Anatomy of a holiday card

Happy holidays to you! Hopefully you've received our holiday card for 2007. Here's a look at how we arrived at the end result.

First, you have to have a backdrop. Now seems like a good time to put up the Christmas tree.

Next, it's time to place the flash.

"So, is that OK?"

Then, it's time to find the right place to sit.

Practice with our "stunt double" Star Ledger. Don't want to take the Boston Globe out until just the right minute.

OK, here's our first try. This actually might work. Matt, where's your hat? And hey wait, there's a front page AND a sports page that we can use.

So we'll try this with two sections.

Any minute now.

Almost there. Just a little bit lower.

Are we done yet?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the final result.

And oh yeah....

Go Pats!

Go Sox!

and Go Celtics!

Now this is a backup band!

Last Sunday, Matt and I went to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark to see the Boston Pops Esplenade Orchestra. For obvious reasons, Matt has seen the Boston Pops on several occasions, but I have not. After me asking numerous questions about the Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart while watching them on TV on the Fourth of July, Matt decided that I should see them for myself.

The concert was delayed an hour because the musicians had one heck of a time getting out of Boston due to the weather. But thanks to Amtrak, they all made it. And it was worth the wait.

What a wonderful time we had. The music was awesome. They had a men's singing group -- Cantus -- with them as well. And yes, at the end of the concert, we sang along with the Boston Pops.

This very well may become a new holiday tradition.

Holy testosterone, Batman!

Last night we headed back to the Rock in Newark. However, instead of going to a hockey game, we went to see UFC 78 Validation. That's the Ulimate Fighting Championships. It was part of my Christmas present to Matt. After a free train ride to Newark because there weren't enough conductors on the train and our no-so-legal dinner of pizza and beer in a bag in the shadow of my law school and with the blessing of the nearby police officer, we headed over to the Rock for a night of fights. Here's the view from our seats.

The fights started at about 8:15, and the first four were pretty good. At 10, the pay-per-view portion of the night started. So in theory, these were supposed to be the better fights. For the most part, they weren't. But they were entertaining nonetheless.

Here's some pictures from the second-to-last fight with Houston Alexander and Thiago Silva. The crowd seemed to liked Alexander better, but Silva won in the first round.

The main event was Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping. Each of them found their way into UFC by winning their respective seasons of the Ultimate Fighter, which is a reality show in which they look for new UFC fighters. Evans won in a split decision. Here are some photos from that fight.

We definitely had a good time last night. Hopefully this was a success and the UFC will be back in Newark some time soon.

And the rain in Florida continues...

For those of you who were jealous of us spending Christmas in Florida, this picture pretty much sums up the day. That's the storm coming over the horizon.

And that's pretty much what the rest of the day will look like. But that's OK. We have great plans of eating too much ham and pie.

We arrived in Florida safe and sound! OK, after we waited in the long lines at Newark Airport and almost missed our plane! The weather is warm, and the margaritas are cold (definitely better than the other way around!).

Today is Matt's mom's birthday (Happy Birthday Nancy!) So we just finished an awesome dinner prepared by Matt. Waaaay tooo muuch to eat!

OK, you all should be getting to bed because Santa is coming soon!

Merry Christmas Eve!