I finished up my temp assignment at Readers Digest on December 22nd. That day was the last day the building was open before the entire company shut down over Christmas break, so I had kind of a lonely and therefore quiet last day. I'm really glad I pushed to work 3 days/week during the month of December so I could be more available to get ready for the holidays and for our college kids returning home.

Bryn was done December 8th, so she was home quite a bit before her friends were. Abby came home on the 21st. Her finals were later and she wanted to stay to help celebrate one of her roommates leaving for an internship in Minneapolis 2nd semester.

When Paige finished her final half-day on December 23rd, we headed up to Appleton to celebrate Christmas with Jeff's family. It was a picture-perfect White Christmas! Snow fell as we mingled with the Saunders, Stanleys and Hintzs that afternoon at Maggie and Tom's. We also visited Richard in Menasha and were treated to a fish fry near his home.

On Christmas Eve we gathered with my family first for an amazing service at Elmbrook, then over to Kristin's to open presents. We went to a later church service because Paige had to work, and that made for a long night. Bella and Lucy were tired, but managed to stay awake and help everybody tear open their gifts. Bella presented many gifts to Kristin, the favorite being some cardboard packing Bella decorated that Kristin was to wear like a sandwich board!

Abby left for her annual TCX conference in Minneapolis on the 28th. It's a leadership conference with the Campus Crusade for Christ she's involved with at UW-L. She was able to shadow the Events Planner which counts toward her internship credits for her Communications major. Hard to believe, but Abby will graduate in May! We've reserved our hotels rooms already!


And Bryn left for the Rose Bowl in sunny California the next day (29th). I drove her and her 3 friends down to Chicago to catch the Amtrak that would chug them (over 40 hours) all the way to Los Angeles. I picked them back up yesterday (Jan 5). Sounds like they had a terrific time and adventured to the beach and Santa Monica Pier for the Badger Pep Rally on Dec 31, to Sunset Boulevard for a fancy dinner on New Years Day and finally to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl game on the 2nd. The weather was fabulous the entire time. I'm still drooling to see pictures!

Jeff came with me to on the 29th to Chicago and after we got the kids off safely, we drove over to Craig's and wished him a Happy Birthday. He introduced us to his local hangout where we bought him dinner. Glad we got to do that especially since Craig's son, Clark, was gone to DisneyWorld that week.

Back in Wisconsin, Paige hosted a New Years Eve sleepover complete with frozen pizza and chocolate cream pie. Jeff and I headed to the theatre and wound up sitting in the front row because it was so crowded! And spent New Years Day at the Seeds watching the Packers game.

Abby's been picking up lots of hours at Hallmark over her break. Even taking some of Paige's hours so she can get to her softball practices that are now starting up. We had to deliver Bryn back to Carroll after a home-cooked dinner last night so she could get up bright and early for track practice this morning. Practice had started the beginning of the week.

I'm currently working from home for the beginning of my next temp assignment which is redesigning all the literature for Hatco, a foodservice equipment company. Next week, I'll be showing them my new designs for their 5 catalogs! Then we'll see where it goes from there. After this design stage, I'm really not equipped to do the further production work at home...

2011 Christmas Card

Another digital ecard by Smilebox

As many of you may have already seen on Facebook, we finally got our new furniture for the basement! Obviously we got the measurements right, as the delivery down the stairs took all of 10 minutes. And it looks and feels beautiful! I can't believe how great it looks with the rug! Bryn and Paige took full advantage of its comforts last night taking the basement space back.

Other even bigger news is Bryn's score to go to the Rose Bowl. One of her good friends, a UW student (obviously), purchased 4 tickets hoping she could get a group to go and made it happen. Her father used his frequent-stayer points to reserve them a hotel. We parents all talked about how to get them out there in a safe, affordable manner and yesterday we all purchased their Amtrak tickets from Chicago to LA. When I have time to surf, I've been researching how the kids can get around LA and what to do.

Jeff and I attended Paige's Junior Conference yesterday with her and her guidance counselor. This is part of a new plan by the high school to help kids get where they want to go after graduation by analyzing if they're on track with their grades, activities, college tours and applications. After hearing that Paige was interested in studying business, the counselor urged her to sign up for a UW-Whitewater visit and explore the different fields within business.

Abby was supposed to come home last weekend with all 6 of her roommates as they continue their "Hometown Tour." Their senior year is upon them so they're making the most of their last year together by scheduling visits to each roommate's hometown sometime during the schoolyear. With it being December (holidays, finals, etc.), only 1 roommate was available to come on Abby's designated "Milwaukee" weekend, so they decided to postpone. Paige was none too happy. Rescheduled date is still to be determined.

Jeff got to see the Pack go 13-0 last Sunday against the Raiders. His college buddies always go to one Packer game each year and this was it. Luckily the weather was pretty bearable for a game in Green Bay: 40° and overcast, but the game was pushed back to 3:15 so you couldn't rely on the sun making any impact. How 'bout til that crazy night game on Christmas Day!

It's official. I will be done at Readers Digest on December 22. My temp agency is already on it and has offered me to sign me up for a few classes they offer—at their expense—to help me into some Front End Developer jobs that are becoming more popular. Kind of scary to get into all that crazy programming, but that's where my job seems to be going.

As luck would have it, just when I began my part-time hours, I picked up a freelance job! A past client called me to produce their annual calendar again for 2012. I really couldn't have planned it any better. I've met her for coffee twice and enjoy the project management/directing part of being a designer that does lack in my temporary gigs.

We hosted the Sears family over Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun with them bargain shopping, dancing with the Wii and just hanging out. Kristin actually hosted Thanksgiving dinner with Meg's family, Craig's family and Mom and Dad. We however continued our tradition of heading up towards Appleton where Maggie treats us all to a family-style Thanksgiving out at Van Abel's. Paige and I got the house guest-ready on our days off beforehand. Abby was able to get some work hours in over that holiday weekend.

We got Bryn back to Carroll Sunday after church at Elmbrook and Abby left with her rider later in the afternoon.

I went out for Mexican with the girls' babysitters, Wendy and Robin this past Friday night. Always a lot to catch up on when we meet. Robin definitely outdid us all with 2 weddings and a baby! I'm glad we still get together as I so love their company. Their kids are just a bit older than mine so I listen very carefully and try to learn from their good examples.

And the next evening Jeff and I cheered on the Badgers with my former college roommate, Polly, and her husband that now reside in Brookfield.

Ahhhh..... I have off work this week and Paige has off school all week. My future at Readers Digest was resolved last Tuesday: I'll be working 3 days/week through December 22nd. I'm very happy with that schedule through the holidays.

Got together with my old high school buddy, Guy, last weekend. We had him over for dinner, then went downtown to the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre to see Lombardi. Wow! Was that good! Guy is a high school English teacher and is very interested in film as well and even he said the play was incredible. Glad to hear he's taking good care of himself after his heart surgery a couple years ago.

The Art Guild I belong to is painting wineglasses again and this month we all painted with a holiday theme in mind. I was quite pleased with mine and kind of hated to give them up (I did not paint all these pictured). Another member was able to get the glasses on the shelves of a local liquor store (Otto's). Proceeds from the sales go to our Guild's scholarship fund.

Celebrated my birthday Saturday with a very relaxing day at home, then dinner at PFChang's with Paige and Jeff. Had never been there before, but will surely go again! It was delicious! And affordable. Really glad Jeff had made a reservation, because the typical wait time for others coming in was 1 hour, 10 minutes!

Jeff got to use some of his company's season tickets and took Paige, Bryn and her friend Margo to the Packers game yesterday. The girls were so excited to go to their first Packers game! Too bad Abby couldn't partake—too far away. Even said it wasn't so cold there in the stands. The UW Band was there and paraded through the stands, and American Idol winner Kris Allen sang the national anthem. Paige commented on how many people were wearing blaze orange. After the game, Jeff took them to Kroll's for a burger. Traffic was heavy through Oshkosh, then let up after that.

We Skyped with Abby last night. They've got a couple dogs in the house for a few days and boy are they cute!

The annual Hunt in Waubeno was last weekend, so Jeff journeyed north with his college buddies for a weekend of male bonding. Living in a household full of women, Jeff definitely deserves his hunting weekend. Jeff retold the stories of his classmates and their families to Paige and I when he returned Sunday evening. A couple of the guys now bring their sons up to partake.

While Jeff was in Waubeno, Abby came in from La Crosse. Paige had been missing her sisters. Abby and Paige went out and picked up Bryn Saturday and they all went to see Footloose. I missed out because I was re-ordering the proper couch for our basement at the furniture store. I heard Footloose was really good though! We all reconnected at Kristin's for pizza afterward. Convenient because Kristin lives part-way between Carroll and our house.

The couch fiasco... Jeff had sent an email immediately after delivery that went unanswered. Probably because our salesperson works part-time. Mid-week I called and was able to talk to her. I brought up the discrepancy between what the fact sheet lists as the couch dimensions and what we are actually measuring. She went and measured the same piece on her salesfloor. She called us back later that same night saying that that discrepancy is the manufacturer's error and we'd be able to return and reorder our custom pieces without any penalty ($)! Thank goodness. So the reordered pieces should arrive early January. Long wait.

Received notice Wednesday that my contract here at Reader's Digest has been extended through December 22nd. What? I guess I wasn't anticipating that at all. So this weekend I'm taking time to evaluate what availability I can offer them, if any. In the past couple weeks, I've received various freelance offers and even another temporary gig, but what will pan out and what won't?

And here's Bryn and Paige showing off their newly pierced earlobes!

Poor Jeff had to work long hours the week of his birthday, so we didn't really get to celebrate. Paige and I really wanted to take him to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert! Guess we'll go another day.

I took off work last Friday and Monday just to have a break during my 3-month assignment of working full-time. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. Friday Paige had off school as well. My parents came down and I drove them through Greendale, where Readers Digest is located and showed them around. We used our 30% off coupons at Kohls buying Jeff birthday presents. Then we lunched at Ferch's and all enjoyed a malt shoppe treat! Paige got a lot of giggles trying to help Grandma figure out her new smart phone.

Friday night we met up with the Taorminas for a fish fry at the Schwabenhof. Haven't been there in a long time and it was delicious! We did have to wait a while because they were so busy, but it really was a great place to bring Kristin's little ones. Lucy kept us laughing at her sipping her "beer"!

Paige had a Halloween party Saturday night and her $2.50 mask from Bartzs was perfect to complete her cat costume. Jeff and I went to see The Ides of March. Very good movie.

We were so anticipating the arrival of our new sectional for the basement Sunday! It was supposed to come between 2-4pm, but it ended up being 6:00pm—in the pouring rain. The deliverymen tried and tried, but couldn't get the couch piece down our basement stairs. The tension was thick in our house that night. The couch remains wrapped in plastic in our living room until we resolve with our salesperson what our options are. It's really pretty though!

Both Paige and Bryn decided to get their ears pierced in the last week! Weird coincidence!

Lots of Halloween candy leftover that I don't like. Bummer. Not as many trick-or-treaters this year even though the weather was pretty decent. Jeff and Paige bought and carved their pumpkins Sunday.