Christmas 2008

Our first Christmas together was a lot of fun (and travel). Many thanks to everyone who gave us lots of fun gifts. All of the pictures are here.

Labor Day

For labor day weekend, wifey and I traveled to Ocean City for two days to be with her family and then back to good old SP to go out on the boat and hang out with my fam. We had great weather and got to see one of the coolest sunsets that I had seen in a long time.



We were trying to get a family shot with my fam here's how it turned out. We look good.


All of the pictures can be found here.

Parents House Renovations

Photos from the house renovations at my parents house. Full set is here. The place looks amazing, my Uncle Carl has done a great job.

Throwback Thursday: Steve meets Derrick

So back in the fall 2004, my brother Steve was a senior at Severna Park High School and played football on both the offensive and defensive line. One of the first games of the season was against Eleanor Roosevelt High School who was ranked in the top 10 in the state and boasted Derrick Williams (2.8 GPA and 810 SAT according to his bio) who happened to be one of the top recruits in the nation. SP won the game in an upset and Steve made a couple of great plays.

Fast-forward one year later to the fall of 2005. Steve has started attending the University of Maryland, Derrick and his 810 SAT score are now at Penn State University, and I'm sitting in my new digs at the White House watching a College Football preview show on TV. I see that Derrick Williams is being mentioned as a Freshman to Watch in the upcoming season so I think to myself, "That's cool, maybe they will show some footage from the SP game." That's when this came on...



Yup, my bro, #50. It's OK though, Derrick has gone on to do this and this to certain teams that Steve and I both dislike. Plus he has never beaten Michigan, so I guess he's really not that bad of a guy after all.

Metzger's T-Shirts

While in Michigan for Thanksgiving we picked up a little gift for Christy to welcome her to the family. More pictures here.

Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here is the link to all the photos.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve with the fam.

Back Home

So after a drive that lasted 9 hours through the night, we finally arrived back in Severna Park at 6 AM. And not a moment too soon, it was getting pretty miserable when it was 4 AM and everyone needed to stretch out and sleep (and the Mexican buffet line at the reception was not treating me right if you know what I'm saying).

Derek and Carole's wedding was beautiful and they seem to be very happy. Overall we had a great weekend as a family and I love them a lot. I'm not sure what more to write about, so I'll leave it at that. The rest of the pictures from the weekend can be found here.

Rehearsal Dinner

Good times tonight from Ann Arbor, Michigan. For the first time in history I think every living Metzger on our side of the family was in one room at the rehersal dinner. Grandma and Grandpa made the trip along with my Grandpa's brother, Uncle Don (who was hilarious). I got to sit at a table with my brother and sister along with my cousins (who are awesome). We also had the opportunity, while killing 4 hours, to drive around the University of Michigan's campus and go to a restaurant called Metzger's. We didn't get a discount for having the same last name.

I've had a Coldplay song stuck in my head all day for a number of reasons. One of those reasons in particular is because I was listening while thinking about my family.

Oh, what good is it to live
With nothing left to give
Forget, but not forgive
Not loving all you see

-Swallowed in the Sea by Coldplay

I love Chris Martin's songwriting, but this one hit home because I remember writing in my journal the last time I was up here in Michigan about how I wish I could see how different our family would be if love had entered the picture sooner. Even Grandpa commented tonight on how much he has enjoyed getting to see the entire family get along. Somehow through his illness I hope everyone realizes how much we need each other.

Tomorrow is the big day for Derek and Carole. We are peacing out right after the reception to try and beat traffic a little bit on Sunday. Finally, in what has become a tradition over the past two days, I leave you with The Clapham Institute picture of the day...


That would be my dad's attempt at doing the wrist-finger-snap-laxer-shredder-dude-brah thing.

As usual, all your pictures are here.

Thanksgiving Day

First of all, happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you had a great day with friends and family.




Secondly, the lady above is the mother of my cousin's Spanish exchange student who does not speak English and is going blind. Try keeping up with that one. For a family of pasty white, blunt, Germans with mustaches, this officially registers as the single most random thing of my life. Barbara is the exchange student and she does speak English. We talked for a while as I brushed up on my Spanish and talked about Real Madrid.



Later in the evening we had a chance to have 4 generations of Metzger's sit in the same room and listen to my Dad and Uncles Carl and Robert ask questions of my Grandma and Grandpa about their lives. I had the cameras set up to record the whole thing. It was an incredible time as we laughed, listened, and shared memories together. Hopefully the video will be a treasure for our family.

It seems to me weird that it has been 7 years since we have all been together. I told Jen as we were preparing a midnight meal of mashed potatoes and turkey that I hope we never go 7 years without seeing each other. It's even weirder to think that as kids we spent every moment with each other and now we have to schedule each other into our lives.

I leave you with one more great picture from the day. Ladies and Gentlemen, the brains behind the Clapham Institute...


Again, all the pictures from the weekend are located here.

Running Diary from Michigan

I'll continue posting pictures as the weekend continues. Be sure to keep up with all the pulsating action from just outside Toledo right here. All the photos are here.



The drive out here wasn't too bad. No traffic and the weather was fine until we hit Ohio (figures). I had good conversation with the fam and great tunes to keep me company for the 10 hour journey. Jennifer's brilliant plan was to stay up all night last night so she could sleep through the entire car ride, it worked. She then took a sleeping pill to go to sleep so all in all I approximate that she has either been sleeping or eating 18-19 of the last 24 hours. Sounds like a roommate of mine.

One of my goals to accomplish before the end of the year was to read 1 book all the way through. I figure you have to start with baby steps at some point. I brought The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Perelandra which I just realized is Part 2 of a 3 part book series by C.S. Lewis. Nice. Looks like Narnia it is.

Pictures from Michigan

Pictures from my trip to Michigan are now up. The panoramic shots didn't work very well but you at least get the idea. See the rest of the pictures here.

Cruise Pictures are up

Our family cruise in August of '07. View the rest here.