Thursday After Christmas

Yesterday was a leisurely day, including dinner out. Today took on a more frantic pace as I realized all that needed to be done to get ready to go to Jenny Lake tomorrow!

Both yesterday and today had slow starts as I managed to roll out of bed at the crack 

of 9! Truly an unusual event for me. Planned the menu for the next few days at camp and made my shopping list. Wegmans and Sam's Club had everything I needed. Now I just need to pack up all the food in the most efficient manner.

Today was a running day for me. We (most of the us and the K's) are racing in a New Year's Eve race in Saratoga and my training has been sketchy. It didn't help that I was sick

 for a couple of weeks. I am confident that I can run the 5K, but it won't be fast and all my family will be long done by the time I cross the finish line, and I fully expect to hear them cheering for me!

Today the mailman delivered a package for Jim from Denmark which looked like every longshoreman had drop kicked it from one guy to the next. Fortunately, the contents were not damaged. One of Jim's bosses lives in Denmark and sent Jim a gift set of cookies, candies, and a beautiful teak cutting board. See the first photo.

We had dinner at Gram and GrandDad's tonight and got to see their Christmas decorations and enjoy a delicious chicken dinner.

 

From there we went to Grandma and

Grandpa's to see Jim's Uncle Bob and his friend, Patty. It was nice to see them, even

though we could only stay for about 15 minutes. Our time is limited because Tucker and Corey are both allergic to the cats in their house and start sneezing after about 15 minutes. 

We had to be home by 8 PM tonight because Corey was having some friends over for a jam session. Matt, Pat and Mike are here now with

 Corey and they  are working their way through a Beetles repertoire. We have 3 guitars and an electric keyboard all going strong. They are having fun and sound good.

Have you ever tried to see how far you could drive on a tank of gas, when the indicator is on "E" , the light is on, and the estimated mileage left on the tank is on "0"? We did tonight and it was very exciting as we decided how far we could push the car if needed. We were all a bit disappointed when Jim filled the approximately 20 gallon tank with 18.5 gallons, which mean that we probably could have gone another 20-25 miles! 

I don't know if I will be able to blog while at camp because we have slow internet, but I'll try. If not, Happy New Year!

Hope all is well.

Christmas Review

I hope you all had a Christmas Day that was all you hoped. I know that we did here. On Christmas Eve, Grandma and Grandpa came over and brought a chili dinner. It was delicious! 

We four went to the late service at church, which seems to get later each year! Corey and I rang in a bell ensemble and Corey was a lay liturgist (and the best dressed at church!). Gram and GrandDad and the Kuehls joined us at church. We were home by 12:30 AM and went right to bed!

Tuesday morning the Oster grandparents came over with gifts and a breakfast casserole.

We all had fun opening gifts that were fun, thoughtful, useful, but most of all, most appreciated. We have many blessings and

Christmas is a wonderful time to pause and be

grateful for all that we have. Some of us got some exercise in the early afternoon but we were all back home and showered in order to get ready for our dinner guests, who arrived in the late afternoon.

Our challenge this Christmas dinner was to have all the food come from within 50 miles of our house and we met that challenge. Bob, Sally and Liz started the evening off with

 local appetizers of Zwiegles white hot dogs (sliced and grilled) and saurkraut, apples and cheese. Perfect! The main course of dinner was a crown roast of pork from a butcher just east of here. To the pork we added mashed potatoes, squash, carrots, applesauce, and a green salad. For dessert we had apple pie and grape

pie. It was a great meal (if I do say so

myself!) and I thank everyone who brought something.

Some of us took a walk after dinner and Corey and Tucker ended the evening for us with a guitar concert.

All in all, a great couple of days. Thanks to all.

Now to say I was tired last night was an understatement. I slept the sleep of the dead until Jim's alarm went off this morning(he had to go to work today), then I rolled over and slept until Jim called me on the phone at 9:00 AM!! I cannot remember when I last slept that late! I might still be sleeping if he hadn't called! 

Tonight we are going to the Brookhouse for dinner using a gift certificate that my student teacher gave me as a thank you gift. The certificate value was more than Jim and I could use at one meal so I figured we'd use it when the boys were home.

Now we have to start thinking about going to camp for New Year's. I think we are going to go up on Friday and come home on New Year's Day.

Time to go give the  boys some jobs to do.

Hope all is well.

Weekend Happenings

Go 'Cuse! Our trip to the SU basketball game was great fun, especially since they soundly beat Cornell. The Orange had some great plays in the first half and were less impressive looking in the second half. In the photo below, notice that we all are wearing Syracuse Orange t-shirts. These were Christmas gifts from Corey and we all wore them proudly. The back of my shirt said, "Real Moms wear Orange". The weather cooperated and we had an easy drive.

This morning we got up to temps moving up towards the 50's, with the promise of wind

 and rain, and that is exactly what happened. Now those conditions are not good for snow fort survival and sure enough, we had melt-down. Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted!

Tonight I gathered the manly men of this house to help make the table decorations for Christmas dinner. We made S'Mores snowmen similar to the Christmas tree ornaments that are for sale. Each snowman has a name written on the graham cracker to mark the table place for our Christmas dinner companions. The boys did a great job. Now we will move on to decorating the Gingerbread house. 

Liz K. is due at our house in a few minutes. That should liven things up! She can tell us about their trip to Toronto.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, is going to be a very busy day so I probably will not make an entry until after Christmas. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Hope all is well.