Fire up that Ol' John Deere...

We're still at Papa and Nana's, and today, Zachary played on the tractor. He loved looking at it, and even playing on it, but he doesn't like it when Papa tries to crank it up.

Here Papa is showing him some of the switches.
"Hmmm...I wonder what happens if I do this?"
When Papa tried to fire it up, Zachary almost jumped off the seat into Mommy's arms.
Zachary loves tractors, and loves John Deere. He's our little country boy.

~E~

Christmas Time is Here!

Merry Christmas! Zachary got tons of toys, and had a blast. He got a pedal tractor from Papa and Nana.

Jess got some more sewing stuff, and I got a Star Wars trivia book (and of course, I already found a question that is keyed with the wrong answer. Go figure!). Zachary also got some train stuff.

It has been a great Christmas so far, and we're at Nana and Papa's with Ken, Terri, and the girls now.

We rarely do the "traditional" thing, so this year for Christmas dinner, we are doing home made pizza. We're cooking them now, so it is gonna be yummy!

Love ya all, and Merry Christmas!

~E~

Christmas at Grandma's

We had Christmas at Grandma's house today. Jessica, Zachary, and I spent the day with her parents, Pat and Jackie, and her brother Patrick and his fiance Holly. It was a good time.

After lunch, we opened presents. It took Zachary a few minutes to get into it, but he finally got the hang of it.

Here's Zachary and Grandpa with his new School Bus toy.

Zachary gets help from Grandpa and Patrick opening his train set from Great Grandpa Downs and Great Grandma Mary.
Jessica got a sewing machine (note the totally fake surprised look).
She also got a new UGA purse.
I got a cool display. It is a set of Star Wars watches; one for each Star Wars movie. They are from some Burger King give away, and Pat and Jackie found them at an antique store. It was really neat.
We had a lot of fun!

~E~

Like Father, Like Son...

One of the stories my parents love to tell about me growing up was when a friend and I climbed into our huge toybox and played, unnoticed. My mom finally found us in there, after looking everywhere for us (the lid was closed). Zachary is, apparently, a bit too much like his father.

The other evening, he emptied his toybox, and climbed in, and started playing in there. Of course, he got bored after a while, so he climbed out and started playing with the toys he had thrown out of his toybox.

"Hmmm...what should I do with all these toys?"
"Oh, I know!"

"I'll stuff them down my shirt! It'll be a blast!"

"Hmmm...it's kinda lumpy. Maybe I should unload them. I bet if I stand up, they'll all fall out!"

What can you do? We definitely get free entertainment. :)

~E~

Vote for Paul Johnson!

Voting is now open for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award. Let's make sure Paul Johnson wins this thing for his great job at Georgia Tech this year.

Reasons to vote for Coach Johnson:

• Sports Illustrated projected the Jackets would go 3-9 this year. They finished 9-3, tied for the ACC Coastal Division lead.
• Pundits and talking heads argued that Coach Johnson's triple-option offense wouldn't work in a big-time, Division IA BCS Conference. Johnson's offense dropped over 400 yards on preseason #1 UGA, in Athens. They did the same thing to Miami.
• Coach Johnson had success in his first year at the helm at Tech, winning without players he recruited, and turning unknowns into nationally recognized names.

It is plain to see that the man can coach. He deserves to be Coach of the Year. Click the banner below to vote for Coach Johnson!

Paul Johnson

~E~

Sting Me, Baby!

For the first time since 2000, Georgia Tech can claim to be the best college football team in the state of Georgia, beating the Dawgs 45-42 on Saturday in the 103rd meeting of "Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate." Tech rushed for over 400 yards and Roddy Jones had over 200 yards on the ground.

It was a great, if tense, game. At halftime it looked like it has for the past seven years, with UGA up 28-12. However, things changed quickly after the break, with Jonathan "The Diesel" Dwyer rumbling for a 60 yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. That lead to 26 third quarter points, and a lead that the Dawgs could not overcome.

Of course, in our house, this game is never good, because a win for one means a loss for the other, but we handled it pretty well I think. I tried not to rub it in too much.

It was a great day for Georgia Tech football, and hopefully a harbinger for wonderful things to come.

~E~