Our own little Baby New Year, Landon (8 months), on New Year's Eve 2009.

Landon looking toward the new year.

Will (3) and Drew (6) on New Year's Eve 2009.

Note: the photos are not photoshopped, rather they were taken with a star shaped filter I made. More information can be found here.

A blue moon isn't really blue. Rather, it is the second full moon to occur in a single calendar month. Tonight, the last day of the year, there was a blue moon. A full moon occurs every 29.5 days. Blue moons occur on average about every 2.7 years which works out to about 3% of all full moons. The last time there was a blue moon on New Year's Eve was on December 31, 1990. The next blue moon will be on August 31, 2012, while the next New Year's Eve blue moon won't happen until December 31, 2028. Finally, the last time a decade ended on a full moon (if you believe the decade ended tonight) was on December 31, 1819.

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i (500D), Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens, 1/400 sec, F5.0, ISO 100, exposure bias 0/1, 200.00mm, no flash, auto exposure, spot metering.

Previously, Half Moon.

Tulsa was blessed with a white Christmas this year as a winter storm delivered about 6 inches of snow Christmas Eve with some parts of the state receiving as much as 14 inches. The roads were so bad we put off going to Ma and Pa's for Christmas until today. We got everyone dressed and all of our gifts packed up and we were all ready to go and I opened the garage door only to be greeted by this.

A half-hour of shoveling later, we were ready to go. Growing up in Chicago I learned to loathe shoveling snow. Today was a fun reminder that my feelings haven't changed.

From Landon, Drew and Will and the rest of the Danz family, have a very merry Christmas!

Will, Landon and Drew visiting Santa Claus.

Our Christmas tree this year is just a little bit bigger than "normal." It's a little wider and I had to trim quite a bit to get the star properly wedged against the 10 foot ceiling. After the jump, a bonus picture of the boys with Santa.

Landon checking out Kris Kringle.

It is Christmas Eve and all through the house not a creature is stirring...except Landon who is so excited about Santa coming that he can't keep his tongue in his mouth!

We all went to visit Santa Claus at Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa today along with Aunt Donelda. Will had made out a list asking Santa for a two-sided lightsaber like Darth Maul, Star Wars guys especially Cad Bane and a walkie-talkie. Drew told Santa that he wanted a Nerf Blaster, a two-sided lightsaber and a walkie-talkie.

This year the video is in HD format so be sure to check out the extra detail full-screen. The sound in the busy mall is disappointing, I think we'll have to put a mic on Santa next year. As always, the YouTube version is after the jump.

We have the world's most awesome automatic tree waterer. Here it is checking the water level. Notice the hat, we learned the hard way that tree sap and little boy's hair do not go well together.

(LOL...I thought I had bragged about my automatic tree waterer before! In fact, if you do a Google search for automatic tree waterer, it comes up the number one image!)

Will, Landon and Drew with Daddy (and Mama on camera) on our annual trip to pick out this year's Christmas tree.

Will, Drew and Mama at home with our Christmas tree. (Will is excited about his candy cane that the tree place handed out to each of the boys.) Last year I finally smarted-up and started taking the Christmas tree stand base with us when we looked for a tree so that it could be fitted on the tree by the guys with chainsaws in a few seconds rather than by me hacking away with a handsaw for the better part of an hour.

The boys, after enjoying the warm weather to play with chalk, next to our ceiling-scraping ten-footer.

Drew helped me put up Christmas lights. I've got to say for a just-turned-six-year-old, he was an amazing helper! He was able to unwind and detangle lights, unscrew burned out bulbs, find and screw in replacement bulbs and manage cords while I hung the lights up high. Drew is all about safety, as shown in the photo, he is insistent on always holding the ladder for me (or the chair when I'm changing ceiling lights inside the house). Drew really made this holiday chore a whole lot easier and fun too. I look forward to the future, when my three helpers will take on the task with me.