Christmas seems to be pretty much over, except for putting away all the decorations. I'm back to work now, just passing time until spring break. Anyway.I'm going to update most of the last several weeks in one posting because I've fallen behind.
Wednesday was also the “gingerbread” house building at church. Graham crackers instead of gingerbread, actually. It was also the Revolution Christmas party night, with the white elephant gift exchange, but the girls wanted to build gingerbread houses so they stayed while Alex went. He came back with a CD of the Hamster dance song, yay. The kids had school through Thursday, but I was off work after Tuesday the 20th (except for a bit of Thursday to take care of some audit response stuff). So I had a couple days free to use however I wanted! I spent it doing odd errands and chores that we never have time for or want to do with the kids. So I loaded the truck with scrap metal from the garage (old grill, old bike we got for free that doesn't work...) and hauled it to the scrapyard, where they gave me cash money for it! $2.40 to be exact, but the important thing is it is gone. I also spent a couple hours in a laundromat washing the comforter that goes in the camper. I got all of our Christmas cards (we did a photo card with a picture of all 5 of us in front of that big crafty place in West Virginia, with a letter explaining who the extra person is) addressed and mailed. I picked up a few things at the hardware store to do some odd repairs. I picked up my new glasses (bifocals, hate them) Yeah, exciting stuff. The weekend, however, was dominated by Christmas (on a Sunday this year, which is a bit odd). Friday afternoon we took everyone to see the new "Star Wars: Rogue One" movie, which I liked a lot. And they did a good job bringing Peter Cushing back from the dead, I thought. Saturday, we all went up to Michigan to join the whole family for a Christmas Eve service at the Pinksters' church. We visited with Judy and Neill at the lake first for a while, then went to a late lunch at Burdick's, then to the service, then headed home. With a stop at Denny's for dessert first, since it is Always Open and nowhere else is. Christmas was downstairs this year; we got up early to open presents so we could do it all before church. Alex got a bunch of video game stuff (games, controllers, Amiibo, more games), Missy got a bunch of art supplies and animal stuff (fancy drawing stylus, fancy colored pencils, dragon hatchling figurines, Webkinz) and Natalie got a bunch of girly stuff (necklaces, clothes, boots, makeup stuff, Orbees). My present from Beth and the kids was a dutch oven cast iron cooking pot. Beth's was the yearly ornament from Warsaw Cut Glass. Thursday, Laura and Thomas arrived for a day on their way back from Chicago and to Michigan to see a John Oliver show at Fox Theater. We went out to dinner at Redwood Grill (left Little Caesar's at home for the kids), played Watch Ya Mouth and Wizard and Apples to Apples, and went out to breakfast in the morning. This was the first visit where we didn't have a guest room so they had to stay in a hotel. We did New Year's Eve with the Boschains and Lancasters again (although the Boschains were hitting the road as soon ac church was over on New Years, so they did dinner with us all at La Troje but then went home to get their kids to bed. We spent the evening at the Lancaster's house, playing games and watching funny videos until midnight. Sunday services came early this year, I tell ya. Believe it or not the Boschains' van was broken into during the service so they didn't get on the road as scheduled. We took the kids to see "Moana" on Monday (the Rock sings very well, but the movie was good but not great). Today, I am back to work.