The week before Christmas....

 

A season to be grateful.  We are caught up in the full hustle and bustle of the winter season with the solstice upon us.  Merrick and Ella bookend the week with concerts and Grace and I jingled some bells at for a cause.  The cookies were made and iced with care, the best they have ever done to be fair.  We spent some time in Oshkosh for a B-ball tourney and Grace came out smiling and Sophia says she doesn't have a new boyfriend, but we assume she is lying.  Merrick will graduate to a new belt this week in karate and we are all getting excited for the pending vacay!

Tunes and timestamps

The Concert season has begun.  Grace had a massive support turn out with five grandparents in the audience, pretty good showing and much appreciated all the travel it took to get everyone there.  She played with two bands, the 6th grade band and the Jazz band.  She is loving the trumpet and enjoying the songs.  Ella had a couple pretty big rites of passage as well, getting a job and a her drivers temps.  She is having fun working in the bakery and trying to punch the clock and fit everything into a now very busy schedule. 

Oh, Tannenbaum

Its the second week of deer camp and with some hunting out of the way on Friday, Saturday was wide open to hit the woods for in search of the perfect tree.  There were squat ones and tall ones, purple, pink and black.  The place had a full size bus come in for a cut your own bonanza.  It was wall to wall people without a saw to spare.  With multiple rolling hills to traverse in search of the perfect tree we found a saw before Cheryl.  That is correct, our tree's name was Cheryl.  It said so right on the label.  We cut her down and hoofed her back over the hills and through the traffic and got her home before the first winter storm hit.  Saturday night was spent transforming the house into a winter wonderland of all things Christmas.  The outdoor lights are on hold, with only the ground effects lit up.  Too much snow in the gutters and blowing wind to trim the eaves.  But more weekends will come before the fat man so there is still time...although not much.