Christmas is once again over. Our house has general sickness all around, and on Sunday (Christmas) nobody felt like going to church in the morning, so we just got ready and left for Michigan as soon as we were able to get everyone ready. We had a nice visit with Beth's family, and a nice dinner. If we'd thought about it, we'd have saved a few presents for Alex and Missy to balance things out some more. It's hard to explain to a 2-year-old that the other kids there are Uncle Marve and Aunt Sissy's grandkids, and that he already got his Christmas presents from his grandparents at Thanksgiving, and that's why there aren't any more presents for him and there are some for the other kids. We spaced things out pretty well though, except for the stockings. Alex had the most disappointed "where's mine?" look on his face when the other kids got theirs from Grammy and Papa and he didn't have one. He's already gotten 2 of them but that was in the past. Oh well, anyway, now we know better. We decided not to stay the night due to not feeling like it. Yesterday Beth took the kids out for a couple hours to let me work on the house; I got some phone lines run that I'd been intending to get to for a while: a permanent line run through the ceiling to replace the temporary line jury-rigged a year ago for the DVR, and a new line right behind the computer to replace the long cord running through the room. Didn't have time to run the line to the upstairs bedroom that I wanted to. Today Beth and Missy both went to the doctor, they have matching sinus infections. I have a dry scratchy throat with cough. Alex has a runny nose. I love spending my vacations sick.

Today was my last day of work until next year. I guess we're about ready for Christmas. I even put up a tree this week, mostly out of guilt. Last Sunday I wasn't feeling well and decided to skip church...turned out to be a really good call if you know what I mean...and when Beth and the kids came back Alex was crying his eyes out because his Sunday School class had made some ornaments to put on their trees at home...and we didn't have a tree for him to put his on. He cried and cried. I felt like a bad parent. So, in the evening while Beth and the kids went to the children's program at church (Alex on stage for the first time! He was the youngest by far in his singing group...didn't sing, didn't do the motions, mostly just stood there...so cute though!) I dragged the tree out of the garage and put it up, so when they got home he could put his ornaments on it. It also has a cowboy hat on the top instead of a star or angel...Alex's idea. The day before that, Saturday, Beth and I went to Fort Wayne looking for a toy chest for the kids. Going to Toys R Us on the last Saturday before Christmas weekend was not what we intended to do but it just worked out that way. We broke Alex's heart then too; he was so excited about the toy chest at the store and bringing it home. I wasn't sure why he was so excited about a toy chest. But, when we got home and took it out of the box, he excitedly looked in it and there were no toys in it. I think he thought it came with all the toys that were shown in it on the picture on the box. When he saw it was empty, he cried and cried. (Seems the terrible twos, which I thought were so easy for so long, have kicked in; the tantrums are coming fast and furious nowadays) But he got over it (mostly) when we piled all his toys in it. Now he likes to empty it and climb inside it. We bowled after shopping for the toy chest. My game was pretty good, Beth was very off. Monday the 19th we finally got a new battery in the minivan, after several jumps over the last 2 years (see 7/8/05, 4/17/05, 12/29/03) it finally got time to replace it. Beth called me at work to tell me the thing wouldn't start. I jumped it when I got home, and we took it to Advance for a new battery because they do free installation. Good call; it's a "labor intensive" job according to the sales guy there who did it, and while he was in progress the terminal broke off due to all the corrosion (apparently GM batteries are notorious for that).

Beth and I went with the Johnsons to see Mark Schultz in concert last night. What a great show. I wished it could have been longer. He even did some songs he just finished writing for his next album...couldn't remember all the words to a couple songs...but he also did all his big hits, led the crown in a few Christmas carols, and did a bunch or encores. It felt really worshipful. The drive back home was a little harrowing because it was snowing furiously during the show in Nappanee.

It's been an unusual week. Monday, Beth and I left right after I got out of work to go to Fort Wayne so she could pick up some stuff at Anchor Room. The kids played and wandered around a lot and Alex discovered he could make an echo by shrieking in the entry foyer. Tuesday I went to FW again for work, to visit/tour the Poly Hi Solidur plant. In Columbia City, my cell phone rang. It was Beth. Alex had locked her out of the house. She was shut in the garage, Missy was crying in the high chair, Alex was making a mess with a jigsaw puzzle he'd found (the one Beth got at the elders & deacons party). Luckily, one of the people going on the trip had driven herself to Columbia City (she lives there and thought it'd be easier to get home that way) so she took me back home to let Beth in. I unlocked the door, we got things cleaned up and Missy calmed down and we went back. We were about an hour behind everyone else. Didn't really matter in the end. Wednesday, we had Sassafras put down. She had just gotten out of hand with the urinating on the floor, and now it was extending to #2s, and she was biting at Missy. Not acting herself, and hadn't for a long time. She fought hard at the vet (which she never had done before) even after the sedative had taken full effect and she couldn't hold her head up any more. The injection killed her in less than a minute. I feel bad, Beth is almost a basket case, but we couldn't go on like that. The vet said her guess was that Sassy had either some renal failure or feline diabetes. Anyway, rest in peace Sassy Cat. Beth went to Michigan on Thursday, supposedly only for the day but late afternoon it started snowing HARD. By evening, it was coming down so hard she couldn't see anything through the windshield, so by Three Rivers on the way back she turned around and went back to spend the night at Stephanie's. I took advantage of the free evening to replace the kitchen faucet and put a dimmer on the dining room lights. They came back today.

Beth and I bowled today. We were ok, no better. Last night was the elders & deacons white elephant gift exchange and Christmas party. The caterer we always use lost their lease on the building at the fairgrounds so we crammed into the banquet room at Golden Corral, of all places. To be honest, though, it went really well except for the crowding. The food was actually better than the caterer gives us in my opinion. I came home with a snack selection thingy (sausage, cheese, and crackers kind of thing) and Beth got a jigsaw puzzle by one of her favorite artists.