Seven wet swans, six laying geese, five gold plated rings, and four obnoxious birds. Yes, I am frugal, if not cheap, in giving my true love her presents. Sorry true love. I hope all of you are having a Merry 7th Day of Christ's Mass!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We just returned from my aunt and uncle's house in Napoleon, Ohio where my uncle is pastor at the LCMS church. Here we are having my mom's family's annual Christmas gathering. We spent all of the 28th traveling. About halfway through the trip we dropped off my dad's mom and stop for a little to visit familiar places and people in Medina, Ohio. We lived in Medina from late 2000 to early 2003. It was a nice little town where I could bike to anywhere in or around town within 15 minutes. After our stop there, we finished the trip from mid-PA to here by 7:00 pm.

Wednesday night, two of the older cousins and I watched War of the Worlds and played video games all night. Thursday morning I drove into town with my cousin Chris to run some errands and drop off a gift at a Christmas party his favorite teacher was hosting. When we returned to the house, we had my mom's wonderful taco stew for lunch and opened most of the gifts. In the cousin's gift exchange, I got a reading light that automatically shuts off after the amount of time for which you set it. I'm sure that it will get a lot of use. My Aunt Patty gave me a $10 gift card for Wal-Mart and my grandparents gave all their grandkids $10, a little devotion, and a nice new wallet. Chris and I then dropped Kyle of at basketball practice and spent a little more time in town.

Most of the day Friday was just spent relaxing. We played video games and rented Kingdom of Heaven, a really good movie about the Crusades, and played video games. In the evening, we went to the Napoleon High basketball games against Patrick-Henry High School. The Napoleon Wildcats freshman and JV teams won, but the 'Cats Varsity team lost by three points due to stupid substitutions by the Napoleon coaches. I had fun yelling the occasional "Go C.V. Eagles!!!" since my team wasn't playing.

Saturday after lunch, we left Napoleon, OH for Pittsburgh, PA. We reached Pittsburgh at about 7pm. We checked into a hotel, unloaded the van, ate dinner, and went to the Naumanns’ house. The Naumanns are old friends of my mom's who moved here from England a few years ago. They have six children, five boys and one girl. The older boys were just visiting from England, and the one who is my mother's godson was preaching (he's in his fourth year at seminary). At their house, we played more video games and some card games. I won the first game of Phase 10 I've ever played.

Sunday we went to bible study and services, heard Gordon preach, and left immediately afterwards for the five hour trip home. And that’s about all I can say. I could add more description, but I need to go soon. Have fun y’all!