Another long time since the last post...

Well, I guess we had better start with Christmas. We stayed here for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I had both days off, so we spent it together, just hanging out. Mary Ann helped me put the ornaments on the tree (Rose had to go to bed early since she didn't eat any dinner). Mary Ann still reminds Rose of that to this day...

Santa came as expected. Everyone got great gifts. The kids all loved the many gifts, though of course some were more loved than other (all gifts are equal, but some are more equal than others...). Of course, some of the "less equal" ones are now some of their favorites...

We then drove to St Louis for the night, stayed with the St Louis Keels. Always low-key, relaxing to go there. We drove to Jeff City and had lunch with Oma. Peter called the police, either by the phone or with Oma's life-line. They called and Katie told them what was up, but then later Oma called L'Opa and told him the police came; we're still not sure if they actually did or if she just thought they did.

We stayed several days in Lawrence with L'Opa, Nana and Mitzi. We turned the first night into a traditional Christmas Eve with the normal soups and then lit the candles on the tree. Santa came there, but once again the gifts were left in the upstairs closet until we could get them in the morning. Everyone had fun opening yet more presents.

The kids all turned a little sick in Lawrence. They all seemed their sickest on the night Katie and I were going to go to the KU basketball game, so Katie gave her ticket to L'Opa. We saw a great game and the kids all turned magically healthy 10 minutes after we left for the game.

Then off to KC. We saw Fr Scott, the Thomas-Vogrin family, and my parents. Yet again, more and more presents. Those kids were so excited! We had a fun few days in KC. We celebrated New Years with the kids early and most of us used that as our official countdown too =)

We had an easy drive back--only one stop in the 8 hour drive. Much better than the Beier's had...

We've mainly been working on 2 things this calendar year--moving and deciding on a job. I've been offered many positions, and Katie and I are sifting through them, trying to decide. We think we have it down, but aren't ready to sign the deal yet. We've been slowly working on the house, trying to get it in order to sell it. We'll probably put it on the market in late Feb, early March.

We just got back from a trip to KC to look at neighborhoods. We missed our connection in Chicago so had to spend the night there. We were in KC for about 9 hours. Awesome...

The kids keep on progressing. Peter is saying more and more words. He now likes to push chairs around and use them as stools to get up to things. Rose is blooming at her preschool and seems to be bonding with Peter really well. Mary Ann just got her first report card and is doing great at school.