The boys got some great presents from Team Omaha!  Thanks and send our Congratulations on to our cousin Allie and her new baby Caylie Rose Andrews!

It seems our inflatable Santa has found a couple of helpers to keep him upright during these windy days…

Alex and Sam had their annual Christmas Play at school and as usual it was an exhilarating and uplifting presentation for all that attended. All of the kids sang and a few of the seniors performed a play called the Gift of Christmas. The cast was amazing, from the vocal harmonies to the monologues, everyone was impressed, and found that their characters were sweeping us into their world. Below are a few shots of Alex and Sam and a short video of this amazing presentation.

Sam added to his Jurassic Park lego collection a couple of weeks ago as he added the Triceratops Trapper – jeep. Sam used his Gung Gung money to make the purchase… it seems it was burning a hole in his pocket.

Grandma and Grandpa’s (George and Louise) nativity scene has found a new home on our fireplace mantel. The set is ceramic and they painted it and glazed it over the course of about 1 year (about 40 years ago).

We have new neighbors next door and they have a golden retriever too. The neighbors moved in about 2 months ago and Farley and their dog, Maggie, hit it off right away. We think Farley recognized the fact that they are both golden retrievers, but we don’t know for sure. Farley took to her quite a bit faster than he did the two labs across the street, Molly and Dixie. Now Farley has 3 girlfriends that he goes and sees everyday. Maggie has also become quite a household fixture as she typically comes over to the house and invites herself in on a regular basis. Farley even lets her eat his food without getting upset, although he does get quite excited when she gets close to his bed.

We all went to Alex’s basketball game at Terra Ceia yesterday. By the way TC is out in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between Washington and Plymouth and about an hour away. The team lost by 40 points and it was never close as TC worked a full court press early and jumped to quick 20 point lead. Alex got a couple of minutes playing time in the 2nd quarter when the coach benched the original 5 players. Unfortunately the next 5 players couldn’t beat the press either so he quickly swapped them back out again. Alex then got about 3-4 minutes in the 4th quarter (quarters are only 6 minutes long). Alex was passed the ball a few times but most of the times just passed it right back again. Except for one time… Alex got the ball in the corner and was wide open with nobody to throw it too. So Alex drove the baseline and pulled up for a short 5′ jump shot and made the goal. We thought his Mom was going to jump out of the stands she was yelling so loud. 🙂

Last week we got a chance to watch a few old movies from Kansas City. Rod cleaned up and hooked up the old projector he brought back from his Mom’s house. Even after about 30-40 years in the attic it still worked. Rod is going to try to get everything downloaded eventually. We don’t think Sam and Alex really understood how old this technology is and the ironic thing is that we took the video with Rod’s iPhone.

Alex had his second basketball game on Friday night and saw a little more playing time, this time about 4 minutes in the 4th quarter. The team won this game by more than 20 points and apparently played together much better. Below is a photo of Alex’s ‘Away’ jersey.

So Alex didn’t get a lot of playing time this game, but he did get in the last couple of minutes. He made one pass and did some good defending. The team lost by about 20 points but played much better the second half. Most of the players seemed quite nervous in the first half as it was almost everyone’s first game. Alex seemed quite nervous on the bench, but once he got it he said he was much more relaxed. Next game is tomorrow night, but it is an away game.