Cocktail Sauce, Chili's, Child Labor, Christmas, 'Cats, and Competition

Today was a busy day.  This morning I took Joshua to soccer. On the way home we needed to pick up some cocktail sauce for the appetizer we needed for tonight.  Joshua enjoyed carrying it through the store.  He also enjoyed me foolishly letting him hold it in his car seat while we drove to our next stop.  It was closed and sealed, so I thought it would be fine.  But soon I smelled the pungent scent of cocktail sauce, and I knew I had a problem on my hands.  Well, not so much on my hands, but all over his car seat, which through the cleaning process ended up being on my hands I suppose.  We then went home, and since Clara and Hannah were still with Mom and Ron, Meghan and Joshua and I went to lunch at Chili's.  Joshua chowed down on some mac 'n cheese.

We still have some ice on our driveway, and since the weather was a little warmer today, I wanted to try to get rid of some of it while it was easier to scrape away before it refroze.  I used my snow shovel, and I invited Joshua out to use his new snow shovel that he got for Christmas.  He immediately went for the remaining snow pile in front of our house and went to work transferring snow randomly around the pile.

In the evening we went to Julie and Andrew's for Christmas with my Dad and Deb, my siblings, and our families.  Here Dad spends some quality time with the girls.


We had a really fun evening.  We had great food, and we all somehow managed to cram around a single table without feeling cramped.  Meghan then had to take the kids home to get them in bed, but I stayed to continue the festivities.  K-State's played in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl tonight, though it had a really late start.  Thanks to some technological workarounds, we were able to watch it on the TV, even though Julie and Andrew don't have cable.  K-State beat Michigan handily, capping a season that started poorly but ended quite well.  During and after that we played games, including a baseball trivia game and a fun game called TriBond.  We don't get to see Dad and Deb all that often, so it was really great to get to spend time with them, and it was all-around a really fun day.

Merry Nicholl Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  Meghan had picked out great outfits for the kids.  Unfortunately, I'm apparently out of touch with girls' fashion, as I totally botched their shawls when I was taking the kids' picture while Meghan finished getting ready.  Once we got to Mom and Ron's house, we got things corrected, and I snapped a quick picture of the grandparents/grandkids while Nick was taking his.  This was a notable picture, as Benjamin has joined the party this year.

We decided to try a picture of the grandkids/cousins by themselves.  This quickly went from not too bad to, well, bad.

Hannah still fancies herself to be a baby sometimes, and she saw Benjamin's baby swing and desperately wanted to get in it.  She happily swung for quite awhile in it.

Clara seemed to have an especially fun time this year.  She got to spend time with various relatives and even got to hone her photography skills when Nick, who is fantastic with the kids, let her take a picture with his camera and then view the results, which delighted her.

We then enjoyed an excellent Christmas meal.  It was one of those meals where literally everything is good.  We had such a large crowd that we broke into two full tables.  Thankfully with Mom and Ron's new house, you never feel separated from anyone else, as all the living spaces flow together on the main floor.  This was one of the reasons they moved, and I think it definitely paid off.

Later we did presents.  The four cousins all received quite a few things, but that didn't stop Joshua from immediately eyeing Clara's loot to see if it was something he wanted to take for himself.

Meghan took the kids home so they could nap, and I stayed for a little longer to play games and to eat shrimp cocktail and more of Grandma's Christmas cookies (this year cooked by Guest Chef Uncle Brent).  It was a super fun day.  I am looking forward to next year's Christmas being less of a reunion than it normally is, as we are expecting and hoping that the parties traveling from Iowa and Texas decrease and the parties coming from within the state of Kansas increase.  Having more of our family closer is always a good thing!  Merry Christmas!

Way Back Monday: Thanksgiving is the Best

This year we are staying here for Thanksgiving so I have my menu planned and will start doing food prep tomorrow and then Wednesday will be my big day of pre-cooking. I really love Thanksgiving and we have hosted it many times over the years and we have spent it at the home of other people at times as well. I enjoy hosting the most, though it is a lot of work. This is the first year that I can remember that it will just be us, though of course now that we are a family of five, we are pretty much a party all by ourselves. These pictures are from 2004, which is the second Thanksgiving we hosted.  We also hosted in our first year in our house in 2003 but somehow didn't get any pictures of ourselves.

Saying Good-Bye For Now

Joanna came home for a week or so after Benjamin was born, and she's been staying with Mom and Ron.  This has worked out great, as she's been able to help with watching the kids a few different times.  She really cherishes the time she gets to spend with them, and they love seeing her, so it works out all around.  Today is Wednesday, so the kids were over there as they normally are on Wednesdays.  She's leaving tomorrow, so that gave her one last chance to see them again.  Meghan was busy tonight, but I was available to join everyone at their house, as Ron grilled steaks as sort of a farewell dinner for Joanna.  It was nice for me, because although I try to make sure she gets time with the kids, it's also important to me to be able to hang out with my littlest sister when I get the chance, so we were able to do that tonight.  Here we managed to wrangle all the kids into one last picture with their Aunt Josie before she heads back to Texas.

Meeting Benjamin

Today we went to Ron and Peg's for a family gathering. While there, we had the opportunity to meet sweet baby Benjamin, who is our very first nephew/cousin on either side and just 10 days old. Joanna is also in town right now (not coincidentally) so we also got to hang out with her and see everyone else as well. We weren't able to stay a super long time, but it was nice to see everyone and meet our newest family member.

A Bittersweet Celebration

Today we went to Mom and Ron's house for a graduation party for Joanna and Kirk. They've had a big month with Joanna's birthday, their wedding, their graduations, and their upcoming move to Houston. The party was well-planned and was fun. We had delicious Jack Stack BBQ, shrimp cocktail, tasty cupcakes, and more. Kirk's parents were able to make it, which was really nice. It was great to celebrate their accomplishment of graduation, but it was also a little sad knowing it was the last time to see them before they move and that we're only going to see them a few times a year going forward.  She's such a great aunt to our kids, and I can tell Kirk is going to be a great uncle based on the the interactions I've already seen him have with the kids.  We wish they were going to be closer, but we also understand the reality of the situation and that they'll be back some day.  I'm super proud of Joanna for everything she's accomplished, but at the same time it's also a little sad to think that those accomplishments mean my littlest baby sister is now in no way a kid anymore and is an official married, graduated adult.  But I am comforted to know that she's with a great guy whom she loves and that will treat her well.  So we say good-bye for now, but we know we'll see them in a month or two when Julie and Andrew's baby arrives.

Aunt Josie's Wedding

Today we made the trip to Manhattan and back to witness and take part in Joanna's marriage to Kirk. It was probably the most stressful wedding I have ever been to, even moreso than my own. It just is not easy to have an infant and two toddlers take part in such a momentous occasion without ruining it. But they mostly did a great job and didn't do anything too cringe-worthy. Despite the exhaustion, it was a wonderful event and we couldn't be happier for Joanna and Kirk. It was great to have the kids get to be a part of their special day.

Though it was far from the most important part of the ceremony, the kids' favorite part was probably the bubbles. They really like bubbles. Especially Joshua. Unfortunately film cannot capture his delighted shrieks.

When we got to the reception, Joshua said he wanted to ride the bike. Unfortunately this bike, besides actually being a cannon, also wasn't going anywhere so he was disappointed that the bike turned out to be broken.

The girls at the reception. 

Our kids turned out to be dancing fiends. Who knew. Especially Joshua who apparently has break-dancing moves we never would have suspected. I assume Jason has been giving him clandestine dance lessons because, I assure you, it is not coming from me.

Jason and I at the reception. One or more of our children was probably creating mayhem at that very moment. 

Hannah with the beautiful bride

An AA Meeting at Church

I was fortunate enough to be raised in a Christian home, and one of the benefits of this was being exposed to a side of music that many people never hear: Christian music.  I've always preferred rock and harder music to slower music, although slower music certainly has a time and a place.  But in general, if music rocks, I like it.  Fortunately Christian music while arguably being a genre itself, has all types of musical genres within it.  Liking the upbeat stuff, I was a big fan of Petra, DC Talk, Michael W. Smith (although he has plenty of great slow stuff as well), and Audio Adrenaline.  I spent my middle school years listening to almost exclusively Christian music.  During my high school years I included secular music as well, but I still closely followed and enjoyed Christan music.  It was during this time that Audio Adrenaline released their breakout album, Don't Censor Me.  I'm not sure how many times I listened to that CD, but it was a lot.  Many, many, many times.  I also bought their next two albums, but then they kind of faded, and eventually broke up when their lead singer sustained permanent vocal cord damage.

Recently I heard a new AA song on the radio.  Apparently they re-formed with one of the guys from DC Talk as their lead singer.  And I was pretty excited when our church announced that Audio Adrenaline's tour was coming to town and that they'd be performing in concert right in our church's sanctuary!  Julie and Joanna were also fans (This was probably as least partly due to hearing their big brother play the CDs a million times.  I remember a tiny little Joanna, who was 2 or 3 at the time, singing along to the song Big House's lyric "It's my Father's house" as "It my Fahdah house!!!"  It was adorable.), so along with Kirk, we all went to the concert tonight.  The unfortunate part was they only played two songs off the first three albums, jumbled together as a quick medley, and I didn't know any of the other songs they played except for the current radio hit.  I was hoping for more of the old stuff, but probably they weren't interested in catering to the 30-somethings in the crowd since this was part of a weekend for teens at the church.   There were three opening bands.  The first was Manic Drive, and they were not good.  The second was Seventh Day Slumber.  They were a rock band, and I really enjoyed them.  I'm going to check them out and probably add some of their songs to my MP3 player.  The third band was Group 1 Crew, which is a terrible name, but they were entertaining.  They were a near-perfect Black Eyed Peas clone.  They were fun and energetic, and Julie really bonded (from a distance) with their pregnant Fergie-esque lead singer.  One of the sponsors of the concert was a Christian radio station in KC that I didn't know existed: Air1 91.9.  We listen to K-LOVE a lot, but at times I'd prefer something still Christian but a little more rock-ish, and 91.9 seems to skew that direction, so I'm excited to check them out.  So, all in all a good night. I got to spend time with my sisters and with Kirk, I saw an old favorite band of mine, and I found a possible new band to follow and a new radio station to check out.

A Day of Celebrations

Easter is a special day for us as Christians as we celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the grave and the salvation we have in Him.  Meghan and I really enjoy going to church on Easter morning if at all possible, and this year we were able to make it happen despite a tight schedule.  We went to the 9:30 service at LBC, and we were joined by Julie, Andrew, and Brent.  Afterward they then headed over to Mom and Ron's house, while our family went home first.  While there, I "hid" some eggs, and by that I mean I placed some eggs in plain view, such as between the diaper stacks in the TV shelf or just placed on the center cushion of the couch.  Joshua and Clara each found some eggs and seemed pretty satisfied with themselves.  We then gave them their Easter baskets which included small stuffed animal bunnies that Meghan constructed and sewed herself.

Then we headed over to Mom and Ron's for the second half of the day, which was a party to celebrate Grandpa and Grandma's 60th wedding anniversary.  We had some delicious Jack Stack BBQ for lunch and got to spend time hanging out, talking, and playing games, including playing a really fun game (a Boggle/Scrabble hybrid game) that was homemade by one of their friends.  We also presented them with some cards and gifts, and Grandpa unexpectedly took the floor, so to speak, and said some really wonderful words about Grandma and then played the song that they've adopted as their song, "You're My Best Friend".  I missed the very beginning of his speech, including his opening line of "Jeannie is my best friend", but the rest of it can be seen here. 

It was a really special day from beginning to end.  I'm so happy that we have salvation in Christ, and the next most important thing behind faith is family, and it was an honor to get to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of the couple who best models an ideal marriage more than any other that I know.