It has been a long, enjoyable week here at the Scheu home. The kids were off school all week, Matt, Ann & I only worked a couple days and we enjoyed spending time together as a family once again, just like old times. We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas this week…and although it is now officially winter; it sure didn’t feel like it. Can anyone say, “I’m dreaming of a whett Christmas???? I think we surely set some kind of record, weather-wise: whether it was the warm temps, tornadoes, heavy rainfall, or maybe all the flood warnings…it’s the most wonderful time of the year! Hello again and welcome back to the Scheu Family Blog.
It rained all day and night on Monday, which was the theme of this week. The nice part was that it got warmer and warmer as the day progressed. The kids stayed home for their first day of Christmas vacation. It was Ann’s first day back to work after her surgery…and wouldn’t you know it – she hurt her knee again. She just won’t stay off the darn thing! Abby had Pirateers practice. Luke had basketball practice. I walked outside in the mist, around the junior high school while waiting for Luke to get done. Abby worked at the Cheer Fund with the Optimist Club. Matt went out with his friends for the better part of the night. We watched two of our seasonal favorites that night – A Christmas Story and Elf. We have several basketball pictures from last week that we didn’t get a chance to share last week.
It was another warm day in the upper 50s on Tuesday which allowed us to turn the heat off in the house. It was also the driest day of the week. Ann’s knee was really angry all day but she toughed it out and worked all day on it. I left work at noon to come home and meet the Comcast guy to upgrade our gear and combine services to save some money. Matt worked at Mesco (thanks Bryan!). Abby and her friend Cody cooked dinner for us, making pasta and meatballs. Luke took advantage of the lack of precipitation and played outside with Alex and then went over to Anna’s house later. We watched a couple of our favorite Christmas movies: Die Hard and Home Alone.
Wednesday was the first full day of winter and the shortest day of the year – but boy it didn’t feel like it. It was easily in the 60s but humid. Ann had to go into work but I enjoyed my first full day off. Abby traveled with friends to the boys’ basketball tourney game out of town but came home early with Regan due to the impending bad weather. If you had told me last year that we’d have a stormy day on Christmas Eve Eve, I would’ve sworn you meant a snow storm! But no, we had a nasty severe t-storm and there was even a tornado in town. Fortunately it missed us even though it looked like a monsoon at times and the tornado sirens sounded a couple times. Thankfully we only “suffered??? a couple patio chairs knocked over and some limbs down in the front yard. It again felt weird because it was in the mid-sixties again…not at all how it is supposed to be on Christmas week. Abby & Regan hung out at the house and baked cookies and other goodies with Ann. Matt worked at Mesco again. Luke went to Gma’s to play PS4 with Uncle Jamie for several hours in the afternoon. I tried to nap all day but never got the chance. Later Ann made a big batch of Fireworks popcorn and we watched The Polar Express and The Santa Claus on the big screen. We have lots of new social media pictures to share this week: Abby and friends; Dad B; Cathy & Tom; Scheu Christmas at John’s golf course on the west side; Keith by the fire; Nathan & fam; Katie’s Christmas card; Indiana-native Norman (Clifford the Big Red Dog) Bridwell passed away recently; more Bu & friends; our pups; Scheu cousins; Bus; ‘Boys; Lynz & Jack; Sharon, Katie & Fam; and our lovely daughter one more time…
Thursday was Christmas Eve. The boys were up early for our annual philanthropic adventure. First we met up with the wrestling team for breakfast at Trackside Café. After some great biscuits and gravy we headed up to the Knights of Columbus to aid in loading the cars for Cheer Fund. It was another wonderful turnout of boys. We had several current wrestlers as well as several alumni and a couple coaches. It was great to see some familiar faces that I only see at this time each year. It has become a family tradition and we are very proud of all our children for giving back to our community. We even saw local baseball standout Alex Meyer for a few minutes that morning. As has been the norm in years past, the wrestlers were the last ones still there at the end again this year. The girls got up when we got home. Bu & I did a few chores and then the girls cooked more goodies. Later that evening we headed over to Memaw & Gigi’s for dinner and the big Owens Christmas. Dinner was good – baked potato bar and taco salad (something different but just as good). Then it was time to open presents! Luke got to open the first present of the year. It was a note in Willy’s stocking and it sent him all over the house hunting presents for all the family members. I made out like a bandit with a bunch of cool new Hot Wheels. Luke received a cool BB8 RC that was controllable through his iPhone. We stayed and chatted for a while afterwards and then came home for our annual traditions at the house. First the kids received and changed in to their new Christmas jammies. Although we skipped spreading reindeer dust this year due to the rain, I did read “The Night Before Xmas??? before the kids put out snacks (cookies and cheese) and drinks (milk & Coke – in a glass Santa bottle of course) for Santa before heading off to bed so the big man could do his thing. Thankfully Mrs. Claus had wrapped most of the presents early so it was a fairly early evening…
We were up early on Friday morning as the kids were ready to open up their Christmas Day presents. We actually told them to go back to bed until seven but we eventually got up about 630, which isn’t bad for us. It was a great morning with lots of wonderful presents. We loved spending the morning with just the five of us, though we miss not seeing Dad and obviously sorely missed Mom. The kids did a really good job of picking up stuff this year. Normally the house is a minefield for the better part of the day but it looked really good as we got dressed and headed back over to Mom & Sandy’s house. They made a huge lunch again this year. It was amazing – turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, noodles, Mom’s mac & cheese, Ann’s green bean casserole, dressing, sweet potatoes, Jamie’s baked beans, rolls, Aunt Linda’s fig pudding, pumpkin & pecan pies and chocolate cake. WOW! It was nice to spend time with the family. This year it was a little smaller: besides the five of us, Mom & Gigi, Dee & Jamie, Linda & Dave and Joe. We watched some basketball and played several games of Gigi’s Bingo. That night, we sent the boys back over to get some goodies and they came home with a ton of food that we ate on the rest of the weekend! We watched several more of our favorite Christmas movies: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Christmas Vacation and the Wizard of Oz. I know that last one isn’t technically a Christmas movie but if you are old like me, the only time you could watch it growing up in the 70s was once a year at this time. :0)
We were up and going early again on Saturday morning, running errands and doing our weekly household chores all day and well in to the night. It rained all day and all night. Abby had friends over all day – first Noah then Megan and later Britney. Ann “made??? dinner that night – Pizza Hut! Megan & Britney spent the night. Matt went out with his buddies in the early evening and was out until late. Luke took a nap and ended up sleeping most of the evening. And we enjoyed a couple more classic Christmas shows: It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
We enjoyed sleeping in on Sunday morning. We did not have any basketball games and took it easy all day, watching football most of the day. It rained all day again and we joked that we had a fishing pond out in the back field. Our accumulations have to be records – near 4 or 5 inches and although we started off again with warm temps; they dropped as the day progressed. Megan went home early and then Matt took all the kids to the store to spend Christmas money. Abby & Britney went to ElRep for lunch with Cody then Cody came over to play Wii with Bu as Britney left. Later, Luke had Drew over to hang out that evening. Mom, Dee & Jamie came over for a few minutes and we wished Deanna a happy birthday. The Colts won and barely stayed alive. They need a lot of help to make it in to the playoffs, but it is mathematically still possible. They lost their 2nd string QB and now have to play with their 3rd string guy. The Cowboys lost again and only managed six points today. We enjoyed watching the NFL Redzone as one of our new stations on the TV. Things still need a little tweaking and we hope to get them worked out tomorrow. Here are some fun miscellaneous holiday pictures from this week.
Next up is our Waybac section. We continue to feature pix from our family photo albums from ’96 to ’98 and this week’s batch features several of Mom that I’ve not published here before. We lead off this week in Rossville at Mom & Dad’s Dream House in May of ’96; then one of our early faves of Matthew in our recliner in Columbus; then we move forward to December 1996 and meet up again at the Dream House; then Matt & Brayton in our 1st G’burg home in June 1997; and then Christmastime on Main St in December ’97; next Matt with Memaw and then with Gigi and Gizmo in June ’98; and finally Matt crashed out in our living room, Mom’s 60th bday and Matt and his new Christmas tree – all in November ’98.
And finally we have our video segment. This week, we have six new family movies to share, including Luke’s basketball games from last week and of course all the Christmas fun…as well as several from around the internet this week.
And that does it for this episode of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks again for keeping up with us this time out and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one. We sure miss ya, Momma.
Later, Scheu