Sunday, January 6, 2019

December 2018

While it was fun to be at home for the holiday season, as you will see we had plenty going on throughout the month.  We enjoyed the Christmas season by celebrating 3 times (Christmas holiday, Vandervaarts visiting, Shafers / Cyphers visiting).  We also had plenty of holiday parties and took the girls to their first Colts game! 



            For the Christmas holiday, we went to mass on Christmas Eve and Allison did a great job singing in the choir.  We invited Mark, Mom, Chris, Frank and Jan over to our house afterwards and enjoyed some food and drinks.  We watched some videos and pictures of the girls.  On Christmas, the girls were very excited and were up at 6AM.  Santa brought iPads for the girls along with a Lego set and some other toys and clothes.  Mom stopped by to see the girls and we went over to the Wahman’s house later in the afternoon.  We shot some hoops and enjoyed a pitch-in meal prepared mostly by Jan.  Debbie had to work on the 26th, so I took the girls to a bounce place and out to lunch.  On the 27th, my mom watched the girls as Deb and I both had to work. 



            On the 28th, Laura’s family arrived at Mom’s place and we all opened presents on that Friday evening.  We went back over on Saturday morning and stayed all day long.  We watched the ND football game along with played some euchre on Saturday evening.  We all went to mass on Sunday morning and then we were onto our 3rd Christmas…



            Julie & Kyle arrived with their family around 1PM on the 30th and we all settled in for a fun 3 day visit.  Randy and Anna arrived around 4PM.  The kids played together pretty well even with their age differences and we had fun watching the Colts game on Sunday night.  We went to the Children’s Museum on the 31st and it was very busy.  We got a chance to show them a few exhibits and ride the carousel.  We got to celebrate NYE in the dark as we lost power when the kids went to bed, so we found ourselves in the basement with flashlights in one hand and a drink in the other.  Our power came back the next morning and we opened presents.  Kyle wanted to watch Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, so we enjoyed watching them play well and win. 
Sarah’s Things of the Month

Sarah got her chance to participate in the Christmas program for the first time.  The kindergarteners were very excited and did very well.  We had the Campbell girls (Zoe is in kindergarten) over to play one Saturday. Allison’s Thing of the Month

            Allison had her First Reconciliation and her comment afterwards was, “It wasn’t that bad.”  She did very well preparing and knowing what she was supposed to be doing.  She also participated in her 3rd Christmas program and sang very well.  Allison went to Ruth’s birthday party where they took some fun pictures and decorated shirts. 



A few more items from this month:
  • We went to Sullivan’s Hardware again this year for our tree and to visit Santa.  We visited Santa with the Sniadeckis and went over to their house afterwards for dinner. 
  • I met up for lunch with the basketball crew from my Hurco days.  It was fun to catch up with those guys and laugh about some of our times together. 
  • Deb scored some tickets from work for the Colts vs. Cowboys game so we took the girls to their first game.  Allison was intense on each play and Sarah enjoyed looking at the program.  Sarah did get on the big screen during the 2nd quarter which was pretty awesome! 
  • Debbie had 3 Christmas parties to go to this month.  She went to one with the mom’s in our neighborhood, one with some moms from church and one with Tracy, Diane, Liz, Amy and Shannon. 
  • Deb and I spent a Saturday night going to a holiday party for her work and then heading over to the Bassett’s for their annual Christmas party.  Never fun to leave one party early or come to another late, but we had fun.
  • We celebrated Erin Anderson’s birthday with the Andersons, Watkins and Foulkes at Cooper Hawk.  While we enjoyed some wine tasting, Jeremy and I eventually had to order some bourbon. 
  • I met up with Lawton, Bleill, Anderson and Foulke at Ale Emporium for a few beers and to catch up. 
  • Debbie and I had a dinner date at Sullivan’s steakhouse.  It was very busy, but that place has quickly become one of our favorite places to enjoy a steak. 
  • I spent a few hours one weekend changing all of the brass hinges and door knobs upstairs and in the basement to a statin nickel finish.  It took about 30 minutes per door and we switched out 13 doors.