Spring in December

The kids, Nate especially, are counting down the days until Christmas Break. Just 7½ days to go!

It’s hard to believe this is December. Not so much because time flies by, but because it’s so warm. Most days all you need is a light jacket, if that. Today, for instance, has brought rain. To look out the window you’d think it’s cold and gray, but step outside and it’s about 60°. Makes it sort of hard to dream of a white Christmas.

CHRISTMAS PARADE. Cross Plains held it’s annual Christmas Parade a week ago yesterday (the 1st). Our current weather trend made this most pleasant.

There were a couple of neat changes this year. First, they reversed the course of the parade route making the wait for it to get to the four-way stop shorter. And then they decided to have the parade at night this year. This allowed for a lot of neat expressions of lighting creativity. I certainly enjoyed it.

SICK NATE. Nate woke up early Wednesday morning sick at his stomach. He didn’t make it to school that day. He really didn’t make it too far from his bucket.

Nate really is one of the most pleasant kids to be around, even when he’s sick. After the kids and I left Vicki thought she heard noise coming from the living room. When she went in there to check it out she found Nate humming Christmas carols to himself. He wanted to keep himself in the holiday spirit.

The stomach bug has been going around, but fortunately the rest of us didn’t catch it.

BASKETBALL PRACTICE. Upward Basketball practice has started. Ben practices on Thursday evenings and Nate on Fridays (they are in two age divisions and thus on two different teams). Jenna has aged out of Upward ball.

I really like both boys’ coaches. I’ve seen Ben’s coach around for years and thought he would be a good coach to play for. We also know Nate’s coaches (a husband and wife) as their daughter and Jenna played on the same team last year.

VICKI’S BIRTHDAY. Vicki’s birthday is actually tomorrow, but she and I celebrated Friday. I had an eye appointment at Vanderbilt and an extra vacation day so we made a day of it. We headed out about 10:00, did some Christmas shopping, ate at the Korea House restaurant (a favorite of ours), got my eyes checked, and did some more shopping before heading home. It’s always nice to enjoy a day with Vicki.

We also went out to eat as a family to the Catfish House in Springfield last night.

Joe