Last Day of an Awesome Christmas Break

We started our last day of Christmas Break by celebrating the epiphany at mass.  We had a guest priest and he gave a nice homily for the day.  After mass we spent the majority of our afternoon cleaning.  There was quite a bit of laundry to get done, bathrooms to clean, kitchen counters to wipe down, outside Christmas to take down and rooms to pick up.  Meg also had to read the rest of her book for English.  Doug gave her the caveat that if she finished it and picked up her room we would be able to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  Thankfully, she did it all without problem and by 5:30 we were off to dinner.

The rest of the evening was a quiet one.  Doug went to bed early so that he could get up at 3 a.m.  He had an inventory to start at 5 and wanted to give himself plenty of time to get there as there had been several winter storm warning advisories come out today for late Sunday night into Monday morning.  It was a fantastic break filled with a lot of family time.  I was sad to see it go, but thankful for our time together.  

And Off They Go . . .

Today was a sad day for me as Brett and Cal headed back to Bloomington this afternoon.  They had had a great three week break and we spent a lot of time together as a family.  I know it was time for them to go, but I still missed them when I turned out the lights at night.  I swear I could hear Brett running up the steps from the basement before I went to bed.  I even had to remind myself to lock the front door as Cal wouldn't be coming in later.  Thankfully, the weather and traffic was fine for their trip back and they made it without any problems.  That was saying a lot with all of the car trouble that we had had this week.

We did keep ourselves busy today with packing and such.  Meg had a friend over for the afternoon.  Brett went to a political rally for Todd Rikita in Warsaw and Hannah-Marie stopped by to see Cal.  My parents also stopped by to see them off and then took Cam back to their house for the evening.  Doug and I left shortly after they did to watch Meg's basketball game in Bremen.  It was a varsity only one, so we didn't have too long to sit tonight.  The girls lost by double digits, but Meg did get to play six minutes or so and scored on a nice shot from the outside.  She stayed with the team afterward for the boys game and Doug and I stopped at Hunter's Hide-Away in Nappanee for dinner on the way home.  Cam had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's.  They played Phase 10 and watched IU upset Minnesota.  We were all wiped out when we got home and sad that our Christmas break was coming to an end.

A Change of Plans

Meg didn't want to drive the truck to Bethany today, so I ran her to Mom's at 9:30 to borrow the van to go to practice.  She made it without any problems and was back by lunchtime.  We hadn't eaten at fast foods restaurant much at all this break, so I decided to get McDonald's for lunch.  Cal didn't join us as he stayed at Cameron's last night and didn't get up until 1 p.m.

After lunch Brett and I spent quite a bit of time getting ready for our trip to Bloomington.  He wanted to have a day to himself in Bloomington before school started.  Since Cal didn't want to go back until Sunday the only way for us to make that happen was to leave this afternoon.  Doug and I had no problem doing that and planned to leave at 4:30 today once he got home and the tire on the van got fixed.  Cal had a change of heart, however, and decided at 2:15 that he would rather go back tomorrow.  Brett said he was ok with another day at home and the unpacking began.  I was disappointed that we wouldn't get to go to Bloomington, but happy that we would have a relaxing weekend instead of a jam packed one.

With the change of plans Doug, Brett and I decided to go to Huntington Street for dinner.  Cam and Meg headed to Pizza King and Cal and HM hung out here.  When we got back I started on Cal's laundry for his early departure and we all played games together.  There were multiple hilarious moments especially when we played 5 Second Rule.  Overall, it was a fantastic way to end the boys' last night at home.

Basketball and More Car Trouble

Meg spent the night at Jackie's last night and had a lot of fun playing Just Dance and watching Netflix.  Today they went to lunch with Liam and Evan at South Side Soda Shoppe.  While they were there Brett, Cam and I went to the Indian restaurant on Main Street.  They had a fantastic buffet full of pork curry and butter chicken.  We all enjoyed it very much.  After lunch we went to Target and Game Stop.  While we were there Meg texted me to pick them up.  I was surprised as I thought they'd be busy until 3 or so.  It worked out fine, however, as they then had an hour to rest at our house before their game tonight.

Brett, Cam and I drove my parents to the JV girls game against Fairfield tonight.  Meg played very well.  We were all impressed.  She has definitely become a leader on the junior varsity.  It has been fun to watch.  Afterward my parents drove Doug's car home and we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  We hadn't been there at all this break and enjoyed our time together.  On the way home we realized that the back tire wasn't sounding quite right.  Doug had hit a piece of ice on the way to dinner.  We weren't sure if it was that or the cold.  By the time we got to my Mom's we knew that the van was no longer drivable.  Therefore, we picked up the CR-V at Mom's and dropped the van off at Monteith's.  It has been a terrible week for cars in the Heinisch family - the Civic died and needed a battery, the Silverado had to be jump started, the Alero wouldn't even turn over and now the van lost a tire.  Thankfully, Monteith has been great about getting us in.  Maybe we'll even get customer of the month.  

The Greatest Showman

Tonight Cam, Brett and I dropped Meg off at practice and then went to see the movie "The Greatest Showman."  We had been talking about seeing it for the past month, ever since we saw the preview at "Murder on the Orient Express."  There was a lot of hype surrounding the musical starring Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum.  The movie was as just as good as we hopped it would be.  Hugh Jackman was awesome as was Zac Efron.  We talked about it nonstop on the way home and all three of us agreed that we would definitely see it again.  It definitely wasn't historically accurate, but that didn't detract from the movie for us.  It had been a long time since I had seen a movie that I had liked as much as "The Greatest Showman."

Driving home from the movie was a little hazardous for me.  The snow started at 5 or so and the roads were covered.  It was also very dark which made it challenging for me to see.  We arrived safely, however.  Cal left shortly before we got home.  He had bought tickets for he and Grandpa Cutes to go to the Notre Dame - NC State game.  The game was a late one, but they had no problem getting there and back.  The only bummer of the night was that the Irish won easily making Mike Bray the most winningest coach in Notre Dame history.

It's Purple and It's Perfect

The carpet men arrived right on time this morning and by 1:30 p.m. we had a beautiful new bedroom complete with purple carpet.  After we painted the walls I was worried that it wouldn't match as well as we originally thought.  Boy, was I wrong!  It was perfect and I was thrilled with the look of it.  The carpet layers were also some of the best that we have ever had.  They jumped Meg's truck when it wouldn't start and they fixed the wood strip in between the family room and the dining room that everyone kept tripping over.  In order to thank them I bought them lunch at Subway when they left.

I spent the majority of the afternoon getting the bedroom back in order.  I couldn't move the big furniture, but I got all of the little items in the room and the new comforter set ready for the night.  Doug was equally impressed with the carpet when he got home and was able to move the bedroom set and entertainment center back into place.  We did take a couple of pieces out of the room, so we have more space.  All there was left to do was to put away the knickknacks, hang the pictures and wait for the new shades to arrive.  They should be time to get those done this week.

Tonight Cal hung out with HM.  They went to Goshen for lunch first.  Meg and Brett went to Maria's for  lunch.  They had to borrow Mom's van as we weren't sure how the truck would do in the cold.  Meg then used it to go to practice at 4.  Afterward she and Nate Haines went to dinner at Bob Evans.  Meg enjoyed listening to him talk about his adventures at Purdue and reminiscing about their time on the tennis team at Wawasee.  My parents picked up Brett and Cam at 5.  Brett stopped and got the Civic at Monteith.  The battery had completely died yesterday and they were able to replace it today.  Afterward they all went to Chubbie's for bowling and tenderloins and back to Grandpa's to play games.  Since no one was home Doug and I decided to go out to dinner after we set up the bedroom.  It was a rare night out for us this Christmas vacation.

New Year's Day

The year 2018 started with a lot of cleaning - at least for Doug and I.  We had to have everything out of the bedroom for the carpet to arrive tomorrow.  It took a lot more time and a lot more work than we had planned, but we got it all done and ready by mid-afternoon.  With everything out of the room the white carpet looked even worse than I had thought.  It will be wonderful to replace it.  I definitely wouldn't chose white carpet again, but it did look nice when it was new.

Doug and Meg took Jackie back to Goshen and picked up Cam around 10:45.  Cam had a lot of fun as did Meg.  Paula picked up Meg at noon to go skiing at Bittersweet.  I was worried about the cold temperatures, but overall it went very well.  The one nice part of being close to the lake is that the temperatures were warmer.  Cal spent the day at HM's.  He texted us in the late afternoon to see if we could make buffalo chicken dip.  Doug hadn't made it before, but thought he'd give it a try.  It was delicious.  We agreed that we would have it again some time.  Doug also made nachos and meatballs.  It was the perfect dinner to have while watching football games and the Twilight Zone.  We also made time to play a couple of games.  Even with all of the work in our bedroom, it was a wonderful start to the new year for the Heinisch family.