The dust has settled and it feels like it should be Feb. because of all we have squeezed into the last few weeks. Christmas break was a true break this year because IWU let everyone have the week between Christmas and New Years off. We took off one day early to pick up my Grandma and take her to my Mom's place to have Christmas in Grand Rapids. We had a good visit with my brother, sister, mom, and my sisters boyfriend the weekend before Christmas. It was fun to visit my brother at his AT&T store to see were he works. All of us also were able to get together with my dad and have a late desert at TGI Fridays. Its been about 3 years since all of us have been together. On that Sun morning we had our family Christmas with my Mom. I was really excited because all of us kids and my grandma went in on a gift for my mom to get her a nice digital camera that she has been really wanting. We ate a huge breakfast and had a good time before Adela, my grandma and I had to leave. And we got out of town just in time. We left during a snow storm and I was not sure if we would get home if the weather continued to be that bad, but as soon as I got on the other side of Grand Rapids the snow stopped and the sun was out. Thats MI weather for you.

On Christmas Eve we had to be at Church at 4pm to rehearse for the service. Adela and I were playing on the worship team. Our only rehearsal was a run through right before the service so I was a little concerned, however, everything went great and again we pulled it together at the last min. We had our traditional McDonalds and watch "A Muppet Christmas Carol." On Christmas we had Adela's mom, brother, and her mom's husband Lou over for lunch. It was a beautiful day here and we had a great meal with a ham that Adela and her brother put together. Her family really knows how to cook.

The day after Christmas we took my grandma to her nephews in Noblesville because she was going to visit with him for a few days before going home. We left there to meet up with Allen and Randi to drive to FL. Yep we went to FL for 5 days. We drove to St. Augustine to stay at a resort at the World Golf Village that is a part of our vacation club. Allen and I golfed while the girls relaxed and shopped. We played 2 really nice courses and one ok course. One of the courses was the one at the resort called Slammer and Squire, a Sam Sneed course. It was very nice and well maintained. Some of the best fairways I have seen, also probably the most I have ever paid to golf. We walked around St. Augustine one night and had dinner right on the water at a great seafood place. St. Augustine is considered the oldest city in America with a lot of history, so it was interesting to walk around the historic district. The resort was really nice and clean and very quite. We had a suite that had a kitchen so we cooked a few of our meals. One night we found a local place in the middle of nowhere called the Outback Crab Shack. This was the place for some local atmosphere and local seafood. Adela and I split the 1/2 fried platter that could have fed 4 people. We spent New Years Eve in Jacksonville because our flight left early on the 1st. We flew back into Indy and was welcomed by snow. What made it better was that Luke and Jamie were picking us up at the airport and we were going to have lunch with them. It was fun to see them again and play with their kids.

So its back to work and back to school for me next week. April cannot come soon enough. lol

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I have a new addition to my light show this year with our Christmas Lights. I bought a box that will synchronize your Christmas lights to Christmas music. Yes that is correct all of our lights now flash. Its quite the spectacle. The box separates the lights into 6 different zones and has 20 songs built in that it rotates. It has some rock n roll Christmas and Transsiberean Christmas songs. Very cool. I posted a video of one of the songs. I will try to do a few more videos.

My brother, my dad and I went to our first NFL game together this past Thanksgiving Day to see the Detroit Lions play the Green Bay Packers. WOW, what a great experience. My brother is a Lions fan and my dad and I are Packer fans. It was crazy to see how many Packer fans there were. I would say there was about 25,000 Packer fans there, and by the end of the game so many Lions fans had left that there were more Packer fans there then Lions fans. It was really cool to see Brett Farve play a game, and not to mention he had an amazing day. We got lucky and were sitting in a cluster of Packer fans who had drove from Wis. to see the game. To all of you Lions fans out there I will have to say that you have the lamest fight/victory song I have ever heard. It was also a little irritating how they were celebrating every first down like it was a big accomplishment or something. Well at least they stopped doing that after they were loosing. Food Filed is an awesome stadium, there were not many bad seats in the house. Our seats were pretty good, but man were they expensive, not to mention the $6 cokes and $4 popcorns. But that is what the NFL as come to. Instead of paying those prices we got there early around 9:30am to eat at Chelies Chile Bar. It is Chris Chelios' place for all of you hockey fans out there. They had some of the best chile I have ever had. So my day was something like this: Leave Goshen at 6am arrive in Detroit at 9:30am, watch game, leave Detroit at 4:30pm and get back to Goshen at 8pm then proceed to eat Thanksgiving leftovers Check out the photos from the game.

Last week we had to say good-bye to our cat Spike. His health had been failing and he was no longer eating. Spike has been in my family since I was 14 years old, and he has lived with Adela and I for the last 4 years. He was 13 almost 14 which is pretty old for a cat, but it was no less sad. Many times this week I keep thinking I hear him or that he is going to follow me down stairs. Its kinda messed with our routine. I think after the new year we will consider getting a new kitten. We are pretty busy but a cat is about out pace of life right now. A dog would be way too much work and time that we just don't have.
Thanks Spike for the companionship, laying on our laps, giving us laughs with your personality, and for choosing to only yack on our 1 rug