Category: Holidays

Posted on

Christmas Cards

I finished this year’s Xmas card last night and I decided to put these up here for nostalgia and posterity.

I never much appreciated the cards I got each year with friend’s kids pictured. As a rule they were either crappy snapshots or cheesey Sears photos. (Ken, your pix were always the exception to the rule.)

Once I had children I recognized the motivation to send pictures of one’s kids was awfully powerful, but I wanted to do it a bit differently. I started in 2001, when Lex was barely 8 mos old.

2001

The actual motivation behind this picture was the fact that our house was so incredibly messy, every shot we had of the kids had a background of clutter and crap. So I made a “virtual room” for them. Nothing in the shot is real, except for the kids (and the scans of photos, tho the frames are digital…. note the World Trade Towers).

Mommy would have been proud of the shine on those floors, huh?

2002

This was done by Lis on her first and only foray into the world of digital imagery. One long night on the computer, a crash course using a program called Painter, and she produced this masterpiece. A Winter Wonderland hand-drawn on a computer.



2003

A friend took this shot on a visit to Central Park just after Thanksgiving that year.

It was just too fun (and easy) to pass up.

2004

I was at a loss what to do last year and started searching the Web for a graphic to inspire me. Found an illustration of a Christmas Elf (not a fairy, mind you… an elf). I really enjoyed doing this one and it’s gotten lots of compliments, so I just had to come up with something for this year.





2005

I kinda like what I ended up with this year. Still have mixed feelings about it, tho. It’s not what I originally envisioned, but hey…. that’s the way it goes. Hopefully I got it done in time to get printed and mailed to y’all by Christmas, but if you can’t wait and want to know what it looks like CLICK HERE. If not, we hope to get it to you by Christmas (true, it does look doubtful, but you’ll get it eventually).

Happy Holidays!!

Gary & Lis

Posted on

Resuming Normal Activities

Following my doctor’s advice to resume normal activities, I went forward with the 2nd Annual State College Santa Crawl on Saturday night. In the initial event last December we had five participants, this year we tripled that number. I do believe that the event now has enough inertia that it will probably double in size next year. That should allow it to take on a life of its own similar to the way the A-Z bar tour that I created in Philadelphia went on for at over 10 years after I left town (for all I know the A-Z tour is still going on).

For more photos of our event, click here.

Posted on

Thanksgiving NY Style



Santa always finishes the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

After the parade we left the building we were in (Ed Sullivan Theatre, aka Letterman Show) to head to our cars. We had a group photo taken by a passerby. Wanted a second but couldn’t get the kids’ attention as they were fascinated by the street-sweepers.

We were accompanied by an old friend and co-worker of Lis’, Doug Reuter, his wife, Susan and 2 kids. His first was born 3 mos before Charlotte. His 2nd the same day as Lex. We’ve known Doug for more than 20 yrs.

We went to the Upper West Side and Nancy’s apartment (Nana to the kids.) A little play in the local park playground and dinner.

All in all a fine day.

Posted on

SC in SC

Santa Crawl in State College, that is…

The “A-Z Bar Tour” that I founded in Philadelphia in 1981 grew to be a huge success and I’m trying to recreate that experience here with a variation called the Santa Crawl. As you might imagine, a Santa Crawl is simply a bar tour where everyone dresses in Santa costumes. It isn’t something I invented, but I am trying to bring the experience to State College (Santa crawling is a worldwide phenomena with one of the biggest actually happening in New York).

We kicked off our version of the Santa Crawl here in State College last year. Here’s my favorite photo from the event which is also hanging prominently in Hooters.

Check this out for more photos from last year.

When someone asks why we do this, I simply give an answer from this list (responses substantially borrowed from the Baltimore Santa Crawl.

  • meet people
  • meet women
  • confuse the crap outta kids
  • get hugs from the girls from Hooters
  • fill everyone you meet with joy
  • become instant celebrities and rock stars
  • get an invite to the Hooters Xmas party (the last few photos taken last year were from there)

This year’s event will take place on Saturday, Dec 10th and we expect to at least triple the size of last year’s group. It’s a pretty safe bet that I’ll be posting photos on the 11th. The wonderful thing about digital cameras is that you can’t open them up and expose all your film to the light and thus ruin all your photos (know what I mean Gary 🙂 ) so I’m sure to have some pictures no matter how hard we party that night.

Posted on

Thanksgiving Day

There’s lots to be thankful for this year. Tops among them the opportunity to see Ray Davies (of the KinKs) live this Monday night.

If you haven’t heard it, listen to Ray’s new song, Thanksgiving Day, practically his only original material recorded in about 10 years. It’s classic Ray, a slice-of-life within in an institutional context. BTW, listen to the words, OK?

And for forward-thinking nostalgia, there’s also Father Christmas for your listening enjoyment.

Happy Holidays

PS – See Ray on Conan Thanksgiving night.

Posted on

Elliot’s Halloween Pics


After seeing everyone else’s Halloween photos, I figured I had better sign up for this blog thing and show off some of my own.

And by the way, no that was not my alcoholic beverage in the first picture. It was being consumed by an individual of a legal drinking age.

P.S. – Uncle Larry, I’m hoping that your Nittany Lions win out and go to the Fiesta Bowl. I’m trying to convince my Dad that we should make our second straight trip to Tempe on New Year’s if they do.

Posted on

Belated H’Ween Pix



Just saw Larry’s post busting me for not putting a shot of Charlotte up.

I didn’t get home that night till the kids were already trick-or-treating. When they got home no-one was willing to pose. So I didn’t have good shots, so I didn’t put one up. I now realize my transgression and hope to make amends for it.

Posted on

Bride of Chucky II

Chucky was out prowling Monday night looking for a new bride.

Some of the contenders were:

Chiquita Banana Aunt Jemima
Catwoman Pocahontas

Chucky even had to fight off the Burger King for this one:

For more photos of Chucky’s exploits, go here.