The McFreeds want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!! 

We will be celebrating with an early dinner with Stefan's brother Andy, sister-in-law Amy, and niece Sarah. Later, the party begins at Lady Godiva's herself (aka Barbara) with the usual suspects of Althea, Dennis, Beth, and Jon of course! 

We have a lot to look back on. Sean's new job in January, moving in together in March, our trip to Las Vegas, time with our niece Sarah and nephew Zachary, the 1st Annual McFreed Summer Shindig, starting our blog, the Boston Red Sox winning it all, the New England Patriots perfect regular season, Stefan's kidney stone, meeting a ton of family and friends on both sides, and oh yeah getting engaged!  Whew!  There was so much more and we are so exhausted thinking about it! 

A huge HUGGLE to all our family and friends near and far this holiday!  It doesn't really mean anything but its always great to tell everyone you love and respect as well as just getting to know that you care... so Happy New Year and all the best in 2008!!!

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Sean says...

Kylie

So thanks to fellow Vox neighbor Mark and my real life friend Randy, my Kylie Minogue obsession has been rekindled again!  Unfortunately, Kylie's new album "X" doesn't seem to be coming to the US stores anytime soon. The only chance I have at it is either on-line or by getting my "triumvirate" member and best mate's in-laws importing it from Australia!  So thank god for YouTube!  Screw iTunes' intercountry blocks! 

Kylie, I would argue, is the World Queen of Pop.  She has been around 20 years, has Top 10 and 20 hits around the world, and says she lives in Los Angeles because its one of the only places on the Earth that she wouldn't be recognized (except of course West Hollywood as many of us know - wink). Why in the world she never took off in the USA I will never know. She isn't the greatest singer, she doesn't give into the raunch that Madonna does sometimes, and she usually stays out of the gossip rags but she is just a great constant. My friend and fellow fan Jim tells me its probably because she is mainly seen as a dance music star here. But in the end she survives and gives us the gift of her light song. And she is really incredible with her gay fans.

Enjoy!

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Sean says...

The New England Patriots

The New England Patriots did it!!!!!!!  16 - 0 Season!!!!  Now on to the playoffs!!! Congrats to the WHOLE team!!!!  A respectful handshake to the New York Giants for a tough 38 - 35 game! If you had to have a game with such a record (as well as Tom Brady's touchdown pass, Randy Moss' touchdown catches, and the most points by a team in a season) on the line, I was VERY happy to see such an iconic game!  If Ellis Hobbs had not gotten that interception away from Eli Manning the score would have been different.

Now for the very un-butch photo of Sean celebrating after the final second ticked away!

Sean After New England Patriots Win 16 - 0 Season

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The Happy Xmas Couple!

Sean & Stefan announce...

Well it finally happened. After a year and half and two Christmases together, Sean up and proposed to Stefan Christmas Eve!  In the middle of watching the Judy Garland sing to Margaret O'Brien "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in Meet Me In Saint Louis (the designated Xmas Eve film), Sean handed Stefan the gift below.  Stefan sleepy-eyed from the1AM hour slowly opened the blue wrapping paper with snow flakes on it, unwrapped the protective bubble wrap and uncovered the proposal Sean created with his own two hands...

A Proposal - Part 1

Stefan looked at Sean stunned and blinked with a smile. Given the $150.00 Xmas budget we had this year (a house and adopted children just don't grow on trees anymore after all), Sean decided to give Stefan his heart forever instead of a shiny new trinket. "The answer is 'Yes'," Stefan said "but are you sure you mean ME?" We both laughed and then kissed. Stefan found out his own brother Andy was in on the "deception" the whole time!  Stefan went on to be speechless for 45 minutes and then told Sean not to expect a ring in these red circular boxes under the tree. Sean went on to bed and crashed, his "evil" accomplished... Stefan stayed up another hour still stunned trying to figure out if it was a dream... it wasn't!

A Proposal - Part 2

We started to spread the word to family and friends the next couple of days and the phrase that kept coming up was "What does that mean? Engaged?"  We both laughed and found it extremely humorous and then looked at each other and said "What does that mean???"  What DO two gay men do after they get engaged? So watch this blog for how we solve The Mystery of The Engaged McFreeds!  

A Proposal - Part 3

Many have asked why are we are doing this even though we live in a state without legal gay marriage or civil unions.  All we know at this time (a favorite Stefan phrase) is that we are in love and can't see any better person to spend the rest of our lives with but each other. Sappy but true.  The law can catch up to us, this is our story after all right? (wink)

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Sean & Stefan say...

Christmas was a great holiday this year!  We spent the Christmas holiday in Virginia Beach with Sean's Mom, her cat Vanilla, and his sister Mikelle's dog Cierra.  Sean's sister Holly and her husband Frank came along later Xmas Day. All the gift's haven't been handed out yet so we won't talk about what we gave this year. We will just show you the pictures of us having fun!

Mom's Xmas Tree 2007

The Big Boot!

Mom and Stefan Xmas 2007

Sean & Stefan Pose on Xmas 2007

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The McFreeds want to wish everyone a very Merry Xmas!!! We are off to Sean's mother's house for another exciting Christmas and won't be posting for a few days. But we hope to show you, our fans, pictures of what happened!  We know there will be surprises!!!  With that here is a little Xmas song to celebrate the season!  We've chosen three classics for our blog. Sean's favorite Xmas song is "Christmas Can't Be Far Away" from Burl Ives. Unfortunately, that isn't available on YouTube and we are novices at the audio portion of Vox so here are our selections for you and yours!  So Merry Xmas from Sean and Stefan, may your Christmas be wonderful and joyous!

Burl Ives - "A Holly Jolly Christmas

Judy Garland - "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"

The Carpenters - "I'll Be Home For Christmas" (with interview with Karen to begin)

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A sneak preview of A Very Special McFreed Christmaskah!

The Official McFreed Christmaskah Chapeux

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Sean says...

Heat Miser

Snow Miser

Growing up with my sisters Mikelle and Holly, we always looked forward to the multitude of Christmas shows that would come on every year. We especially enjoyed the Rankin & Bass stop-motion shows. A huge favorite in our house was A Year Without A Santa Claus! It wasn't because it had a great story. It was because the minor villains of the show, Snow Miser and Heat Miser, had these great entrances .  I bet many of you agree!  Here are their songs courtesy of YouTube!  Maybe for Halloween next year I will go as Heat Miser... he is my favorite (childlike giggle)!!  He's TOO much! Enjoy!

Snow Miser

Heat Miser

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Sean says...

An update on my Mitchell Report blog post. Well both Andy Pettitte and Brian Roberts have manned up and admitted their use of steroids and/or human growth hormone. Roger Clemens? No. Who is the bigger man? I know Clemens is innocent until proven guilty but the evidence although hearsay in a way is daunting. Discuss!

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Sean says...

In that last year I became involved with the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Fairfax, VA. Unfortunately, I had to leave Rev. Kharma to move to Maryland with Stefan. Sorry God but the true love you told me about happened and I had to move!  But I loved that church and still email back and forth with Rev. Kharma from time to time and get their online newsletter. It was an amazing congregation that really helped me through a rough time in my life and renewed my faith in God and myself.  I plan to get active with the one near by soon but I miss my old one. All MCC's are congregational style organizations which define their own policies and process of worship.  What I miss the most are the hugging at the beginning of church, the small town atmosphere, and the short prayer after communion with a volunteer.  Anyways, I found this article today about MCC and thought I would share it. It talks about the history of the church but also talks about growing pains as well as organizational concerns with the church since its founder retired in 2005. Take a look!

http://www.watermarkonline.com/content.php?cid=3390

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