December 2017
December is always very busy for everyone, but we
enjoyed our opportunities to spend time with family and friends. We celebrated Christmas in WV this year and
also were able to spend a fun weekend in December with the Carroll family at Mom’s
condo. The girls are at probably the
perfect age for Christmas and we really enjoyed it!
We started the month off with a quiet weekend at home
decorating for Christmas. We got our
tree and decorated it on a Friday night.
The girls loved all of the ornaments and helping out. We purchased 2 three foot trees to put in
their rooms which they loved to decorate and wrapped presents for their stuffed
animals. On Saturday morning, we went to
the Children’s Museum to see “Jolly Days” and go down the slide. This was the first year that Sarah did the
slide by herself. She and I raced down
and she beat me, but I slide a lot further at the end simply due to gravity. On
Saturday evening, we went to see Christmas lights at Reynolds Farm Equipment in
Noblesville.
During the next week, the Cyphers came to town to see
Allison’s Christmas program at school.
My mom and the Wahmans also were able to make it and enjoyed the
program. Randy and Anna also were in
town to have Randy’s knee checked out and they scheduled a knee replacement in
March. They also continued the tradition
of taking Sarah to lunch at Café Patachou.
They also watched the girls while Deb and I went to the annual Christmas
dinner with our Purdue friends. The
Foulke’s hosted the party this year and we enjoyed a great time and probably a
little too much to drink!
We celebrated Christmas with the Carroll side the
weekend before since we were travelling to WV for Christmas. We spent the entire day on Saturday hanging
out at mom’s place and letting the kids play together. The kids enjoyed hanging out and playing
together, especially some of the paint and art supplies which required a decent
amount of cleaning up. We watched the
Purdue vs. Butler basketball game on Saturday afternoon and then played cards
with the Wahmans, Symmes, Mark and Kenny.
On Sunday, the Caslers, Bushes, Linda & Megan came over for brunch
and it was great to see all of them. We
ended the weekend by going to see Santa on the Sullivan’s train with families
from our neighborhood. Allison asked
Santa for a Buster Moon stuffed animal and Sarah asked for a Rosita stuffed
animal. Afterwards, we went to the
Blackwelder’s house for some pizza and good times with our neighbors.
On the 23rd, we got up early and left for WV. We arrived in time for lunch and enjoyed
spending time with the Shafers, Groonts, Nana and Granddaddy. Lots of time was spent around the tree with
the kids playing with toys from Christmas past.
The cousins also entertained us with singing carols while walking around
in a parade. Ava tried to keep up, but
the steps kept slowing her down! We had
12 people in the house with 2 dogs and it was fun to have everyone around to celebrate. On Christmas morning, Santa arrived and our
girls got the stuffed animals they wanted, along with a dual microphone set
which allows for them to be even louder!
Wiz and David arrived on Christmas in the early afternoon. The day was spent playing with the new
presents and enjoying time together. We
left on the 26th around 10AM to get home since Deb had to work on
the 27th.
Over the last few years, I’ve taken off the first
week of Christmas break. The girls and I
went to see “The Star” in the theatre before we went to WV. They seemed to like it but were scared of the
“bad guys.” There are only a few movies
they are brave enough to see! When we
got back from WV, we went bowling with the Sniadecki’s and out to lunch at
Scottys, which has been our Christmas tradition for the last few years. We also enjoyed playing with all of the new
toys (remote control cars, Legos, Lite Brite, Crazy Forts, etc.)
Sarah’s
Things of the Month
Sarah had her last “Breakfast with Santa” at her
preschool. My mom and I took her and she
really enjoyed it. She was excited to
see Santa and wanted to be the first in line!
Sarah is really enjoying gymnastics and likes to practice at home with
Allison.
Allison’s Things of the Month
Allison went to a birthday party for one of her
classmates this month (DJ). It was good
for me also, as she has reached the age where she didn’t want me to stick
around, so another dad and I went to get some beers! Allison has really taken up gymnastics and
can do a full cartwheel after only a few lessons.
A few more items from this
month:
- We had some snow fall this month, so we took the girls outside and they enjoyed sledding on the driveway, building snowmen and playing on the swing set. We even enjoyed a game of freeze tag!
- I enjoyed meeting up with some of my prior co-workers from Hurco for lunch. It was great to see everyone and catch up with how everyone is doing.
- I went out for a happy hour with my co-workers at Ale Emporium for a Christmas celebration.
- The girls went over to grandmas for an overnight visit on the 29th and Deb and I went out to Ruth’s Chris for a date night and then met up with the Bassetts, Steffeys, and Lawton for some drinks at the Wellington.
- We had the Sniadecki’s over for NYE and enjoyed an “early” ball drop for the kids. It was a great way to ring in the New Year, even though we were all in bed by midnight!
