Parting the Water: December 2010

December was rather busy for us this year. Technically the picture below was from Thanksgiving, but if you add in Blake's family, my sister and her husband, the three little girls that we had during Christmas, and Jon's mom, and you would might be able to visualize what Christmas day lunch was like.

Karen started the Christmas season with a trip to Chicago with our friend Pam to get coffee and to do some shopping. They stopped at the Christmas Market and bought a few ornaments. I got to go pheasant hunting with Blake and the boys the first weekend of the month. That story was told in an earlier post. The real story, however, starts with the picture below. Karen, Clarice, Adelphia and Elizabeth went to the Nutcracker at Fort Wayne on December 10^th. Elizabeth was thrilled by the opportunity to dress up and go to the ballet.

On Saturday the 11^th Clarice and Jon took Skyler and Trae to Chicago to see the Christmas Carole play at the Goodman. Karen and I were invited along as well. We had discussed several options for going which included taking the South Shore out of South Bend. But in the end we decided to just drive up in Clarice and Jon’s truck.

Views of the Chicago River.

Grandma with two Grandsons

The other thing we planned to do in Chicago was to go the German Christmas Market which is an open air market in Daily Plaza. The weather was sort of messy that day; it started raining about the middle of the day while we were at lunch. We went to the Christmas Market for a while but because it was still pretty crowded and the weather was lousy we headed to the theater early.

Here we are waiting for the doors to open for the play. At least it was warm and dry.

The stage set was very good with lots of large sets moved onto stage for various scenes.

The play was well done and as hope Trae and Skyler enjoyed the experience. There were a few scenes that made everyone jump. They did a great job on the ghosts.

We went to a couple of Christmas parties near the middle to end of December some at work and some related to Church groups We even went Christmas Caroling with a group of folks from Church one cold winter’s night.

Deer season ended on December 19^th. I did not get a deer this year, but I enjoyed the time in the woods anyway.

On December 20^th I had surgery to repair some long time damage and deterioration on my right shoulder. I have to have my right arm restrained for several weeks and have 20 weeks of therapy ahead of me, but it is the off season so to speak and therefore I will only miss the ice fishing season this year.

One of the young couples from Church was planning to take a tropical trip for their 10^th anniversary. Karen and I volunteered to have their three little girls for Christmas so their uncle dropped off the girls on Christmas Eve. Clarice and Jon and Jon’s mother came over and helped us decorate our tree after the girls went to bed. In the morning they were surprised to see our tree decorated and presents for them as well. We had a very active Christmas day.

We did a big Christmas dinner in the early afternoon. Blake, Apryl, and the boys, my brother Ron, Judy and Len, Karen’s mom, my mom, Jon, Clarice, Jon’s mom, three little girls and a young man from Church were all there most of the day. We cooked most of the meal at our place but had the meal next door at mom’s since we had 17 and our place will not easily accommodate that many at a time. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Our young friends on the tropical vacation got hung up with all of the blizzards and flight cancellations on their way back and had to spend Saturday night in the air port terminal in Memphis. They finally got back here about 6:30 Sunday night. Their girls were glad to see them.

On the 26^th we had the Christmas gathering for our family at Karen’s mom’s place. All three our kids and their families were there for a meal and to exchange gifts. It was a very pleasant evening.

Here is Jon enjoying the toys the boys were getting.

Carolyn overseeing the operation and making sure everyone was behaving themselves.

Trae and Skyler in their new sweat shirts.

Apryl and Blake watching the kids open gifts.

Since I had a bum shoulder I got assigned granddaughter duty. Elisea and I got to open her gifts and once we got to the second gift she had it pretty well figured out and she helped me open my gifts too.