Happy St Nick's Day! Tom and Scott and I enjoyed our annual ritual of opening our Christmas stockings on Sunday morning. St Nick brings our stockings early so that if we get any Christmas socks, tshirts, ornaments or jewelry we can wear it or display it before Christmas.  Everyone was very happy with their loot. Allison had her stocking early when she visited over Thanksgiving weekend. St Nick stocked her up with lots of goodies to help her through the upcoming Finals week. She will start with one of her tests this coming week and then finish up next week. She managed to get in a bit of celebrating at a formal party with her Ultimate Frisbee team this past weekend in between all the studying, and even got to wear her new dress.


My St Nick's Day gift was an evening out with our neighbors to see our favorite group, Straight No Chaser. They are the acoppella group from Indiana. They were in town for just one night at a sold out concert(again). Tom bought the tickets months ago. Sadly, one of their main singers was out on Paternity leave. We noticed. Although we really enjoy the group, having one member missing seemed to really affect the quality of the concert. We thought last year's event was much better. Although the concert was very good, it seemed a bit subdued. We felt like we should have been given a discount. But our neighbors really enjoyed it since they had never seen them before. And we all enjoyed dinner out beforehand. And I got a new tshirt, although no concert schedule on the back this time?

My weekend was also jam packed with scout activities. On Saturday morning, Scott and I got up early to volunteer at the Jingle Bell 5K Arthritis Fundraiser run. Scott decided to run again this year, so we signed him up at the walk up registration table. He seems to keep a consistent time of 34 mins. The run is a bit tough since it is around our local lake, very hilly and slippery as the path was very frosty in the early morning. Scott and I both helped direct traffic before the event. Mainly I just like checking out all the costumes (on both the people and the dogs!). And getting a free shirt for volunteering! Afterwards, Scott went off to assist one of the scouts with his Eagle project. By the time Scott arrived, all the boys that volunteered earlier in the morning had already completed all the work. So instead, Scott and Tom spent the afternoon practicing driving. Scott was almost run over by our neighbor's daughter as she was backing out of their driveway. And right after that, a mailman ran the stop sign on our street. Scott is learning at the Driving School of Hard Knocks.

After volunteering at the Jingle Run, I went off to the Baltimore Harbor to sing with the Girl Scout choir at the German Christmas Village. Our choir sings Christmas songs on stage for about an hour. I mostly enjoy shopping at all the booths and especially the tent full of German Christmas decorations. On Sunday I sang with the choir in the Baltimore Mayor's Parade. It makes for a long day-the parade is two hours long. You have to arrive an hour before the parade starts to line up. And then the parade starts at 1, but we don't actually start moving until 130 because of all the different entries. It is not my favorite parade, but they always need extra voices for the crowds.

Again I spent my Friday off work helping out my mom. This past Friday we started off with a PT appointment. Afterwards, I dropped into a medical supply company with mom. We are looking at getting a portable scooter to rent/purchase to help her get around this coming holiday trip to Florida. We were able to rent a scooter for now and are sending in paperwork to the insurance company to see if it will be covered. Then we were off to the bank, lunch and dessert at the mall, Christmas shopping and back to her apt where I spent 2 hours decorating for Christmas. I finally sent mom down to dinner and headed home quite exhausted. I still had enough energy in me to get in some Christmas shopping of my own at Kohls. Wow, what a jam packed weekend. We ended it off having dinner with our friends at their house. Of course Cookie was invited to spend time with their Cavachon, Ripley and we celebrated both of our boy's 16th Birthday party with a big ice cream cake.

I was just as busy during the week. Tom was off working in DC for the week. Scott and I had to throw together a boy scout meeting last Weds. His guest speaker got sick at the last minute, so Scott and I had to come up with a new plan. Scott asked one of the counselors to present the Art Merit Badge. She agreed and after her presentation we had a drawing contest. The boys loved it. When they were done and the awards given out, we asked the boys to make some Holiday cards. They also loved that! Overall, a very successful scout meeting which is Scott's current role as Sr Assistant Patrol Leader.

Scott in the Jingle Bell Run

 Waiting for the Baltimore Mayor's Christmas Parade/Hanging out with the Charm City Rollers

 Scott and Bryce celebrate their 16th Birthdays