When I was a kid my parents had one of those instamatic cameras with the square Magicube on top. Remember those? It would give you a flashbulb on each side of the cube and would automatically turn when you wound the film to the next frame. I remember many times watching my father take pictures …
Continue reading Flashbulbs of MemoriesChristmas
We asked our kids the other day where they wanted to go for the family vacation next summer. We anticipated something like the beach, or Mexico, or maybe a theme park of some kind. Instead, the answer we got from all of them was “We want to go back to the mountains.” As a family …
Continue reading Boiled custard, warm cookies, and roasting marshmallowsI stumbled upon this amazing video on YouTube by Spoonito who shared home movies that his dad took of him and his sister over the span of 25 years during Christmas time. The dad recorded his son and daughter coming down the stairs on Christmas morning to open their presents from 1985 to 2009. There …
Continue reading 25 Years of Christmas‘Tis the season when red and green are the new black, and the “holiday spirit” permeates all things commercial and otherwise. Â If you are politically correct, then almost all salutations, spoken, written, or otherwise are readily sprinkled with “HAPPY HOLIDAYS.” Â If you are politically direct, then, at least this week, it is “MERRY CHRISTMAS.” Â I …
Continue reading Will The Real Santa Please Stand Up?A while back, I ran across this dad who draws on paper bags for his kids during his lunch break. Pretty neat stuff. But he’s also used his creativity (and a box cutter) to elevate the humble cardboard box into an even more awesome structure of play. Even neater. Which leads me to think about …
Continue reading The Best Christmas Present Is…Do you remember when the Christmas toys were new and exciting, even after Easter? Those were the good old days when a favorite toy lasted beyond the current TV season. Like many parents, I try to get gifts each Christmas that will have staying power. Invariably, some of the toys don’t live up to the …
Continue reading The Expiration Date on Christmas ToysMy son wants to be a movie director…among other things. He asked for a green screen setup this year for Christmas, and we got it for him (not cheap). One of the things we’ve been trying to do, since our family grew by two boys, is to get them all to do things together, to …
Continue reading The Princess & The Dragon – Christmas MagicMy son Zane got a tripod for his birthday. His birthday is actually on Christmas day, but wae celebrate early to keep them separate. Anyway…he filmed me reading “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” …and we thought we’d share. Enjoy: ÂÂ
Continue reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas … From MeThe “Cast of Dads” is back for our last recording before the Christmas Holiday, and it’s a doozy. Somehow our Holiday chatter leads us from the manly to the metro-sexual.  In this episode we discuss: Snow Days Holiday Gifts We Want Mustaches Massages and Massage Envy Guys like the spa too Pedicures? Really? Daddy Spa …
Continue reading Cast of Dads Podcast Episode 3: Mustaches, Massages & Man Purses!Have you ever paid close attention to the classic Christmas television program Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? Rudolph and Hermey are misfits and the misfit toys are marooned on an Arctic island. It seems people with differences are sort of dismissed. But what’s interesting is that the North Pole is actually quite similar to our …
Continue reading We could learn a lesson from RudolphThanks to technology, our kids are growing up in an amazing time. Homework assignments that I would have had to use construction paper, crayons and Elmer’s Glue to complete are now being accomplished with laptops and PowerPoint.  Stacks of papers and notebooks have been replaced by files on key chain sized USB drives.  Those are just …
Continue reading How A Social Media Guru Helped My Son With His HomeworkYou probably have already wondered how a title like this makes any sense. In today’s world it probably doesn’t. Of those five words, there is one that seems to get the most attention this time of year, though not for the reasons that it used to. For some odd reason our culture has decided that, …
Continue reading Have a Politically Correct ChristmasPreface: As a believer in Christ and one who celebrates a traditional American Christmas, this commentary is for readers who also celebrate the traditional American Christmas. My comments may not resonate with you other wise, and you may even find yourself disagreeing with me on certain points. This is what I believe, and would like …
Continue reading Setting Christmas ExpectationsIt’s that time of year. The holidays, Christmas, Chanukah and more are celebrated. Bright lights, holy symbols, and wintery decorations galore. It’s also become the season where folks no longer greet people with naming the holiday. Parenting is tough. There are tons of things you want to teach your children. Tolerance should be at the …
Continue reading Happy What?We are in that awkward time between Thanksgiving, and New Year’s, when the various “Holy Days” (a.k.a. Holidays) kick in.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or some other seasonal ritual, one thing is certain, you will be inundated with the commercialism of the season.  Black Friday, Cyber Monday, mauling at the mall, the …
Continue reading Happy Melancholy-days! Five Reasons NOT To Be A Scrooge This Year!In 1955 a Sears & Roebuck store in Colorado Springs advertised for children to call and talk to Santa. Only trouble was that the misprinted phone number connected the children to the Commander in Chief of CONAD, responsible for the tracking of possible incoming ICBMs over North American airspace. Colonel Harry Shoup happily gave children …
Continue reading Tracking Santa with NORAD This Christmas EveTis the season to be… inundated with religious debate.  I’d like to lighten things up a bit and focus on how the Holidays can be Holy days for everyone, regardless of your particular beliefs.  As someone who is Jewish that married someone who is not, my kids were raised with exposure to both the Jewish …
Continue reading Holy Days vs. HolidaysSlowing down your Christmas day
Continue reading Slowing Down ChristmasAs I begin my first blog post with Dad-O-Matic, first I just want to welcome you the reader, and acknowledge my fellow Dad-O-Matic bloggers, as well as Chris Brogan and Paisono. Without them we wouldn’t have this awesome community of parents. Some background about me, I am a happily married husband of 11 years, and …
Continue reading Christmas TraditionBy Danny Guspie This is my personal story and journey. The first year that that my wife and I were separated was by far the most difficult Christmas ever. At the time, I was a working dad as well as full-time single dad, and my olive branch gesture was to send the kids to my …
Continue reading Divorce and Kids during Christmas, Holidays can be GREAT!How will you be celebrating this Christmas? I’m not talking about the food. That wonderful banquet of smells and tastes. The turkey (that for us Aussies feels a little .. odd), the peas, honey carrots. Mum’s pudding that’s been hanging in the pantry for quite a while, with the kids asking why pudding doesn’t stay …
Continue reading Du Jour Means Christmas