The Symphony

Last Saturday we got to have a date night! I had bought Todd tickets to the Louisville Symphony Orchestra for Christmas. They were playing songs from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and they also had choirs singing with them. Todd loves the movies so I knew he would love to hear the music. Our seats ended up being on the very, very farthest back and highest up row in the whole place (that means I bought the cheap tickets)! But, we could still hear just fine and it was wonderful!! My neighbor kept the kids for us and she even said we could leave earlier and eat first if we wanted. So, we took advantage of that and went to eat at O'Charleys. I tried a new dish called orange peel chicken. It was delicious....a little bit spicy but a wonderful flavor. I highly recommend it. It is normally served on rice, but since I don't like rice I asked if I could have it without the rice. The waitress said I could substitute another side dish, so I chose the smashed potatoes. She specifically asked me if I wanted the chicken over the potatoes or the potatoes on the side. I chose them on the side, but lo and behold, my dish was served with the chicken over the potatoes. When the kitchen girl brought it out I guess she thought it seemed odd and asked me if that was how I wanted it. I told her, no, that I wanted the potatoes on the side. So, they had to take it back and fix it. I didn't complain or anything, but they offered to not charge me for my meal! Yeah!! What a nice treat for waiting a few extra minutes. We had a wonderful evening together and are ready to do it again!!

Will it ever snow?

Last winter we bought the kids plastic sleds and they never got to use them. We were hoping we would get lots of use out of them this winter, but so far we haven't had any snow!! We've had some days where there were flurries in the air and the kids got excited, but we have had no accumulation. We are all bummed!! When we moved this far north, we thought surely we'd have plenty of snow to play in during the winter. We had one big snow 2 years ago right before Christmas, but that is all. One of my favorite things to do is to come inside after freezing in the snow and drink a big mug of hot chocolate! I'd also like to warm up by the fire if we had a fireplace! I have great memories of waking up and watching the TV to see if school was cancelled for snow and then enjoying playing all day (if it was a snow day). We'd play outside for a while and then come inside and warm up and play card games or board games. Snow days were the best days! So, how does that work with homeschooling? If we have a big snow, I promise to cancel class so Brandon can have great memories like that too!!

Todd's New Toys

Todd has been a part of our church's praise band for the last year or so. This has inspired him to want to play the guitar. So, over Christmas break he borrowed a guitar from a friend and practiced every day. He decided he wanted his own guitar so he asked for money for Christmas from all of our family members. He was able to purchase the exact guitar he wanted and didn't have to settle for his second choice. Here it is:
Our church also purchased a bass guitar for him to play in our praise band. Actually, Todd got to help pick it out and here is what he picked:

Currently, Todd is leading the praise band, but as soon as we can find someone else to lead the band, Todd will be playing the bass guitar in the band.

Karate Kid

In December, Brandon tested for another karate belt! He passed from green belt to blue belt!! Go, Brandon, Go!!

Christmas Party

Todd's department at the hospital had a Christmas party at a local firehouse. This did include a tour of the fire station and, of course, a fireman's hat for all of the kids. The party was a pot luck dinner and there was plenty of good food to eat. There were also awards, door prizes and a look back at what the department accomplished over the last year. Todd won a very soft fleece pullover and all the wives got a poinsettia. The kids got treat bags filled with lots of candy, toys, etc. We all had a great time.

These are some of his co-workers kids checking out the firetruck.