2014 Week 48: Festivities

Christmas decor began to appear this weekend. So far only the "anorexic" tree was trimmed. All other ornaments and seasonal items lay strewn all around me.  I will attempt to ignore the mess and finish this blog post.

 We enjoyed authentic Chinese food at the Monday Night Meal. Nanxin brought a great variety of bags of imported items and cooked everything in a "hot pot." She kept scooping out and passing around all kinds of interesting and very tasty items: beef that looked like bacon; bamboo shoots like white carrots; clear plastic-looking sweet potato noodles; a variety of greens; tofu cubes; dough balls (actually called 'Big Gluten Balls' on the bag!); and oh, so many more. We were well satisfied after that enjoyable culinary experience. Thank you, Nanxin!

This week Mike finally finished the last pour in the long road to repair his sculpture that he has been working on for over a year.

I didn't have to teach all week. Even so time was taken up with people and festivities. . . and a small necessary surgical procedure--a BCC lesion was removed under my right eye Tuesday morning. In the evening at Malachi's 16th birthday celebration, the drooping bandaid was quite obvious.

I had fun taking pictures and talking to family and friends.

Matt & Kayla                                                                         "What's Daddy doing?"

"Nanna loves me."

Baby peers meet. Rebecca Rose is fascinated by the boy her age!

Sam and nephew Ollie                                                                                  Rebecca Rose

Wandering Wheels, a wonderful place for a birthday party and sleepover. Something for everybody: swimming pool; ping-pong, pool tables; fuss ball; even a piano the little cousins can play.

Looks like the babies and little ones took center stage, but really the celebration was about this big guy! Love you, Malachi. We are so proud of you. Hope you had lots of fun with all your friends!

Diane spent three days with us, and on Thanksgiving Day the three of us drove north to Warsaw and had a lovely dinner with Mother and brother Alan's family at my nephew's new place. Thank you, Daniel!

Friday evening we bundled up and drove south to Noblesville where we walked around the Court House square admiring all 20 of Stpehan's ice creations set up by his six-man crew.
Here are only a few of my photos. I like the little girl admiring the train.

And a favorite "Frozen" character (I haven't seen the movie yet) from ones Stephan posted on FB.

Then we watched The Ice Man himself work on a four-block Santa going down the chimney.

We didn't stay till the end so here's Stephan's photo of the final sculpture.

A fun time for all!

Diane's poses