Welcome to
2019!
We had a
wonderful and busy holiday season, and I hope you all did too. Well, at
least the wonderful part—hopefully yours was more relaxing than busy.
Krista gave herself a project of redoing the seat cushions on our dining room
chairs, and some of us helped her a bit.
 |
| Before |
 |
| After! |
One of my
projects was getting enough table and chair space for all of the family that
would be visiting. I bought a couple of 3/4 inch pressboard sheets and
rounded off the corners. Then we put one on top of our existing table to
make it a 4 x 8 foot table, and we were able to get an old wooden folding table
the library (where Krista works) was retiring where I mounted the other 4 x 8
foot tabletop. That gave us a 4 x 16 foot table which worked very well
for us.
 |
| Big table ready for use |
 |
| Big table in use! (Christmas brunch) |
We had a grand
time with all of the grandkids (see what I did there?) over for
Christmas. Krista and I gave the Sommer and Mickle families teeter-totters
that were a bear to put together, so I was glad we had done it
beforehand. It was all worth it to see all of the kids enjoying them as
they tried them out.
 |
| Capacity crowd! Daisy, Alma, Alex, Ivy, and Josie. Also notice the Buffalo Bills stocking caps Aunt Caitlin made for her nieces and nephew! |
 |
| Now you can see Josie and Ivy's faces (and Mama Kortney in the background) |
 |
| Finally Ruby got a turn! |
 |
| Josie and Alex with safety help from Mommom |
Cai and Amy
couldn’t be there for Christmas, as I said last month, but they gave us a
beautiful framed picture from their wedding that completes our current set of
married children’s wedding pictures, and it now has a prominent place in our
living room hutch with his sisters’ wedding pictures.
Besides
celebrating Christmas on 12/25, that is also Matt’s birthday, and Carissa made
a delicious pineapple upside down cake for his celebration. That, added
to all of the other Christmas cookies and other delicious foods, set us all
back on our weight goals, but that’s what the new year is for, right? Personally,
I’m almost back to where I was before the holidays. How are you
doing? 😊 You don’t have to answer that.
On January 6,
we celebrated Hazel’s 4th birthday and Alex’s 2nd with a peanut butter sandwich
smorgasbord. The Mickles and Sommers had every possible topping you could
imagine (fresh fruit, marshmallow fluff, chocolate chips, jam, etc.) and Kevin
grilled them if you wanted that to make them even more delicious. Cody
even tried one with Frank’s Red Hot sauce, although I wouldn’t recommend that.
Who knew peanut butter could be so fancy?!?!
Last night, my
at-home kids (Abigail, Amelia, Zach, Jem, and Levi) and I went to see
“Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse.” I’d have to say it’s sort of a
strange movie, but it was fun too. I came away paralleling how I think of
it like I thought of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” when I was a teen.
When actually watching it, I found myself thinking “weird” a lot and not really
laughing. However, afterwards when talking about it with others, we
laughed a lot remembering the crazy things that happened. Anyway, that’s
how it worked with me for both “Spiderman” and “Holy Grail.” Your mileage
may vary.
May God bless
your 2019, and I’ll talk to you again in February.
