a guy and a bee
a collection of random thoughts and ideas from me, her, and sometimes us
Tag Archives: holiday
opening day!
as you probably know, i am a big orioles and baseball fan and with the 20th anniversary of camden yards coming up, my wife got us opening day tickets for christmas (or was it my birthday…). anyway, i’ve been to opening several times as a kid and my buddy dan and i went last year. this year, it was bee, myself, my dad, and dan and his dad. well, needless to say, we had a great time.
with all the new renovations to the stadium, we got down to the stadium early around 1230/1245 to take in the events. first we talked around the stadium on the outside to see the brooks robinson statue since we hadn’t been down that way since it was installed. with all the crazy people at pickles we stayed on the other side and took it in from afar. as we got into the eutaw street gate, we saw the new gino’s stand and the patio area above centerfield. we made our way from there to right field and watched some batting practice and then went over to left field and took in some more BP. i just missed a ball by a split second. guess i should have had my glove on instead of keeping it in our bag. haha.
our seats were in section 13, which is different than our partial ticket plan but still under cover. and boy was it windy under there. there was probably at 10 degree difference from the sun to the shade because of the winds that were 
whipping through the stadium friday. many of the renovations to the stadium looked nice and well done. can’t decide yet if i am fan of the new lower wall in right field. it’s kind of like when they moved home plate so they could add more seats to the stadium. guess we’ll see how it plays as t he year goes on. as the festivities went along and all the players got introduced, it was great to see markakis and wieters be presented with their well deserved gold glove awards. nick should probably have 2 or 3 by now, but you can’t argue giving him one for having an error-less season and playing more than 150 games in RF. the new rules in voting for gold gloves as probably helped make this possible finally.
the game turned out to be a great one too and arrieta pitched a gem. i knew the orioles would win. they have one of the top 3 win/loss records on opening day in all of major league baseball. i’m pretty sure the only boo’ing on the day was when kevin gregg was introduced. poor guy. then again, they might have boo’d troy patton too for letting up a 2 RBI home run in the 9th in. 
no one boo’d the caped crusader, er, field trespasser though as the baltimore police laid a nice tackle on him. we also missed it because we were in the concourse at the time when a police officer came running by us and down the tunnel.
all in all, it was a great time at the yard and a fun way to spend the day with some family, friends, and new comers to opening day in baltimore, aka a statewide holiday!
holiday traditions
what kind of holiday traditions do you have?
having been married almost 2 years now, bee and i are starting to develop our new own holiday traditions. one of our favorite traditions i detailed last week about going to cut down a christmas tree. one of bee’s other traditions is to be the first to mail out our christmas cards. it’s a point of pride for her when someone tells her that our christmas/holiday cards were the first to arrive in the mailbox. this year she wrote them out on the morning of thanksgiving. i think one holiday tradition alot of folks partake in is cookie baking. we’ve gone the fresh fudge route and probably next friday or saturday, bee will make 10 – 15 pounds of different types of fudge for our family members. i know my folks always look forward to it and it always gets rave reviews (and makes me put on a few pounds, haha). i think certainly as we get older and our family continues to grow, we will certainly have more traditions to enjoy, but those are a few of ours so far. i always enjoy watching “a christmas story” all day long on TBS but that isn’t exactly a “family” tradition, haha!
growing up our tradition was to always sit at the top of the steps and take a photo together before we went down to open our presents. this tradition probably continued until we went to college. we started to loathe these photos as we got older, but it’s something we can look back now as we are grown adults and appreciate.
one last wonderful holiday tradition we have in our household is to celebrate my birthday all week 😉 on the 29th, i will turn 29. interesting how time flies by these days.
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oh, christmas tree, oh, christmas tree
every year, christmas is a big deal in our household, especially the last few now that we have gotten married. in our first year of living together, we went and picked a tree off the lot and since then we have cut one down. bee always had fake trees as a kid so now that she can a real one, we take full advantage of it. this year, broken rib and all, bee and i made the trek out yesterday to pine valley farms. it’s off of 70 and 97 in skyesville for those of you reading this that are in maryland.
our first time out, we used one of the saws that the farm will let you borrow for $20 (you get the money back when you return the saw). we quickly found out that although tradition is great, bringing the sawz all that i got the next christmas to cut down the tree was the best idea we stumbled upon. as you might now, bee is a go getter and one time when she cutting down the tree, a fellow tree cutter downer brought over his sawz all for us to use. made quick great work of the tree.
here is bee on the hunt for the best douglas fir on the the tree farm. last year, our eyes were bigger than our living room so we knew we had to go for something that wasn’t as wide this year, much to her dismay. we looked for something in the 7-8 foot range.
once we found the right tree after walking several aisles, we got down to business. a great tip for those that might be new to christmas tree cutting down, bring an old blanket or sheet that you might use around the house for painting, etc. it makes a great location for you to lay on and get under the tree as you cut it down. keeps the mud, grass, and pine needles off of you. those of of you that are clean freaks like we are, it’s a great tip. don’t forget to wear old clothes too. it’s not a fashion show out there!
once bee made short work of cutting it down, it was over to shaking, bundling, and back to the car. unfortunately, the bundling got screwed up so we had to re-tie the string so it would stay bundled. we made the decision, after bee carried the tree back to the car, to put it inside instead of on roof because of my limited mobility to get the tree over my head and secured properly on top of the car.
cut down and pre-bundled
bundled and in the car
(yes, i had to vacuum my car because of it. boo.)
you have to let it fall
once you get the tree inside and setup, you have to let the branches fall back to their natural place. we started decorating a few hours later. (and i was watching the LSU/Georgia game, haha.)
lights are on
decorated! looking good!
nice skirt!
that is our new tree skirt that we splurged on at the end of the season last year. one of our friends had the similar tree skirt and we really liked it so we ended up getting ours and bee is very excited about it. we were using a traditional skirt that looked like the regular red stockings with white trim, but we wanted to get a little fancier going forward! so now the tree is up, the house is decorated and the stockings were hung (with care) by the fireplace. feels like christmas, although it was around 60 degrees today!
we also started a neat new tradition once we get the tree home a few years ago. we cut off a small ring from the bottom of the tree and save it. right now it’s above the fireplace drying out and will go into a glass jar we have in our dining room as we collect more and more rings from years of celebrating our favorite holiday. (all these photos were taken on my phone, not too shabby!)
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thankful
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This time of the year everyone writes posts about what they are thankful for and I could do the same. I can tell you that I am thankful for my wife, family, friends, having a job, and all those great things. And I am thankful for those things, but lately I am just thankful when I fell and fractured my ribs two Sundays ago, I didn’t hit my head.
I was home alone and my wife had been out of town all week when, as we have been calling it, I went splat. Slipped went aerial and came down on my ribs on the side of the tub. So as of lately and as I continue to recover, I am thankful I didn’t hit my head as well as the fact that my dad drove me to the hospital.
It was “The Great Fall of 2011” and it wasn’t glorious but wasn’t the worst it could have been.
Hope everyone has a joyous holiday today and takes care. If you see me out, pass on the hug as my ribs are still pretty sore!
(The attached photo is what’s left of the bruise on my arm. My back didn’t bruise surprisingly.)
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hey there
a guy and a bee 