Christmas, pretty much over.

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with the  Junkers yesterday (Saturday).  Started the day going sledding at 12:00, noon, then went to Grandpa and Grandma’s afterwards.  Dinner was around 5:30, opened a few presents after that, and made our way home around 9:00 pm.  Last year, our family and Val’s (my sister) family, decided a summer camping trip with our two families together was a present for the nieces and nephews.  This year we decided to do a indoor water park for the kids, in the near future.   So our Christmas is pretty much over.  We still have our tree to come down, which gets done on New Year’s day, along with the rest of the Christmas decorations.  

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas all, we’re celebrating with the Webbs today and will have a gathering with the Junkers this Saturday.  The kids had a great morning, checking out what Santa brought them, then we opened our gifts to each other.  Lots of new clothes will be worn today, with remote controlled helicopters flying around by the boys and the girls will be wearing their new make-up and hair dyes/dressings.  Going out to finish snow shoveling now since we got about three inches of the stuff last night.

Christmas cookies

Making cut out sugar cookies and haystacks with Grandpa Webb and  Donna (our neighbor from across the street) – mm-mm good.  Brenna and Shaylin were wearing aprons made by their Aunt Monica.  Monica (my sister) made an apron for each of us and mailed to us this year for Christmas – fun.

Christmas season

Kathy and I feel we have been letting the kids get away with too much bickering, arguing and rudeness (I suppose we’re in the thick of it ourselves).  We’re rolling into the Christmas season and we’re ready to bump up the consequences for impolite behavior.  Of course we won’t be a perfect family (yes, it’s true) but we feel we have to change how the family is treating one another,  if for nothing else, just so we can have some joy in our house for the season.  Today after school, Kathy and I would stop the kids if they were arguing, then talk to them (one on one) about what we want to change and why.  So far there has been at least one solid hour (out of three) that the children have done well with their politeness, now if we can keep setting new records things will be great.

Here are a few pictures of a 3M building, near our house, that has been leaving their lights on for a purpose.  You can take it how you want, but I believe it represents a Christmas tree and they want to show a little spirit for the special holiday.  Our family celebrates Christmas as Jesus’s birthday and feel good saying Merry Christmas.

3M has been doing this, at least since we have moved here, fourteen years ago and we love it.  They start the day after Thanksgiving, this year they even lit it up a couple of days before.   Each row of lights is one floor of the building and the tree is huge when you drive by.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

About time for some Pics.

It seems we don’t use the camera at great opportunities, either because we don’t know where it is or we just forget to bring it to special events.  Here are a couple of pictures of the kids posing for a Christmas card and some of our cat.  The cat, which we have had for six months or so, has been loved by all – but in many different ways.  Shaylin and David want to pick it up and hold it till it tears our of their hands, I just like to let it wonder where it wants, Kathy, Paul and Brenna try to see if they can get it to come to them – a pretty tough task.

Signal digit highs.

With high temperatures in the signal digits, it has slowed the kids down a bit from playing outside, but it hasn’t stopped them completely.  For the last two weeks there has been a lot of very cold days, still, the kids will play outside if there is not much wind. The main reason they have endured the weather is because the snow on the ground has only been around for a few weeks.  Paul has gone out to play some, but Brenna, Shaylin and David have been getting out about twice a week and making the most of it.  The first time they went out, the temperature was ten degrees or so, I thought I would see them scurrying to get back in the house in a mater of minutes.  I was way off, they were out in the weather for a good hour and I think they mainly came inside just so they could get some hot chocolate.  It’s fun to know they still like the outdoors – at least when the seasons change.  It seems to me, last spring they road their bikes in all sorts of weather for the first month, as time went on they road less and less.  When August came around, there were some great seventy five degree days, all they wanted to do was sit in the house and complain that there was nothing to do.  Could I have ever been that way?

Move to Kentucky?

A few weeks back, the kids in Shaylin’s and David’s class were given different states to do reports on.  Shaylin had Pennsylvania and David had Kentucky, they both did a fine job with their reports.  David, however, found out that Kentucky has a lot to do with horses.  I imagine that’s why they have the Kentucky Derby.  Once he found that out, he figured that Kentucky would be a nice place to live and asked if we could move there some day.  I said I didn’t think our family would move there but at some point in his life, he could.  For weeks to follow, he kept mentioning that Kentucky would be a great place to live and he wants to live there.  It finally fizzled, I think having Thanksgiving and rolling into the Christmas season put has his mind on other things.

Brenna is enjoying her basketball (practice times similar to volleyball – 7:30 in the morning, twice a week) and playing the oboe.

Paul will be in a geography bee in a month or so, he did it last year and felt shorted.  The questions were a bit like – What is the name of the river, east of the smallest jungle, with the biggest trees, on the west part of Africa, that starts with a letter that rhymes with ‘t’ and is known for having friendly mosquitoes.  Alright, they probably weren’t that strange of questions, but they were different than what one might think for general knowledge of world history.  He does like geography, hopefully he’ll last longer than last year.

I worked my first regular eight hour day, today, after working ten hour days last week and working midnight shifts Sat. Sun. and Mon.  While working nights, I squeezed in naps throughout the day which allowed Kathy and I to enjoy eating lunch out together (without the kids, very rare), Monday and Tuesday.

The tree is up.

For the last three to four years, we have been buying our Christmas tree on black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).  Paul, Brenna and Shaylin get pretty excited about it and David goes off the charts with excitement.  He woke up that morning asking “When do we go to get tree?”  I mentioned that it would be sometime in the morning but we have to do some of our chores and straighten up the house first.  He took it okay at first, but would ask every five minutes.  A half hour or so went by when he got very upset, said that we would never ever get the tree, then ran down to his room and pouted in his bed.  After about fifteen minutes, I went to his room and talked with him.  I think he understood that we would get the tree sometime that morning but when his adrenaline gets flowing, the first thing he does is get upset instead of being willing to talk about things.  Everyone pitched in to get the house in order then we went to get the tree.  We go for the easy in and out when buying a tree, for us that means Menards.  They have a nice big parking lot and on black Friday it was full , we saw someone leave and took their spot.  Half hour later we were tying the tree to the roof top of the van and headed home.  Took  the side streets home to keep the tree on top of the car better, only took and extra five minutes.  When we put the tree into the stand, found out that the trunk of the tree went straight for sixteen inches then took a twenty degree bend and was straight the rest of the way.  I struggled trying to make it look straight while in the stand, had thoughts of cutting off the sixteen inches or even bringing it back to get a different one, but we made it work – so far (it hasn’t tipped over).  Anyway the tree  got decorated and looks good.  Will try to get some pictures up – going to work now.  Pulling off a couple of midnight shifts (7:00 pm to 7:30 am) to get the plant going.