One more post for the year!

Holy crap.  Ya know that saying that the days going fast but they year goes slow?  Yup. 

But first & foremost....

This bump is indeed still there!  

Miss Angela was due on the 26th and little Burrito is showing no attempt at making an appearance. 

We've been out walking every day, at least a mile, if not 2 miles.   She is getting tired easier, tho.  We went about 1.6 miles today and she was out of breath a lot. 

We were upwind from these does and the big one on the far left was rather interested in us.  

So how was Christmas in your neck of the woods?  

This was so true!  It was in the upper 40s on Christmas day.  There was fog in the morning, so I guess that counts as our white Christmas. 

Or the swirly white clouds do. 

We spent Christmas Eve at my sister's house and we had a good time.  I can't believe we had the almost the entire family there and nobody got any group photos!  We played a game where my niece wrapped up a bunch of goodies (like mini booze bottles & lottery tickets) in plastic wrap and we had to wear an oven mitt on our dominant hand and try to unwrap as mush as we could while the person next to us tried to roll doubles on some dice.   Lots of laughs!

Christmas Day we all met up at a local Chinese restaurant for dinner, since Angel's midwife recommended her NOT to go to Frankenmuth for dinner like we'd planned, since it's well over an hour away from our house / her hospital.  Not even masses of sweet & sour chicken helped her go into labor!

Earlier in the month, my niece coordinated "A December to Remember" at the golf course she works at.  They had Santa in the clubhouse, along with vendors selling stuff and food.  They passed out a pamphlet and had a word scramble game and guess what the emojis were saying type game.  Then we had to go around can count how many Santa stickers and wreaths were in the clubhouse.  

 It was pretty fun. 

It was dog friendly, too. 

Ranger (sister's dog) can't see much, but he was interested in Santa!

Last Sunday we went to Rochester for dinner and to see the lights. 

It was a mild night, so there were tons of people out!  

 My knees have been doing pretty good with all this walking.  I've been going to physical therapy for a couple weeks and I'm noticing a big difference.  The therapists are having me concentrate on strengthening my hips, oddly enough.  But they affect the knees, so I guess they know what they're doing.  I always thought I had some strong muscles on the outside of my thighs, but apparently it's just the tendons that are super tight.  So each time I go to PT, they use a rolling pin on my thighs and it really freakin' hurts!   I do occasionally get shooting pains behind my kneecaps so that's still a thing.  And stairs are a trial.   

 Christmas Eve morning....

I love this tree on my way into work.  

Which, I was expecting to be there all day, but I did less than a half, since there was nothing going on!

 Santa Kisses & Santa Remmie! 

 Our tree.

 Angel toddling out of her room in her onsie on Christmas Day.... 

 So between Santa & the white elephant gift exchange during the SAR Cmas Party, I've gotten some more cool things for my pack.  I'm excited about the GPS,tho.  It's exactly like the ones the team has, but it's nice to have my own.  And the geocache setting is pretty cool, too. 

 The sunset coming from from our walk the other night.  The ground fog was so creepy! 

 Some LOLs to keep in mind for next year.  

 So I did indeed pass my amateur radio test and moved up a notch to a general license.  I was pretty confident that I'd pass on my first try, since that 12 week class was so helpful!  And I did.  I was sitting next to the one other guy from my class who was taking it (the class started out with 7 people, a couple dropped out and the rest took the test early and passed so they didn't come back) and of course there were people there who knew Randy.  In fact, how they told me I passed was Jay came over and told me the Randy owed me a box of chocolates!  

Another thing that happens at these exams, is once you pay for and pass one test, is you get to try the next higher test for free.  So Jerry, the guy who coordinated the class I took, came over and put the Extra exam in front of me.  They said I did really good for getting 20 out of 50 correct.  Considering I was looking at words that I'd never seen before! 

There was a mostly hearing-impaired man sitting next to me.  He took his technician exam, passed it and told the examiner to bring on the general exam.  HE PASSED IT!  and was working on his extra exam when I left.  I kind of wanted to stay and see how he did on that, too!  

Next month is our search & rescue team recruitment night - I'm sure it'll get more attention after this nice article in The Lapeer County Press.

Here's how Chuck's turkey costume turned out for Thanksgiving!  I'll be redoing the feathers for next year, but the rest I'm pretty happy with.  Look at his feet!!!!  I was giggling was I sewed them on! 

Gosh, it's not even 7pm and it seems so much later!  I'd best go get dinner on for the family before the natives get restless!

Hoping to have a post soon with some GOOD NEWS in it!