'Tis the Season!

Christmas break is here! Jenna finished her finals Wednesday and is home for the holidays, and the boys finished their mid-term exams by Thursday. The last three weeks have just been a build up to this climax. Now that break is here we have all the rush leading up to Christmas next Sunday.

A GAGGLE OF GIRLS
Saturday of last weekend (the 10th) Jenna brought a gaggle of girls home from school. Twelve girls in all. She had invited them out to give everyone a diversion from studying. They got here around 1:00 and the last of them left by 7:00. They watched movies, played games, made crafts, and ate. The boys and I showed our faces for the food and then retreated upstairs to their room. Vicki and I were very impressed with all of Jenna’s friends (three of whom we had met before).

Speaking of friends, later in the afternoon when about half of the girls had left the remaining group was sitting in the kitchen decorating cookies. Vicki was also there. One of Jenna’s friends, watching Vicki and Jenna interact, interrupted and said, “You two are best friends, aren’t you?” Without missing a beat Jenna replied, “Oh yes, I tell her everything.” This affirmation was special for Vicki, I know.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Last Saturday was also Vicki’s birthday. With all of the excitement, we didn’t celebrate on the day. She and I enjoyed dinner at Colorado Grill in White House the night before, and we all went out as a family (minus Jenna) to IHOP at the new Love’s Truck Stop in White House after church on Sunday.

CHOIR
I think I have mentioned before that Vicki joined the Springfield Baptist Gospel Choir. This choir is open to anyone to join. They practice on Wednesday afternoons for an hour, but during the Christmas season they sing at the local nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Last Sunday evening, the boys and I went with Vicki to Springfield Baptist Church as all of their musical groups were giving a Christmas performance that night. It was fun to hear all the Christmas music and everyone did a really good job. I had to laugh because Vicki is the youngest member of her choir by at least 30 years. She’s also one of the tallest.

BASKETBALL
Ben’s basketball season is well under way. He’s getting a lot of playing time in the junior varsity games and even a little time on the court in the varsity games. We are seeing him get better with every game. It’s a lot of fun to watch him play which is a good thing because the ball schedule is as busy as ever during the break.

CATCHY
Our librarian at school teaches an 8th grade art class. She had Nate in class this past semester. She caught me the other day and asked me if we’d heard some expression that was strange to me. (The expression actually sounded like gibberish to me when she first said it.)

It turns out that one day in class she was having the students show off their work. Nate, amazed at something one of his classmates had drawn exclaimed for all to hear, “Oh, dang! [short pause] Wow!” Well, this caught on within the class. Any time something sufficiently amazing was experienced someone would call for Nate to give his “Oh dang wow!” to it. I told Nate that if he ever visited China he could give that as his name.

ROGUE ONE
We went to see Rogue One, the first of the Star Wars anthology movies, last night. (Ben saw it with friends the day before and was at a Christmas party while we were at the movie.) I must say, well done. I would love to see that movie back to back with Star Wars: A New Hope now.

WHO IS MESSING WITH THE THERMOSTAT?
For years, no one ever touched the thermostat in our house. Oh we would adjust it when shifting from A/C to heat and back, but once set, it was generally left alone. Not so this year. Ben has discovered how to use it, and when the cooler weather hit a few weeks ago we kept finding ourselves freezing in our own house.

I totally get it. We have one unit that heats and cools this two story house that was built in 1908. Even though we have replaced almost all the windows and insulated walls, floors, and ceilings, this house does not heat and cool evenly. Naturally, the boys’ room upstairs is going to be warmer than the downstairs. Heat rises. But even down stairs we see big differences in temperature. We set the thermostat at 70° or 71° just to keep the majority of the rooms at 68°. Even so, Jenna’s room is struggling to stay at 65°. While all this is going on the boys’ room is a toasty 75°. It is no wonder I noticed the other day that their A/C was running when it was 17° outside.

Of course, things are never consistent here in Tennessee. Early last week we enjoyed highs in the teens. By yesterday those highs had climbed to near 70°. It felt like spring when we were out Christmas shopping after the movie last night. Several stores at the Indian Lake Shopping Center had their doors propped open. After we got home a cold front blew through. We woke up to a dusting of snow. Today’s high will be in the 20’s. Who knows, by Christmas day we may be back to short sleeve weather.

Joe