First Update of 2010

I haven't been updating here as often as I'd like and I'll get to that later.

We had a nice Christmas at home. We went to church Christmas Eve and then to Opa for Greek food.

Little Tulip couldn't get to sleep and was crying that Santa wouldn't come because she was too excited to sleep. I think she cried herself to sleep.

In the morning we got our Santa presents, our presents and then we went to Yaya and Papou's house.

My Dad has been hit really hard by the new chemo and this is why I hesitated to post. He didn't manage to get around to anyone on Christmas Eve or Christmas day (the tradition is to go by his sister's on Eve and my Mom's brother's on Christmas day). He wasn't' happy about that at all.

Gardenia was off the week between the holidays. Star and Orchid went to Papa's house for the four days. Some of their cousins were there too. I think my Dad was doing pretty well at the beginning of the week, but after all the excitement he was beat by the time we got there on New Year's Eve.

He came out to sit in his chair on New Year's eve, but he spent the day in bed on New Year's day. We all spent a lot of time in there with him, but it's been very hard and frustrating for him.

Two old family friends came and cooked breakfast on New Year's morning, then they ended up spending the whole day with us. My Dad has really touched a lot of people's lives in a very positive way. I'm very proud.

Concert Last Night

Last night we went to the school concert. Young Tulip does bell ringing now and she was really fun to watch. Orchid, who is in 8th grade was unable to make the concert because she had a cold yesterday. We all felt really bad about that since the 8th grade usually does some special things. She was actually featured in the program as a soloist, but her understudy did very well.

Congrats Brother Rose!

Yesterday the whole garden went to see my brother Rose get promoted to CW2. This is pretty big because now they commission warrant officers of CW2 and above. As a WO1 he only had a warrant (hence the Warrant Officer), but as a Chief Warrant Officer he now has a commission as an officer and may "command" troops.

Papa Pansy actually swore him in, in front of his unit. It was pretty cool. It's especially cool when your Dad is a retired BG (Brigadier General) and the highest ranking person in the building.

We all went to lunch afterwards and then the Ginger and Holly family all came to Mundelein to see the progress on the house and for Holly to take Gardenia out shopping.

BTW, Papa Pansy has started his new chemo regimen. It seems to be hitting him pretty hard. He is very tired and very sensitive to cold. Ginger brought a wheelchair and we wheeled him into and out of both the military building and the restaurant.

Saturday afternoon (I'm going backwards chronologically) we finished the first floor enough to bring up the Christmas tree and start decorating. We had to replace about 1,100 lights (about half) which, as you can imagine is quite the chore.

I spent Saturday the morning helping out the Boy Scouts. I'm a Unit Commissioner, and as part of the Commissioner staff we help with rechartering. All the rechartering is done at one time now so we had two big sites to handle that. I think I am getting back into the swing of things. I really want to be involved in Scouts and with my older two not interested, I think this is a good way.

Epiphany 2009 An Audio Post

I have a special treat for you all today. I'm going to bring you up to speed with an audio post.

Enjoy.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

Almost all the flowers got together on the actual Turkey Day to celebrate Thanksgiving and for Petunia's Christening.

Gardenia and I went shopping Friday. Then all the Mundelein Flowers went to Uncle Sweet Pea's annual After Thanksgiving Pancake Breakfast.

Sunday and today we are putting up Christmas decorations. Everything is going according to plan except it started snowing yesterday and it's still snowing. I can't put up the outside decorations. Curses!

This is the place you can comment on my poll. What is your favorite Christmas Movie. Mine's It's a Wonderful Life.

Saturday 5 Jan 08

I am writing this to you, dear reader on one of my Christmas gifts, a folding keyboard for my PDA.

Well, we had our first basketball game of the new year and we won, 27 to 8.

This must be starting to seem like a blog only about basketball. For that I apologize, but basketball is a nicely packaged topic. Also, I happen to be sitting at the 8th grade boys' game (right after our 8th grade girls' game) while writing this.

We also have two science projects going on. Star has been monopolizing our kitchen with her project on natural dyes. I don't think her hypothisis that artificial dyes are more effective is going to prove true.

Orchid is working on a project with water rockets. She is going to try to show that bottle rockets with water and air are more effective than water or air alone. She is going to shoot the rockets at a 45 degree angle and measure the time and distance. We are sort of waiting for the weather to get warm enough to do it.

Will write more later. Don't forget to participate in the poll.

New Christmas Poll

Our last poll ended with four votes for photo cards and one vote for other (I wonder what the other was).

Our new poll is about Christmas gifts. I think the poll is pretty self-explanitory, but if you have any questions just drop us a comment here.

I have put the deadline after the new year, becasue Granny Begonia is holding "Christmas" on New Year's Day this year.

You can chose more than one.

Boxing Day

Yesterday, we Mundeleinians (or is that Mundeleiners) took our semi (sort of, not every six months) annual Metra ride into the city to see the Christmas tree and Marshal Field's (hey, the still have the MF name on the State Street building and Tulip hates it when we even say the "M" word) windows.

The windows were not that impressive, but we liked the tree, and Star got to use the camera that Santa brought her.

Santa also brought Orchid a flute and Tulip a Barbie carriage. I don't know if Orchid's favorite gift is her flute or her iPod Nano. Tulip's favorite gift is most definetly her Leapster.

Star says she doesn't have a favorite gift, but she has already read the second two books in the Wereling series, and I think she is going to find that her cell phone will be her favorite.

Mommy Gardenia got some lovely jewelry and I got SO much that decorum prohibits listing them here. I think my favorite is my new friend Jill (the name they give the voice in my GPS).

This is my photo of the tree, I asked Star to write a post and post her photos today.

BTW, this was written on my PDA while riding the train home.