Happy New Year

I had visions of actually blogging my 'Christmas Tag' and 'unremarkable' tag all at the same time. Wrong- and it isn't really called the 'unremarkable tag' either, I just can't remember at the moment what it is. See, I'm brain dead (again). ---Unspectacular--Blog??
The 2 weeks before Christmas, I worked over 50 hours each. And Christmas week (even with Christmas Eve - half day, and Christmas {which is now an UNPAID holiday}), I still came in with 40+ hours. So, yes, I am grateful I have a job, but had failed to recognize that I now work for Scrooge Mc Duck. Apparently, his employees are supposed to save up their personal days, or vacation days, for Christmas. Unfortunately, we have not worked for the company long enough to support vacation time off, and, (AND) only FULL TIME employees get paid vacation days. FULL time is 43 hours a week. Bah- Humbug.

Enough of that- Christmas was really nice. We went to Mt Healthy on Christmas Eve and visited a live Manger scene. There are life sized, life like models of the Wise Men, Joseph, Mary, the baby and maybe a shepherd. The animals are neat to see. The kids had just watched the Nativity video in primary, so I had the chance to talk with Sammy about how they really had to prepare the 'barn' for Christ's birth. There were lots of people there, but it wasn't too bad. At least this year there weren't any drunk people singing Happy Birthday.

Christmas Day was nice. They slept in until about 9:15. I guess Sam was up earlier, but went back to bed, yea! for older kids! It was a low key Christmas, we have never done a lot with the kids, and this year wasn't any different.

In the early afternoon we went over to Katy's house. Joey and his girlfriend, Katy and Josh, Sam, Madeline, and Bari Ray all exchanged presents. They draw names and try to keep it all a secret from each other. It is cute to watch what they come up with, and how they try to figure out who has whom. Before dinner, we all went to Bari's mom's house in Anderson. Linda and Al had a huge buffet dinner all prepared. Al's niece from Panama, and her 2 children were there. We were told that they didn't speak any English, but that wasn't at all true. They speak very well. Madeline and Marie (who is 10) are now joined at the hip. The boys stayed over Thursday night, but Madeline came home. Friday morning she went with me to Katy's ultrasound and got to see and hear the baby. It was fun. Katy is doing very well.

After I dropped Madeline off at Grandma Linda's I picked up Bari from work and we shot a wedding in Saltair. Yes, we do get all the exotic locations around the Greater Cinci area. The reception was at Pattison Park Lodge, (for those of you who don't know, that is just outside Owensville). It was the ugliest day you could have chosen for a wedding. It was cold (December, remember? Dark, (December). And rainy (snow would have been better). The church was a typical brick type. The inside was decorated for Christmas, and it was really pretty, so that helped quite a lot. We got home from the wedding at 12:30 or 1am. I worked the next morning- actually, we both worked the next morning. Saturday evening, Bari brought both boys home, and left Madeline. She says she isn't coming home until she has learned Spanish.
That brings us to today. It was our last Sunday with this class. Next week we will have a different group of CTR's. I'll miss these chatter-box, excited, expressive kids. They were great.
I promptly fell asleep on the couch after lunch for a little while, then got up and went to the bedroom expecting to 'nap' and ended up sleeping for 2 TWO! hours!

Oh, and I have failed to mention that sometime on Thursday my kitchen sink became clogged. It is Sunday 10 pm and still clogged. We have taken apart the pipes under the sink, and put them back together. Who knows. It is such a pain. I wish I were more handy around the house.

So, I hope your Christmas, and New Years are full of fun and family. Ours certainly are.