As Husband and I prepare to brave the malls and toy stores in an admittedly-procrastinated effort to complete our holiday shopping, I can't help but to remember some of the better childhood toys I received way back when, as well as some of the other "kid stuff" that helped to shape my generation...I only wish some of these toys were still around today, because they were totally kick-butt! From the obvious to the more obscure, here are some do you remember 's for kids of the 80's....
*The original Transformer toys...Yeah, the live-action movie totally rocked, but you can't beat the original toys...definitely More than Meets the Eye! And do you remember the "original" Optimus Prime????
*G. I. Joe's...Can you still make the rapid-fire machine gun noise with your tongue? (Warning: Author assumes no responsibility for cleaning bills incurred or embarrassment received resulting from attempting rapid-fire machine gun noise in public. Attempt at your own risk).
*Banana-Seat Bikes...Whatever happened to them??...They were stylish and comfortable! Enough said.
*Atari and Colleco Game Systems...Because sometimes realistic graphics and complex soundtracks are of no help when you are trying to get your frog across the road.
*Fraggle Rock...wait for it....wait for it...ok...Cast your cares away - Worries for another day - Let the music play - Down in Fraggle Rock".
*Film Strips in school...Don't forget to press "Play" on the cassette player!
*Happy Meals...I'm talking the kind that came in a box...Eat, then play...Genius!
*Read-Along Books...Sure, the ones that came with records were good...and cassettes were great...but I had a Disney "Lonsome Ghost" book that had a device that, when slid across the page, would read the book to you, complete with sound effects....Way cool!
*He-Man and Masters of the Universe....waking up Christmas morning to Castle GreySkull set up under the tree, complete with the vehicle that had real boulder-pounding action...now that was a Christmas.
*The Garfield Christmas Special...who knew John's grandma was a biker chick? I didn't see that coming!
*Sesame Street...you know, when it was good! No Elmo...Mr. Hooper was alive...can you tell me how to get BACK to Sesame Street?
*Reading Rainbow...But you don't have to take my word for it! ;)
*Christmas Trees that were NOT pre-lit...what Christmas would be complete without dad muttering strings of expletives under his breath as he diligently worked to get all of the light strands working on the tree? (Ok, so I am glad I get to reap the benefits of 20 years worth of technological advancements, but I can still enjoy the memories, right????).
Clearly, I could go on and on. But I won't. Feel free to add your own in a comment - I'd love to hear it!
Happy Friday!
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A Request...
I am the first to admit that my family is, well, less than traditional. There are obvious reasons for this (I'm from the North, Husband is from the South....) *ha ha ha* .... And there are the "not-so-obvious" reasons.
When I met Husband, he was in the final stages of a divorce (and no, there was no scandal here, sorry....if you want scandal, tune in to Days of Our Lives or C-Span...). While I am sure no divorce is easy, this divorce was particularly difficult, as Husband had grown extremely close to his extended family - so much so that I had the awkward (at the time) pleasure of being introduced to them, in much the same manner as any boy- or girl- friend would meet the parents. In my case, the awkwardness quickly dissolved, as I was accepted into this family unconditionally. To this day, we remain close - clearly not "traditional", but very much family. We now get together frequently with Husband's ex-wife and her family for holiday gatherings and birthdays.
I have chosen to provide you a little insight into my less-than-traditional family because I need to ask something very important of you, my readers....
Several days ago, Husband received word that his ex-wife's grandmother was admitted to the hospital after having trouble eating. Tests confirmed our worst fears. Yesterday, she was transferred to a hospice facility, and no one really has any idea how much longer she really has.
Any prayers or happy thoughts sent their way would be most appreciated. And I would also encourage each of you to take a little time out of your day to truly recognize and appreciate the value of your own friends and families, in whatever forms they may take.
I am thankful for the opportunity to share our view from our corner of the universe with you, and I look forward to providing continued updates, especially those in which I can offer a more light-hearted (and dare I say "random") perspective.
Until then, thanks for wading through the serious side of "His2Dads"... You all ROCK!
Peace.
When I met Husband, he was in the final stages of a divorce (and no, there was no scandal here, sorry....if you want scandal, tune in to Days of Our Lives or C-Span...). While I am sure no divorce is easy, this divorce was particularly difficult, as Husband had grown extremely close to his extended family - so much so that I had the awkward (at the time) pleasure of being introduced to them, in much the same manner as any boy- or girl- friend would meet the parents. In my case, the awkwardness quickly dissolved, as I was accepted into this family unconditionally. To this day, we remain close - clearly not "traditional", but very much family. We now get together frequently with Husband's ex-wife and her family for holiday gatherings and birthdays.
I have chosen to provide you a little insight into my less-than-traditional family because I need to ask something very important of you, my readers....
Several days ago, Husband received word that his ex-wife's grandmother was admitted to the hospital after having trouble eating. Tests confirmed our worst fears. Yesterday, she was transferred to a hospice facility, and no one really has any idea how much longer she really has.
Any prayers or happy thoughts sent their way would be most appreciated. And I would also encourage each of you to take a little time out of your day to truly recognize and appreciate the value of your own friends and families, in whatever forms they may take.
I am thankful for the opportunity to share our view from our corner of the universe with you, and I look forward to providing continued updates, especially those in which I can offer a more light-hearted (and dare I say "random") perspective.
Until then, thanks for wading through the serious side of "His2Dads"... You all ROCK!
Peace.
Monday, November 26, 2007
'Tis the Season
Ah, the holidays....growing up, this was always my favorite time of year. Of course, I have always been very close with my family, and this season just gave us an excuse to get together and share a lot of laughter (sure, there were arguments too, but those just come with the territory when a fundamentalist grandmother starts in on her liberal daughters and grandchildren....Good Times!)...
Anyway, now that I am "all grown up" with a family of my own, I was excited to start creating some holiday magic. As it turns out, that magic MUST be found only at the bottom of a glass or five of your favorite wine (mine would be riesling). My partner's mother and sister came in for Thanksgiving. On their own, they were marvelous. However, when you add their incessant craving for shopping to the mix, watch out! To be fair, we do live in a city centered on tourism, and therefore one might understand their need to "see the sights," and rid their pocket books of a few dead presidents while at it.
Being the non-shopper that I am, I did try and reason with my partner, promising him that I could get a bunch of house-work done while he took his family out shopping. On the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. With like a billion people. But my feeble attempts were to no avail, as he made some "logical" excuse about my need to spend time with the family.
So here is where I found my holiday issue. While in a large mall, our son managed to soak himself, rendering his very cute holiday outfit un-wearable. To top it off, the water I had placed in bottles in the diaper bag managed to succeed in its efforts to escape bottle-prison, and thus saturated everything in the bag, grandma's video camera, and the extra formula while still leaving a large pool on the ground under the stroller. Did I mention that there were at least a billion people in the mall that day? SOOO....my partner and I were off to find the nearest restroom, which was, of course, at least 5 miles away.
When we reached our much sought-after destination, we were excited to find that this mall provided 2 family restrooms (as you can imagine the looks we get when we take our son into the mens' room and there is NO baby change table...*sigh*). So, yes, we were thrilled to see 2 family restrooms; however, both were occupied. Minutes before we arrived, woman-kind must have received a signal to use the restroom as well, as what seemed to be thousands of women had descended upon the womens' room. We thought that there had to be someone famous in there - maybe even the entire cast of Days of Our Lives - to attract such a large number of ladies at the same time (ha ha...just kidding...sorry about the stereotype!). Apparently two women weren't fans of the show, though, because they jumped ship and headed to the family rooms. We arrived just after they got in line.
By this time we have a fussy baby in wet clothes, a drenched diaper bag still leaking into the stroller, and two very frantic daddies trying to make sense of it all. We were second in line, as we assumed that the two ladies in front of us were a family and needed to use the restroom for some family-related bathroom use. But what they say about "assuming" is true; when one of the family rooms finally became available, in stepped ONE of the women.
Ok. Wait a minute. Clearly I must have misunderstood the purpose of the "familyroom" concept. Here it is the holiday season, we are three very distressed people just looking for a little dryness, and there are two women who blatantly decide to cheat in the fundamental bathroom rules of order?
Eventually, we did make it into the familyroom, and we were able to salvage enough "dryness" to piece together a suitable change of clothes for our son, and we were able to sop up the remaining water and ultimately reclaim a sense of control over our lives. But only AFTER waiting for two cheaters.
And so, to those two women out there, where ever they may be, I'd like to say one thing:
"Happy freakin' Holidays!" and the teacher in us would add "Next time, it will be to the back of the line for YOU!"
I need another glass of riesling :)
His2Dads
Anyway, now that I am "all grown up" with a family of my own, I was excited to start creating some holiday magic. As it turns out, that magic MUST be found only at the bottom of a glass or five of your favorite wine (mine would be riesling). My partner's mother and sister came in for Thanksgiving. On their own, they were marvelous. However, when you add their incessant craving for shopping to the mix, watch out! To be fair, we do live in a city centered on tourism, and therefore one might understand their need to "see the sights," and rid their pocket books of a few dead presidents while at it.
Being the non-shopper that I am, I did try and reason with my partner, promising him that I could get a bunch of house-work done while he took his family out shopping. On the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. With like a billion people. But my feeble attempts were to no avail, as he made some "logical" excuse about my need to spend time with the family.
So here is where I found my holiday issue. While in a large mall, our son managed to soak himself, rendering his very cute holiday outfit un-wearable. To top it off, the water I had placed in bottles in the diaper bag managed to succeed in its efforts to escape bottle-prison, and thus saturated everything in the bag, grandma's video camera, and the extra formula while still leaving a large pool on the ground under the stroller. Did I mention that there were at least a billion people in the mall that day? SOOO....my partner and I were off to find the nearest restroom, which was, of course, at least 5 miles away.
When we reached our much sought-after destination, we were excited to find that this mall provided 2 family restrooms (as you can imagine the looks we get when we take our son into the mens' room and there is NO baby change table...*sigh*). So, yes, we were thrilled to see 2 family restrooms; however, both were occupied. Minutes before we arrived, woman-kind must have received a signal to use the restroom as well, as what seemed to be thousands of women had descended upon the womens' room. We thought that there had to be someone famous in there - maybe even the entire cast of Days of Our Lives - to attract such a large number of ladies at the same time (ha ha...just kidding...sorry about the stereotype!). Apparently two women weren't fans of the show, though, because they jumped ship and headed to the family rooms. We arrived just after they got in line.
By this time we have a fussy baby in wet clothes, a drenched diaper bag still leaking into the stroller, and two very frantic daddies trying to make sense of it all. We were second in line, as we assumed that the two ladies in front of us were a family and needed to use the restroom for some family-related bathroom use. But what they say about "assuming" is true; when one of the family rooms finally became available, in stepped ONE of the women.
Ok. Wait a minute. Clearly I must have misunderstood the purpose of the "familyroom" concept. Here it is the holiday season, we are three very distressed people just looking for a little dryness, and there are two women who blatantly decide to cheat in the fundamental bathroom rules of order?
Eventually, we did make it into the familyroom, and we were able to salvage enough "dryness" to piece together a suitable change of clothes for our son, and we were able to sop up the remaining water and ultimately reclaim a sense of control over our lives. But only AFTER waiting for two cheaters.
And so, to those two women out there, where ever they may be, I'd like to say one thing:
"Happy freakin' Holidays!" and the teacher in us would add "Next time, it will be to the back of the line for YOU!"
I need another glass of riesling :)
His2Dads
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