We got back yesterday after a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania this week. Conflicting interests, wanting to visit Laura & Thomas and also minimize trauma, had us limiting the visit to 3 days. Originally we planned on the 27th-29th but Alex had an appointment to keep so we delayed to the 28th-30th. We were prepared to do the long drive with Churro in the car but in the end Natalie decided to stay home because it seemed like a long time for him to be in the car with everyone and she wasn’t sure how he would react with their cats. We were going to take the van but since Nat stayed home with the dog, we took the SantaFe instead. We left around 10 on Saturday. Way on the other side of Ohio we were passing Grandpa’s Cheesebarn, which we’ve passed many times now on this route, and we’ve always said one of these days we should stop there. Well, this was the day. We stopped and spent an hour or so wandering around the cheesebarn to see what’s what. It’s a lot of cheese, that’s what, plus all the stuff that goes with cheese. And candy. We actually spent around 50 bucks in cheese and summer sausage and crackers, planning to break them out at Laura’s the next day. We got to her house around dinnertime and she had fajitas just about ready for dinner. Plus a lot of cookies and things. We watched a lot of football the rest of the day and the next, which was mostly just hanging out and playing games. We introduced them to ‘No Thanks’ and played that (and Wizard!) about constantly. Sunday we also did a painting thing, where Laura had gotten some blank canvases and Thomas sketched some Christmasy things (gnomes, reindeer) on them, and we all took one and painted it. Missy however, preferred to draw her own. So she took a blank canvas and sketched Kermit the Frog making a scrunchy face, and she painted that instead. It was a lot of fun and our works all came out pretty good. Fun time. We did presents (small stuff, but the kids all got Stanley water bottles!) and in the evening Beth and I went out for a nice dinner at the Hilton with Laura & Thomas without the kids (even had a drink!). Monday we did a bit of shopping in town (although we found most everything was closed, except the Ace hardware) and got some discounted Christmas décor. We all went out for lunch at the Eat’n Park before we hit the road again.

Obviously, it was Christmas this week! Not too much going on at home, really, Alex has still been working a lot of hours and the rest of us are basically chilling. There was a Christmas eve service at church; we all went out to early dinner with Mary Jane at Texas Road House so we could make the 6:00 service, then afterwards we watched “Elf.” We had a nice Christmas at home: Beth got me a Komets hockey jersey (love it), I got her the Warsaw Cut Glass Ornament and tickets for us to go see an Eagles tribute band next month. The kids got their games and clothes and movies and gift cards and candy. We went to see the synchronized Christmas lights display like we usually do in the evening. It always amazes me that people are willing to spend that much time and effort putting up lights. We did get a new tree this year and managed to get it put up a few days before Christmas, but never did get it decorated. I put Beth’s collection of decorative Christmas trees up, and the stockings, but that was completely it for Christmas decorations in the house this year. 

While watching tv a couple days before Christmas, Beth was eating popcorn and forgot that she has several crowns because she loves crunching the unpopped kernels. Well, she broke one of her crowns on one of them. The dentist’s office is obviously closed, so she won’t be able to get it taken care of for a couple weeks at best. I hope she makes it. 

Something also went snap in the trainer while I was riding it in the morning the day after Christmas, and then the pedals wouldn’t turn. I was afraid I broke it somehow, but once I got the bike off the trainer again both of them turned just fine by themselves. Somehow the two smallest gears had come loose; looks like we didn’t get it tightened up enough when setting it up last week. I went to the Trail House and they lent me a sprocket wrench for free so I could get everything put back together and tight, and after that it seemed to work just fine. 

Well, the kids have been home on break for a week and finally I am too. I wrapped up for the year on Friday, and actually spent a chuck of time cleaning up the office, getting rid of stuff I don’t need to hang on to any more, and straightening up. My cubicle has been a wreck for a long time now. Anyway, I think I accomplished a lot this past year and I am taking the full 2 weeks off now. The kids however are still working. At least Alex is. They both asked for time at Kroger (Alex) and Lowe’s (Missy); Kroger asked Alex to start right away and they have been giving him a lot of hours already because they are so short. Lowe’s told Missy she’d be on a call-in basis, and they have called one time, resulting in 3 hours of which most was taken up trying to get her activated in the system without much luck. So Alex is getting hours but Missy is not. 

I went back in to work on Monday wearing a mask because I still didn’t have a negative covid test. I had forgotten how much I hate wearing a mask. Got use to it a couple years ago but I don’t even remember what we did with all those masks we made back in the covid days. I’m sure we still have them somewhere. 

Thursday my group at work did volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity again (3rd or 4th time?) Starting first thing in the morning we all arrived at the site in Mentone to work laying down laminate flooring. New to everyone in the group, but it didn’t take long to get a system going. We got well over half of the living room and the master bathroom covered before ending at around lunch time, then we all went to lunch at the Bull Dog Saloon in Mentone, which we had never been to, but someone heard they have really good pizza, which they do!

Friday was the Christmas party at the Zastrow’s house for everyone on the worship team (including tech) at church. It was a snacks and games party for the most part. Beth made Laura’s famous corn crack dip which everyone loved, so none of that to bring back home. After eating a bunch we all got into playing a massive round of ‘5 Second Rule.’ Basically that was hilarious. 

Saturday while Alex was at work, the girls all wanted to go to the antique / junk shops around town. The one down US 30 from Warsaw turned out to be closed for renovations though, so it was cleaned out. We got a bit lost following the county roads up north a ways but did make it to North Webster to the antiques stores there. There were plenty of cool things to find but nothing I really needed until I found some 1990 Topps football cards from sale, with the stick of gum still intact in the packs. I picked up a couple of those for Laura and Thomas. Beth and Missy each found some fun and pretty trinkets. 

Trey at work has lent me his smart trainer. Basically it is a device that you remove the back wheel of your bike and attach in its place. Then as you ride it adjusts the resistance. When you sign up to Zwift, which is a riding app, you can virtual ride through a world a lot like in Wii Sports Resort. So anyway, I’ve been trying out the app (subscription service) and the trainer with some rides this week. Trey came over to help me get it set up, and so far I like it a lot. I’ve put the old Schwinn on the trainer instead of the new Specialized, maybe I’ll just leave it set up like that. Nice to be able to ride in the winter.

Coronavirus! Covid has struck again. Beth and me both; she has been about a day ahead of me in the progression so I know where I got it from. I started feeling like I was coming down with something on Tuesday evening (went to D-group at church anyway), on Wednesday morning I felt well enough to go in to work but was feeling worse and worse as things progressed so by lunchtime I went home and stayed home, feeling achy and chilled all over. Sitting on the couch watching tv in a hoodie (with the hood up) under a blanket with my slippers on was about all I could manage for a few days. Mary Jane got some covid tests for us and brought them over (left them at the door) on Thursday, and they were both very very positive. No needing to wait 15 minutes for the lines to appear, they lit right on up. By Friday, we were doing a bit better, which was a good thing because Missy came home for break on Friday and on Saturday Alex was flying in to Indy. Missy was nice enough to take the risk of driving to Indy with me to get Alex, but we both masked up in the van on the way down there. She drove all the way to Indy and I drove back. Alex got in at about 6:30, we got some dinner there and headed home. The process of driving to IND and back absolutely wore me out. Alex was jet lagged and Missy was tired too, and Beth was covidy, so nobody left home all day today either.

The culmination of the soup season… the Wawasee Middle School PTO Gift & Craft Bazaar… was this weekend. We went to set up on Friday evening and were in the same spot we were last year, and Beth got up super early Saturday morning to make the sampling soups. No major events like burning the chili she was going to serve (2016) or being so late we lost our booth or getting the van stuck in mud (both 2018). The show seemed slower overall than previous years, but I guess that was an illusion because we counted over 150 sold altogether, and only 2 short of an all-time record (set last year). For some reason, the soala soup she was serving came out really bland this time, so instead of ‘wow that’s really good’ from everyone who tasted it, we were getting ‘meh…needs salt’ most of the time. I tasted it way too late in the show to make up for the lost sales, and I’m sure we did lose some because it wasn’t very good. Not sure why, but she did use a different bouillon so maybe that was it. Anyway, it was a good show, but Beth is glad it’s all over. It’s been a tough year for Beth since her back has been hurting so much this year, so I helped make soup a lot more than I normally have to.

We also had very little time to rest after the Wawasee show because the Komets annual Teddy Bear Toss was Saturday evening. They were playing the K-Wings, too, which made it even more interesting. We went with the Presslers who brought their girls, both of whom love going to the games and donated some of their old stuffed animals. The K’s fell behind early and never led, but we did get to launch the stuffies by midway through the first period. Eventually, the Komets lost to the Wings 3-2 despite outshooting them.

Sunday was Beth’s work Christmas party, which I think we missed last year but I don’t remember why, but I did find my white elephant gift from last year that I was going to bring then, so I brought it now. It was a very nice time, we had a carry-in dinner and played some party games and had the white elephant exchange. I brought a laptop satchel and Beth brought a couple jars of soup; I came home with a new board game called “Gimme That” which I don’t know anything about yet, and Beth got a Keurig coffee & tea sampler.

Alex finally has his car back. It’s been OOC for over a week now, but Monday (they suggested he wait until after the holiday) he got the towing company to come to his apartment and they were able to get it started, but suggested he drive it to the shop right away and not shut it off. He also got to learn an important life lesson, when the tow truck says they’ll be there in an hour or two, they mean a lot longer than that. But he got it to the shop and it turned out to be a bad alternator, as we suspected. So now he has a new one and finally got the car back on Wednesday.

I got home from church today and went downstairs to let Churro out, and found Natalie in her bedroom, even though Beth had dropped her off at work at 9:00. As it turns out, even though she was on site 15 minutes early she clocked in a few minutes late after eating in the dining area…and was fired. My guess is that she should have been fired last week when she left work a half hour before the scheduled end of her shift (by mistake, but…), and because of her usual practice of being a few minutes late for her shift almost every time. So, that’s the end of her Starbucks employment.

On the brighter side, Thanksgiving was this past week. Missy came home for the long weekend, and on Thursday Beth, Missy, and I (Nat was still working then and stayed home) went to Michigan to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Wiessners. We brought a big salad and drinks and managed to get everything to Ric’s without spilling everything onto the ground. Most of the whole gang was there: Ryan, Sam, Lauren, Marve & Beth, Judy, Steph & John, Trevor, and us. Big crowd for a small house. We had a good time and nice visit and headed home late in the evening. 

While Missy was home we all went to see “The Wild Robot” before it left theaters. Really good! Beth had seen it in Washington and wanted to go see it again with all of us. Missy and I carried out our plan to watch “Alien: Romulus” while she was home as well, which neither of us liked as much as we’d been led to believe we would. It was ok, but the Ian Holm CGI was horrible and unnecessary.