We all just got back from Michigan where we spent the day with Beth's half of the family. We're probably not going to see them before January so we did Christmas (such as it was) with them today, which was going out to late lunch at Old Country Buffet and back to John & Steph's for gift exchange (for kids only). Missy got a Barbie, a bead set, and an activity book; Alex got a transformer, a Captain Underpants book, and Lego set. Ric and Nickie and Pam had a thing, and it got really really awkward for a while at the restaurant, but it'll blow over, sure why not. Anyway, I am incredibly sore today because yesterday I roofed. About 10 or so guys from church spent all day tearing an old decrepit roof off Travis and Tabatha's house and getting the new one on. Scott was the contractor and directed everything that was going on. The roof came off very easily...not that it wasn't hard work...and we pulled up everything and cleared it away before lunch, and got all the felt on and about half of the shingles before quitting when we ran out of light. Scott said we got a lot more done than he was planning or expecting, but more guys showed up than he had counted on. Friday night was the gingerbread house building night at church. Actually, it was graham crackers. Scott once again applied everything he knows and built a mansion; my kids let me "help" them build theirs so they were less impressive. But the judges liked the licorice bow ties around the houses I used to keep them from falling down. It was SO COLD during the week that Kids Klub was cancelled. Tuesday, Cub Scouts went to the Y for rock wall climbing, which Alex really liked but he couldn't get much higher than about 10 feet at most. I tried it too and managed to get all the way to the ceiling on both the straight up wall and the 3-D out & in wall. Lots of fun, I might have to try the harder walls. And sadly, our beloved kitty Agatha had to be put down Tuesday. She hadn't eaten regularly in about a month, and not at all for about 2 weeks, had lost most of her body weight (down to 4 lbs at the end), wasn't cleaning herself any more, was having trouble walking and it hurt her to pick her up. The vet said she was surprised she could get down the stairs anymore, and was sure she didn't have more than a couple days at most. Poor kitty. We miss our Aggie. And Sassafras. We have no cat for the first time since 1992.

Today was the church Christmas program/carry-in. Beth and I didn't eat there but the kids did. The kids (even Alex and Missy) sang "Away in a Manger" as part of the program. The annual church elders/deacons Christmas party was yesterday. Katie babysat for us and Beth and I went to the dinner at church. I brought a nice set of precision screwdrivers (and the toilet seat from last year) for the gift exchange, Beth brought a light-up snowman. In the exchange, I got a set of flashlights and Beth got a 4-season set of salt & pepper shakers. Unlike most years, this year had very few gag gifts, and a few more that were for men instead of just snowmen or candles. Alex had another basketball game on Saturday, and once again his team was overmatched. There was a kid on the other team that was much better than anyone else on the court, and could basically dominate the entire game. Alex got off a shot, but it wasn't really close. Last Tuesday was a birthday party for Paco at Hacienda.