merry christmas

We fit 3 Christmases and 2 birthdays within 3 days.

We traveled up to the Cabin last Saturday (22nd) without Abby. It's difficult for Abby to ask for time off in December so she had to stay home and work Sunday. Jeff and I drove 2 cars and left one in Appleton for the next day. Craig and Clark drove up the night before. Kristin, Carlo, Bella and Lucy had already arrived. It was very warm out that day, near 40° and that caused a lot of fog. Not optimal driving conditions. Meg, William, Bryce, Logan, Mia and Cooper got in around suppertime and their drive wasn't too enjoyable because of the weather. But all 19 of us made it and moved into our assigned rooms.

Sunday morning, Mom arranged for us to all go to brunch for Dad's 75th birthday. (His birthday's really the day after Christmas, but we all couldn't stay that long.) The weather again was far from cooperative. It was pouring rain in the morning and as the day went on, the temperature fell, so the precipitation changed to sleet then snow. And it was terribly windy! We had the place to ourselves when we first arrived at the restaurant. We all enjoyed a delicious buffet and watched the snow continue to fall. Made it home to watch the miserable Packer game. Meg and William enjoyed a better end result with the Colts.

Then Jeff and I trekked to Appleton for Christmas at Maggie's at 3pm. Seemed OK driving there, just a little slower to be careful with the snow. Maggie and Tom hosted 25 in their cozy household and Maggie had the spread out! It's so nice to see everybody: Tony & Katie's first Christmas together, listen to Kayleigh's college experiences, relate with Debbie and Vicki, ... From there, Jeff left to pick up Abby after work in Milwaukee to bring her back up north while I left and went directly back up north. Boy was I nervous driving! The snow was blowing so hard that I couldn't tell where the edge of the road was! If there was a motel in Black Creek, Paige, Bryn and I would've checked in! It did seem to let up a bit after Black Creek, but my typical drive time was doubled.

Christmas Eve day is a day of anticipation. The kids were bouncing off the walls and needed to burn some energy. We took them outside to sled and ice skate. The ice was still soft from the warm temperatures and a bit slushy near the edges, but well worth it to get the kids outside.


We decided to begin opening presents on Christmas Eve at 4pm - especially so the little ones (Mia, Cooper, Bella and Lucy are all 2yrs old or younger) could get through theirs before they got too tired. Food preparation wasn't complete quite on schedule so we began opening at 5pm. I'm amazed at the kid's patience as we took the time to watch each present be opened. We had to take two breaks to eat and to put kids to bed, and we finally finished up about 10pm. While the adults were cleaning up the last remnants of wrapping paper, the 10 foot Frazier Fir toppled directly into the living room! Ornaments crashed and it landed with a thud! Luckily, nobody was in the room to get hurt. Mom was quite sad about losing ornaments and Dad was quite beside himself that his perfect tree was damaged: a definite flat spot on one side. It was a mess with the holder spilling water all over, but it was cleaned up by 11 and we all got into bed so Santa could come.

The kids were up early Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought. Clark was especially excited to open up his restaurant, The Hand, today. Craig bought him a variety of restaurant supply items including a neon ORDER sign, order pad, straws, etc. And Logan bought Clark a mini popcorn wagon so that was included into The Hand's menu. Logan worked hard with Clark the grand opening of The Hand. Jeff, I and the girls drove into Appleton again for the afternoon to wish Jeff's Dad and Judy happy holidays. Debbie and her family were there too. Driving conditions were back to normal, thankfully. When we returned, we dined at The Hand and everyone joined in to play Paige's Are You Smarter than A Fifth Grader? game.

Today, we packed up to leave and had Craig open his birthday presents. (His birthday's actually the 29th.) It's always sad to leave, but it'll be nice to have a uninterrupted night's sleep. And it sure was fun with all the kids.

nothin but snow

Abby and Bryn are at a Student Council Christmas Party so I have time to blog ON TIME this week.


Again, a very eventful week for the Saunders. As I mentioned Monday, Paige was rewarded with getting her braces earlier than expected. After Jeff and I went over our financial obligations with the orthodontist, he offered to put the spacers in immediately while we were there, and the receptionist noticed an opening Thursday to put on her braces. Typically the spacers are in for a week, so Paige was really lucky. Paige's appointment Thursday was in the morning, but she opted not to return to school that day. She looks great and is keeping great care of them!


Tuesday Milwaukee was threatened with an ice storm, so most school in the area closed for a snow day. Abby was already in the shower before we caught the announcement on TV. Oh well. She just rolled back into bed in her sweats and a towel on her head. Jeff and I got in to work reasonably on time. But the ice didn't seem to materialize as forecast - it just kept snowing! And it was such a beautiful snow: giant flakes that fell all day. Bryn and Paige had a great time in it as you can see. Abby spent the day with Kendal. Inside. Party poopers!


And all week long, Bryn and Abby were at Band Revue rehearsals til 9:30 at night. Having the snow day didn't help. Jeff and I got to see the production twice over the weekend: on Friday evening with my parents and my sister, Kristin, then again on Sunday afternoon with Jeff's mom and sister, Terry. Lucky I had my iPhone to check the Packer game at intermission! No worries. Abby's boyfriend, Alex, announced the score of the Packer game as he "died" on stage. While the production itself is kind of a hodgepodge of different talents, it's so endearing seeing the kids you know perform. This year, Abby danced a swing dance with Alex and then a salsa dance - not with Alex. Bryn played her trombone throughout the entire production with the Jazz Band.


I gave my Mom her Christmas present early. On Saturday, I took her to the Pabst Mansion (link at right). Dad and Jeff got to go too. This time of year the Mansion's all decorated for Christmas and it's absolutely beautiful. Mom wanted to go last year when I hosted Christmas at my house, but it just gets too much to organize with my entire family in town. So when she said they'd like to come down for Band Revue, the timing couldn't have been better. And of course it snowed another 4 inches which made it even prettier. And us 4 got to enjoy it just as adults. Ahhhh.

happy days are here again

After much talking, my co-worker, Kevin, and I were able to convince Mike to stay at Norman Design. As I wrote in my last entry, Mike quit to take a web programming job elsewhere. Kevin and I let Mike know how valuable his web expertise is to Norman Design and how we could - and wanted - to let him concentrate in that area. John (owner) gave it his all as well. So yeah!


Paige has to cook 10 dishes at home for her FACE (Family and Consumer Ed) class. She missed a key ingredient in this very burnt batch of Easy Mac! Almost started a fire in our microwave!!! And yes, Paige wants to be a chef.


Last Tuesday we received an unexpected visitor into our home, Flat Logan. Now we all like Flat Logan, but we'd really rather have Real Logan come visit. Flat Logan is Logan's classroom project where we have to take pictures of Flat Logan doing stuff with us. She's been out in the snow, to our new McDonald's, in Abby's messy room and playing frisbee with Theo. We have to get her back soon though.

I went Christmas shopping Tuesday night as all the kids had something to do. I wanted to pick out Christmas cards at Hallmark (Abby was working), but Abby said we can't have regular Christmas cards and she had an idea for our family photo. I didn't have to Photoshop a new head on myself this year, but it did take 7 pictures for me to have my eyes open. I thought that was fairly painless for everyone. Jeff put them in the mail today! (Of course, I'm not going to post this picture!)

Paige and I have had a lot of time alone with her sisters both in Band Revue at the High School this year. Rehearsals are now daily.


Paige and I baked our first Christmas cookies on Sunday while watching the Packer Game. We made peanut butter kisses. Jeff left our house at 6:30am for the game. He went with his same college friends that he goes hunting with. Lucky St. Nick brought Jeff a new warm scarf, earmuffs and gloves! It was cold!

I left Paige alone while I attended Bryn's UWAY winter concert down at UWM. (Jeff was on his way back from the Packer game and Abby had her work Christmas party.) Their concerts are so pretty to listen to. All the kids play at such a high level and the concert hall has great acoustics. I put a new link at the right about the ensemble.

Today (Monday) Bryn and Paige both had orthodontist appointments at 8am. Bryn's teeth looked perfect, so the removal date of Dec 27th is on! And Jeff and I were both invited to sit down and discuss Paige's future orthodonture ($$$$$) and asked to sign on the bottom line. Paige is equally excited about getting her braces ON. Paige got 7 spacers inserted to make room for bands around her molars and she'll be back in the chair this Thursday to get her braces!!! She says she's getting red and green for Christmas.

Bryn was honored at the Village's School Board meeting tonight for her performance in Cross Country this past fall. The athletic director introduced all the outstanding fall athletes.

back to the old routine

Back to a full week of school and work for all of us.

Abby visited the dentist Monday where I was invited in to be informed that Abby should have her wisdom teeth pulled before she goes off to college. Abby has only 3 wisdom teeth, like I did (my Dad, on the other hand, had only 1 – the one I was missing!).

Tuesday night Abby and Dana baked 12 dozen sugar cookies for our continuing Girl Scout Gold Award project with the nursing home. Of course, I ordered the pre-cut cookies from Market Day so we literally only had to bake them. I HATE rolling out and cutting cookies! Abby invited Dana to come early so Abby could get to the High School basketball game.

Jeff studied hard the past few weeks and it paid off! He passed his "Green Building" test on Wednesday so now (as he explained to the girls) gets to add more letters after his name on his business card (LEED), link at left. It's attractive to many clients nowadays.

Bryn finally got her first road session with the driving school on Thursday. The instructor commented that Bryn was good at turns, but she needs to center herself better on the road. Bryn said her teacher was eating a smelly tuna sandwich during the lesson. :( I went to bed by 9 again. Caught the cold that's been going through our house.

Friday night all the girls had social plans: Paige went to the local Teen Center, Bryn and Abby went bowling with their respective groups of friends. So Jeff and I decided to go get our Christmas tree! The weather was a little chilly, but we kept hearing what was coming so we wanted to get it done! We came home and watched "Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream Home" - an old movie that I'd never get to watch with the kids home. I also received a call from John, my boss, that one of the two full-time guys just gave his notice. Bummer. When your company only consists of 4 people, losing one is a big deal. He'll be hard to replace - we really relied on his technical expertise.

Abby, Dana and I went off to host our 3rd installment of bringing Brownies to the nursing home Saturday morning. Again, it went great! Abby and Dana hosted 20 little Brownie girl scouts to decorate cookies and paint Christmas tree ornaments with residents. Abby and Dana were kept hopping distributing frosting, sprinkles then switching to paint and cleaning it all up! All within an hour and a half!


The nasty weather started at about noon, so Paige and I got out to the grocery store right away so we could get back! We also stopped at Blockbuster to get some Christmas movies to watch while we decorated the tree. The sleet began about 5pm. We snugged in and watched Deck the Halls, then The Polar Express while snacking on popcorn and peppermint hot chocolate.

Today I chaperoned a shopping trip for 4H as our club is sponsoring a family for Christmas. We had 4 groups of 4 kids each that we took to WalMart and let them spend $30 per group being assigned to boy clothing, boy toys, girl toys or girl clothing. We met back at someone's house and wrapped everything up for presentation next Sunday. Then I cooked chicken & dumplings - just seemed like the right weather for it. Jeff was a nice guy and picked the chicken from the bones while I got to go to the Y. He also put up our outdoor lights. :)

NEWSFLASH: Tomorrow is Alex's (Abby's boyfriend) birthday!!! It's being treated like a national holiday at our house! Update next week.