The Jersey Kill's Florida Christmas Vacation

Yeah, I know I haven't posted in a while... and not from a lack of priceless material, because there's always plenty of that to go around.  I've just been busy and in a pre/post-election sour mood. 

So The Mrs. got this idea in her head (I'm sure it was the voices) that the Kill family needed to travel (by air) on the worst travel week of the year to sunny Florida for a Christmas vacation. She booked the flights, rented a house and made arrangements to meet up with her childhood friend T and T's family, who flew in from Germany. All right - fine, I'll go to Florida for Christmas.  The first time in my life that I wasn't home for Christmas.  The Boy and his main squeeze "L" were home from school, so both of them, along with The Mrs., me and the Pudge took this trip. 

To start the trip off, on the day before the flight I got a 24-hour stomach virus (that apparently is all the rage now).  It hit me on Friday while I was in the office.  I ended up puking in a trash can.  Fortunately, I was fine by the time I got on the plane the next afternoon.  We flew Southwest through Nashville, and even though we were 45 minutes late taking off, the pilot made up most of the time, we made our connection and arrived in Tampa on time.  We had 6 bags checked and all arrived safely (and free on SouthWest - I like this airline).  Oh, this is priceless too.  The Mrs. packed a carry-on bag for me to...carry on...that was full of Christmas gifts that The Mrs. insisted on taking down so "the kids will have something to open on Christmas day".  Unbeknown to me, two of the gifts were nerf guns. So as I'm waiting for my bag to come out of the scanner, I hear the TSA agent call out "Gun check!", my friggin' jaw dropped.  I thought I was going to jail, or at the very least, that a body cavity search would be involved.  The TSA agent was very nice about it, unwrapped the two boxes, saw that they were hermetically sealed toys - and sent us on our way.

We rented an SUV and drove down to Anna Maria Island - a small barrier island southwest of St. Petersburg.  By the time we got the keys for the house from the realtor's drop box and found the right house (got it on the 2nd try - I hope we didn't scare the people down the street too badly), we were unloaded and in bed by midnight.

The house was nice.  Three bedrooms, 3 baths, kitchen and a heated pool.  It was on one of the main drags into the island, so there was a lot of traffic noise, but I tried to keep myself drunk enough that it didn't bother me.  We were only one block from a nice beach that had an outdoor cafe and bar.  But the weather, well that wasn't the Christmas-in-Florida weather we had in mind.  It only rained once, but it was pretty cold.  The 2 warmest days got into the low 70s, but with high winds.  I stood on the beach a couple of times with my feet in the 60 degree water, but that was it.  I never got the bathing suit out of the suitcase.  The kids swam in the pool twice, but the air was just too cold.



The Mrs., the Pudge, L, the Boy and me doing a Segway pitstop.

 We did a bunch of touristy things, the most interesting being a one hour Segway trip.  I've never ridden one of these things before, but after 10 minutes of instruction and practice, it was a lot of fun.  This was the highlight of the trip.

The other damper on the trip was - stomach virus.  The one I had went through the entire family.  The Boy had it for 2 days and I never saw someone puke and crap (a couple of times simultaneously) as much as he did.  But the Pudge got it in the most spectacular way imaginable.  Christmas day, we went to the Columbia Restaurant in Sarasota.  We had advanced reservations and it's a good thing we did.  It's a Cuban restaurant that's been there for 100 years and was frequented by Marylin Monroe and Joe DiMaggio back in the day when they were a couple.  The place easily holds 300 people - and it was packed.  There were 8 of us and it was a very nice dinner.  I finished paying the bill and we were about to leave when the Pudge came back from the bathroom, sat down on the bench seat between our table and the next table and proceeded to projectile vomit all over the floor.  I heard several ooohs and eeews as The Mrs. grabbed him and took the Pudge and everyone else, but me, out of the restaurant.  I apologized profusely to the waiter and people at the adjacent tables, reassuring them it was a stomach virus and not he food.  I then made a hasty retreat, going past the maître d' station where the crowd had parted because of a second deposit that the Pudge left there on the floor (it was covered in linen napkins).  He threw up one more time after we got home - all over his bedroom floor.  The Boy woke up The Mrs. and me and then went back to retrive his sneekers, which a little splatter on them.  Didn't offer to help with the cleaning at all - typical.

The Mrs. and L got the virus too, but not near as bad as the boys.  The rest of the trip was uneventful...until we flew home...because it was USAir.  The direct flight left on time and arrived early and I thought, "this is great, I always have bad experiences with USAir".  Then we got down to baggage claim.  Everyone on the plane was waiting at the assigned carousel, only to be told by a porter that our luggage was 3 carousels down.  It's freaky how many times this has happened to me with USAir at Philadelphia.  No exaggeration - 75% of the time the bags will be on a carousel that is different from the one listed on the monitor.  And it will take a minimum of a half hour for the bags to get there - WORST BAGGAGE HANDLING PERIOD.  And this time around, 5 out of 6 bags were damaged.  That's over 80% of our bags damaged including L's brand new $400 designer one that she used for the first time (2 of 4 wheels were ripped off).  And they charged us $160 to boot.  So now we're fighting with USAir to repair or replace them, which included the Boy making a trip to the airport the next day to drop the empty bags there.

An interesting side note while we were in the baggage claim office.  A man came walking in carrying a rifle case - and he was pissed.  Gun cases are supposed to be hand carried and delivered to the owner in baggage claim.  He found his circling on one of the carousels where anyone could have grabbed it and walked out the door (there was no mistaking what it was).  And no one in the office, including a Philadelphia police officer, seemed to care.  "We'll make a note of it" was the answer he got.  I wonder how many times this has happened?  The Mrs. was so horrified that she called the airport the next day to report the incident.  Only to be told it was a USAir problem and she would have to call them.  She gave up after hearing that.

So there you have it, the misadventures of the Kill family on their own version of Christmas Vacation.  It's even money we'll do it again next year.

Addendum:  I've been sitting on this story for a couple of weeks in the hope of getting some pictures, but The Mrs.  has them on her camera and she hasn't downloaded them to the computer.  So I'm letting this story go with just the one picture.  Sue me!

Christmas Traditions - Christmas Eve Escarole Soup

 For as long as I can remember, my mother always made Escarole Soup for Christmas or Christmas Eve Dinner.  I'm not sure what started this tradition (a traditional Italian soup, my mother was Irish-Polish-French) or where the recipe came from, but it remains a staple of the Kill Family Christmas Eve Dinner. 

Since my mother's passing 4 years ago, this tradition has been taken up by me.  My oldest sister K has taken up hosting the family dinner and making the traditional Kill Family meal of lasagna, meatballs and sausage (and sometimes braciole).  She actually had to break with tradition this year because of new floors being installed (way behind schedule) in her house.  She went with a simpler menu of ham, beans and potatoes.  But I still brought the soup.


My mom's original recipe - created on a typewriter.



My marked-up version of the recipe.



The boys helped me this year and rolled all of the little meatballs.  Usually, they start to get bigger toward the end, but they stayed pretty uniform in size this year.



The Pudge actually does wash his hands.  That's the escarole draining after it was cooked.



The finished product.  I waited until I got to my sister's to add the egg-cheese mixture.

I forgot to take my camera to my sister's house to show the finished product.  You'll have to take my word that it was good (I only had one serving left that I had for lunch a few days later) and that we drank a lot of wine. Belated Merry Christmas to everyone!

Drive-by Holiday Spirit

Do you believe in Christmas?

Do you renounce the Grinch?

Do you renounce the Grinch's works?





“You must love this country more than I love a cold beer on a hot Christmas morning.” ~Homer Simpson

This is what I see happening at Boxer's New Years Party.

Movie Clip Wednesday - Favorite Christmas Movie

Boxer is now busying herself with hosting some kind of weird blogger New Years Eve Party. So it's the Milk River Madman that continues to take up the mantle that is Movie Clip Wednesday, the Meme where everyone picks a clip from their favorite movies based on a weekly theme and tries to keep the clip or clips to around 3 minutes long. This week's theme is FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIE. A timely theme for sure and one that's been done before, but 'tis the season...

You can't think about traditional Christmas movies with naming those two Yuletide dynasties - It's a Wonderful Life and a Christmas Carol. So I chose a Christmas Carol. The version I like is more correctly called Scrooge. Made in 1951 and starring Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, this period piece of jolly old 19th century England absolutely screams Christmas at me every year.

Then on the other side of the Christmas genre we have the comedies. A Christmas Story use to be my favorite but the USA channel killed it for me by running it continuosly for days. Hard to believe that Peter Billingsly (Ralphie) is almost 40. And you all know one of my other favorites is Bad Santa, so I won't go into that. But because it's the holiday season, I'm going to drag out another Chevy Chase movie (I did Caddyshack a few weeks ago) that I think is hysterical. 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I saw this in the theater and never laughed so hard at a Christmas movie (not even Bad Santa). And anyone who's ever ventured into the world of exterior illumination will really appreciate this scene (a little long - sorry):

So go on over to the Madman's and see if there's a little something under his tree for you. So Merry Christmas to all.

Early Christmas Present

You all may remember a contest that Chickory had and that I, unbelievably - WON. Here were my prize choices. Anyway, I get home last night and there on the front step was this (soon to be cherished) work of art. The Mrs immediately put it on display at the edge of the family hearth.



Thank you Chickory. I know so few artists and it is truly an honor to receive personalized artwork. Merry Christmas to you and your family from the Buzzkills.

Merry Christmas from Buzz Kill

My Christmas CD Courtesy of K9. Isn't it a beauty?



My all time favorite Christmas Song (the video isn't much but the lyrics are all there).



Christmas with a great punk band - The Vandals, Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies



I love this guy - Mr Mojo's Christmas



Try to keep in mind that Christmas is about family, faith, magic and eggnog. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and keeps their priorities straight.

O Tannenbaum - Traditions at the Buzzkill

Boxer apparently has a fascination with all things Christmas and specifically - the Christmas tree. So I have taken some shots around Stately Buzzkill Manor of our Christmas decor and which Boxer is welcome to "steal" for her own ammusement. And it moved me to write about some family traditions and why we do what we do.

The Wreath

Here is the wreath for the front door. The Mrs and the pudge made it. She bought one of those wire rings and used scrap branches from the Christmas tree and some holly branches that the pudge and I cut in the woods behind the house. There are a lot of Holly trees (with berries) back there but no fir trees - all broad leaf trees. They made a 2nd, smaller wreath for the mirror in the hallway.

Years ago, my brothers and I had a tradition where we would go into a tract of woods we knew (we use to deer hunt there) a couple of weeks before Christmas and cut greens to make wreaths. It was actually started by our father and we stopped for a while after he passed away. Once my brothers and I had families and homes of our own, we started the tradition again and would go to the woods and cut pine, spruce, holly and laurel and make a bunch a wreaths for our houses. And our mother's house too. The last few times we went we started taking our boys with us. We stopped the tradition about 6 years ago when the woods were developed. The Mrs decided she wanted to start our own tradition with the boys this year - hence the door wreath. We'll see how long this lasts.

The Christmas Tree

Another tradition is getting the Christmas tree. Through most of my childhood, we had an artificial tree that sat in a revolving stand that played electronic Christmas music. Because of this plasticy Christmas, when I set out on my own with my 1st house, I vowed to have a real, cut tree - which I have done every year for the last 25 years.

A friend of mine use to sell them on a vacant lot every year and I would purchase from him. They weren't very good trees but he was a friend. When he stopped selling them, I found a small tree farm (through another friend) that we would take the boys to and cut our own tree. This was a very small farm that you wouldn't know was there if you didn't know it was there. It sits on the side of a pretty good hill and one of our best memories was the time we went after a good snow storm. The boys were able to sled on the hill (with sleds the farmer provided) and we have a great picture of the 2 of them on the sled (Christmas 2002). After a few years, the pickings at the farm got slimmer and the 1 hour ride just didn't seem worth it any more.



At this point the boy was in Little League and their big fund raising event for the year was selling Christmas trees. So we volunteered to help unload the trucks, set up the fencing and tree sands, and sell the trees for several years. As a result we bought our trees there too. The trees were fresh cut from a farm in upstate Pennsylvania, so we knew they were fresh. One time the tractor trailer with the trees got there and was covered with snow. I can't tell you how much snow I had down my back by the time we were done unloading. And the trees were always really nice. As volunteers we could pick through the hundreds of trees (usually 400 - 500) and get really nice trees. The prices were very reasonable and I would even get my mom's tree there too.

Now because it's for Little League, the boys would help sell the trees with their fathers and people would generally tip the boys. So my boy has been selling trees for the Little League (up until this year) for the tip money. He's 16 and hasn't played in the league for 4 years, but they appreciate the help.

So this year we didn't volunteer but we still went there to get our tree. And this is probably one of the nicest trees we've ever had. The boy strung the lights with his girl friend and the Mrs and the pudge put up the ornaments. The best description I can give for the theme of the tree is - eclectic mess. It's just all sorts of different ornaments that weve collected over the decades.

I set up most of the Christmas Village. The village was another tradition started when the Mrs and I were first married in that I would buy the Mrs a new piece every year. I had to stop when the shear volume started getting out of control. The boys like to set up the figurines around the village.


Here are some dark shots that came out so-so.



So that's Christmas decorating at the Buzzkill for 2009. We'll see what traditions we have next year. I hope everyone has a nice holiday.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us.
They're green when summer days are bright;
They're green when winter snow is white.
O, Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!

By the way, we don't actually sing this song around the Christmas tree - ever.