Blackhawks vs. Red Wings

For Andrew's Christmas present, I got him tickets to a Blackhawks game in Chicago versus the Red Wings.  If you know nothing about the NHL, you need to know that these two teams are arch rivals.
Here's some Wiki info:

The rivalry between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings is the most intense rivalry in the Central Division.^[17] It has existed since 1926–27 and continued from the Original Six days into the present. These two clubs have faced each other in more regular season games than any other two clubs in NHL history, except for the total number of regular season and playoff matches between the Bruins and Canadiens.

I doubt that most NHL fans would get their info from Wikipedia but you have to remember who's writing this.

So the Friday after Christmas we drove up to "The Miami of Canada" (Ha! I Love Wikipedia!) to attend our first NHL game.  We were soooo excited.

 We had awesome seats for being in the upper level.  We were in the front row and right by the Don Julio bar.  Very very cool! We even arrived an hour early just so we could check everything out. 

So you can see our view from our seats but I just wanted to remind you how awesome the lens on my camera is.  That's the goalie! Now that's a ZOOM!

 Hey it's Patrick Kane!

 Now I would like to know how you get to be a Zamboni kid? Owning a jersey is obviously a requirement. 

 A special message before the game is to watch for flying pucks.  Guess who sponsored it? A dentist who does Dental Implants! Genius.

 The United Center is quite an arena.  They really know how to pump you up during the starting line up. 

 It was like watching a movie on the jumbotron.  Jeez!

 Blackhawks + Red Wings = Boat loads of red jerseys

 I said Toews was cute once and Andrew continued to refer to him the rest of the night as "That guy you find attractive".  :-)

 Star Spangled Banner Time!

This place is full of traditions.  The Blackhawks have a National Anthem tradition where the crowd cheers, screams and claps during the ENTIRE singing of the National Anthem.  The permanent singer is Jim Cornelison and I've linked his name to a great interview with him.  They also bring out members of the USO to stand with him on the ice while he sings.  It's really an intense experience.  We've seen it on TV so many times but nothing matches being there in person. 

Just like any professional sports team, there are partially dressed girls involved.  We weren't really sure what they were doing.  They had shovels.  I was wearing my winter coat INSIDE so I'm sure they had to be freezing. 

 Within the first few minutes of the game, we got to see a fight.  Awesome! Throw down those gloves and sticks! It's fightin' time!

 They were shoving each other into the glass.  It was crazy!

 The refs broke it up eventually.  Boo! :)

 GOAL!!! The first time they scored they played Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis.  I didn't get a video of it myself but I did find someone else's.  They were sitting at the very top of the United Center.  Wow.  That's high up there. 

Don't think we didn't get out of there without buying something! I tried to convince Andrew to buy a styrofoam cowboy hat.

He went with something much more appropriate and wearable.  Excellent choice, my man!

We also picked up something for Tommy.  A slightly cushy hockey stick, puck, and his favorite, a BALL!

Awww, look at the happy couple enjoying their first NHL experience. (I didn't have any Blackhawks attire so I stole the hat I got Andrew for Christmas.) 

We ate a dinner of champions at the game.  Hot dogs and beer!

While we were eating, I noticed that they have one of the TV's above the concession stand turned to the CW network.  I guess they've got something for everyone. 

We went to the United Center bar after the game and drank more beer.  We had a super fun time just the two of us.  We know it's important to take time for ourselves now that we're parents but we did miss Tommy a lot. 

He really enjoyed the gift we brought him.  Future hockey player in the making! :-)

Oh and one last note... Guess what the mascot's name is?

Awesome!

We once again interrupt this blog...

To bring you some Ron Swanson. 

Parks and Rec is one of my favorite shows.  If you aren't watching it, you should be!

GROWING!

 Tommy has been putting it back lately.  We think he may be going through a growth spurt.  We'll see what you think. 

 He's been sleeping more lately.  He's also been eating everything in sight!

 He can't be satiated!

This sounds like a lot of food to me. What do you think? Tonight he ate a cup of applesauce, Kix cereal, a serving of turkey and a sippy cup of water.  But that's not all...

Then an hour or so later he had some milk, ate a small bowl of broccoli and a cup of mandarin oranges! Oh and more Kix! That kid LOVES Kix!  And plain broccoli? Barf! But he loves it!

 He loves it so much that he screams for more!

 Mmmm broccoli!

So we also think he has grown lately too.  It's really hard to tell but we've noticed his dunking skills have improved.  This picture was taken on Christmas day.  He really had to reach for the basket!

 This was taken today around a week and a half later.  Holy Godzilla! MONSTER SLAM! TOMAHAWK JAM! I think the boy grew a foot taller! (Morganism). 

Balls and Books.  The kid loves them.  Why not try to put them together? I have a feeling that won't be the last odd thing he tries to put in that hoop.  Or a toilet.  Better protect my iPhone.  :-/

Christmas Visitors

Not only did Santa stop by our house for Christmas but we were also blessed to be visited by some friends too.

On the Friday before Christmas, my friend Krissi and her boyfriend Joe stopped by to meet Tommy for the first time. 

 They stopped by on their way from Birmingham. They hailed from Alabama and they were fixing to get to West Lafayette.  Sorry, I had to. ;-)

Then on Monday after Christmas our friends the Glovers stopped by with their son Jack.  You might remember them from these posts. 

 Tommy immediately got SUPER excited to see him.  He grabbed him right away and put his hands all over his face. 

 Tommy wanted hugs!! Jack was like "Um mom, what is this guy's deal??"

Then Tommy accidentally knocked Jack down and he his head hit the floor.  It didn't phase Jack whatsoever (he's a tough guy) but it must have scared Tommy because he burst into tears.  He didn't want his new friend to be hurt! So empathetic! :)

 So then he hugged Jack AGAIN.  "So sorry bro!"

 Then it was play time!
We're just two towheads and we're having a good time!

Jack also brought along a gift for Tommy for his birthday.  A drum with lots of other musical instruments inside!! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Tommy or Dada!

It was fantastic to see you guys! Thanks so much for stopping by!

The Many Outfits of Christmas Time

Tommy had several pairs of Christmas pajamas.  I tried to remember to take a picture of them all but I did not succeed. 

 Christmas booty!

 Adorable sleeper.  Yeah, once I discovered I could take pictures of Tommy while he slept, there will be no end to the pictures I will take of him sleeping. :)

All sprawled out

 Here's a new outfit that Tommy got from Janie for Christmas.  Aww! Go Boilers!

 He's number one!

 Purdue warm up pants + Moose Sweater + plaid hat = Tommy L. Jackson. 

 Over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house he drives!

The boy is classy kid.  He wears fancy hats while he reads.  

Finally here's a picture of Tommy's awesome BIRTHDAY SUIT!!

 Awwww mom!

O Christmas Tree

Our Christmas Tree was beautiful.  Until...

Tommy realized that all the ornaments look like BALLS! He would try to grab and throw any glass ornament he could get his hands on.  So we removed all the ornaments from the bottom 3 feet of the tree. 

It looks like we ran out of ornaments as we got to the bottom of the tree!! Oh Christmas memories! ;-)

Tommy's Second Christmas

 Tommy put the 'new' in newborn for Christmas last year so this year was a little bit more exciting.  We gave him his present on Christmas Eve.  We had wrapped it but we decided to go ahead, open it up and put it together while he was napping. 

 He came down from his nap to find his awesome new basketball hoop!

 Tommy's favorite word is BALL so he was pretty excited.  I'm not sure if this is a jump shot or a squat poop. 

 He loved his new gift.  He shot it from all angles! He used every ball he had too which is seriously like 30 different balls (only a slight Morganism).

 Dunk it!!

 Don't eat the ball!

 Then Tommy opened his other presents.  He was pretty excited.  After opening gift after gift after gift in the month of December, he certainly was getting the hang of it. 

 After we opened gifts, we went to Outback for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Tommy is giving a noisy little boy behind him the stink eye.  :-)

But then Tommy became the noisy little boy since dinner took longer than he liked so Andrew walked him around the restaurant.  If you look close, you can see Tommy reaching for the TV.  

 When we came back, Tommy ate Christmas sugar cookies.  Special Christmas sugar cookies with no milk or eggs! Or as I like to call them, Gross Cookies.  :-)  No eggs, fake milk and soy butter makes for rock hard ucky cookies. 

 This picture of my half eaten (yes I ate quite a few of them) rock hard cookies makes me think of those Pinterest Fail pictures I've seen.  Nailed it! Here's another favorite. 

I wish I would have taken a picture of my cookies as I had them originally displayed.  I had a candy cane (which Tommy is looking at in disgust in the first picture), a snowman and a few stars.  They looked nice.  They tasted like corkboard.

 The next day we went to Christmas at my parents house. Tommy's favorite chair!  A lot has changed in 7 months huh? 

He mostly grew a bunch of hair!!

We had LOTS of fun.  We sang karaoke! My favorite song to sing was Friday by Rebecca Black. 

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas day because my mom was taking pictures.  So I may borrow some from her and post more. 

Until then, Tommy's second Christmas was a great success.  Merry Christmas, Tommy!

Purdue Game at Conseco

On December 17th, Andrew and I went to the Crossroads Classic at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. We were super lucky that our friends the Gradles offered us these awesome tickets.  You might remember the Gradles from here.  Thanks again for the terrific tickets! You guys are the best!

 Our seats were amazing!! Actually they weren't quite that good. We sat two rows in front of where we were supposed to sit on accident and got kicked out by the correct ticket holders.  Whoops.

 This is where we actually sat.  Still amazing!

 We try to go to the Purdue game at Conseco every year but we usually sit near the top in the nose bleeds.  This was quite a treat.

 We were sitting so close to the floor that we were actually on TV! We were watching the game and all the sudden our phones started going off.  "Hey I just saw you guys on CBS!" People texted us and sent us these pictures.

The kids behind us were the main focus on TV at that moment.  They were dancing and we were just in the scene.  When this picture got posted on Facebook, we were tagged and the kids' parents were also tagged so we found out that the kids behind us were actually the sons of one of Andrew's fraternity brothers.  Small world huh?

On the way home, we actually ended up following the team home.  We were all hanging our heads from the loss. :( Better luck next time guys! Keep your heads up!

One last note from the day... The Crossroads Classic was called the Close the Gap Crossroads Classic.  Because we were having a hard time trying to figure out what exactly they were, I'll just let their twitter feed try to explain what we heard OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN that day: YourHeartHealth Black, Latino, Indian Americans, Alaskan Natives & Asian/Pacific Islanders die at earlier ages from #heartdisease. 

So at every possible chance, there was an advertisement at the game telling us really grim facts about heart disease that made you look at the hot dog you were eating and feel pretty stupid.  Andrew said, "I didn't realize this game was sponsored by DEATH." I guess their advertising was pretty effective.  :)