Went to Michigan to visit Beth's family at Ted's house. Amy just had a baby a few months ago, and nobody had seen her yet, so all got together when she and her family came from Pennsylvania.

We went out for pizza for lunch with Mom and Dad just before they had to hit the road back to Laura & Thomas' house. They were going to try taking the toll road instead of going all the way through FW but tried a shortcut near Goshen and got somewhat lost in Lagrange.

We all went to the mall in Fort Wayne this morning, Laura and Mom had some returns to make. We got the kids a ride on the merry-go-round, then Beth, Dad, Thomas, Ben and I went to see "Eragon," with which I was VERY disappointed. Almost everything about that movie was awful.

Went to breakfast at McDonald's with everyone to let the kids play. Afterwards, Ben and Laura really wanted to go geocaching so I took them out with Thomas and Dad to find a few around town. We discovered a several-acre tract of land with miles of bike trails through it (and a cache) that I had not known about. A couple easy ones, then Ben found one himself (hidden in a cinder block in a parking lot downtown). Later in the day we all went in shifts (Beth and I had the late showing) to go see "Night at the Museum," which I liked very much. I think the kids will really like it in a few years.

The kids had a very good Christmas. Santa was very good to them. Besides the Mickey Mouse and Thomas the Tank Engine stuff, there was an easel, lots of clothes, a bunch of Cars stuff, puzzles and games and videos. Missy didn't quite get the idea that there were lots of presents for her, she just focused on one present. Open, play. Ignore the presents piling up. Well, Alex was happy to help her keep up with opening presents. We had dinner afterwards at home with the Churchills; they had had no plans and told us the other night they were just having leftovers on Christmas. So, we invited them over. My fantasy football toilet bowl championship was this weekend...no surprise I'm playing in it, but my opponent (and former bowling partner) Steve was the 2nd highest scoring team in the league this year. He has had an amazing stretch of bad luck with his team and should be a contender for the championship, but....anyway, I actually won the game, so I don't have to be 2-time defending champ.

Lots to do today since Mom and Dad were arriving today. Beth and I thought it might be easier to get stuff done if I took the kids out of the house for a while as she cleaned, so I took them to Goshen to play at the BK playland for a couple hours, and made a side trip to the Target to look for Apples to Apples. Didn't find it, but I did find an expansion pack, which I figured might be just as good. By the time I got home, Mom and Dad were already there (had been for about 10 minutes). They went with Beth and me to bowling night, and afterwards we all went with the Churchills to Mad Anthony's.

Tonight was Alex's preschool Christmas program. It went very well, better than the one at church. The theme was explaining Christmas traditions, and Alex's class were the Christmas trees so he had a tree cutout on his head for the show.

A whole gang from work went out to lunch at the Great Wall this afternoon (Kai knows the owner well). I ducked out of work a little early to go get the flat tire in the car fixed.

I took Alex to get a haircut while Beth and Missy went to a baby shower. He is doing so much better at getting his hair cut, although the clippers still freak him out. He was so good I said he could have a sucker but the haircut place only had candy canes, so we had to go find a bag of suckers (luckily we were at Wal-Mart) to take home.

Today was Alex and Missy's Sunday school Christmas program. The first time they've been in a program together. Still, it had all the typical preschooler Christmas program things...a bunch of little kids standing on stage looking around and yelling at their parents. I thought that if I was in the balcony Alex might not spot me but he did. And something made him really upset for a few seconds during the show. I didn't get to see the rest of the kids' shows because after theirs, Alex and Missy were too restless to watch and I took them to 2's & 3's to play.

There was a deacons meeting this morning, which I ducked out on so I could get some donuts and watch the kids for Beth's home craft show with Rachel and Theresa. By the time I got there there was already about 3 dozen donuts in the house. Most of the time during their show I just took the kids to McDonald's and let them run around in the playland. Missy got stuck at the top of the climbing thing and hollered for help a few times; she wanted me to come up and get her. We had bowling later on in the day, and since we had no babysitter we took the kids with us. Each time we do that I can't wait for it to be over. They just cannot keep out of things. Alex kept bringing me another and another new ball for me to try and I was afraid he was going to drop one on his fingers or foot or Missy. So, we just tried to go as fast as we could. Later on in the evening was the work departmental Christmas party at Bogey's Steak House, which wasn't nearly as good as last year's. We had a buffet that was ordinary for the money, and it was really crowded. The band (all Zimmer employees) was passable for entertainment.

Took Alex to the eye doctor today. He's still cross-eyed, although the doctor said there has been slight improvement. Just keep on making him wear the glasses, he said. We're going to step that up, until he's wearing them almost all the time, if we can. So far a few hours a day is all we can do. In the evening we all went to Big R to look for a Christmas tree, and found everything Christmas was on sale. Including a very nice fake tree for half price, go us. Alex was getting too rowdy when we left the store and actually hit me when we were getting into the car, and for that, he had the Hot Wheels he got at the store taken away from him, permanently. THAT made a real impression on him. Today he learned that even if he apologizes (he did...a lot) there are still consequences.

Beth and I headed out to do some more Christmas shopping this morning, specifically to Toys R Us to get the Thomas the Tank Engine roundhouse for Alex and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playset for Missy. This is the first Christmas they have a grasp of what Santa is, and those are the things they want. Of course, we found neither. But we did get boots for both of them so they can play outside. We had some snow this week and they made some snow angels but got cold pretty fast. Anyway, later on my boss had a Christmas party at her house. We played a game called Apples to Apples that Beth and I may have to have sometime. Good times. Later on, we searched e-Bay for the kids' Christmas items, finding that (go figure) both items were sold out, hard to find, yada yada. Spent more than MSRP on both of them and shipping besides. But, we should have a good Christmas, and Santa will be good to them.

Tonight was the annual church elders & deacons dinner, this time at Stonehenge golf course clubhouse. Again, I got basically nothing, a gag gift that also had a candle in it that Beth liked so she got it. Beth got some girlie thing or other.

Beth was off at the craft fair today so I took care of the kids. I also took them to Kohl's to get Beth's Christmas present...jewelry...a nice opal ring that was on all kinds of sale, plus I had a $10 off card from our last Kohl's purchase, so it went from $150 to $40.27. Gooood present for mommy.

Beth cut her finger...and by 'cut' I mean 'cut wide open'... with a rotary cutter while sewing for the big Wawasee craft fair, prompting me home from work early and getting her a cauterized finger and and early end to quilting. Despite the pain we loaded up in the evening and went to set up. The place is huge.