The Accidental Boilermaker

 Yesterday was a lovely Christmas. My dad made breakfast in the morning and then we opened presents. Jameson’s favorite present was either the wooden sword he received from Uncle Dean, the new squishmellow, or new Pokémon cards from Oma and Grandpa  Evelyn’s favorite present was Harry Potter book three.  I received some new books I’m excited about and also an adjustable kettle bell.  I wanted just one, maybe 15 lbs but this one goes from 8-40 lbs which is pretty nifty.  Evelyn asked for a “backatcha.” It hooks onto the basketball hoop rim and helps return to the ball back to you. It works best for practicing free throws.  Jameson got a soccer kick trainer. It was nice to have warmer weather to run around outside for a bit.  It was a full day despite not leaving the house. Plus we’d had a few late nights.  Jameson took a little snooze before dinner.  We got a nice picture of everyone Monday night.  Mimi, Oma and Grandpa had to go home tod...

 We had a nice Christmas Eve. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we watched my parents church service online. Then we watched Evelyn and Jameson’s school holiday program.  My dad teaches Sunday school for their church’s disabilities ministry so we also watched their Christmas program. After lunch me, my dad and the kids went for a nice walk. It was warm enough Jameson wore shorts. We went to church downtown and then watched Home Alone before bed. Evelyn and Jameson just laughed and laughed. They set out a plate for Santa and the reindeer. Jameson made a last minute addition with the PBR because maybe Santa wants something different this year. 

 We decorated sugar cookies today. As usual it was a sticky, messy affair. The newest addition to our cookie cutter collection is a sweater for ugly or pretty cookie Christmas sweaters. It was a gift from one of Nate’s co workers.  Jameson’s ugly sweater.  Evelyn’s ugly sweater.  Oma’s pretty sweater.  My sweater on the cooling rack. 

 Christmas break has started. And Jameson finally lost his third tooth. We were a little worried that if it fell out on Christmas Eve, was it possible for both Santa and the Tooth Fairy to visit on the same night.  The last week was filled with school spirit activities like holiday headware, pj day, and movie day. As Evelyn likes to say, there’s no learning just fun. 

 It was a busy day. Jameson had soccer at nine. Evelyn would have gone to soccer at ten, but they had their piano recital at eleven. The recital was very nice. We’ve had two new friends starts taking lessons with Mrs Dorion so we were excited to hear them play. Evelyn and Jameson played their pieces nicely but they did the best on their duet. This was a pleasant surprise as practicing duet was not always a fun experience.  In the afternoon we watched the Purdue Fort Wayne men and women’s basketball teams at the Coliseum. Two other families from Evelyn’s school basketball team were there for the women’s game plus the coach. He also stayed for the first half of the men’s game.  We stayed for both whole games which did make for a late night. The women lost and the men won. 

 Last night was the 1st and 2nd grade holiday program, The Great Holiday Bake off. First grade performed first followed by a repeat performance by second grade. We attended both because Evelyn was part of the choir and had a speaking role. In the past, the 4th/5th grade choir has sung Christmas carols at the mall, but this year they joined the holiday program by singing three opening songs. Then a few singers were also given speaking parts for the play. Evelyn played Penny Potts, a college professor from Popcorn, IN.  She did a great job. Jameson also did great singing all the songs and performing the motions. The program was so much better compared to last year. You could hear and understand all the words and everyone knew what to do when. It was actually enjoyable to sit through twice. My favorite part was each kid needed an oven mitt and for the main song especially, everyone is waving and moving around with their oven mitts on. I thought the effect was fun. 

Happy Thanksgiving! Tuesday I helped with bingo at school and saw Evelyn’s cute turkey.  We left for Decatur Wednesday afternoon. First we drove to Marion and picked up Nate who was at work. Then it was to Indianapolis for dinner and finally we arrived at Mimi’s house. Thursday morning we went for a walk before it was time to help with food.  Evelyn and Jameson played outside a lot. Nate and Tom took them to some basketball courts to shoot hoops and long after it was dark, Tom played catch with Jameson.  Friday we visited Aunt Martha and Uncle Dean. Aunt Martha took Kate, Evelyn and Jameson for a ride on the golf cart and then let Evelyn and Jameson take a drive around the property.   We went to see their peacocks which was fun but I think everyone liked the kittens best. Thankfully they aren’t ready to leave momma or we might have ended up bringing one home.  Kate really wanted to play Catan so Nate was a good sport and jumped in to play.  Kate and Tom had...

 Girls on the run fall season is officially over.  Despite a few bumps along the way, it was a really good season. Our team had some really great girls. And even though the 5K was late into the fall, it turned out to be a nice day. It was a bit chilly though.  I started running with Evelyn and her friend Maddy but they weren’t interested in running very fast. Which was totally fine, but I was cold. So I thought if I ran ahead I might warm up and see other girls on the course. I caught up to two girls and then crossed the finish line.  I didn’t lap anyone so I ran backwards along the course to see the rest of the team before the finish. I was able to run with the last three girls from the team as they finished. So the plan worked! I only missed one girl, but she was the top GOTR finisher. 

 We took a weekend getaway to the cottage. Evelyn and Jameson didn’t have school on Friday and Nate took the day off work so we were able to get an earlier start on the drive. We did lots of our usual activities like swinging and shooting the BB gun.  The kids even got to go fishing the weather was so nice. Nate took Jameson out first on the pedal boat while Evelyn and I played yardzee. Evelyn won.  Jameson caught a fish! Evelyn was close to catching one but it got away.  Sunday was another nice day. We went for a walk around the lake and Evelyn and Jameson practiced casting off the dock. 

 It was a cold but fun Halloween. We did have some snow, but thankfully not while we were outside. I dressed up as Professor Trelawney to go with Evelyn. Nate went as Ash to go with Jameson. One house knew who I was.  One boy pointed at Nate and knew he was Ash.  Right before we left, Jameson shut his fingers in the door. So my dad got a nice picture of Evelyn, but poor Jameson was in the house crying. He rallied once we started trick or treating.  We hit lots of houses and they got plenty of candy. We were home in time to help grandpa hand out some candy.  This year we only had 63 trick or treaters.