I had a really fun day hanging out with my valentines. Reagan and I work up early, because she has been building pork barbacoa for the last day and a half. She has been making the stuff in the slow cooker, for some burritos tonight. It smells totally delicious. Before heading to Westchester, we took a quick jaunt out to Williamsburg, Brooklyn so that Reagan could pick up her Valentines Day present at Catbird.

We had a pretty nice visit with Piper. She was kind of rowdy. I think that it is just because she loves her mom so much, she can’t contain herself. She was kind of obsessed with my hat, today. She kept taking it almost all of the way off of my head, then putting it back on. Then, tapping the little button on the top. Silly little monkey.

I hope that everyone else had a great Valentines Day!!

For the first time in my life, I did karaoke with Reagan and some of our friends, on Saturday night. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was definitely the worst person in our group. But, that didn’t keep me from having fun watching everyone else. Yes, there was a kick line at one point.

^—Reagan doing up some Abba (I think).

^—-Richard and Jamie: duet of the Cure

^—–Col, melting faces with Yellow Ledbetter.

After our karaoke session, we had some Korean dumplings, then spent some time browsing one of the Koreatown supermarkets. They has some seriously tasty hard candy. No, it didn’t come in the cool fish cans, above (unfortunately). I liked the fish on the cans because they look so friendly.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day (except in Arizona). I think that this guy was pretty amazing. I’m not sure who to credit with this photo. I couldn’t find the author. Who ever it was, well done.

On New Year’s Day, we showed up to visit Piper, and she was apparently still partying from the night before.

We are still trying to get used to her new place. It has been really good to be able to visit her so much since she moved. We were able to have some really great visits with her Baker grandparents.

Click through here, for some more shots of hanging out with Piper on New Year’s Day.

Last night, Reagan and I went to a church on the east side to watch a live nativity with some of our friends. Afterward, we ate at this Brazilian place called Zebu, on 92nd and 2nd. It was pretty awesome food. I woke up bright and early this morning with an excited little wife tugging on my arm, asking me when I was going to get out of bed. Reagan was already showered and ready to get this Christmas going. Hahahah. We opened some presents, then packed up the car and headed to see Piper. She was still a little bit groggy when we arrived. Her hair was full-on mad scientist, hahaha.

She was in a super good mood though. She definitely knew that something was up, right away. Reagan put her into her new Christmas pinafore that she got from her aunt Sarah, then fixed her hair. After that, it was straight to business. Piper was totally into opening presents, this year. She was tearing them open like a total pro, smiling all the while.

I totally love the photo below, of my two smiley Christmas girls.

As always, I totally went overboard with the photos, but here are a bunch more, if you want to check them out.

Today was the day that we were scheduled to be moving Piper to NJ. Yesterday morning I received all of the discharge paperwork via fax. I signed all of it and faxed it back over. I was starting to get mentally geared up for the event. Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from Piper’s social worker, in Westchester, saying that her Dr. had determined that Piper wasn’t %100 to go. There were some vague details. I didn’t ask for any sort of elaboration, she said that it was no cause for concern, but that they just wanted to make sure that Piper was at least at her best baseline for when they sent her over.

For those of you who know how much anxiety we were having over this move (especially the timing), then you know that this was kind of a big deal. All I have to say, is that angels and miracles come in all kinds of different forms. This was definitely a Christmas miracle for us. I’m sorry that Piper is a little bit under the weather. But I’m elated that she will now most likely still be in Westchester at least until after the holidays. She will be meeting Santa, early tomorrow morning. I can’t really wait to see it.

We have already had a pretty busy week, this week. I worked late yesterday, but still managed to fit in a winter line launch party for Flud Watches. Then Tuesday night, Reagan and I attended a (work related) holiday party at Rockefeller Center. It was at one of the restaurants that is adjacent to the skating rink. Skating was included in the party festivities. I went to this party alone a couple of years ago, and Reagan really felt bad, because I don’t really even like skating, she does. Plus she had been begging me to take her. So I hope that this year makes up for it. We brought the point and shoot, but it died after the first shot. So, all of these pics are from the gritty lil blackberry cam.

Apparently Reagan, at some point today read a Facebook blurb from my sister about cherry limeade. She said that she had been craving one, ever since.  So, that is what she ordered at the bar. The bar tender was a little bit stumped at first. But after she explained it a little bit, the mixologist (yes, I am using that term, because the dude earned it) came up with a pretty fancy looking drink that seemed to satisfy Reagan’s fever. Try to ignore my totally serious face, below. I was focusing pretty intently on keeping a steady arm for the photo. Doesn’t Reagan look cute though?

Reagan on skates, below.

In addition to all of the festivities of the last couple of days, we also finished our Christmas cards tonight! Man, I’m feeling pretty productive, right about now.

Here is a link to a couple more crappy blackberry cam shots of Reagan posing with her skates on.

This is the first year, since Piper has been around, that we have been in town for Thanksgiving  weekend. In the past we have spent it in New England with our Boston friends. It was kind of nice, not to be traveling, this year. It was extra nice to be able to see Piper on Thanksgiving. Of course, Reagan whipped up a festive turkey headband for Piper, at the last minute. Piper wasn’t too keen on having it around her head. But she was a good sport for the photo. We had a lot of fun teaching her about why we celebrate the first day that people ate turkey.

Something happened during our visit that was extra fun for me. I finally figured out something that makes Piper laugh. Normally Reagan is the only one that can crack Piper up. But yesterday, when I was holding her. She started tapping me on the mouth, like she does quite often. As she was doing this, I started pretending to eat her fingers. Apparently she thought that was pretty funny, because she started cracking up. Then I started cracking up. Good times had by all.

BTW, Reagan is now officially obsessed with her iPhone, which is where this photo came from. She has an application that renders photos to look like old Polaroids.

This was our Halloween costume, this year. I’m normally not a person who likes dressing up for the holiday. Since I have been married to Reagan, I have had to defer. I will admit it was a lot of fun, this year. Even though those pants (which actually belong to Reagan) were way too tight, and uncomfortable, I put them on for two nights in a row. Friday night, some of our friends threw a Halloween party, with a bunch of our friends from the neighborhood. It was a lot of fun.

Saturday night, we went to the Weezer masquerade party at the Hammerstein. Weezer came out dressed as insects, hahahaha. I was also able to put up some football stats on Saturday night:

Rivers Cuomo, completed passes: 1 of 1

J. Breinholt, passes recieved: 1 of 1

Rivers decided to throw a football into the crowd during that line in “Pork and Beans.” Thanks to all of the training as a kid (of repeatedly jumping while standing in the middle of a rock show, wearing boots with 2 inch heels), I pulled in Rivers’ pass, with little effort. I wanted to pass it around the crowd, but Reagan snatched it out of my arms before I could. I should also add that she brought that football into the bed with her, when we got home, and cuddled it all night long. Hahahaha.

More photos, if you are interested.