Family Christmas

 Let the gift giving begin! All three of us took our spots in the living room, fired up the TV so we could have the 'fireplace' roaring, and now we are ready for the Christmas morning fun!
Ledger sat on the big footstool so he could be closer to the tree and grab all the gifts. There were a lot of gifts this year, and even a few that weren't for him, which is a bit unusual. We struggled again this year to find gifts because, as usual, Ledger didn't tell us what he actually wanted, we just had to guess. Even after last year's mild disappointment in his haul, he had promised that he would tell us what he wanted this year. He didn't. That left me with a lot of guess work! As the morning went on, he and Diana took turns opening the prizes picked out for them. Each unwrapping was met with delight and excitement!
A couple hours later, when all the gifts were opened, Ledger was absolutely tickled pink at the huge pile of loot he got. No disappointment this year- he absolutely loved his gifts! Diana was pretty pleased with hers as well. I got a lovely book, so I was pleased too. Ledge gathered his gifts up for his annual gift drawing as Diana and I began the clean up process. With all the fun and excitement concluded, Ledger spend the rest of the morning playing with his new toys while Diana and I snuck back into bed for a little nap. Another successful Christmas in the books!
(More pics: 1, 2, 3)

How We Cinnamon Roll

The morning has finally arrived: it's Christmas! We all slept in a bit, but finally gathered in the living room for the big event. We started, of course, with making cinnamon rolls- a Christmas tradition. And what also seems like a tradition, I burned them... Hey, give me a break, we only make them one day a year so I don't really get much practice.
As the smell of the cinnamon rolls began to fill the house, Ledger got to open one gift before we ate. It was a bit of a joke gift: a Cat-apult. A little catapult that shoots little cat figures! As we sat down to eat, he flung a few felines across the table, resulting in some good laughs from all of us! A great way to start the gift giving bonanza! 

Brinkmas '23

Time for some family Christmas fun! This year we got together at Mema and Papa's house on Christmas Eve. Everyone was there this year- including Chad, Miyuki, and their lil baby! When we got there everyone was hanging out in the living room, ready for the good times to start. We gathered around the table for the kids to play a fun game to win a huge pile of different candy, gift cards, and other fun stuff. Soon after, filled our plates with Mema's delicious food, and headed downstairs. 
When our bellies were full, we started opening gifts. As always, Mema and Papa spoil all the kids with too many gifts! Ledger got a few really cool toys- like a Sphero ball, which he was pumped about! Diana and I were spoiled as well, which we didn't really mind that much...
(More pics: 1, 2, 3)

Shop Local

Christmas is almost here, and of course I've still got a bunch of gifts to get! I've never been very good at being on top of my Christmas shopping... With a few people to still find gifts for, Ledger and I headed out to finish the list. I figured we should take advantage of the cute little shops in town and buy locally. Ledge popped on one of my hats (he looks so cute!) and we headed downtown Allegan. There was a consignment shop that we went into and as I was looking around, Ledge hit it off with the ladies behind the counter. He was schmoozing and making them laugh! By the time we finished our purchase, I'm pretty sure those old ladies were in love!
We hit up a few other places and were able to check off the rest of the list, we figured we deserved a nice pizza lunch. We stopped in at the local Pizza Hut and got a couple personal pan pizzas and joked around, cutting each other up with our silliness. I tell you what, this kid definitely got his sense of humor from his father...

Getting New Ears

Papa's hearing has been going downhill a bit lately. When we get together he has been asking us to repeat ourselves more and more. Mom has been suggesting that he get his hearing checked out for a while now. Well, he finally relented and decided that he needs hearing aids. Well, it just so happens that I know a guy who can help... My father-in-law, Diana's stepdad, actually owns and runs a bunch of hearing aid offices! What luck! I contacted David and set up an appointment for my dad.
We went down to his closest office for a fitting. I went along with Papa; it was fun to see David and Papa at the same time! I don't think they've seen each other in 13 years or so! We went in and Papa got his hearing test and try out a pair of hearing aids. He found ones that he liked, with all the extras of course.
It was really great to see David in his element- he's so good at making people feel comfortable with the process and understand what is going on with their hearing. A consummate professional! By the time we left Papa was feeling really good about his new hearing aids, and excited to try them out- I'm sure Mom will be pleased that he can hear her again too! 

Puttin' Up the Tree

It's feeling a lot like Christmas, so now it's time to make it look like Christmas too! We got a Christmas tree when we first moved to Allegan 8 years ago. We were thrilled to have such a lovely tree and decorations. They worked great in the apartment we lived in, but since we moved into our house about 4 years ago, we've been wanting to update the ornaments and some of the seasonal decor. This year we finally did it- we went to the store and got a whole new set of lights and ornaments for our tree! Diana was really drawn to the silver and blue decor, but was a little nervous, afraid it might look too 'cold'. We decided to go for it anyway and loaded up with new tree decorations.
The next evening it was time to try the new look! We turned on some Christmas tunes, out came the tree, and we got busy making it jolly! After we got it all set up and turned on the lights, we were all quite pleased with the final product! We all love our newly designed tree! Now we are ready for the Christmas season!
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Choir Concert

At the start of the school year Ledger had to make an important decision: did he want to do band or choir? After a couple failed attempts at trying an instrument, he settled on choir. When that choice was made, I knew what it meant: we would be going to choir concerts! Tonight was his first public performance in the choir. I, for one, was excited! I thought choir was a good fit for Ledge, he's always singing at home, so it felt like a good outlet for him to use and develop his lovely voice! He, unlike his father, has a good singing voice and can actually keep a beat! Thankfully, he took after his mother on that one...
We invited Mema and Papa to join us for the Christmas concert at the Allegan high school auditorium. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the variety and quality of the singing! There were unusual songs, funny songs, a Christmas classic or two, as well as some well sung solos. Ledger sang a few of them, and really got into it! One of the songs they sang was 'My Favorite Things' from The Sound of Music. A month or so ago, when Ledger first came home and told us that they were singing this song, he was really annoyed about it. He thought the song was dumb and lame. As they continued to practice it and work on it, he totally came around, and by the time it was concert day, he absolutely loved the song! It was so fun to see him up on stage getting into it, bopping along with the song and having a grand ol time up there!
After the concert, Mema and Papa got to congratulate him on a job well done. He was proud of his performance, with good reason- he did such a great job!

Santa Parade

Santa Clause is coming to town! Every year my lovely little town has a Christmas parade, ending with Santa! The high school band plays, and at the end Santa has a seat in the pavilion, they light the town Christmas tree, and Santa visits with each of the children. We've been going to the parade for years, but last year we decided to invite the rest of my family. We all had a great time, so we invited them again this year, and everyone quickly agreed.
When Ledger was little, he loved to go because he got to see Santa and let him know what he wanted for Christmas, but that motivation came to and end a few years ago... We've continued to go each year because it's always great to gather as a town and celebrate, and Ledger loves it because he gets to see a bunch of friends from school and hang out. The parade itself is filled with fire trucks, vehicles decorated from the different local businesses, the high school band, and more. We met up with my parents, Jill & Tim, and Noah. We watched the parade from my favorite place in town: right in front of the Regent Theater!
After waving as the parade went buy (and collecting the thrown candy, of course), we gathered in the downtown park to get a photo op with the jolly man himself!
A fun cold time was had by all!

Thanksgiving

Lets give some thanks! With all three of us having a few days off for Thanksgiving, we headed down to South Bend to spend some time with family. As an added bonus, Lissa joined us for the weekend.
Diana was pretty pleased, all she wanted for Thanksgiving was a good ol' fashioned traditional meal with turkey and all the fixin's. David and Mom accommodated and we had a delicious meal with the whole family! The whole visit was nice and lazy, which is exactly what we needed!

Skyzoned Out

Diana had Saturday plans to do something with Lissa and Miranda, that meant Ledger and I had an evening to ourselves. What should we do? Ledge has been wanting to go back to Skyzone for a very long time (we haven't been there since the pandemic), so this was the perfect opportunity! When I suggested it he was pretty pumped, so off we went for our first visit in over three years.
When we walked in the place was a lot different than the last time we were there! They had taken out a third of the activities and put in some cool slides. Ledge was pumped! He went down each of them a few times and had fun zooming around. Then we made our way over to the trampolines and other stuff. He bounced around for a while and had fun, but he kept bonking his legs and body on some of the different stuff. He was a bit discouraged because of all the bumps and bruises he was accumulating. He played for a bit longer, going down the slides again, but was soon ready to go home.
On the way home we stopped at Burger King to nurse his wounds and fill our bellies. Overall, it was a fun time, but he wasn't a big fan of all the battle damage he took!

Halloween Bean

The day is finally upon us! Ledge has had his costume for a couple weeks now, trying it on and wandering around the house a few times since then. But now it finally time to wear it outside and show it off!
He's never been obsessed with getting candy, he is more interested in wearing his costume and showing it off. Well, we thought of a great way for him to do just that! Diana and I had stocked up on candy to give out, so we set up a couple chairs at the end of the driveway (so kids wouldn't have to walk all the way up to the door and have our dog bark at them). Ledger then spend the first hour of the night dancing in the street to welcome the trick-r-treaters over! He was having a blast and so many people were loving it- joining in and laughing at the dancing orange character!
Finally, all of our candy was gone, so we went in for a couple minutes to warm up and change out the batteries in his costume. We bundled back up and headed out around the block to do some good ol fashion door to door trick-r-treating! As expected, it was a bit hard for Ledge to get around because the legs on his costume were so short, he had to slowly shuffle down the street...

Carve 'Em Up

Well, we've got the pumpkins, now it's time to carve them up! When we got back from Gene's we unloaded the car and soon got to work making our jack-o-lanterns. Usually, the cutting and cleaning out of the pumpkin falls on me. Ledge doesn't like getting all icky from the pumpkin guts, but this time he was a little more willing to give it a go. He's getting big enough to carve them himself, so he took the knife and dug right in! Granted, after the first one he had enough, so I was in charge of cleaning out the second one.  After they were emptied, Ledger grabbed a marker and got to work making a couple of great faces. He's always been quite skilled in making expressive faces, so that part is right up his alley!
He drew them on and carved the faces out. I did a little clean up on some of the lines so the light would shine through just right, and then we put the light in them and brought them out to the front porch to admire our work. They look great!
Now we are all set for Halloween!
(more pics: 1, 2)

Pumpkin Time!

With our Halloween decor up and the season changing, it's time for one of our favorite annual traditions: going to Gene the Pumpkin Man to get our pumpkins! Each year we make the trek over to Gene to get a couple pumpkins to carve and put out on the front porch. Many years ago, a friend I worked with suggested that place when we first moved to Allegan. He said that he and his family have been going there for decades. The first year we went we thought it was so cool, and now we've been going for years as well!
This year it was unseasonably warm for the middle of October, but at least it wasn't raining! We arrived and went to the fence to say hi to the cows, which seemed to take a special interest in Ledger this year, even getting close enough to let him pet them! Next, we grabbed a wagon and began the search for two perfect pumpkins. We wandered around and it didn't take long for Ledge to find a couple good looking gourds that he wanted to carve. Gene the Pumpkin Man is still kickin, so Ledger went over and chatted with him for a few minutes. His hearing isn't what it used to be, so it ended up being Ledger repeating himself over and over again, louder each time! Having made the full circuit around the place, we bought our pumpkins, thanked Gene, and headed home, pleased to have visited once again.
(more pics: 1, 2

Tigers Homecoming

We are, by no means, sports people. On a whim though, Diana decided she wanted to go to the high school football game! It was homecoming night at Allegan High School, and I think Diana was nostalgic for her high school time, so we all quickly got ready and headed to the game. She had been a little disappointed that she missed the Code Orange game, so we tried again.
We stocked up on concessions candy and hot dogs and found a seat on the bleachers. After gobbling up his food, Ledge ran off to play with a friend (there were people he knew this time, so he was having a great time!). Diana and I snuggled up and watched the game for a bit. There was a fun musical half time show from the marching band, but once the game started up again we were kind of over it. Ledger's friends eventually disbanded, so we gathered him back up and called it a night. It was pretty fun to participate in the stereotypical 'small town' event, but maybe next time we will do something non-sports related...

Code: Orange

Our lovely little town has a special event every year called Code Orange. Every year they print out thousands of shirts for sale and the profit goes to the local school education program. They have a special Code Orange day with different events, including the high school football game. All three of us got shirts this year, so we obviously had to go to the football game! We haven't been to a game in several years, due mostly to the fact that we don't care at all about sports of any kind... 
When it was time for the game, Diana wasn't feeling so well, but Ledger really wanted to go because he thought there might be some friends from school there. When we got there we first stopped at the concession stand (of course). After chowing down on a hot dog, Ledger went off looking for friends. About 10 minutes later he came back disappointed because he couldn't find anyone from school. It was a bit cold and neither of us really wanted to watch the game, so we hung out for about 15 minutes more and then headed home.

Swifties

 Diana is a bit of a Taylor Swift fan. An obsessed fan, really. When she found out the Eras Tour was coming to movie theaters, she wanted to immediately get tickets! She made plans with her friend Miranda and we actually got them tickets to see it on the biggest screen possible: IMAX! We bought them almost immediately after it was announced and we still had a hard time getting good seats!
Finally, the day of the show, Miranda came over and the two of them got to show each other the outfits they picked out. Apparently fans have been dressing up as one of the different album styles to go see the movie. The two of them were giddy with excitement! They had a bunch of friendship bracelets as well. I am told that also has something to do with seeing the movie? I don't know, but I love that they are excited to see a movie in the theater, so I'm totally supportive!
They headed out to the theater with huge grins on their faces, surpassed only by the grins on their faces when they returned. They absolutely loved it and had a blast! We have had nothing but Taylor Swift music blaring at the house ever since...

Halloween Decor

Finally! Moonlight Jack finally showed up so we can decorate for Halloween! (Read about the legend of Moonlight Jack here) We went downstairs and pulled out the big box of Halloween decorations and brought it up. We dug through it and found spots for all the different holiday stuff we have accumulated over the years. It's even got some of Ledger's old Halloween costumes in it, which of course means that he's got to try them on again! Pictured is the ghostie he wore two years in a row. He loved it so much he wanted to wear it again the second year- except this time with the witch's hat.
Now that we've got the place covered in pumpkins and other Halloween decor, we are ready for the spooky season!

Forced Family Fun

With my new job schedule, I've been missing the family time we used to spend together. I'm still trying to figure out my new sleep schedule and how it works with Diana's work schedule and Ledger's school schedule. As a result, we have been spending less time together. Well, I decided to take matters into my own hands and fix that. I have instituted a new daily event: Forced Family Fun! Each day at 6pm, no matter what is going on, we have to spend a half hour together at the table. What do we do during this time? Doesn't really matter as long as we do it together! We are a week in on this new schedule, and so far we have played games, drawn, and read together. Its been pretty fun so far! I'm sure it will eventually come to an end, but I've been glad to have some time together again! 

6th Grade Handprint

Better late than never, right? Usually Ledger makes a hand print on his board before the first day of school, but this year we weren't on top of it and finally went to buy a new paint color a week after the school year started. And now finally we actually brought the board up to put the print on it!
Our boy is definitely growing up because he didn't want to get messy this year. In years past, pulling out the paint and letting him put his hand in it was an invitation to make a huge mess (which always annoyed Diana...). After putting his hand in it he used to then put paint on his face, arms, chest, etc. and run around laughing until we finally threw him in the bath (which then left a huge colored ring on the tub. Hmmm, maybe that's why Diana always hated it?). This year he just wanted to do the handprint and wash it off. This year he picked dark blue as his color. After the handprint, we stood the board up and did our annual measuring of how tall he is now. It's fun to see all the previous heights and see just how big he's gotten. He's grown about two inches a year for the past three or four years- wow!

Halloween Prep

An important event every year: picking out the perfect costume for Halloween. Some years we think about it early enough that we are able to get a really cool costume, and other years we forget until late October and all the good stuff is already sold out. This year we were on top of it and Ledger decided that he wanted to get the costume of a character from the game Fall Guy. Granted, he's never played the game before in his life, but the costume was just so darn cute that he picked it anyway!
As soon as it arrived he wanted to try it on. He got in the thing, turned on the portable fan, and the cuteness inflated, much to our delight! Diana and I kept laughing at how funny and cute it looked. Ledger, of course, played it up, getting us to laugh more and more. He spent the next hour or so wandering around the house in the costume playing and dancing around.
It's going to be a great Halloween this year, I can already tell!