Merry Christmas from the Cannons

It's been a great year for the Cannon family. Tony finished grad school, Shelley is 4+ months along in her pregnancy. We're moving to Tokyo, Japan in January. Anthon is growing like a weed and keeping us laughing every day.

We hope that you all have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

The Cannon Family Christmas Card

It's a Girl!

Shelley and I found out today that we're having a girl. Shelley asked me, "What kind of proof was there that we're having a girl?" I replied, "I think finding no proof that it was a boy was proof enough that it's a girl." I could be wrong on this, however.

This came as a big surprise to Shelley, who was sure she was a "boy Mom." We're thinking about naming this little girl Ella Nadine, after my Grandmother and Shelley's Fairy Godmother. You can ask her about that.

In other news, wish us luck as we leave for Tokyo tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can find our future home during our house-hunting trip.

School's out...forever!

Far be it from me to quote Alice Cooper's most famous song, but truer words have never been spoken this day. I finished my last class of formal education, completing the requirements for my MBA at the University of Southern California. I envisioned leaving class with fanfare in the background as I walked out of class in slow motion high fiving classmates as I passed. But it was really anticlimactic...imagine that! I celebrated finishing my last night in school by sitting in traffic heading to my family. I was rewarded by my son wanting to put on all 13 new pair of underwear.

It's been a two and a half year process going part time two or three nights a week - and by so doing winning no husband or father of the year awards. But it's been worth it for me as this has been a life long goal.

Anyway, so I'm open for any suggestions on how to best fill my time. I plan to spend more time at home and finally get back to reading for fun. Any other ideas?

Japanese TV is AWESOME!

So I've fretted about what to do about TV viewing when we move to Japan. There are only a few English channels - but conspicuously missing are such beloved channels like ESPN. Most of the first run shows in the US are at least one or two seasons behind in Japan, if they're broadcast at all. I toyed with the idea of buying a Slingbox, hooking it up to TIVO and placing that in my parents condo in Salt Lake City. Then we could stream live TV as well as shows stored on the TIVO...all controlled from our apartment in Tokyo. But that seems like a hugely expensive technical error waiting to happen.

Within the last few weeks, I've come across a few great Japanese TV shows, that at least for now, has piqued my interest....and you don't even need to understand Japanese! There are plenty more of these shows on YouTube.


Human Tetris

Japanese Obstacle Course

The First of Our Lasts...

Today was our last home football game before graduation and before our move to Japan. In a way, this marks the beginning of a lot of "lasts" for us. These games have been fun because we've been able to do it as a family and I think Anthon loves it more than Shelley and I do. This morning, as Anthon was waking up, he called out from his crib, "Hey guys, I'm reeeady!" When we went in there to ask what he was ready for, he replied, "SC Game...eat nachos." Yes, he was ready...and yes we did eat nachos. He was giving bones to the kids around us and showing off his two finger "fight on" skills.

Anthon also has impressive skills at listening and repeating - much to our dismay sometimes. Upset at a certain call that went against USC, the student section began to yell in unison, "b***s***" - many times over. Anthon, ever the student of things that come out of my mouth that I say in haste, starts saying, "ullshi, ullshi, ullshi!" Though he doesn't know what those words mean, for the most part people are actually pretty respectful when Anthon's around. He's pretty interactive and animated at the games so people tend to watch what they say a bit more...so that has made the environment around us a bit better.

Poor UCLA, they couldn't even put up enough of a showing to keep my son awake, however. UCLA's 12 yards of total rushing offense lulled my boy into a good 45 minute nap from the second quarter into half time. The USC win means another Rose Bowl game and maybe one last game before we hit the road. Shelley and I thought that maybe our second child would be a bit disadvantaged because he/she wouldn't be in on all the fun we had at USC's football games. Maybe we have to become Tokyo Giants fans.