We got what we wished for – a true white Christmas this year! With it, of course, came bitterly cold weather that played havoc with vehicles and forced us to stay inside and keep warm. Ann & I enjoyed a much slower pace as we stayed away from work – our annual stay-cation, as it were… Matt continued to enjoy his winter break. He worked most of the week and then split his time between family and friends. Abby was off school all week but did work almost every day. She spent her off-hours with friends and struggled to make sense of her social life. Luke had basketball all week, culminating with the annual junior high basketball tourney. Ann struggled with her knees but the headaches seem to have lessened this week. And although it was hard, I did stick with my diet but the exercise was put on hold for the week. It was simply too cold to walk outdoors. We were thrilled to have Dad and Lynn come stay with us. Even though we had just seen them at Virden’s wedding, we didn’t get to spend much time with them and looked forward to spending a week with them. Hello again and welcome to the special Christmas edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Before we get started with new stuff, we begin with old business. As promised last time, here are pictures from our special Christmas Eve.
As you might imagine, we were up early on Monday for Christmas Day. As has become tradition, it was Luke who woke us after only three hours of sleep that night. He said he represented all the kids, who were anxious to open their presents. By all accounts, it was a very nice for everyone. Favorite gifts this year: Luke- PS4, Matt- $$, Abby- the heels she’s been chasing down for a year (and her BP gas card!), Ann- earrings, Lola- Wobba, Molly- avocado and me- S3 watch. Ann cooked her green bean casserole and rolls to take to Mom & Sandy’s house, which filled the house with a familiar aroma. I watched Elf while Abby delivered presents to her friends, Luke set up his new game system and Ann & Matt took naps. We try to watch a handful of season movies each year. So far we’ve seen several of our favorites: The Grinch (both the old animated & the newer live action), Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf and Frosty. Around noon we headed over for lunch with Memaw & Gigi on a cold, snowy day. This year we had a smaller crowd: we had Mom & Sandy; Dee, Jamie & Grace; and Ann, I & the kids. It was another wonderful lunch – turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, noodles, Mom’s mac & cheese and dressing, corn casserole, sweet potatoes, Jamie’s baked beans, Ann’s green bean casserole & rolls, Dee’s tossed salad, and Mom’s homemade pumpkin & pecan pies, sugar cookies and a few other odds & ends…yum!! Obviously, this was my cheat meal, but I didn’t overdo it. It was a smaller crowd this year – Mom & Sandy; Dee, Jamie & Grace and Ann, the kids & I. Matt and Mom took Joe dinner, as he was not healthy enough to make it this year. We came home with full bellies and took naps before Abs ran off to another Christmas party while the rest of us watched more Christmas movies. We only paused a moment while the boys ran back to Memaw & Gigi’s to get dinner leftovers. We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, Die Hard, It’s a Wonderful Life, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Santa Claus before calling it a night.
We slept in a little on Tuesday morning before we cleaned the house up and kept warm on a day that never got much above zero. We lounged about most of the day, watching this year’s Dr. Who Christmas Special (Capaldi’s final show) and the Wizard of Oz. Matt went in to work at Aspen and a little later, Abs did the same to BWR. We enjoyed a leisurely day, taking naps until we had to run Luke to basketball practice. It spat snow enough to give us another dusting. That night, Matt & I watched the new Star Wars movie, episode 8 – The Last Jedi.
Matt worked the early shift on Wednesday. Abby had Pirateers practice but called and woke Ann & I up because her car door wouldn’t shut. Poor Mary had to hold the door shut as they drove to school! LOL I got up and ran to Walmart to get some Isopropyl alcohol and a squirt bottle and headed to the high school, where I quickly thawed her door in the -1 air! I don’t care who you are, when the temperature gets that low, it’s freaking cold out… Later I ran Luke to basketball practice and returned to Walmart…because, you know, you can never make enough stops at Walmart! Abby had Mary & Molly over to work on a new dance routine – I believe it’s the on that they’ll perform when Dad & Lynn are here next week. Luke & I watched the new It movie then we continued with the season 1 Game of Thrones marathon. When Matt got off work, the boys went shopping in Columbus. Ann ordered pizza for dinner while we watched the Purdue / Arizona bowl game. The game was held in the Bay area at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara (the new home of the NFL’s 49ers). The Boilers jumped out to a big halftime lead, 31-14. The Wildcats scored a couple quick TDs, early in the second half but the Boiler defense held and the offense was able to capitalize on it. They marched down the field to a game-winning score and the defense got a late turnover to seal the win, 38-35. It was their first bowl game win since 2011 and Coach Brohm remains undefeated in bowl games.
We were up fairly early on Thursday morning to get ready for Luke’s basketball tourney. Abby had Pirateers practice again. It was another cold day in the single digits. Luke and the 8th grade A basketball team hosted the annual Greensburg Holiday Tourney with Indian Creek, Brownstown Central and Triton Central. First up, the boys faced Brownstown Central. This is the team that we defeated in the finals last year. It was a closely contested first half that ended in a tie at the break. The boys came out hot in the second half and quickly went up by ten points. By the 4th quarter, we started to pull away and ended up getting a few of the bench players in and hung on to win by 10. Luke’s stats: no points on 0-1 shooting from the floor and 0-2 from the stripe with 2 turnovers. He also had 2 rebounds and a couple tip-outs, 1 steal, 1 block, a forced turnover and three fouls. Matt was able to attend the game and had to go to work afterward. Abby wasn’t able to attend, as she had important shopping to do with Mary in Greenwood on her only day off this week. We had a few hours to kill afterward so we grabbed some lunch at ElRep, swung by home and then went back to watch the consolation game in which Brownstown beat Indian Creek to finish 3rd. We played in the finale, facing Triton Central. We’re not sure how they beat Indian Creek, because they only had about 10 points at the half and we led by 20. By the end of the 3rd quarter, all the starters were sitting and the rest of the team got significant playing time, as the boys coasted to victory and with it, the championship – 52-25. Luke’s stats: 4 points on 2-3 shooting and a turnover. He had only one rebound, forced a couple turnovers and did not have any fouls. When we got home, Lola was acting weird, like she had hurt herself while we were away. So Ann gave her an aspirin and we laid her on the couch, where she slept most of the night. Abby came home briefly before going out with friends. Matt got off work, got cleaned up and something eat and then he, too, went out with friends. Luke, exhausted from the long day, took a lengthy nap then played with his new PS4 the rest of the evening while Ann & I watched most of season 2 of Game of Thrones, Dunkirk and Atomic Blonde.
While the others slept in, the dogs awoke me before the dawn to go out and I couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I got up and got back to watching my Game of Thrones marathon. The others slowly got up as I did our weekly household chores early so I would have more time to spend with Dad B this weekend. Matt had to go in to work before noon. Ann and Abby went to Columbus to get their hair done. Later, Bu had to go in to work at Wings & Rings until late while we cleaned-up the house in preparation for Dad & Lynn’s arrival. Luke enjoyed the day off from sports and spent his time playing his new PlayStation and helping Ann & I with the house. It snowed on and off all day and we got about 1 or 2 inches, making the roads slick for Matt & Abby’s drives home after work. We watched a few bowl games – the KY / Northwestern game was a good one that went down to the end and the Wake Forest game was exciting. Unfortunately, the Cotton Bowl was boring as Ohio St blew out USC. Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
Saturday was another cold day in the teens. We got about an inch and a half of snow overnight. Abby was up early for Pirateers practice and then went on to work at Wings & Rings. Matt went back up to school to spend the night with his buddies in Indy. Ann & I went food shopping for what seemed like two hours. We got enough food now to feed a small army! We watched more Game of Thrones and a couple bowl games in between naps as we waited for Dad & Lynn to arrive. We ran by the sled hill on the way home, but Luke wasn’t interested in sledding and instead wanted to play WWII on his PS4 and watch Netflix on his Xbox. I guess it’s no longer cool to go sledding… ? Dad & Lynn got in just after sundown. They said the roads were fine until they turned off in to town. We said we weren’t surprised. We visited with elders and Ann made a delicious meal of cheesy chicken-broccoli-rice casserole for a late dinner. It was so good that there weren’t any leftovers! We continued to catch up and watched the Fiesta and Orange Bowls. The Big Ten now stands at 7-0 on the year in bowl games, heading into NYD games…
We enjoyed sleeping in on Sunday. It was New Year’s Eve, so it was only apropos that it began snowing again that morning and continued off and on the rest of the day. We took it easy, watching last night’s Purdue game and UFC 129 prelims before taking in a few NFL games. Although meaningless, both the Colts and Cowboys had wins. The Indy victory wasn’t enough to save Coach Pagano’s job. Although he is a good guy with a lot of class, I believe it is best for the team to go in a new direction. Hopefully Chuck will either land a job elsewhere in the organization or with another team, as he still has good football qualities. Abby worked the early shift at BWR. Matt came back from Indy in the afternoon and joined us for lunch with Dad & Lynn at Wings & Rings as Bu was getting off work. We came back and watched some more football and may have snuck in a nap before we got up and had some fun. We played Watch Ya Mouth and then several games of Euchre, enjoying a few adult beverages along the way. We ended the night watching Ryan Seacrest ring in the new year at Time’s Square – where I believe they may have set a record for being the coldest in recent history at -7°! Both Matt & Abby went out with friends to celebrate the new year. We’ve got a few pix to share from tonight next week. Meanwhile, we have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
Next up is our Waybac segment which continues to feature our next three photo albums of our young family at the turn of the century. We lead off this time with Matt’s Barney birthday party at our Main St home in March 1999; next we move to our new Ryle home for our family get-together on the 4th of July, 2001; then we see Abby & Pace with Laura in September 2001; then we go to Washington Fields where Matt & I had soccer boot camp in September 2001; next we have a few pictures from Christmas Eve in 2001 – first at Mom & Sandy’s on Main then back to Ryle to sprinkle reindeer dust in the front yard to attract Rudolph & the gang; then we see pix from Matt’s birthday in the Ryle home in March 2002 – lots of classic pix in this batch! Next we move on to Ann & the kids in the family room in May 2002; Matt’s soccer camp with the European kids at Washington Fields in August 2002; next we see Abby’s birthday party in September 2002; Ann & the kids at the new Fieldhouse in Indy for the Barnum & Bailey circus; and finally we see the kids with Slushy the cat at Memaw’s house in November 2001.
Next up is our video section which includes 9 new family movies from this week as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this week’s edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this time out. We’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one. We miss ya Mom.
Later, Scheu