The Rest of the Week in Oak Harbor

Believe it or not, we didn't go to El Cazador again.

After Christmas, we spent a few more days on the Island. It was good for Antonio to get plenty of time with his family. He was happy to watch his cousins play at Mamma and Bonk's house, and he was happy to laugh at Uncle Alvin everytime he saw him.

Havana, however, still had to wear her cone. And all the other dogs laughed at her.

Merry Christmas, Antonio!

Antonio's first Christmas. Wow. Seems like just yesterday he was refusing to come into the world, now, just over three months later, he's celebrating Santa's birthday with the rest of us.



Here's how Antonio celebrated his first Christmas with his entire family in Oak Harbor.


We started Christmas Eve with the Rodgers side of the family. First with a little football-watching (stupid Seahawks), then with a little gift-giving. (Notice cousin Preston's 7th Heaven "dress.")

After a traditional Oak Harbor Christmas Eve dinner at (where else?) El Cazador, we returned home to put Antonio down for the night. (Let me just use this space here to brag about how good of a sleeper my son is. He goes to bed at the same time evey night, and makes it through the entire night needing just a few quick snacks from Mommy. I think he's a little bit wonderful. Deb thinks he's a lot bit wonderful.) Then Deb and I returned for the end of the stocking portion of the Rodgers family gift-giving.

That's when we made our way up to the Barge house for the Christmas Eve with the Barge family. (And if it seems that we "make our way" to-and-from our families' houses often, it's because we do. Most of our time is spent walking one way or another around that corner.) We opened gifts with the immediate Barge family. This was fun, too, but Mommy and Daddy were getting tired, and we knew that Santa was on his way, so it was probably time for us to go to bed as well.


When we work up (or when Antonio woke us up), we headed back down to the Rodgers house for Christmas morning presents with the cousins (since the Barge house was filled with old people who like to sleep in). Santa was good to the Crockett boys, and it was a nice morning.


Then we went back to the Barge house to see what Santa left for Antonio. Santa was very good to him.


Then it was back around the corner for the Rodgers family traditional brunch at the Wallers'. (There are no pictures of this, but it was a good brunch, as always.) Then it was back around the corner (for what I believe was the last time of the day), to get ready for Christmas dinner and presents with the rest of Debbie's extended family.


The food was plentiful and the company was good, but by this time, Deb and I were very tired. (I won't even tell you how tired Antonio was. Christmas is very busy for a three-month-old.) So we put him to sleep, his first Christmas behind him. He didn't understand everything that happened, but he smiled a lot.

And that was the best gift his parents could ever ask for.

Happy Birthday, Auntie Chrissy

We're up in Oak Harbor for the holidays, but before we celebrate the birth of Santa Claus, we've got another family birthday to take care of before Christmas.

And to celebrate Auntie Chrissy's birthday, we went to, yep, El Cazador.

This will be a short entry today, because there will be plenty of holiday pictures and stories to talk about in the next few days.

Like tonight for example, when we head out for Christmas Eve dinner with the Rodgers side of the family.

To El Cazador.

Antonio's Sister is a Cone Head

Poor Havana.

Havana has had a problem with her eye for some time now. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it bothers her something fierce. So we finally went ahead and scheduled surgery for her.

She had the surgery yesterday. How did it go, you ask. Well, let's just say Havana didn't have the best night of sleep in her life. Neither did Mom and Dad. (Antonio slept fine, by the way. He's really doing well with this sleeping thing.)

She's feeling much better today, except for the whole cone thing. She has to wear this for two weeks. It's not fun to have all the other dogs in the neighborhood laugh at you. It's even less fun for your parents to laugh at you. (Sorry, Havana.)

At least when brother laughs at her, it's really cute.

And it's always nice when Uncle Alvin visits. Like Antonio, he's one of Havana's favorites. But even he couldn't cheer her up. She's still got to wear that stupid cone.

Go Team!

When we last talked, Deb and I had decided to abandon our child and head down to the Tacoma Dome to see if Oak Harbor High School could win the Washington State 4A football title. And for once in the history of the town of Oak Harbor, its citizens were not disappointed.

After that (other than the fact that everything else we do for the rest of our lives will pale in comparison) we pretty much have just been focused on getting ready for the holidays. Here is the official Santa picture that Antonio had taken last week.

Deb also had her final event of the year last night for the Hutch, raising over $5 million. That meant that I spent the longest stretch of time with Antonio by myself. The good news is that we made it through the night with minimal fuss, and we're both still alive and kicking, so I guess the evening was a success on all fronts.

Here are a couple recent pictures of Antonio for your enjoyment.

Here Comes Santa Claus

It's still freakishly cold here. Not as cold as it was, but when you spend a few days in sunny California when the low temperature gets all the way down to 53 degrees, well, you build up a little tolerance for the cold weather.

Since it was considerably colder than 53 degrees, Antonio got all bundled up and headed out for a shopping excursion with Mommy and Auntie Chrissy.

While he was shopping, guess which jolly fat man he saw. (No, not Daddy, he was still in Los Angeles.) That's right, Santa.


Even though he wasn't exactly thrilled with the encounter, Antonio told him about all the presents he wanted for Christmas this year. (Which probably consists of breast milk and a dog who doesn't bark so much.) But still, meeting the big guy for the first time is a pretty important deal.

Mommy got an early Christmas present, too. Antonio has started sleeping for 8 consecutive hours. That means Mommy can get 8 consecutive hours of sleep as well. That right there is the gift that keeps on giving.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

More snow. There's so much snow, it's like waking up in the middle of a Miami Vice episode. (Think about it.) (And yes, this is the same picture from earlier, just picture the same shot with more snow on the ground. That's what it looks like.)

Not just that, but we've got our tree up. It's our first tree together and Antonio's first tree ever. So it's a pretty good tree, not just some cheap thing we picked up at Wal-Mart. (If you're interested in purchasing a tree like ours, you can find them at walmart.com -- for a pretty cheap price, too.)

Of course the tree is decorated in purple and gold -- Husky colors -- but if you were to ask big WSU fan Torin what the colors are for, he'd tell you they are for the Oak Harbor High School Wildcats. (He'd tell you that because we told him that.)

Why would we tell him that our tree was inspired by our high school? (Besides the fact that it's fun to lie to kids?) I'll tell why. Oak Harbor is heading to the state football championship game for the first time in history. After winning a grand total of 4 games during my entire high school career, you can see that this is quite an improvement. It's the biggest story in town, and all people at The Country Club (not really he only place to eat in town besides El Cazador -- it just feels that way) and El Cazador (new pictures added below) can talk about. It might just be the best thing that's ever happened to anyone anywhere ever.

And yes, Deb and I are planning on being big nerds and going to the Tacoma Dome to watch the game.

What's All This White Stuff?

Antonio spent his first night at home after visiting the grandparents for Thanksgiving. And what did he wake up to find?

Snow! Lots and lots of snow!

Mommy and Daddy quickly got him dressed in his snow outfit to get some pictures, but the snow had already started to mix with rain, so we didn't stay outside very long.

But Havana isn't a little baby, and she can brave the elements, or to tell the truth, Mommy and Daddy make her brave the elements to go potty outside because that's the kind of terrible people we are. First we bring a little boy into the house and give him all of our love and attention, then we make her go outside in the freezing weather to do her business. (Sorry, this last paragraph was dictated to me by a disgruntled canine sister.)

This was already a busy morning. But then we had visitors. Aunt Becky and Uncle Greg came over with Antonio's cousin's, Torin and Preston.

(Now Uncle Greg can have the picture he didn't have on his birthday.)

Preston gave Antonio his first nickname. Because he's two years old and has a binky in his mouth most of the time, it's sometimes kind of hard to understand what he has to say, thus, his trip to go see "Cousin No-no."

All in all, it was a good morning. And there was more activity in the afternoon, too. So come back later and read all about that.

Happy Turkey Day!

And first of all, Happy Birthday, Uncle Greg.

(Since I don't think a picture of Greg and Antonio exists at this time, here's Antonio and his cousins, Torin and Preston.)

Today was Antonio's first Thanksgiving, and he looked extra handsome in his fancy Thanksgiving clothes.

Here is a list of things he is thankful for:

Grandma and Grandpa (Barge edition) -- They love to love Antonio. He loves that.

Grandma and Grandpa (Rodgers edition ) -- They also love Antonio. He doesn't mind that one bit. (Here's Grandma and Antonio the day before Thanksgiving.)

Uncle Rich -- Antonio met his Uncle (or Great Uncle, I think) Rich today. It was love at first sight.

Uncle Alvin -- He talks to Antonio all the time, and today they watched football together. Even better than that, Alvin taught Antonio the first of many bad habits he'll probably teach him in his lifetime -- how to suck his thumb. Next week, Alvin will teach Antonio how to swear.

All his other friends and family -- Antonio was so loved today, I'm sure he was enjoying himself and how spoiled he was. That's what holidays are for, I guess. We usually do our best to neglect him, so I hope he doesn't get too used to it.

Comfy clothes -- Antonio is thankful that at the end of Thanksgiving, after eating his fill of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie (or in this case, breast milk) he can change into sweats and a t-shirt and just kick back and relax.

And last but not least:

Mommy and Daddy -- Believe it or not, until today, we didn't have any pictures of Mom and Dad and Antonio. We fixed that today.

Havana was thankful to be included, too