A blast from our past paid us a visit Monday. Dr. Puchner, the girls' piano teacher, came over to practice with Bryn for her Concerto Competition piece for UWAY. Bryn hired Dr. Puchner to accompany her on the piano. Dr. Puchner is always happy to oblige and is very good working with Bryn through the tempo changes. The Competition was scheduled for Tuesday night, but Milwaukee got dumped on again with snow, so it's now postponed until this coming Tuesday.

Bryn began nightly Band Revue rehearsals Wednesday and they'll continue until the first performance this coming Thursday afternoon. Many students have complained that the show is not as far along as it should be by now. Not sure if that's jitters or for real. Bryn has made a theme suggestion for next year and maybe having more student involvement early on will help the kids feel more in control for next year.

I went to Zumba class at the Y for the first time in over a month. I like the class, but it was tough not doing those moves for so long! I was hoping to be ready to go with Abby when she comes home from college this week.

Friday my 3 good Falls friends and I scheduled a lunch date. Through the years, we'd have lunch maybe 4-5 times during the schoolyear. That has sadly dwindled down to once a year mostly because of job changes. But we had 3 hours of chit-chatting and it was great!

Jeff's not feeling too well. He came home early from work on both Thursday and Friday and slept. We had a commitment to work the concession stand at the high school basketball game Friday night, and Jeff reluctantly stayed home. He wanted to get out and socialize, but his sniffling and sneezing weren't a good combination with serving food. There were still 4 of us altogether working the stand, and it was fun. Jeff's still going through the kleenex! Not to worry, I made him chicken & dumplings for dinner tonight and we've been running the cure-all steamer at night.

I got both Paige and Bryn out Christmas shopping this weekend and that is nice to have done. Jeff took over Christmas card duty and got those all signed and sealed and in the mailbox. And I finally finished up decorating the tree that's been naked in our living room for over a week.

Last night our neighbor across the street invited us to a surprise 50th birthday party for his wife. We had a great time mingling with the neighbors and their family. Meanwhile, Bryn went to mass with her confirmation class which concluded with a pizza party and Paige played Rummy Royal at a friend's.

The Band Revue basket that I've organized is coming together! Remember, the theme is James Bond... I picked up the donated tux rental on Friday, donated aviator sunglasses and Bond Girl perfume on Saturday. Other items were all purchased by families and donated to our basket including: James Bond Monopoly game, 3 James Bond movie DVDs, ice bucket, martini glasses and martini shaker, Sharper Image gift card, The Safe House restaurant gift card and Marcus Cinemas gift card. Nice, huh?