End of X-Mas Season

We spent yesterday tearing down the Christmas decorations and tree. JP's house is now back in order!



We took Gramma and Grampa to Omaha so that they could stay there and get some sleep before their 5:45 am departure to the South. They treated us to a fun dinner and the boys swam in the pool.

 

Christmas 2012

Twas the night before Christmas... GP was up to a million all day Christmas Eve. He could take it no more, so he put himself to bed early and posted this note on his door. All he wanted was to go to sleep and wakeup to Christmas. Waking up before then would be unacceptable.

 

Yes, CP is the tallest in the family by at least an inch. Grampa is the shortest by at least an inch.

Video Game Cleanout

On our snow day, we cleaned out our video game library. In all, we had 80 games, an original XBox, the Wii, and a shopping bag full of controllers and cables. GameStop doesn't buy the old XBox or GameCube games, so we took the lot to The Gameroom - the coolest game store, ever. With the proceeds, we were able to get a hard drive for the XBox, four games, and a Kinnect. If you have an XBox - the Kinnect is a must!

1st Snow: Draco

This year, we made it all the way to December 20th before we had any snow. It set a record for Lincoln: 308 days without snow. The storm we had was named Draco - it was supposed to be insanely bad. So much so, that school was cancelled at 9pm the night before. The storm ended up just grazing us and leaving us with 5". Iowa felt Draco's fury and received a full foot with 50 mph wind. I had planned to take the day off to spend with JP, but instead, we just stayed in with the boys.

8th Grade Choir

The 8th Grade Choir had their end-o-semester performance. It's amazing to see how grown-up all the kids are now. It wasn't that long ago when we were watching the pre-school performance.

Raspberry Pi

After waiting for three months, my Raspberry Pi arrived. It is the hottest thing in computers since Apple came out with the Apple II. It's a full-blown computer on a single small circuit board that only costs $35. It has networking, 2 USB ports, stereo sound, and HDMI video. It boots Linux from an SD card is only a few seconds.
It was developed to be an easy means of introducing kids to computing. I need to get it installed and get my guys going with it.

Christmas Lights

Last year we spent more than a couple hours replacing too many of the 1500 pre-installed lightbulbs on our tree. This year we started doing the same and finally gave up. We hit Target and bought some new-fangled LED lights. They're finally not blue-white any more. What we thought would be a cruiser task ended up being a blister-making ordeal of removing the 15 strands of old lights. They were secured to each and every branch with twisty ties, wire, and clips. Libby helped us the entire time.

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

We made our annual trek over the river and thru the woods to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. The feast was held at JP's cousin's house. I think there were 17 total - it brought back memories of little house in IL. One of the hams was parked in front of CP - he ate at least 2.5 lbs of it himself.

No trip to IL is complete without a side trip to see our friends in Woodstock.

Rocksmiths!

CP has really taken off learning to play the bass with the greatest XBox game ever created: Rocksmith (official site). His friend, my neighbor, and I are learning, as well. To increase interest with the kids, we traded in our pretty Laguna 6-string for a killer Kirk Hammett model with skulls and crossbones inlaid in the fretboard. Rock and Roll!!!

Aunt Sue

Aunt Sue passed away - we will miss her. The boys remember her for the fun dollar store gifts she would get for them. Priceless treasures.

Walter the Cat is the most lovable cat we know.

Red & Blue

Fall in NE means only one thing: FOOTBALL!!! That means pizza, beer, and friends every Saturday.
This year we've enjoyed playing in the Big-10. JP always has to stir the pot.

 

Deck Stain

We took advantage of a beautiful fall weekend to stain the deck before snow and ice cover it. Amazing what $50 of stain can do.

Headlight replacement

After only two years, I lost a headlight on my Subie. No big deal, right? Wrong. It took 90 minutes to change. Good thing it was time to install snow tires, anyway.
In contrast, we changed out JP's headlight in the Wal-Mart parking lot in the dark in less than 5 minutes.

Fall Firepits

 We had the neighbors' firepit going at least once a week thru the fall. Nothing better than enjoying good company and crisp fall nights.

 

Exploding Cat Head

Our new cat usually moves at the speed of the house and senate, but sometimes, she can get excited with a piece of yarn.

Fall Colors

We had one of the driest summers on record in 2012. It gave us the most beautiful fall colors (and very hot jalepenos). We finally have what some would consider to be trees in the neighborhood! By the time the boys graduate from H.S., we will have a tree-lined street.

 

Tonsilectomy

We finally had GP's tonsils (and adenoids) removed, against our GP's advice. The recovery was painful, but after a week and losing 12 pounds, GP was back on his feet and sleeping thru the night without snoring. He has now gone a couple months without a sore throat, too. Much better.

 

Vegas!

Our neighbor, CB, turned 40 this year, so his wife planned a surprise party for him in Las Vegas. The animals know that when the suitcases come out, they are in for a bad time. They all tried to stow away in the hang-up bag.

In all, there were eleven of us, including a cripple in a wheelchair that we had to push all over the strip.