Yes, friends, the long heldNiednagel.com tradition returns to you yet again, with that sweet and sentimental digital falling snow lightly descending from your screen (if you're using I.E.), that nostalgic, heart-warming Christmas tree to the right there, twinkling with such holiday spirit, and me on top standing next to that snowman back in the days when I was just a punk immature bachelor. Yes, here we are as in olden days, happy golden days, of yore.
And, of course, it's now time to lineup your favorite series of Christmas movies to watch this month ... "A Charlie Brown Christmas,""It's A Wonderful Life," and your most favorite of all-time ... "A BST Christmas."
lol, I actually think this my favorite movie I've ever done. Just lots of good memories, and we totally filmed it on the fly, which made it all the more zany. :-)
Well, t'was a lovely November for us, and we hope yours was too. Merry Christmas to you all! I posted a little something about Christmas on Facebook, and thought I'd include it below.
"Just a thought and some sincere advice to those who don't celebrate Christmas. You should probably also stop celebrating and giving gifts on pagan-originated birthdays (associated with the offering of sacrifices to pagan gods), Reformation day on October 31 (since we all know its true Halloween origins), Easter or Resurrection Sunday (from the Great Goddess Mother Eostre), refrain from referring ...to the god-days of the week and months as "Saturday" (Saturn god) and "January" (for Janus, Roman god of portals), and to those married, immediately return your wedding rings to your spouse (or at least take it off your "ring finger", whose origin is to be found in pagan superstitions and idolatrous practices). That is, for complete logical consistency in your life. A very merry Christmas, everyone! :-)"
Just a thought of consistency. I believe it all boils down to what in life is inherently wrong, what is culturally wrong, and what is wrong by association.
Anyway, and here we go!
------------------------------------------------------------- November, 2011 Video Blog
And here are us Niednagels in Branson, Missouri, enjoying a lovely day at College of the Ozarks, a place where students actually work for their tuition (very cool). They have an awesome restaurant there, and dad kindly treated us all. Look at William. Such a little man.
Hello, goobers.
Thank you all for your continued prayers for dad. His health has been a little better lately and we're really trusting the Lord day by day.
Getting Philip to smile is like getting a dog to slobber.
Well looky here. If it isn't the astute, dignified Niednagels. We all would like to sincerely wish you seasons greetings, happy holidays, and much continued success in all your endeavors come the year 2012.
Cha! Merry Christmas!
Had to throw this in. Quite adorable.
And here are the other goobers. It was 70s and gorgeous that day.
What a contagious smile. He is truly a munchkin head in every sense of the word.
The lovely ladies.
Like ... how cute is that? Philip is pretty adorable, too.
Enjoying the creek ... making sure the boys don't fall in.
Don't you just love days like this?
It's a few weeks later and my bride and I are out for another date! In case you're wondering about all these dates, we now can leave Philip for 5-6 hours, and haven't been able to do that in some 7 months. So, stop judging us and be happy for us! That's so mean!
Having the Mitchells over for dinner! Hadn't had them for over a year now. They're the ones who primarily helped design and build our home. So great seeing you again!
Let the Thanksgiving festivities begin. The boys arrive from St. Louis, pulling up in their new hot set of wheels. "Not bad," I say, trying to withold the jealousy. "It's got potential"
What better way to ring in the festivities than with a little disco dancing, baby! I can't believe it. Micaiah found this disco ball in a dumpster. How come I never find disco balls in dumpsters.
Hi Pa. Hi Philly.
A moment of extraversion! Got the photographic proof!
Happy Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I'm really thinking about something else ...
... like my sweet watch.
Looking pretty short today, Melanie. Need to lay off the doughnuts.
The only two Feeling Thomas children ... can you tell?
It's Thanksgiving day, and the Algers from church have come to join us! Don't we all just look so happy and festive and smiley! Except you, Josh. What's your deal?
Packing down the pounds. As everyone knows, this is the only day of the year where it's not a sin to gorge.
"Smells great. Looks terrible."
Conversations abound.
"So, returning to the subject of my new truck ..."
And here we have William Locksley Niednagel, engaging for the very first time in the medieval art he was so named after. Of course, it's pretty difficult when the arrow is your exact same height and the bow is twice your size.
Matthew and Micaiah start us off. Everyone gets four shots each, and it's single elimination. Winner takes all. Loser is a complete loser, and goes home in shame.
The large crowd watches with bated breath.
Matthew is eliminated, and goes home in humiliation. Mr. Alger takes on Mr. Pa.
Mr. Alger is eliminated, and goes home crying. "Wow, dad was really eliminated ... and humiliated."
Melanie takes on ... I can't remember who.
The other person is eliminated in utter disgrace (man I'm really enjoying this). As you can see, the bullseye didn't help Melanie's unnamed, degraded opponent
Samara pulls back. I don't remember what happened, but I'm sure it was full of disgrace and humiliation.
Marscel takes on Maid Marian. Marscel wins, and Marian goes home ... as beautiful and lovely and shining as ever before.
Archery art.
In the end, Pa was victorious, winning the coveted silver pilgrim coin I purchased for top-dollar on Ebay. So he wouldn't offend the others, I asked him not to perform his traditional funky-turkey victory dance this year. Now, you ask, did you participate? No, I myself did not take part in the games, for if I had, everyone present would have truly gone home in utter ...
Desert!!!
Micaiah had an unfortunate accident. But actually, it went through his front, right brain, so lately he's been more calm and relaxed and organized. I'm really liking the new Micaiah.
We line up for running pictionary, oldest to youngest. Why do the oldest start out small, and the middle-aged get so stinking tall, and then it goes back to short with the youngest (well, I guess that part makes sense)? How embarrassing.
A dance, anyone?
Joshua ... umm ... impersonating James Bond, or something.
A little Yanni from Yablo.
To play Yanni, you must be as beautiful as Yanni.
A twirl from the pros.
Dancing ghosts.
The next day was black Friday. Insane. The day after that it was raining, so we enjoyed most of the day inside. We watched "Collision," which is a debate between Pastor Doug Wilson and evolutionist Stephen Hutchins. So awesome. If you have not seen it, see it!
Micaiah invites you to walk with us.
Just precious. So precious.
And such ends another blog entry! Thanks for stopping by! Have a very merry Christmas!
