BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #632 12/31/06 Today Allison and I went to Providence to see Dublin Carol starring William Peterson from CSI. Allison got me tickets for our 1 year anniversary. We started the day with lunch at Fire + Ice. Dinner/Late Lunch at Fire + Ice was a fun experience. At Fire + Ice you pick out the food that you want to have cooked. Then you pick a sauce to go with it. You pile up your bowl of ingredients. I would not go with crayfish again but the sauce was very good and everything else in the bowl was good too. We each made two trips up to the food stations and tried a couple concoctions. It was a fun experience. I think it would be a good time with a large group of people as well, but it was equally good with just the two of us. After Fire + Ice we walked to Trinity Rep to see Dublin Carol. We passed through Waterplace Park and up past the Dunkin Donuts center on the Way to Trinity Rep. Waterplace Park The play was very good, dark humor, some of it depressing, but I think that the...

Photo-A-Day #631 12/30/06 Today Allison and I attended the wedding of my High School friend and Allison’s Book Club friend Marybeth. Marybeth and Damian were married today in Dedham MA at a beautiful church. The ceremony was very nice (I didn’t get any good pictures there). The reception was at Barker Tavern in Scituate, MA. This was a very nice location and had the weather been cooperative I would have gotten some nice shots of the Scituate Harbor. At the wedding each plate had either a girl or boy set of Mickey Mouse Ears. Marybeth and Damian are huge Disney Fans. The cake was also beautiful. We had a wonderful dinner and sat with a friend of Allison’s from Book club. She was very funny. We laughed and joked. I am very annoyed at myself because I figured I had a minute or so to hit the bathroom and be back to get into the Feehan Picture (High School) but no I was gone for 2 minutes and completely missed it. When I came back out the picture was over and done with. I couldn’t believe i...

Photo-A-Day #630 12/29/06 Today Allison had breakfast with cousin Annie. I went out in search of a Nintendo Wii. It was a halfhearted search because I know it is not out there anywhere. I went to Comp USA and saw a TV that I think we will buy once I make enough with PayPerPost. By that time the Nintendo Wii may be out. Allison and I went to IKEA for most of the afternoon. We picked up a lot of stuff however. I’ve been saving specifically for the remodel. And today we put a bite into that nugget of cash. We picked up a dresser for Allison, 2 night tables that matched the dresser. We also got a sofa bed and slipcover, some under the bed crates, a rug, the curtains, and hardware for the shades. Allison put together the under the bed crates while I tackled the night tables. I put those two together and Allison started the dresser. We put the dresser together as a team. We make a good team. Mostly done The Finished Product. We also picked up a few little things like drawer organizers for th...

Photo-A-Day #629 12/28/06 Today I spent the morning moving from my old closet to my new closet. The new closet is great, it has a set of shelves that were perfect for my collectibles and other stuff. Most of the morning was spent moving my Star Wars Lego collection. All in all there are 55 sets with 11276 Lego pieces. I cleaned each box and lined them up by size, recorded the set number, name and number of pieces in the set. Then I photographed each box. So now I have a full record of each set. It is a little anal but I figured when else would I do that. All the Star Wars Lego sets fit on the top shelf. the second shelf is home to some of my special Transformers Sets, including a 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime and a New Year’s special edition Optimus Prime from Japan. So my old closet has been moved, all of my clothes fit in the three drawers so that is one piece of furniture that can go to goodwill (my old dresser). The only thing not in the closet are some comic book boxes. I have to...

Tonight I took Dad and Erik to see Rocky Balboa. Overall I liked the movie a lot. I thought that many of the things that critics disliked I really enjoyed. I like movies with a plot. I didn’t need to see Rocky fighting throughout the movie. This was a movie that Sly had to make. This movie shows Rocky going out with dignity. Rocky 5 did not do that. Rocky 5 was the worst of the series and should be removed.  Rocky Balboa was a very good movie in my opinion. I liked the things that Rocky said, maybe it was sappy and nostalgic and hokey but man it made me feel good to see this movie and that is what you want with a Rocky Movie. You want to be lifted up by the heart of Rocky. And that is what this movie did. Yes there was a lot of reminiscing and exposition and very little of the fight. The movie was about the fight and it wasn’t. It was about Rocky coming to terms with things changing and not letting it change him. I was thrilled to see the montage of training and felt it could have ...

Photo-A-Day #628 12/27/06 Today was a very busy day at our house. The move to more area within the house is coming along. This morning I finished painting the baseboards, then Dad cut in the rest of the wall paint and touched up any remaining spots that needed it. Allison and I washed all the windows. Dad and I put together the IKEA bed. That went together like a dream. Five pieces, 4 screws, bing bang boom and done. The mattress, our new Tempur-Pedic arrived around 12:00 as Allison and I were finishing the windows. The room is now cleaned top to bottom, the bed is in. This shows the floor better. After lunch Dad and I went to home depot to get a few things, a ceiling light for my closet, some light bulbs and a hot water tank. When we found the hot water tanks the one we wanted was a 50 gallon with a 12 year warranty, electric. There was one, the box was open and liked like the hot water heater had seen better days. One of the Home Depot guys came around the corner while we were lookin...

The folks over at PayPerPost have put up a year in review recap and Holiday special on RockStartup. This shows their Christmas parties (think bad karaoke and many shots) as well as giving back to the community by donating toys to SadieHolmes.org. This was not a paid post. I just liked what PayPerPost has done and I am at my PayPal limit for this month. Also if you live in Orlando or you are visiting Orlando like my cousins are then you may see the PayPerPost crew and the BBM in the www.OrlandoCitrusParade.com in downtown Orlando.

Photo-A-Day #627 12/26/06 Today Dad and I worked on the new bedroom to get it all ready for the delivery of the mattress tomorrow. They are coming between 11:00am and 2:00pm. I called and talked to Jay at Sleep Easy and he said that he wondered if I had moved to another country. He was asking that because so much time had passed between when we bought the mattress and when I called to set up a delivery date. I assured him that no we had not moved and we were just getting the room ready for the new mattress. Getting the room ready today consisted of adding shelves to my closet. A piece of molding int he area between the rooms. Taking off cleaning and then painting the baseboard for the heat. Painting the new trim around the baseboard. Touching up some of the spots that had been missed on the first go around. And then finally putting the doors back on and washing the doors and floor. Tomorrow I will give the baseboards one more coat of paint, wash the windows and window frames, wax the f...

Here is a guy who has taken his Roomba and his Wii-remote and brought the two together. Geeks are so cool. Basically this guy has made his Roomba controllable with his Wii-remote. The website for the code to do this to your own Roomba and Wii Remote is found at http://spazout.com/roomba/. So if you wanted to you could build your own remote control roomba. Here are the parts you will need. Enjoy getting your carpets and floors clean by making an automated process something that you can do remotely. I guess the point was to see if it could be done. It can be done.

Photo-A-Day #626 12/25/06 Merry Christmas all. Today Allison and I left NH and headed back to MA. We dropped off Allison’s grandparents and then headed home. We got home around 10 or 11, not sure since most time yesterday was a blur. From the two turkeys to the ham and all of the sides, we had plenty to eat and it was very good too. I love the meals at Holiday time as my belt can attest to. Before the rest of the family came over Allison and I opened gifts with Mom, Dad, Tara, Erik and Shelby. We’ll all be eating well over the next few months as we exchanged gift cards from out favorite restaurants. Erik brought back some wonderful gifts for Allison and Mom from India. Allison and I got some much needed and appreciated gift cards for home improvement as our projects around the house are increasing. It was very nice to spend some time together as a family and relax a bit. Then Allison and I went upstairs and unpacked from the weekend and exchanged our gifts to each other. Allison got me...

From my family to your family. Wishing you a Merry Christmas. I will probably not post today because of the holiday. The only PayPerPost message today went up at midnight because I really liked the opportunity and wanted to make sure I got it. But that will be all I am going to post today. Be with your families and enjoy the day. The Photo-A-Day will be taken but might not make it up till tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all. I’m going to bed.

Photo-A-Day #625 12/24/06 Today was Christmas Eve. We were in NH visiting with Allison’s parents Dan and Marcia. Her grandparents John and Eva came up and Allison’s brother Nate and his wife Sarah were also here. This morning Allison and Marcia went to breakfast with one of Allison’s friend’s Tina and Dan went down to MA to pick up John and EVa. I stayed at the house and got some blogging done. The family has been pretty supportive of the whole PayPerPost blogging stuff. I posted my daily allotment of blogs for PayPerPost plus some reviews on FlatWater Bookstore and a couple of posts here on The BenSpark. I know I made the aStore with Amazon and the FlatWater Bookstore was going to go away. But I realized that I had two blogs and that meant that I could now blog 4 PayPerPost posts each day. So on the FlatWater Bookstore I have a post that reviews a movie, a product or a DVD that I choose form Amazon and sometimes a story about why I like that particular product and in between I have my...

So about 20 minutes ago I went out and filled up Allison’s car. Here in Manchester there is competition at the supermarkets and Stop and Shop gives out $0.45 off per gallon coupons after you spend $100.00 in the store, and you also get a $10.00 gift card. Back home, we get squat! Dan had an extra coupon because he never uses them fast enough. We could use 3 a week. So I drove over and got gas at Stop and Shop. With my Stop & Shop card I got $0.05 off per gallon, and then with the $0.45 off per gallon that made the savings $0.50 a gallon. It made my $2.43 & 9/10 a gallon only $1.97 & 9/10 a gallon. I hate that dang extra 9/10 is it a scam. But I was happy to pay under two dollars a gallon. I decided to go into the supermarket and buy some scallops wrapped in bacon because we are having appetizers at the house prior to the meal at Piccola. Now here is where I spread my Christmas Cheer. As I was walking into the supermarket some random guy says to me. “Look at you with no jack...

You might have noticed a few new additions to the site today. I have added a quote of the day as well as a funny quote of the day. You can add these to your blog as well. It is a really easy script that you add to your blog template. If you scroll further down you can see a Today in History as well as a Today’s Birthdays feed. I added those as well so that you could have something interesting to discuss at the lunch table. I’m always thinking about enhancing the experience for my readers when they visit this site. Coming up with new and interesting content is something that I really try and work hard at doing. I could have stopped with the Photo-A-Day and just done that but I wanted this to be something more. Each time I find something of interest on the Internet I want to share it with you. If that is something that can be permanently in place here on this blog then that is good too. The technology keeps changing and I want to just keep up with it. So if you come across something that...

What better way to break up the constant Christmas movie posts then with a Pirate related post. I am hanging out at my In-Laws place today while Allison and her mom go for breakfast and Dan goes to pick up Allison’s grandparents. We are having a family meal tonight at Piccola (A fine Italian restaurant in Manchester, NH). Anyway that is neither here nor there at the moment. I’ll recap that meal later tonight. But before Marcia, Allison and Dan left they told me that I could have any of the books in the bookshelf upstairs. Books, I freaking love books. And Dan and I have similar taste in what we like for books. I was going to go through and list each and every book I will be acquiring but then I thought that maybe I would save that for when I read the books. However one caught my eye that I am very interested in reading right away. That one is called Under the Black Flag the Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. I am looking forward to reading this one. I love Pirate books ...

Scrooged is one of those movies where Bill Murray is hilarious. He has that straight deadpan look and then goes all nuts. I just love it. The cast of characters in this movie is also very funny. The movie has David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) as the Ghost of Christmas Past. He was a cigar smoking cab driving ghost. Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas Present. She was hilarious with all the beating up on Bill Murray’s character. This was one of the more funny takes on the Christmas Carol theme. Even Bobcat Goldthwait was in it in a Bob Crochet sort of role. One of my favorite parts was on the set of the movie Bill Murray’s character was producing and the set designer or animal handler comes up to Bill’s character as explains that the antlers won’t stay on the mice. Murray asks, “Did you try staples.” The movie was just filled with twisted humor like that and Murray is the only guy who can deliver in that way. So, get in the holiday spirit with Scrooged.

Photo-A-Day #624 12/23/06 Allison baked many Christmas cookies last night and this morning. The whole apartment smells like gingerbread at the moment. She made three different kinds of cookies that required the use of a cookie press. Luckily we got one of those as a wedding gift. Allison learned all about different cookie dough and whatnot for her press. The cookies she made came from the Christmas Cookies website. She made Gingerbread Spritz, Angel Whispers and Snowflakes. I got to taste test each batch and they were very tasty. This morning as she finished the snowman shaped Gingerbread Spritz cookies I grabbed a shot of the results. All her cookie making last night and today was the first time with each recipe. I am fortunate to have a wife so skilled with cooking and baking. We drove up to NH to spend the weekend with Dan and Marcia. And then it is back home to MA on Christmas morning. Tonight we went down to Lowell to visit Allison’s friend Lindsay. Lindsay and her boyfriend have ...

This is a photo from one of my Buzznet friends Azannie. AZ means Arizona and that is where Annie is. She has been the most consistent commenter and “buzz-rater” of my pictures on Buzznet. Annie usually has some fantastic photos and I found that this one of her Yorkshire Terrier Scooter. Scooter is a cutie and he just got a trim and then a holiday picture. So to put you in the Christmas Spirit I decided to post the image. You can help Annie out with her Buzznet Buzz by click in the image and clicking the buzz button. By increasing the buzz on images that helps people get their photos featured. In case you didn’t know I post my images to Buzznet first. The post there has a link to the write up of the Photo-A-Day that I put on this blog that is hosted by Blogger. I also post the message to Myspace for my Myspace peeps. And if you want daily content for your site you can add my Photo-A-Day to your blog. I’m going to ask for more help getting the photos out there in the new year, but if you...

We were supposed to have a copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol – Kermit’s 50th Anniversary edition. But our recent order from the Disney Movie Club got screwed up and instead of The Muppet Christmas Carol – Kermit’s 50th Anniversary edition, Mickey’s Once and Twice Upon a Christmas, we ended up with Lady and The Tramp II. Yesterday as I was going through our bills and whatnot I came across the invoice and called the Disney Movie Club to see how I could get this rectified. They were great. So very helpful. And even before I hung up the phone Allison received the e-mail confirmation that the movies were on their way. Disney Movie Club is really a good deal. And their customer service is awesome.

I found this neat little site called Bubblr that you can use to make little comic strips with Flickr images. Just click to go to Bubblr to see the full image. I was watching the classic Mr. Hankey episode of South Park. Back when South Park was novel and hilarious. Make your own comic on Bubblr. Might be a good site for pictures of Stephen and his thoughts. I grabbed one of Stephen’s Flickr pictures from and added a thought bubble for him.

Photo-A-Day #623 12/22/06 Today was the annual company Christmas party. My company throws this great Christmas bash for everyone 2000+ employees complete with a huge shrimp boat and huge tree and music and lots of good food. The also have ice sculptures each year. This year the sculpture was a nutcracker. I took a couple pictures of the sculpture for today’s photo. also while I stepped away from my computer and hard monitoring of the Rockstartup $1,000 Puzzle Hunt. Colleen was able to pull out a win. She smoked everyone, that is why she is the PPP Poster Child. We only live in her world. Here is the second picture.

I think my favorite Christmas movie is of course the timeless A Charlie Brown Christmas. The whole story is special in every way. Here is a a character, Charlie Brown, who is scorned by friends and family alike. He is a perpetual loser but he keeps trying. Despite being called a blockhead and being taunted he continues undaunted in his task to find the best Christmas Tree ever. Linus’ speech on the true meaning of Christmas is the most special part of the show. I also love the music throughout the show and always think of that as the Peanuts music. We even used that in our wedding. The scenes where everyone is goofing off and dancing are also fantastic. I just love the dances and snoopy strumming the base. What better Christmas movie is there?

The puzzle has been completed, not by me because I stopped to go to a Christmas Party and well I am not going to win this sort of thing but I love to play. Looks like Colleen may be the winner. Julie also completed the puzzle and so did Cass and Donna. Well not quite. But here are 30 of the 30 pieces. I did not win. I had to go to a holiday party. Yes I am taking advantage of the rockstartup puzzle piece frenzy. If you right click on the image it will save as the appropriate size. The images were not changed just reduced by code of width and height.

You might notice some changes coming in the next few weeks as I have switched to the new Blogger. It is now out of Beta and I took the chance and switched over my 1830 posts on The BenSpark. Yikes, the switchover was actually quicker than one of my template changes being uploaded but it did take that extra special amount of time because the blog is so big. Now I can do cool things like label my posts. It will make navigation of the site much easier. If I write a movie post I will label it movie, Photo-A-Day will be labeled as such. I am very excited to kick the tires of this new Blogger. It already seems so very cool.

There has been a subtle and yet monumental change to the Transformers Trailer. You see, the trailer needed something, something more. What it got was a line by Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime. Granted the line sounds like he is the movie voice over guy and not exactly Optimus. I would have preferred a “Autobots! Transform! and Roll Out!” just before you see all the Autobots gathered like the posse going after the bad guys and ready to save the day. But no the line Cullen speaks is the winning line from the Make Prime Speak contest. And I’m sorry the winner’s line was lifted right from Prime’s Tech Specs on his toy package. That wasn’t an original line. Hardly anyone who entered that contest had an original line. Anyway, you can see the new trailer on the official site. Transformers The Movie. I am still waiting for that intrepid fan who will re cut this trailer for the fans. Nothing too major. The re cuts that are already out there are nice but I want the full trailer with the...

Sometimes you want to feel like The Grinch and sometimes you want to sing with the Whos down in Whoville. Who doesn’t love Max the dog? The original animated movie is far superior to the Jim Carey live action one. It is such a fantastic Christmas classic. The ride down the mountain with the gifts all loaded up is one of my favorite parts. I just love all the fun things that are found down in Whoville. Such a wonderful movie to watch during Christmas.

Probably the most classic children’s Christmas movie ever. A story about finding your place in the world and the cruelty that can befall you and how friends can help lift you higher than you’ve ever gone before. When I was a kid, before Tivo, DVDs and VCRs I would have to wait all year to see Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And when you were a kid that movie felt like it was epic and that it took forever. I look back and imagine that movie being about 4 hours long but it was probably because I was 7 and it was on close to or past my bedtime and I just was tired. I just love the parts with Yukon Cornelius. The movie is wonderful and should be a part of your collection.

Photo-A-Day #622 12/21/06 Today we held a secret Santa/Hanukkah Armadillo exchange at work. I gave my Secret Santa person, Bill, a bag from a conference, a remote control mouse for his computer, two video games, an Atari keychain video game that works on the TV and about 100+ pens. Yes, I said pens. You see I have this habit of taking the pens in every hotel room I go into. It is a sickness. I cannot stop taking the pens. Sometimes they have come in handy while on site and someone else does not have a pen (I carry two very nice stylish pens of my own in my bag). I always have a couple of pens in my bag to help out anyone who is without one. So yesterday while I was ‘wrapping’ my gift, and by wrapping I mean putting all the stuff into the conference bag and labeling it with a yellow sticky note. I am a great wrapper. Anyway I was looking in my desk drawer and though, hey it would be funny to give Bill about 50 pens. Well, 50 just didn’t fill the bag enough. I went all out and gave him m...

There are people pimping everything out. My Ride, My Truck, My Nutcracker? Yeah you can pimp out your nutcracker. Here is mine. Last night while we watched Transformers we saw the trailer for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I just read a story that Sarah Michelle Gellar has joined the cast as the voice of April O’Neil. Kevin Smith is also making a cameo voice too. Zach Braff is in a new movie with Jason Bateman and Amanda Peet. It is called Fast Track. I must see it. I found the Trailer for Shrek the 3rd online as well. I thought this was supposed to have something to do with King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. But it looks good none-the-less. And Mo, this one has Justin Timberlake in it. There is also this wacky game. Allison will love it. Sprouts. I found two scenes that have been edited by fans for the Transformers movie. See if you can figure out what was added. Prime Transforming. The Pentagon.

You know how I almost always have good things to say about movies and books and whatnot. I hate negative comments about things I like. However last night Allison and I saw Eragon and we were both very disappointed. We both loved listening to the book on CD and were disappointed on how the movie was thrown together. He Said: What Drew Liked: I loved how Saphira looked, she was very much like the cover art on the book. I liked Jeremy Irons as Brom. He was a very good character choice, wish we got to see more of that. Ed Speleers as Eragon was also a good choice. I liked the flying scenes. The beginning wasn’t that bad because the lives of Garrow, Roran and Eragon are highlighted and you see how Roran and Eragon are like two brothers and Garrow loves them very much. What Drew Didn’t Like: The pace of the movie was so fast that no character development was established. When Brom dies we have not seen the mentor and apprentice bond or train together. Training, there was absolutely no traini...

Okay fellow Posties I got tagged by Lisa and Skeet. They are Posties from PayPerPost and have tagged me to state 5 things that people do not know about me. If you have ever read this blog you probably know everything about me because I tell you even the intimate details of what I have for breakfast. Okay here are 5 things. I don’t usually do this but the link exchange is nice. 1# – I used to have a polar bear teddy bear that I called Whitey and my sisters called Wipey to tease me. 2# – I am not a fan of crowds, they make me agitated 3# – I wrote a book of poetry in college and sold it in the dorms to meet girls. Yikes that was way emo. I don’t know, was that emo? (I’m not up on the hip things kids say these days 🙂 ) 4# – I signed my 8th grade yearbook Andrew “Transformer” Bennett, III. 5# – I got booed off a stage during a dance contest on the Cape when my good friend started shouting “Drew” and the rest of the crowd began to shout “Boo”, Oh and I sucked at dancing. But I won 2 T-Shir...

Another movie that is a must see each Christmas. I just love the subtle humor in scenes from within the movie. My absolute favorite is when Clark and Eddie are in the supermarket. Eddie keeps putting dog food into the cart and there is a point where Clark puts a package of light bulbs into the cart second before Eddie slams a bag of dog food directly on top of the light bulbs. Neither man reacts to that happening. They just keep going along. It is probably one of the must subtle and funny scenes of the whole move. This movie is also infinitely quotable. There is just so much in the movie and it endures through the years. Behind the original vacation movie this is the best one ever. Chevy Chase is certainly at the top of his game in this movie. See for yourself.

Photo-A-Day #621 12/20/06 Update: The cookie has been coined, cookie Kaboom by my friend Marilyn. Tonight I made experimental cookies for tomorrow’s little Secret Santa, Hanukkah Armadillo celebration. The photo was one of the edible casualties. Sorry to see him go, with milk! Yummy, yummy. I wanted to make a cookie that used some of my favorite snacks, pretzels, cookies, Rolos and M&M’s. The results came out tasting okay but looking rather strange. Here is some photo documentation of the creation of my ultimate holiday cookies. The first batch started with the pretzel. I then added Rolos in either loop. M&Ms were added to the small opening. I then covered the creation with cookie dough, put them in the oven at 350 for 5 minutes, spun them and cooked for another 5 minutes and then took them out to cool.   The finished product, notice the Rolos have exploded into gooey caramel blobs. The next batch I tried it another way. Inverted the cookie so the dough was on the bottom an...

I loved the books Eragon and Eldest. Allison and I listened to both books on CD. I picked up Eragon in a Walmart in Arkansas before a very long drive to Texas from Arkansas. I absolutely loved the story and was so disappointed because the movie was so rushed and terrible.  Christopher Paolini created a whole new and wonderful world. Eragon and Saphira live in that world in my mind, the world created by the movie as far as the landscape was pretty close, but the story was so off from the books that it became distracting and painful to watch. I am looking forward to the next book in the series, I think it will most likely be named Empire or something like that. No release date on the movie yet but I am constantly watching. I am anticipating this much more than the last Harry Potter book to come out (There is a series that actually translated well to the big screen).

I just watched the Transformers teaser trailer on Yahoo.uk. IT is awesome. I cannot wait until July. Watch the trailer now!!!! The tanks flying through the air, Optimus pulling up, the cars on the road. Bumblebee! I cannot, cannot, cannot wait for this to come out. So incredible. And the little girl with the My Little Pony, I think it is Jazz getting out of the pool. Update: This trailer is going to be shown with Night at the Museum. In the trailer for that movie Ben Stiller calls a Roman soldier Optimus instead of Octavius. I thought that was pretty funny. Also apparently it is Ironhide that gets out of the pool, I don’t see it though, my vote is still on Jazz. I would have thought Ironhide to be bulkier.

I love A Christmas Story. The main character Ralphie is wonderful. The voice over work is awesome and what other Christmas movie gets a whole day marathon. Everyone know the meaning of “Fra-G-LAy” (phonetical) and that it is Italian. Who hasn’t said “fudge” but didn’t say “Fudge” in front of their parents? You get to see the little guy win, then lose and then win again, just to go and shoot his eye out. There are so many fantastic things to say about this movie that it requires another viewing each and every year. So spend some time with Ralphie and his family and watch A Christmas Story. I love seeing it every year.

Photo-A-Day #620 12/19/06 Photo taken by Allison, enhanced in Photoshop by Me Tonight Allison and I went to our church for the Christmas Story. My cousins Madison and Haley were both in the show. Madison was in the choir and Haley was a dancing angel. The 3rd grade puts on the show every year. We went to see them because they were in it and because they leave tomorrow for their trip to Florida. They are going down there to be homeschooled and will be learning about many historical places in Florida. Sounds like a really cool trip to me. Madison in the Choir The Dancing Angel, Haley (Photo by Allison) Dancing Angel, Haley (Photo by Allison) This camera was always in my shot. The Cast.