enjoyed giving secret presents. Well, people began to think that Nick was so nice that they decided to call him a saint. (A saint is a person who is so nice that you could hardly know anybody nicer.) So the people called him Saint Nicholas. Nick began to travel from place to place to try to help people. Sometimes he traveled east; sometimes he traveled west; sometimes he traveled south, and sometimes he traveled north where it was very, very cold. And here is an odd thing. When St. Nick traveled to the north kind of places, he dressed as warmly as he could. He wore warm, black boots, and he wore red clothes (because some bishops wear red). He wore red mittens and a red hat and red trousers and his clothes were all trimmed with white fur. I am sure' that you know exactly how he looked. I think you know how he traveled, too. He had a big sleigh and he drove reindeer, just as you have thought of him doing all those years when you were little. But one day, after Nick had grown old become a very, very old man, a sad thing happened. He died on December 6 of the year numbered 343. That was 1,624 years ago. Everybody was sad. They looked at each other and asked, "Who can take his place?" Some people were willing to try. They dressed in red clothing trimmed with white fur, and they put on a make believe beard, and they went from house to house to give presents to the little children. They wanted to make the children glad, and they did. The people who dressed up like St. Nicholas couldn't make believe all the time so they did it just around Christmas time, because it was near to the time that Saint Nicholas went away. Other people got St. Nick mixed up with Christmas time, even though Christmas doesn't really have very much to do with the wonderful, true story of Santa Claus. Then a long, long, long time passed. Some Dutch people who lived in Holland moved away from there and came to America, where you live. Did you know that the Dutch people talk differently? When Dutch people want to say the name St. Nicholas, they say it this way: San Nicolas. Now I am going to stop reading for a little while so you can try to say San Nicolas a few times, very quickly. Try it. Now you see? It sounds exactly like -Santa Claus." So you see, the name as we say it is not a really truly name- it is a fun kind of a Nickname! Santa Claus is a kind of a fun man, too. Even though there was once upon a time a really, truly St. Nick, there isn't any more, except just for make believe. You are big enough to know that if the really, truly St. Nick had stayed alive all that time, he would be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old and, of course he couldn't live to be that old, could he? So now, big people make believe that the wonderful man who lived ever so long ago is still in the world. The reason they do this is because it is a very special way to make little children happy. And that's the really, truly story of Santa Claus.

2007, The Wonderful Year in Sports

I am a big fan of Steve Czaban who I only get to listen to while he is on Bob and Brian in the morning on 102.9 in Milwaukee. He was giving thanks to the year in sports and I wanted to paraphrase.

Year of Shame: 2007 Sports..

1. Dog fighting…Michael Vick's love for dogs
2. Ref. gambling…This includes NBA and Big Ten referee’s
3. Adam “Pac Man” Jones….Strippers are so much fun
4. Bill "look I learned sign language" Belichick
5. Imus “love those nappy headed hoes”
6. Isiah “where’s the love” Thomas (suspiciously Martha Burke was no where to be found)
7. Barry “What’s up with my head getting bigger” Bonds
8. Marian (Sorry I got caught) Jones
9. Mitchell Report (really does anyone really care anymore, lets play two people)
10. Chris Benoit….The ultimate in roid rage
11. NFL Shootings…..One to start the season in Denver and one to end the season with the Redskins moarning.
12. O.J.’s reality show wanna be (hey everyone, there’s a party down the hall, got your guns?)
13. DUI’s in all sports, Jerry Buss and Tony Larussa the most notable
14. NFL Network and Big Ten Network strong holding the cable companies.

Positives
1. Thank you Tony Dungee for proving that a good guy can reach the top.
2. Thank you Brett Farve for giving the gift of football to all us Packer fans for yet another year.
3. Thank you Ava Longoria Parker for keeping my waining interest in the NBA alive
4. Thank you Sopranos’ for leaving us all wondering if Tony finally got it in the end.
5. Thank you Devin Hester for all you do, it is fun to watch
6. Thank you Navy Football for stomping on Notre Dame while they are down.
7. Thank you Mike “I’m a man” Gundy for the best coaches rant all football season

8. Thank you Britney Spears for taking the time out of your busy day and show us how not to raise our kids.



Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

I'm Rick James Bitch!

Today I was watching the morning news and they had this story about Oprah giving every one of her audience members (30 of them) $1000 at the yearly "favorites" things show where audience members go fucking crazy because they get all the stuff free. The only caveat is that they had to "Pay it Forward", meaning they couldn't keep it they had to give it away then report back what they did with it. Some of the stuff was amazing, like turning that $1000 into helping to pay for brain surgery for someone....really?

Now I am not a Oprah fan, in fact I think she has gotten to ridiculous but this was a good idea so....

Today I am at the post office and am in line waiting to mail some items for work and this 6' blond bomb shell comes in and gets in line behind me. You know the type, big sunglasses (even though it was not sunny out all day), fur coat, big dangling purse with lots of metal circle things and jingles all over the place. I smile...she ignores..whatever. Anyway as I leave the post office she is in front of me, we walk up to the doors and she stops...moves to the side where I see this women coming in with a cane and moving a little slow so now I am at the door, the blond has moved a side and in approaches the lady with the cane. I do the obvious and open the door to let the lady with the cane walk through but as she gets past me the blond quickly moves through the open door that I am holding then proceeds to not hold the next set of doors in front of her and letting it close in my face never even considering that I was behind her...there she walks away to her Cadillac CTS and off she goes, wow oblivious to the world around her.

Well I was only a block away from a small quaint store called "Sense of Taste" that I decided to stop in and purchase a couple of cigars, not that I am a expert on cigars or anything but about once a year I get the craving for a good one. I got out of the car, walked up to the meter and pulled out the change in my pocket (going ding-a-ling-a-ling) and I had a nickel which gave me 10 minutes, more than enough time really but there in front of me in my hand were two quarters which would put 2 hours on the meter...I dropped in the quarters, got two hours put on and left it for whoever pulled up behind me...merry Christmas to someone....until Jen pointed out at supper that it was probably the blond bitch that got the two hours.....UGGGHH!!! Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!!!!

Clang Clang Clang Came the Trolley

This weekend something special happened. It doesn't happen very often but sometimes everything just comes together. This weekend it was the 1913 Steam Locomotive that came into Plymouth WI. It was big, black, loud and just plain impressive. Sister has lots of pictures and with the light snow falling and having my boys with me I couldn't help of love the time spent.

Funniest Man on TV

I know it has been a while since I have posted but lots has happened and I am just catching up now.

Right before Thanksgiving both Tommy and I got pneumonia, worst part is that we had to stay home for the feast, best part is that we got to watch the Packers play with no distractions. Both of us are better in case you were wondering, but just today I have finally been able to work out without to much of a breathing problem.

But the real reason for my post is that my Dad and I were talking about Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien on NBC late night. Conan is taking over for Jay in 2009 and most think that Jay has decided to retire, but I have to say that I think more is going on behind the scenes. Conan is the funniest man on TV and if you haven't had the joy of staying up late enough to see him I recommend to do it just once so you can fully comprehend his brilliance.

This clip is from the 2006 Emmy Awards and gives you a small taste of his funny.