Catching Up

OK, it's been a couple of weeks, so let's do a nice bullet point list of what you've missed.......

• We tried the Benjamin/Santa combination again, but no better results. We thought it might be better since this Santa was our friend Richard from church, someone Benjamin knows and is used to. And Richard is a great Santa--natural white beard and white hair. So it wasn't some stranger. We kept telling him it was Mr. Richard, but when push came to shove and we sat him on his lap, the crying started and we didn't even get a picture. And then, last Sunday, Richard was the nursery volunteer during service, and Benjamin would just sit on his lap and talk to him. The suit, apparently, does make the man.
• The annual PPT Shootout was a pretty fun time, even if no money came my way. I was given the President's Award by Ken due to that whole coming-back-from-not-walking thing, which I guess was worth an award. After that, we got down to playing. I actually led my table for a while in chips, and I was catching stuff like crazy. Flushes, straights, full houses--everything was going my way. Then I hit a dry spell, but still made the final table. Couple of races went the other way, and I busted out 7th of 12. On the whole, though, I was fairly content with my play. Been nice to have some money to go along with it!
• Meron, Benjamin and I made a trip down to Conway last Sunday. Benjamin loves to go to the pet store, so we went there to get Dax some Christmas gifts and spent a good hour or so looking at the birds, fish, dogs, etc. Then we went over and visited my aunt and uncle before going for an anniversary dinner (a day early) at Meron's favorite place, Marketplace Grill. Good food and, for once, we weren't disgustingly sick afterwards. Skipping the cheese dip can do that for you.
• Meron is doing well with the whole pregnancy bit. She has to check her sugar four times a day now, but the last week or so she's been having very good results with it, always staying in the normal range. Seems like after she started the new strips (which were sealed up, unlike the free ones from the clinic), the numbers dramatically dropped. Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the pregnancy. Our next appointment is January 11, which will be an ultrasound and we will likely find out the gender then.
• I've been doing a ton of wheeling and dealing in the URL, which is starting to wind down its free agent period. We're also gearing up the fantasy baseball at the Clubhouse, as well, and it won't be long until the Friends League discussions start up again also.
• All in all, everything is good here. SO much better than last year at this time! I continue to enjoy doing the things that I couldn't do this time last year, such as when I did the lumber inventory this year, knowing how I was limping around last year. Christmas at my grandmother's is tomorrow, and last year I could barely get up the stairs. This year, I may just take them two at a time!
• Christmas time is here, and it's wonderful. As I said, we start it off tomorrow with my grandmother and my mom's family, then we have church services Sunday before finishing up on Christmas here and at my parents. My big present was my portable XM radio, which I'm loving immensely. It's also an MP3 player, so it'll be in use tomorrow for our trip, either by me or Meron. It is the most wonderful time of the year, because of the gift given to us by the Lord. So remember and give thanks this season for that gift and all the other blessings in your life. Have a wonderful Christmas!