Christmas is over..............

I love the Christmas season.........yet the older I get the more I miss the way it used to be.  Family get together's at my parents home..... with my 7 brothers and sisters and their families, me and Rich and my younger brother Dave.   And Christmas Day was the same, but we split our time between my family and Rich's Mom's place.  But it was just so much fun with music and laughter and  singing and presents and midnight mass..........

But - despite all that reminiscing........ it was still a good Christmas.

On Monday, Rich and I finally got out in the boat for the first time since we returned from NY in August!  It was an absolutely beautiful day.......but a bit too windy for staying on the lake too long.  We enjoyed the leisurely ride along the canals, and we got to fish for a little while ( no luck catching anything!), until the water got pretty rough.

On Tuesday, while Rich was back on the stock market, and taking time out during the day to cut more palm branches.... AND FINISH his LAST piece of Pumpkin Pie!!!!........I took down all the Christmas decorations.  I generally leave everything up until after New Years............but since we decided not to have our New Year's Day gathering - I decided to get things put away early.   So everything is packed away in it's designated spot until next year........and the living room looks  so empty with the tree gone.

Grocery shopping today.....and got everything for our New Year's Eve  and New  Year's Day Dinners.... We got some Omaha Steaks for Christmas - so that will be for New Year's Eve.

AND..................Good news from Dennis......... about University of Iowa and the grandkids!

Kiddos UI college update: Dalton (Freshman) made the Dean's list for fall semester with a 3.72 GPA for 15 hrs :) . Chauna was awarded the Iowa Scholars Award scholarship $ for her HS academics​ GPA & ACT score. 👍🙏😀. 💟