Have Presents Will Travel

Happy Bonehead Holidays!

It's almost here. Christmas. What a wonderful time of year! In true Johnson style we didn't send out any Christmas cards this year, so if you didn't get one don't feel rejected. In fact, most of the people that read this didn't send us one either so don't feel guilty. :)

Life at the Bonehead Ranch is still as exciting as ever. School is out and the kids have taken a page from the union thugs and gone on strike, refusing to do work. Maybe we'll do the same thing and when they wonder where dinner is, we'll say that we're on strike. That should end negotiations quite amiably.

This year we're traveling to Neisha's parents' house for Christmas, which requires us to take our presents so the kid have something to open while there. Ok, let's do a little bit-o-math here:

2 Parents + 4 children + 4 or 5 presents each + luggage for 5 days + one minivan = interesting. Now I'm not the world's greatest packing expert but I'm fairly adept at making things work and I'm thinking to myself "Self, why?" "How?" "Who am I trying to kid?" We don't even have one of those roof rack containers! After mulling it over for a week, I've decided to first place the children in their seats and hook up the catheters. Second, put in the luggage. 3rd, pack the presents. In the event we actually had to stop, the children would have to be level 4 yoga masters to be able to get out. We'll try to take some pix of the event and post them here.

The other little bit of news is the Christmas village. It took me longer than expected to make it but here are a few shots. Merry Christmas everyone!

Love, Team Johnson

Holding on to the Magic

Greetings fellow Boneheads! It is c-c-c-cold here! And to make things worse we don't even get the privilege of having any snow! I mean, at least if we're going to suffer we should at least be able to throw snowballs at people! Life is good. In the kid department, Marcus, aka "Spiderman" or "Whiney-2000" has reached new heights in both his ability to perform death-defying feats of sheer stupidity and his ability to mimic the most annoying sound on earth. Those of you who know this precocious 4 year old know that it is not unheard of to find him on top of things. Things like the van, my car, the bookshelf, sinks, etc. Well he recently learned how to #1 do backflips and #2 do front flips onto our bed. Wait for it... from the floor. How exactly does a child manage to do a front flip onto a bed that is as tall as he is? I haven't the foggiest. I decided to try the experiment out myself and went out to our 6ft tall wall, took a good run at it and tried to do a front flip over it. It's not as easy as it looks, ladies and gentlemen. He also has learned long, drawn out whining is not as effective as the car alarm approach. That's where he wants mom and starts shouting, "Mom!" "Mom!" "Mom!" over and over again like a car horn going off. He also occasionally yells, "What the crap!" which is a post for another day.

The title of today's edition is on a more sentimental note though, and one I've been putting off writing. As you all know, Christmas time is a time of magic. Freshly fallen snow, catching snowflakes on your tongue, the sound of sleigh bells, Hymns being sung, all create "the Most Wonderful Time of the Year". But as children grow older, the magic slowly fades. Last year at this time 3 of our 4 boys were absolutely convinced that Santa came every year and that elves were sneaking around our Christmas tree checking on presents and throwing elf dust around for the kids to find. The belief of a child is so wonderful. It is like the warmth of a fire after you've been outside in the snow. It both fills and surrounds you. Well, this past year 2 more of our boys asked the big question about Santa and we told them. They are not as excited about Christmas as they were last year. At least not for the same reasons. So we are down to one and even though I know the real reason we celebrate Christmas, I find myself desperately holding onto that magic in him. We watch Rudolph and I answer his questions every day about how "far Christmas is", and when we sit like statues by the tree watching for elves, sometimes I almost think I can see one too.