Year: 2004

http://www.angryalien.com/1204/wonderful_lifebuns.asp

(click the bunny silhouettes at the end for bonus scenes!)

This date in history: December 9, 2000 – W. J. Walto III arrives in WaltoWorld at 10:12 AM, 7 weeks and 1 day earlier than his Super Bowl Sunday due date.

Happy 4th Birthday, W.! 🙂

Click here to visit the WaltoWorld archives for complete coverage of this historic event!

This date in history: December 6, 1997 – WaltoWorld proposes marriage to EA while ice skating under the Christmas tree and the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center, NYC.

It was a particularly cold day in the city that Saturday, and Fifth Avenue was packed with holiday shoppers and sightseers. We had taken the train into Penn Station that morning, and proceeded up Fifth Avenue, past Macy’s, Lord and Taylor, Cartier, St. Patricks’s Cathedral, a quick stop at The Tree, over to Radio City, and back up Fifth Avenue to FAO Schwarz. Back down Fifth, a digression to Godiva Chocolatier, and then 5:30PM Mass at St. Patrick’s. From St. Pat’s across the street to the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, where we waited on line in the freezing cold for nearly two hours before we were able to get onto the ice. EA thought I was nuts, and couldn’t figure out why I wanted to wait so long to go ice skating when we were freezing our butts off and could’ve been in a nice warm pub somewhere. We finally gained admission to the rink, rented our skates, and glided out onto the ice – I must admit, it was a truly thrilling experience to be skating at Rock Center on a Saturday night during the Christmas season. I had watched the skaters from the gallery, and now I was one of those skaters! It wasn’t long, however, before shin splints set in and I hastily skated over under Prometheus and asked EA for her hand in marriage.

She said yes.

The North Plainfield Girl Scouts wandered the neighborhood this evening, stopping at each house with it’s Christmas lights on, to sing Christmas Carols for the residents.

Carolers had visited my home two years ago, the first Christmas in our new house, and I was at the time very much moved to witness something that I had not seen in nearly 30 years, since my days growing up in Levittown, when my friends and I would travel throughout our neighborhood to sing Carols and bring good tidings to our neighbors. Two years ago, the Carolers numbered 6 or 7 adults, and perhaps a few children; this year, there must have been more than 30 Girl Scouts of various ages lining the driveway and the path to my front door, and I was again moved by this wonderful tradition. It is truly inspiring, and provides me with hope for the future that new generations will honor and endear those traditions passed on by older generations and continue to be inspired by and hold valuable the true meaning of Christmas.

This date in history: December 4, xxxx – The feast of Saint Barbara.

Christmas tree cutting. Visited a new Christmas Tree farm this year, now that Jubilee Farms in Stockton, NJ has been sold (and the new owners are not yet offering cut-your-own trees from their farm.) Barclay Tree Farm in Cranbury, NJ is quite a bit smaller, and does not offer the amenities that Jubilee had (no hot cider or train display to be found here) but it does offer a decent selection of Fraser and Canaan firs. W. was on a mission to find a tree as big as him, and we had to convince him that a 3 1/2 foot tree might not be big enough to hold all of our ornaments (nor have enough room under the branches for all of Santa’s presents!) We instead selected one of the smallest trees we’ve ever had – a 6to 6 1/2 foot Fraser fir – but one certainly in keeping with my 2004 resolution to downsize.

Cutting down a Christmas tree is something I had never done as a child; in fact, in Levittown, I only ever knew Zsòka’s family to cut their own tree. My family almost always had an artificial tree at Christmas, and based on the prejudices I had acquired against real trees I was never too excited about the prospect of trekking into a frozen field to then proceed to lie on the ground and saw down a tree and haul it back to my car. Of course, times change, and after W. was born I came to embrace the importance of building warm family memories, and now I look forward to the annual Christmas tree cutting event.

SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN! SOX WIN!

This date in history: October 20, 1962 – The birth of WaltoWorld

The Sox have delivered the best birthday present I could have ever wished for – a resounding victory in game 7 of the ALCS over the Evil Empire.

Some say the curse is finally over – I say there is no curse, and there’s still a World Series to win, but HOW SWEET IT IS!

GO SOX!!

Blood donation at B-MS blood drive. Just like always: donate a pint, get free cookies and juice and a ‘Be Nice To Me Today’ sticker.

Flag Day. W. likes helping Dad poke the various US flags in the ground around the yard, but really enjoys pulling them out again so he can wave and march with them.

Thanks to B-MS’s corporate sponsorship of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which owns the Bronx Zoo, free admission was made available for employees and up to 3 guests.

Although the day was a bit cloudy and rainy, the weather was perfect for keeping away the crowds – the temperate was not sweltering – and crossing the GWB at 9:30 on a Sunday morning is a breeze. The first stop was the elephants – W’s favorite. They were inside the elephant house eating elephant breakfast when we first saw them, and W. was in disbelief as he actually stood 10 feet away from an elephant for the very first time. Later in the afternoon, when we saw the elephants again outside in the open, W. leapt from his stroller saying “I go see it!”

He would have climbed the fence had we not stopped him.