House is Decorated!

Arrived home from Florida to find a naked Christmas Tree in the family room. So, I spent most of Friday decorating the house and tree. Then I tormented TJ with a photo session to try for a holiday card photo worthy of thirty-five cents each. Here are the rejected photos:

Thanksgiving 2010

TJ and I spent Thanksgiving in sunny Florida. Thanks to the generousity of the Early family and some last minute cheap(er) flights to Ft. Myers, TJ and I were able to soak up some sun, enjoy the pool, and play several hours of minature golf.

We even did a road trip across the state to Miami for the Heat vs. Pacers game and the Miami Zoo. The hotel was directly across from the arena and bayside mall.

All in all, we had a great trip. Todd opted to stay behind to work and hunt. He joined his family in Columbus for Thanksgiving dinner while TJ and I dined on steak (we prefer cow over turkey!). We have much to be thankful for............we are blessed.

Wednesday's Mass

Each week a different class is responsible for assisting Father Steve with Mass. This past Wednesday, TJ's class had the honors. TJ's opening reading was as follows:

"Good Morning. Welcome to Christ the King school Mass. Today we celebrate the feast of St. Eleizabeth of Hungary. Elizabeth was the daughter of teh king of Hungary. At the age of 14 she was married to Louis of Thuringia, a German prince and bore three children. Under the guidance of a Franciscan friar, whe led a life of prayer, sacrafice, and service of the poor and sick. Seeking to become one with the poor, she wore simple clothing. Daily she would take break to hundreds of the poor in the land. They loved her and called her 'Dear St. Elizabeth'. One day Elizabeth was carrying bread for the poor. Her husband met her, and looking under her loose cloak saw 0nly roses. After her husband's death Elizabeth was left with three children. Giving her money to teh poor, she worked to support her family because she was mistreated by her husband's family. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis, spending the remaining few years of her life caring for the poor in a hospital. She died at the age of 24. She is the patron of hospitals. As we celebrate Mass today adn near our American holiday of Thanksgiving, let's remind ourselves how much we have to be thankful for. Because we are thankful for what we have, let us reflect on instances where we can be more like St. Elizabeth by assisting others less fortunate than us."

TJ pronuciated and projected the words wonderfully. He did a great job as did the rest of his classmates!

Chess Champion

TJ went undefeated this season for his Chess Team. AJ, Zach, Sam and TJ (pictured above)competed in the CYO City Tourney today in the 6th grade and under division (they are all 5th graders!). TJ's team finished first against 6 other schools. The scoring was very close and was determined in their final match against St. Pius X who finished in second place! Congratulations!

CCH Conference

I have spent the past 3 days with two co-workers filling our brains with great ideas, best practices and knowledge regarding firm practice managment! The CCH Conference is 1200 Accounting Firm Partners, Administrators and IT Professionals networking and sharing knowledge based around the CCH software solutions. All of my sessions were good and the key note speakers were great beginning with Lou Holtz on Monday morning. The contant flow of food and beverage make it difficult to wear anything home but sweats and the entertainment each evening gets better every year. The party Monday night was a private gathering at Universal Studios. The Rip Ride Rocket Roller Coaster was super fun. I am very lucky to be able to attend this conference for my firm! Now tomorrow I will take the day poolside to decompress before flying to Indiana. Did I mention the conference is in Orlando!? Yep Yep Yep.
While I have been gone, Todd has been juggling TJ's social calendar. Not an easy task for one person to do. But opening weekend of shotgun season is Saturday so he will get his day to decompress soon enough. I prefer the southern sunshine over the cold dark woods!

P.S. TJ just texted me - He won both his chess matches today!

Basketball Season

Todd is coaching the 5th grade Tigers. They have started practing but games will not begin until after the Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime, TJ joined the FBA All Star Travel Team. Their first game was last night and despite only having one official practice the team only lost by a few points. They rallied today with a win of 37 to 15.

IU

Todd and I joined friends, Beth and Tom today for some tailgating and Hoosier football in Bloomington. IU lost to Iowa but not until the final minutes of the game. Yesterday there were snow flurries and wind chill in the teens. However today was cool but very sunny for the game. We had a great time!

Officially the Year of the Shoes

TJ now wears a size 7 in youth boys which is the equivilent to a woman's size 8 (my shoe size). Therefore, we will be shopping for really nice winter snow boots, crocs, birkenstocks and any other shoe that I like that I can trick him into wearing for a couple weeks until his feet sprout again.

(I think these tennis shoes will look great with pink socks!)

Happy 40th Birthday Doug