And as The Year is Growing Older, I see Winter on my Shoulder

We hope that everyone had as good of a Christmas as we enjoyed this week! We had an amazing week here at the Scheu abode. I don’t think the family has ever gotten along as well as we all did this week. We enjoyed spending time with family & friends, exchanging presents, hanging out as a family and of course eating all the wonderful food!
Monday was the winter solstice so the days only get longer from here until summer! Abby was glad to see the last day of school this year. Luke was sick so I took the day off and ran him in to walk-ins. Thankfully he was negative for strep & flu. He still had a fever so I stayed home with him and he laid down all day. Matt had Colton spend the night last night and they slept in until noon. Abby volunteered at the K of C’s for Cheer Fund, stuffing boxes of food and toys. Ann worked late while Matt & I watched our first bowl game of the season…and it was a good one – called the Miami Beach Bowl (Memphis vs. BYU) – that went in to double OT and ended in a huge fight on the field. Sadly, Joe Cocker died of lung cancer today at the age of 70. We wrapped up the night watching Peyton’s Ponies in Cincy for MNF.
Tuesday was the first day of Winter Break for Bu & Luke and it was my last day at work for the year. It was an important day – we wrapped up the roof project and began the door project. I ended up working a half day and took Bu to the Columbus Verizon store to have her iPhone checked out and they decided to replace it so she is getting a new phone for Christmas now! Ann worked late to get caught up and allow her to have a couple days off with the family. We have lots of new social media pictures to share this week: new Christmas cards from the Scheu extended family; Scott at work getting in to the holiday spirit; a ton of new pix with Abby and the Pirateers; Dad & Lynn on vacation in the Caribbean; Grace, Rosie back on her feet, Katie & kids; several from the Scheu family Christmas party in Lafayette last weekend; our old neighbor, Ryan being recognized for his 1000th point; Cowboys achievements; Craig’s last show; and a couple Sunday panels of Calvin & Hobbes.

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Christmas Eve was Wednesday. The boys were up early to help with Cheer Fund. We met up with the wrestling team at the Trackside Café for breakfast. Next we went to the Knights of Columbus to load cars with toys and food for needy families in the community. Luke learned a valuable lesson about community service for a couple hours. Afterwards we came home and Matt/Luke went to bed while I finished up some last-minute shopping. Ann & Abby were already up and cooking seasonal goodies like Chex Mix, Christmas punch and lots of different cookies like snicker doodles, M & M and Blondie brownies. While the others napped, I watched another amazing bowl game (Bahamas Bowl) that wound up 49-48 and had an unbelievable ending. Later we went to Mom & Sandy’s to kick off our annual Christmas Eve festivities. Dee, Jamie & Grace also joined us there as well. We started with dinner which included pizza, sausage balls, shrimp dip, ham rolls and more. We had missed the radio broadcast of the Christmas sermon by a local pastor so we jumped right in to spending a couple hours exchanging gifts. Bu & Grace handed out presents and we each took turns opening our goodies. Afterwards we came home and the kids sprinkled Ann’s homemade reindeer dust in the yard to attract Santa and his deer later that night. Next, the kids got on their new Christmas jammies and we sat down to read The Night Before Christmas. Afterwards, the kids made Santa his snacks, including cookies, milk, cheese cubes and a Santa Coke before heading off to bed so that Ann and I could help Santa with getting presents wrapped. Although we couldn’t get our traditional picture of Mom & Dad sleeping, we did get a good one of the kids this year, as they all squeezed in to the boys’ room for sleepover while watching Christmas movies. Ann & I finally found the bed about 2 a.m.

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We actually got to sleep in a little on Christmas Day for the first time in over a decade. We woke up to find that Santa’s plate had been cleaned and there were bits of cheese crumbs on the floor…did Santa eat them or did the dogs eat everything overnight?! We opened presents for a couple hours and Ann made a breakfast of French toast and bacon. We watched the kids play with their toys and Luke let the kids and I come out and shoot his new bow, which was easily one of his favorite gifts this year, plus his two new remote-control helicopters. Abby’s favorite was her Harry Potter robe. Matt said his new phone was probably his fave, though his new sound system is also a goodie. Ann was especially fond of her new Pandora charms and I loved my new Bluetooth Bose speaker. Luke said it was the, “Best Christmas ever!??? We went back to Mom & Sandy’s for lunch and we had a huge meal. There were fewer attendees than normal. We had the same crew from the night before plus Amy & Bailey came over from next door. We had turkey, ham, noodles, mashed potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, dinner roles, baked beans, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and more. Afterwards we played several games of Bingo, hosted by Gigi of course. We were still stuffed when we came home to take a long nap. We got up and sent Matt & Abby back to get some leftover goodies Mom’s for dinner. We wrapped up the night by flopping on the couches as we watched Christmas movies until bedtime – enjoying classics like A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Wizard of Oz, It’s a Wonderful Life and finally Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

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We got to sleep in on Friday. When we finally started moving, we worked to get the house cleaned up a little and the then enjoyed our day. The kids and I played Mario Kart on the Wii. Luke had Alex over to play bow & arrows, Nerf guns and remote control helicopters. Megan came over to visit Abby and the girls made cookies after Matt ran them to get supplies…only stipulation is they had to wear the balloon hats that Ann & Abby had made earlier this morning! Kama came over after Megan went home and they finished up the cookies. And Luke made the paper twice today, as well as Matt & I, for his time spent volunteering at the K of C’s for Cheer Fund on Christmas Eve morn. That night, Matt had his buddies over to play cards again (Devin, Jake, Andy and Colton). Later that night, after the boys had gone home, Matt & Devin picked up Colton and the three of them moved in to the playroom, staying up until the wee hours of the morning.

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It was nice to sleep in on Saturday morning. But we spent the entire day in Greenfield at a basketball tournament for Luke. Our first game was against the Greenfield Blue team. It was a good team though we led the entire way and eventually won by 12 points. Luke played only two minutes unfortunately. Still, it was a good win for the boys and they looked really good. The 2nd game was against the Terre Haute Reach team. This was a very talented ball club. This game went back and forth a few times until we pulled ahead near the end of the first half and never relinquished the lead. We eventually won the game by 10 points. Luke saw no playing time in this game. It is frustrating to spend the time and money and get very little to show for it. We were thrilled for the kids but when you see the other teams able to work in their bench players, it does get discouraging. Granted, this game was played at a very high level but surely he could’ve played some sort of role for the team. It was a big win for the team that gave us a #1 seed for the tournament the next day. Luke was a little down due to his lack of court time so we took him out to eat at Applebee’s where he got a big rack of baby back ribs (his favorite). We saw our good friends, the Drakes, there – who were also participating in the basketball tourney, though at the 3rd grade level. We came home and Luke went to bed and fell asleep quickly. He’s still not 100% yet as he still has a lingering cough and doesn’t quite have all the color back in his face. Meanwhile Matt & Bu stayed home. Matt went out with the boys to Greenwood for much of the day and then came home where they played cards for about an hour. They called it an early night and went to bed. Abby and Kama slept in. Once she went home, Abby did a few household chores before meeting up with her again at the girls’ varsity basketball game. When she came back, she had Megan over and the three of us played Mario Kart.

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Luke did not want to get up early on Sunday morning. He said he didn’t want to play basketball anymore because, “I never play anyway.??? He was teary-eyed when I was talking to him. We told him he didn’t have to play next year, but he wasn’t quitting in the middle of the season because he had already committed to this year and we eventually convinced him to get up and get going. We made pretty good time up to Greenfield High School and got to play in the varsity gym vs. the Greenfield Gold team. We out-classed them but they played hard. We never trailed in the game and everyone got to play. I’d say Luke played about half the game. He had a few shots but couldn’t find the bottom of the net. He did play good defense and hit the boards. We won by 25, but it wasn’t even the close. We had a long layover so we got lunch and came back and watched the 3rd grade Batesville team play. It has Conner Drake on the team and is coached by Paul. Ann sat with Dayla and I sat with Cayden but the little Bulldogs were outmatched against a Franklin team coached by Brad Jones, who went to school with Paul, Ann & I at FC. I believe he is still the all-time leading scorer at the school and helped them to an NCAA birth during our tenure. Next, we faced a very talented Martinsville team. We were up early but let them back in the game and only lead by a pair at the half. We came out flat and did not hit a bucket for 9 minutes. It was not looking good as were down by 10 with about three minutes to play. Somehow the boys mounted a comeback and were able to tie it and then hold on to send it to overtime. The 1st overtime lasted 2 minutes with no points scored. During the 2nd overtime, we exchanged a couple baskets that sent it in to triple overtime. In this OT, there was no time and it was sudden death – first one to score, wins. Somehow, someway we managed to score and won an exciting but breathtaking game. It truly wore out the boys – physically of course but it was so tense that it was mentally draining as well. It really showed in our next game vs. Mt. Vernon. We hung with them for the first half but they pulled away as we started to fade in the 2nd half. Luke played about 8-10 minutes. He finally got his first points of the weekend, scoring on a pair of free throws. He also did well again on the defense/hustle plays with rebounds, blocks and loose balls. It was not enough as they beat us by 20 points. We were very proud of the boys this weekend but they simply ran out of gas and were beat by a better team. That team won the next game (finals) to win the tourney by beating a team we beat yesterday (Terre Haute Reach), so we feel like we were the 2nd best team in our tourney this weekend. Still, making the Final Four of these 16 teams is a great accomplishment. We came home afterwards and played more Mario Kart and watched football until bedtime.

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Next up we have our Waybac section. This is our final entry with this batch of pictures. It’s been a fun batch and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have taking a walk down this memory late. This next week, I will be getting to my scanner a lot better as I break open my scrapbook box and see what goodies I can find to share from that phase in my life. This final selection of photos features the last seven photos of Mom from this batch. We lead off in southern California in 1979 with a handful of photos from my First City Bank team: me batting with my bike in the foreground, me playing 1st base (I was the starting 1st baseman on the all-star team that year, my first in organized ball and the only one to make it from my team) and then us celebrating our only victory that year at Shakey’s pizza, including me with my buddy Greg Steen; then on to the fall of 1980 with us having moved back to Indiana in LP: Rob’s 1st birthday in October, Rob & Grandpaw in our kitchen on Kenwood and then Dad and I burning leaves out front of that lakeside home- both in November; then on to 1981 – January and our first snowfall we’d seen in a couple years with Dad, Mom, Rob & I out in the driveway in LP; then a visit to Lafayette at Grandmaw & Grandpaw’s house in August and finally in Kokomo in Sharon & Dan’s backyard in September; next we move on to 1982 – the big 4th of July parade in LP (it was HUGE at that time); Rob trick or treating at our new Rockwood home; and then Rob & Grandpaw Bob in his new recliner in December; then my Great Grandma Brown’s funeral in October 1983; and we end in 1985 – Rob & the spread at Thanksgiving at our home; the Thorn Apple Valley racer in our new garage in November and then Rob & Grandpaw on Christmas Day. What a fun batch of photos this has been…

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For our Shit that Luke Says segment, we go back to Christmas Eve at Trackside. Luke had eaten half of his biscuits & gravy when and hands me his plate and says, “Here Dad, finish this; Christmas calories don’t count!???

Our final segment is our video section, which features seven new family movies as well as a few from around the internet.

Well that does it for this episode of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this time week and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one. May your family have a prosperous New Year. We miss ya Mom.
Later, Scheu

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