We are home! The whirlwind Lego/IKEA vacation has brought us back around to the Christmas morning starting point. It looks like a Lego factory threw up in here. We started Christmas at home, with the kids opening their presents first thing in the morning. Alex and Missy both had a great haul, both getting a bunch of stuff. The Legos (Alex's huge Ninjago set especially), a Skylanders video game, and Missy's American Girl doll were the big scores of the day. Shortly thereafter we headed up to Michigan to visit with the family at the Pinksters. We stayed overnight at the Comfort Inn in Plainwell, which was what we got on Hotwire but a bit ironic I thought, since nobody lives in Palinwell any more we don;t need to stay there. But also strangely, we ran into a guy I know from Zimmer as we were checking in. I walked in as Joe B was finishing up checking in and without missing a beat he says "...and this guy's gonna pay for me." Turns out he was on the way north and decided to stop for the night because it had been snowing most of the day and the roads were getting too bad for him. I was worried about how the roads would be by morning for our drive to Chicago but they were pretty clear. We had another motel I got on Hotwire up in Schaumberg, and for the rest of the day (the 26th) we hit the enormous mall and looked for some bargains. I got a new pair of running shoes, Beth got some face exfoliating stuff, we found some MORE Lego stuff and a couple DVDs. Dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, which we love and never go to since the one in FW closed. On the 28th we hit the Legoland Discovery Center. We'd found some discount tickets online and got in early in the morning. The place was awesome but kind of a zoo. The kids loved the models (they have an entire L-shaped room filled with a model of downtown Chicago, complete with Batman on top of the Hancock tower and Star Wars figures hidden everywhere, like R2-D2 in a garbage truck. Incredible. Plus life-size Lego models of all the Star Wars and Harry Potter characters, Indiana Jones, jungle animals (another room), rides, 4-D movies (we saw both), and a lunchroom with some building areas. Lunch there was a mistake. The kids were overwhelmed by that point, especially Alex, and we waited in line for a long long long time in the super crowded and very noisy room to get a crappy pizza. If we could do it over, we'd go first thing after lunch so we could avoid the cafeteria altogether. And of course, the exit through the gift shop, where we got out easy since we'd bought some Lego stuff at the mall yesterday (that was the deal). After Legoland, the IKEA was just nearby, which we'd thought couldn't be an accident. Beth and I love that place. We spent another couple hours wandering through there, and found something that we needed. No, actually needed. A loft bed for Missy. Her room is so small, there's hardly room to turn around in it; the loft bed would open it up and provide a LOT more space. It was such a good idea we bought it. And it fit in the back of the truck without sticking out, unlike the last IKEA visit. We headed for home after finishing up, and stopped for dinner at the oasis overpass on I-80. I've always wanted to stop and eat at one of those places but I don't recall ever doing it. The kids thought it was fun eating on the overpass with all the cars going by under us. So did I.

Tonight was an early Christmas present to me from Beth...Mark Schultz in concert at the Honeywell Center! Third time we've seen him in concert now. Excellent show as always. And "Letters from War"...awesome...

Today was the annual Cub Scouts Christmas carry-in dinner. We did an awards ceremony for the scouts and then had dinner. Beth and I brought in ham from the Rowe's farm...expensive ham but man is it good... and then we didn't get any because it was all gone by the time we got through the line. Bummer. But the church was decorated very nicely and the Lemps put on a great even as always.

There was an excellent photo in the Warsaw newspaper today about the Cub Scout pack...we got together yesterday to fill a box with presents for Toys for Tots, and a photographer from the Times-Union came to get a shot of us...so when we all posed for the photo he said "say, Toys for Tots!" and the kids all did, and he got a photo of all the kids making saying "toys" so their mouths were all open and in funny positions. Ha ha! Good trick.

Once again, the truck is in the shop. This time it's because it still smells like gas in the cabin. It was strong just after the plugs were replaced a couple months ago but although it has faded, it still smells especially when starting it cold. They found a leaking injector and seals, so they torqued to plugs and didn't smell any more. I'm not sure it's gone yet...

We're back from a Thanksgiving mini-vacation to Indiana. No, not that Indiana; the one in Pennsylvania. We went to visit Laura and Thomas, our first time to see them in their new house. We left as soon as I got out of work Wednesday, which meant we were driving late into the night. It gets dark early this time of year so it makes you feel like the drive lasts all night long. Our GPS also must have been looking for the shortest trip in terms of miles, because it took us through some of the sketchiest parts of Youngstown, well off the highways, and straight on through the middle of nowhere for miles and miles, where it's not easy to find a gas station open late. But we got there around midnight, and had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Black Friday was different: we went out for breakfast at Eat 'n Park and got to talking about the IKEA furniture they had bought recently. Thomas had a desk in mind that he wanted to get but they didn't have a way to get it from Pittsburgh to Indiana. Which gave us the idea, since we had a pickup truck right there, to go to IKEA. We left from the restaurant to go to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately Laura gave us the wrong mall that it was near, and since we were driving separately we wound up miles apart by the time we both got to the city. Eventually we did make it. We bought a large storage unit (5x5) for the downstairs with a bunch of bins that go with it and spent over $300 bucks. Thomas bought a bunch of stuff, and we loaded the back of the truck full up. Pizza Hut after we got back to Indiana. The rest of the time we played a lot of Wizard and Apples to Apples, we got to see Laura's office, and I went for a run because I wanted to do a run in Indiana. We headed out late this morning, and had an uneventful drive back...except for getting onto US 30 headed the wrong direction in Mansfield Ohio...and driving maybe 30 miles the wrong way. It's a funny interchange, easy to do. West goes left and east goes right, totally backwards.