I cannot believe we have arrived at a New Year! We began it by celebrating Mom Seitz's Birthday(from afar). Mark and Linda Seitz were visiting with Mom and Dad Seitz in Florida. Mark was enjoying his new found freedom in retirement from Lilly Pharmaceuticals

! Congrats Mark and Happy Birthday Mom S!

There were more celebrations this week including a Baby Shower for Sarah and Eric Seitz at Mark and Linda's house in Indy. So Mark and Linda headed back up north from Florida to put on the big event. Allison and I would have loved to attend, but we felt we had it covered during our visit over Christmas break.  I was able to give Sarah and Eric some small paintings for the nursery that matched their decor, and we went on line and ordered a baby monitor that we had sent to Mark and Linda's house while visiting so it would be there for the Baby Shower. We can't wait to meet Claire! She is due in February-same month as Eric's Birthday as well as Aunt Susan!  Sounds like the shower was a hit!

We were back into full swing during the week. Scott was incredibly busy at school. He had an Honor Society meeting after school on Tuesday. The kids were asked to help out with an Easter project for the Howard County Parks and Rec program. They filled 50, 000 eggs with small gifts! Amazing! Then on Weds after school Scott helped out with the Concession stand during the Basketball games for volunteer hours. He is very close to be done with his required 32 hrs of volunteer work for NHS. Actually, he will probably go over the required hours, but it is all good!  He has also been very busy with schoolwork. His physics class finally took the toothpick bridge weight limit challenge and Scott's bridge did very well!  The kids gradually add weight on a rope with the bridge set up between two desks and see how much it can hold until it collapses. We won't have the final results for a few weeks as all the classes wrap up their testing as to who had the best design and could manage the most weight, but needless to say, Scott got an A on the project. On Tuesday night he had to present his updated Sr Engineering project to a panel of judges. All the kids in the County High School Sr. Engineering program have to come up with a product that helps solve a problem. Scott is using his handicapped planter design for his Sr project and doing it on his own. He made some small changes on his Eagle scout design and will be building one new planter in class. Parents were invited to attend the presentations-it took 3 hrs to get through all the presentations, but we only stayed for 1 hr and then went out to dinner. It was like watching Shark Tank. Interesting to see what ideas the kids all have, from heated bee hives to charging systems to alarms for someone having an asthma attack. I would have enjoyed listening to all the projects, but it was getting late and we were hungry! Scott has also been busy with tests and reading The Canterbury Tales in English. He did get a small break with a 3 day weekend looming on MLK, so he took a break on Saturday and enjoyed having his friend Matt over for some video gaming. Then on Sunday morning, he headed into school to work on the robot for the new Robotics High School Team challenge. The team will be busy designing and building their robot for the next few months up until the tournament. Afterwards, Tom and Scott headed up to Hershey for an afternoon hockey game. The Bears lost, but again, Tom and Scott had a really fun time. And stopped to pick up  Duck Donuts on the way home (custom made donuts, like S'mores and PBJ).

Allison and I would have loved to have joined them, but we had other plans. On Sunday afternoon I was helping with a GS choir Songfest. We invite GS Troops to learn some traditional songs-for 2 hours! It was fun and good practice, especially since I missed the last session. Afterwards, Allison and I were invited out to dinner by Allison's previous GS mentor. Jeannette Partlow and her family own a Chemical company in downtown Baltimore and Allison completed her internship with them two summers ago. Jeannette wanted to get together to celebrate Allison's graduation and acceptance into the MBA program. She also gave her a generous monetary gift. She really is an incredible woman. I especially enjoyed chatting about Baltimore's history and the city's current status with her since she is so involved in the goings on downtown during dinner. We were secretly hoping she would offer Allison a job! But it really is a small scale family business, so no actual job openings(at this time!). She did give Allison some advice on people to contact, like BGE representatives(our local power company here in Baltimore) since their company works closely with them.

And since Allison has been home on break, she has been spending time sending out resumes and making phone calls. She missed one interview due to bad weather. She was supposed to drive down to Virginia that day, but we had a horrible ice and snow storm that blew up from the south along the coast. And so far, most of the companies want her to wait until she graduates in May to schedule her interviews. We just found out she will be done on May 23rd. How exciting!

She is also spending her time visiting with college and high school friends and taking Cookie on her daily walk! Spoiled puppy. Allison is trying to stay in shape for her upcoming Frisbee season. Thank goodness for our indoor treadmill. It has been bitter cold outside and difficult to get out and exercise. Even Cookie's walks are very short. It has been so cold, plastic and glass bottles of soda and water have been freezing and exploding in our garage! I also got Allison to join me for a water aerobics class last week. She actually got a flu shot to make sure she stays as well as she can! And she continues to need only 1 iron pill. But she will have another blood test before going back to school to make sure her iron levels remain high.

A lot of activities have been cancelled recently due to bad weather, so our schedule has been a bit off. We continue to have ice/snow storms. Scott had school off on Monday because of ice. It was hard to get home since the roads were a sheet of ice, including our driveway. However, on Friday it actually warmed up to about 60 degrees! I joined Allison and her friend at Star Wars.  But it rained all day, so it was a good day to see a movie. And I really liked it even more the second time around! There is just so much to take in on the first go around at 2.5 hrs long. And I am glad it was rainy because we probably would have had about 2 feet of snow if it were colder!

And since we had a busy Sunday, we ended up having my mom over for a turkey dinner with all the traditional sides on Saturday night. It felt like Thanksgiving all over again! (I got a great price on a large turkey breast which turned out to be very easy to prepare in the cooking bags). Afterwards we watched  the recent  Jungle Book with the live actor and CGI animals. Allison and I saw it at the movie theater and really liked it, but it was on cable.   I also took over all her Christmas gifts and put them away in her apartment. Lots of warm clothes! She continues to attend the weekly program at the Sr Center as well as participating in activities at the facility. At least they can come out of their rooms now!

End of Christmas Vacation:

So we arrived home on Saturday night in time for dinner after negotiating another snowstorm coming through the mountains in West Virginia. Where did that come from?  On Sunday, New Years Eve, Allison, Tom and Scott headed off to Salisbury. While we were in Indy on vacation, Allison received a phone call from her Salisbury condo property manager. Apparently 4 of the condos were broken into over Christmas break. The thief/ves broke a side window and crawled into the condo on the 1st floor. They then walked out of the place through the sliding door. Tom thought it would be a good idea to go check on the place since the manager did not seem to be doing anything to secure the place.  Good thing they checked. Even though the window had been replaced, the sliding door was not locked. And the broken glass was all over the furniture and floor under the window they crawled through to enter. So Tom, Allison and Scott cleaned up as much glass as they could and then checked to see what was taken. Mostly Allison's large items including her flat screen tv and Nintendo game cube with 20 games, her Alexa and surprisingly, her Roomba vacuum cleaner. Fortunately they left other, more valuable items as well as Allison's check book. However, as soon as Allison heard about the robbery, she cancelled her bank account. So most of the items were used, and the Alexa is only registered to Allison, so no one else can use it without her account info. We did not get renters insurance because the items were valued less than the deductible. They did stop into the pawn stores and Game Stops to give them a heads up on the Nintendo game system and games in case someone came in selling the whole set. So Tom hooked up some security cameras and they headed back home with a pit stop at the outlet store to buy Scott some new cargo pants at the Columbia outlet. They also picked up a bunch of yummies at the Pepperidge Farm outlet since they are closing! Oh no! That was also one of our favorite stops.

I stayed home during the day to clean, wash clothes and do some grocery shopping. We decided to skip the New Year's Eve celebration and go right to celebrating New Year's Day with dinner and our neighbors. On Monday morning, I had the day off work for a Holiday, so after Allison and I enjoyed watching the Rose Bowl parade, I got busy cooking and cleaning. I put a ham in the oven, and headed off to pick up Mom B. Unfortunately, when I arrived, the staff told me Mom had the stomach bug again!  It had already been tough for the residents stuck in their rooms now for over 2 weeks! But now Mom had the stomach bug again, so I had to leave her there. Back I went to finish putting out the food for our party. I had made crab dip and everyone was starving, especially Tom! I finally got all the food out for our guests. The parents had fun chatting and the kids enjoyed playing video games.

But on Tuesday it was time to get back to reality. For some of us. Scott was off to school and I was off to work. Tom still had one more day off of work, but he was back to school himself. Allison was home keeping Cookie busy with walks, staying in shape for frisbee on the treadmill and sending out resumes. Scott had a busy week, even though it was shorter. On Wednesday night he was double booked for volunteer hours. Right after school he volunteered for NHS at the concession stand during high school basketball games. Right after, he volunteered for his NTHS service hours speaking to freshman students about the Engineering program at an Open House. He was very happy to have Thursday off for a snow day as we got a nasty storm up the coast. He even had a half day on Friday. He enjoyed the short week, but it made it a bit tougher to keep up with assignments. Each class was behind, and teachers were panicking as they near the end of the second semester and Midterms!  So Scott had quite a few tests and projects to wrap up the first week back from vacation. At least he had the weekend to work on homework.

I tried to talk Tom into taking us to a Hershey Bear Hockey game Saturday night, however, he had finally caught the cold that I had over the holiday. I had spent Saturday at work. I volunteered to come in and get a head start on the new week.  On Sunday

we finally had my mom over for dinner and to open her Christmas presents! I figured since we still had the decorations up, it would be nice to spend some time visiting with Mom and finally celebrating Christmas! Good thing she has no sense of time.

Christmas Vacation!

We got up early Tuesday morning to head off for big After Christmas sales. Actually, Tom and Scott went off to look for great Holiday sales at Home Depot. Tom usually picks up a year's supply of  LED flashlights since they are usually 1/2 off. Also he loves looking for Christmas lights on sale. When they arrived, they found everything on sale with prices marked down, however, the Home Depot staff was not ready for the sale. They did not put the prices into the register, therefore, they could not sell any of the items for the sale prices. And no one could find the manager to approve the sales, so Tom and Scott left.

Meanwhile, I was busy packing the van and we were off to Indy. I do like mixing post Christmas shopping with traveling. You never know what you are going to find in other states and other stores. I was very excited to stop into a Hallmark along the way and stock up on Star Wars ornaments for Tom's tree for next year. All 1/2 off. And Tom found some Christmas lights at Lowes while I was shopping. He was even more excited to visit the huge Cabelas to shop for a rain jacket in W Virginia.  I had picked him up a jacket for Christmas since he really needed one especially for traveling, but he wanted the more expensive Gortex coat. So we stopped in and while he was shopping the kids and I had a great time checking out all the stuffed animals on display. This store is like a wildlife museum with a huge room full of deer, mostly with abnormal antlers, then a large central display of mammals and birds, as well as a huge fish tank of North American fish and turtles, and a shooting range. Lots of fun. We just did not realize we could have brought Cookie in with us. We also stopped along the way outside Columbus, Ohio to our favorite outlet store, The JCPenney Outlet. We have shopped there for many years ever since Tom and I were married. We were looking forward to stretching our legs and stopping for a bathroom break for us and Cookie,  as well as getting some dinner. Sadly, we discovered that the Outlet store has gone the way of many of the Retail stores and it was closed down. Along with most of the stores and restaurants in the entire area. Instead, we pressed on and did not see much in the way of eateries between Columbus and Indy. We were forced to stop in for dinner at a lousy Hardees that managed to screw up our entire order(and we were the only ones in the restaurant).

Finally we made it to our destination-Mark and Linda Seitz Household. We were excited to visit their new house. We all took a tour of the house before settling into our own rooms. And Cookie and their dog, Teddy got to know each other.

On Tuesday we woke up with hopes of venturing outside for a few Holiday activities, like visiting the local German Christmas village and ice skating rink or touring the Indy Zoo Lights. However, the temperatures had dropped to the single digits and the wind chill brought everything down below zero. So we opted for the indoor activities. First we had a wonderful visit with Sarah and Eric. The two had driven down from Fort Wayne for a day visit. We are so excited about their upcoming expected baby girl's delivery in February. I had brought along a small gift for Baby Claire's room-some pictures to match their decor, so we swapped gifts. Eric presented us with a lovely photo album of a collage of Seitz Family vacations. Thanks again Eric and Sarah! After an egg and sausage crock pot breakfast, as well as some tasty cinnamon rolls, we were ready to start our day. The whole family decided to catch the Jumanji  movie and we really loved it.  And we enjoyed a huge bucket of popcorn and cup of soda with a Star WArs theme(we are still trying to get to that movie!).

After our movie, we headed over to Bubs for their Burgers. They serve a Big Ugly 1 pound burger for the brave. We were not that hungry, so we opted for soup and sandwiches. And while we waited for dinner we enjoyed playing a card game called Spot It. (I liked it so much, I bought a game for us and one for my workplace on the way home at Meijers!). After dinner we all went our own way. Eric and Sarah had a pit stop at their Grandpas for some computer work and then were driving back to Ft Wayne. Sarah will be heading back to Mark and Linda's in January to celebrate her Baby Shower. We enjoyed our driving tour around Carmel and Woodfield, looking at all the shops and Christmas lights and closed ice skating rink and German Christmas village(cause it was so cold!)

On Thursday we decided it was still too cold to venture outside, so we opted for a visit to the Indy Car Show in the downtown Convention Center. Mark dropped us all off at the door and before he could park and join us, we obtained free tickets into the show from one of the employees. Sweet! This was not a huge car show, but we had plenty to keep us busy. We all went in different directions. I was mostly interested in any new options in car styles as well as technology in the  Ford and Toyota models. We also stopped at the Ford display and picked up a credit for  $50 Gift Cards when we stop into a Ford dealership for a test drive. Allison and I will be off driving Ford products soon!  We also enjoyed the Ford robot presentation, although it was a bit corny! We spent a few hours checking out the cars and then walked through the downtown Indy indoor mall. All the buildings are connected by elevated walkways, so we stayed nice and warm. We enjoyed some after Holiday shopping, and then headed over for dinner at Buca De Beppo's Italian restaurant. I really enjoy this place. The food is served family style and they decorate the entire restaurant in crazy Italian photos and knick knacks(including the Pope Table) which was already reserved. But we sat and enjoyed our pasta, antipasta appetizer and bread with a little difficulty managing the tongs and the large salad. After cleaning up salad from the table with a lot of laughs, we packed up our leftovers and headed home. Mark gave us a wonderful driving tour of Downtown Indy and the Christmas lights on the way home.

We also entertained ourselves at Mark and Linda's with a puzzle and a few games of large Jenga. And before we left, the guys went off to one of Tom's other favorite stores, Fry's electronics. Again, another unfortunate shut down. Actually, the store was open, but instead of all the wonderful tech stuff, it was filled with "As Seen On TV" paraphenalia. Too sad. But it was time to head back to Maryland. The weather was turning for the worst, and Mark and Linda had more guests on the way. On Friday we packed up and headed to Dayton Ohio for a little tour of the Air and Space Museum. We stopped into a few Costco Warehouses since I was on the hunt for another pair of wonderful boots for Allison and I, as well as my Walking Dead comic books. I bombed out at both stores on the way home. And we got hung up at Buffalo Wild Things since the service was incredibly slow. So w

e only had an hour left before it closed, which was plenty of time to visit Tom's B2 Northrop Grumman bomber. The facility has a 4 hangars full of aircraft and rockets and they just added another whole hangar. We walked through a Presidential Air Force One from the Kennedy era as well as a mock up of the space shuttle. I could not believe how huge the space shuttle is, but the living quarters are just at the very front of the ship and not too big. Enough room to sit and operate the ship, some storage space and a bathroom and some hammocks for sleeping quarters. The rest of the ship is all for cargo. Although our visit was short, it was very exciting and we saw quite a bit, but the place was closing and we discovered it had started snowing. Right on time and pretty hard.

According to the weather radar, it looked like we could out run it, somewhere past Columbus. Unfortunately, the storm was moving faster than us. We could no longer see the freeway, and there were lots of trucks and cars on the road(all over the road). So Tom thought it would be better if we stopped for the night. Allison found us a Home 2 Suites hotel room with 2 queen beds that took dogs. Perfect. It was just north of Columbus in a town called Dublin. And a great price! Just $93 for the night. We have stayed at the Home Suites before and really like the modern look and large area. It actually feels like staying at an IKEA. The only down side was that we had to pay $100 for Cookie! We figured it would have cost us more than that if we had boarded Cookie, but we also felt like we deserved another room! Well, at least we were warm and dry and not out on the road. For a very short time. Tom was adamant that we were going to go see the new Star Wars movie. And we had all evening open. So we headed out in the snowstorm after settling into our room, as well as giving Cookie a quick walk and her dinner. We also were interested in dinner, but did not have a lot of time to eat and get to the nearest movie theater. We found a theater with food and reclining seats and the show was already sold out! In a snow storm!  So we drove to another movie theater, less crowded and with reclining seats, less exciting food, but something to eat and settled in for the 2.5 hr long movie. At least we had popcorn. And we loved the movie. But there was a lot to take in, so we may have to go out and see it again before it leaves the theaters. We headed back to our hotel and drove through the adorable town of Dublin, Ohio, all dressed up in Christmas lights and fluffy snow on a large river and no humans. We decided we would have to give it a quick visit on Saturday morning on our way home.

So on Saturday morning we were up, packed, cleaned the snow and ice off the van and headed over to the Starbucks in Dublin after the snow plows came through and salted the streets. Dublin has a cute statue of a large frog-apparently they put on a yearly frog jumping contest in Dublin(when it is much warmer I'm sure!). Then we dropped into one of my favorite stores, Meijers. We loaded up on 2 liter bottles of Diet Vernors and Diet Squirt(we don't have those large sizes in Maryland and it was on sale!), looked over the post Christmas items on sale and picked up a few things and then were back on the road. We also stopped back into Cabelas on the way home and this time took Cookie in for a walk about. Everyone in the store had to stop and pet her. We decided we should pick up some winter boots for Scott in preparation for going off to Western next Fall. We also stopped into Hagerstown, MD on the way home to pick up a few pizzas from Papa Murphy's so we would have something for dinner after unpacking the car.

Overall it was a rather short trip, but very enjoyable and we loved visiting with the Seitz Family. Thank you so much for hosting us at your beautiful new home Mark and Linda!

Christmas Day 2017 at the Seitz Household

We all slept in on Christmas Day! I love having older kids. We spent the morning drinking coffee and opening Christmas presents with the kids. This year was a mix of gifts-Tom usually buys all the high tech gifts and I get everyone practical items like underwear, socks and warm clothes. I especially stocked up on flannel as well as a Western Michigan hooded sweatshirt for Scott in preparation for the Fall when he heads off to Kalamazoo. Turns out he has been able to use all his very warm clothes now! Allison got a new dress and scarves for interviewing. I hope she gets to wear that soon!  I outfitted Tom with all his favorite characters like Dr Who, Star Wars, Capitals and even got him a Western Michigan Hockey jersey(so he will be prepared as well when Scott goes off to school). Allison loves her new computer drawing pad. Scott is still enjoying his new Jeep(when it is home!). Of course the kids got new video games. I was not as interested in the high tech gifts that Tom thought I needed. I have been trying to get a cable hook up in the kitchen from him since we remodeled and Tom has not been interested. Instead, he bought me a Fire Tablet, but it only streams recorded shows. Not interested. I would prefer live shows, like the News when I am cooking or doing dishes. He also tried to locate a speaker system for my SiriusXM radio insert from my car(because my car radio is dying). I had hoped the speakers would be small enough to bring the system into work. They were huge and heavy. So that went back. I actually got brave and bought Tom a high tech toy at Home Depot. I picked up a security camera and flood light system for over the garage. It goes with our front door RING security system. He loved it and actually braved the cold and wind on Christmas day to install it over the lower garage. We have been having fun peaking in at the door and the driveway. A little freaky when the house talks to you though(it has a speaker system). Comes in handy though especially when we travel. Which is next on our schedule.

After all the gift opening and clean up, we started on dinner preparations. We also had to finish laundry and packing as we were headed off to Indy to visit Tom's brother Mark and wife Linda at their new house. Plus I decided to continue making cookies so I could drop some off to our neighbors. I had planned on bringing my mom over for opening her gifts and dinner, however, the staff at her apt did not recommend that. The stomach bug had been going around her building and they were on shut down. It was suggested that we not risk having Mom over in case she still had symptoms and to avoid spreading anything to Tom and the kids. I also did not have to catch it again!  We also decided not to invite friends or neighbors over since we had too many preparations to complete before our trip.

And I am glad we did not. Turns out our dinner ran a bit late since Tom bought a huge roast which took extra time to cook. So we had a late dinner and then packaged up all our Christmas cookies and cards for the neighbors and hit the road. I took the kids and Cookie and we drove to our farthest neighbor's house, the Plunketts. The family was all up and excited to have us visit, including their dog Ripley. She and Cookie had a great visit, and so did we, complete with hot cocoa. I felt like a caroling group. We did a quick drive by and mailbox drop for several other neighbors, and then we stopped into the Zarlenga household. I had to make sure they had our house key so they could take care of Pika while we were gone. We had decided to take Cookie with us on the road trip to Indy to meet her cousins.  Dan was the only one up-Gloria had started a new Nurse Management job and was already ill and in bed. She even had to start on blood pressure medication. What fun(been there, done that). 

So we headed home and to bed with our suitcases packed and ready to get up early in the morning for our road trip to Indy.

December 2017 catch up continues!

So I woke up with the stomach bug that was going around my workplace. About half of our residents and patients all had stomach issues. I had my flu shot two weeks before, but this was not the flu. I could not get out of bed on Monday and just slept all day and night. Thank goodness for Vernors ginger ale. That was all I could handle. On Tuesday I was feeling a bit better, but not enough to go to work. Instead I stayed in bed and finished my Christmas cards.

Since I was home with Allison, I talked her into pulling out her old Barbie doll collection, brushing their hair, snapping some photos, and posting them on our neighborhood web page. She was not interested in keeping the dolls, all 20, and thought Christmas would be a good time to do some spring cleaning. We got the idea when we saw someone else requesting Barbie dolls for a Christmas gift. No sooner did Allison post the dolls, we received 3 immediate requests and the next door neighbor ran over and rang the doorbell! Allison sold the whole bag to her for her granddaughter for $30. Good Christmas spending money!  And the neighbors all thought it seemed just like The Toy Story movie-a college kid selling their toys so someone else can play with them. The neighborhood loved it! Now we just have a few more piles of toys to go through and post on the neighborhood website! I am mentally getting ready to become an empty nester next year!

Allison also finished up with her dentist appointment, as well as Scott. Looks like both kids need to have their wisdom teeth out this summer. Allison then had her blood drawn to check her iron levels. We won't find out the results for another week.

So I was back to work on Weds but still feeling a bit off. Fortunately I was off on Friday. I spent my day finishing up my Christmas shopping. I also had a morning meeting with the Care Coordinator at my Mom's facility. Looks like she is doing well(except she keeps on taking the community tv remotes up to her room!). We actually discontinued her cable since she wasn't spending time watching tv in the apt. She sure could have used the cable service after being stuck in the apt for a week. Mostly she kept herself busy reading. After stopping in to check on Mom,  I met with her financial advisor for a year end review. Peter actually forgot about our appointment and was out on a lunch meeting, but able to hurry back to  meet with me. In the meantime I chatted with his secretary, swapping alcohol recipes! She makes her own Apple Cider Moonshine and gave me an extra bottle.  I was dropping off Tom's homemade gin as a small Christmas gift to Peter, but she got the GS cookies. Not sure who got the better deal!

On Saturday I volunteered to go into work. Big mistake. I was the only OT scheduled and my boss made sure my day was very busy. I had 12 patients to see and put in a 12 hr day. I think they were trying to play catch up since Monday was Christmas and no one planned on working that day. I was pretty pooped out when I got home! On Sunday, Christmas Eve, I spent the day wrapping all the gifts I bought on Friday.  In the evening, I picked up my Mom and we all went out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve. Afterwards we went to Christmas mass at the Chapel at the Charlestown Retirement Community Center. I was going to bring her home on Sunday and have a big dinner and open her Christmas gifts, but her facility was having the outbreak of the stomach bug as well. Turns out Mom had stomach issues that week as well as the rest of the residents throughout the building with the same symptoms. They put everyone on isolation during the week

and had them remain in their rooms. The staff had to bring their food up to all the apartments(quite a chore-3x/day). But they did not want the residents spreading any more germs in the dining room or while participating in activities in the community rooms. So instead everyone was confined to their apartments. Not an easy concept for my mom to understand, especially since she was feeling better. They also did not recommend bringing family home in case they were still contagious. I certainly did not want to see the kids or Tom catch the bug(it was not fun), so I did not risk bringing mom to our house. So instead we had a little Christmas the night before with dinner out and church. Surprisingly, they let her go to the Sr Center on Thursday for her weekly program. But again, I did not want to take the risk and see anyone else in the family catching the bug.

After Christmas mass we drove around in the rain looking at Christmas lights on the way back to mom's apartment. Unfortunately our tour was cut short when my newly installed windshield wiper flew off the car! Tom tried installing an off brand windshield wiper. Needless to say, he got me some high quality wipers instead for Christmas! Just in time for our upcoming trip to Indiana!

After we dropped Mom off, we headed home to enjoy watching "Christmas Story" and opened a few gifts from friends and relatives. Scott was especially excited to get a new Western Mich. coat from his Aunt Susan and Uncle John! He is definitely going to need it too!

I think mostly Scott was just happy to be done with school for awhile. He has been working so hard the past few weeks and all the tests, papers and projects were due this week. He had multiple tests in Physics and Math, wrote a paper after reading the 'Fences' book(movie came out last year), and had to turn in his toothpick bridge for the upcoming strength test in Physics. Allison built a winning design when she was in high school, so Scott is trying to follow in her footsteps. He got a small break from school on Friday when he spent the day delivering his food and gift donations to a needy family in our county along with a few other high school students. Scott got to drive and after they were done, the students were allowed to spend the rest of the day at the mall. Scott used his time to get lunch and do some shopping but then had to return to school before the last bell for dismissal.

When he got home, he and Allison took his Jeep into the auto dealership to see if another service station could tweak some of the issues we were still having including the buzzing in the back speaker and the malfunction in the sensor for blind spots. And Tom thinks the transmission needs an adjustment since the drive is a bit choppy for city streets. So the two took the car over before coming home and making dinner. It's nice to have the kids home!

Meanwhile, Tom was hoping for a few extra days off work before the Holiday week. Instead, he was called out to California on Thursday and returned late Friday night. Fortunately he had a good flight and a very successful visit.