Merry Christmas 2008

We celebrated Christmas twice this year – as usual. Our first celebration was the weekend before Christmas, Dec 20-21. Due to weather-related flight delays the party didn’t begin until Saturday afternoon when Luke got back from Dan’s and Mary & Kurt & Cal & kids arrived from Appleton. Late afternoon we were joined by Joan and also by niece, Kelli Fain Kane from Madison. We had our Christmas dinner on Saturday evening followed by games and visiting. For Dale, Cal, (Tom), Mary & Luke the Christmas gathering must include multiple games of whist. The rest of us join in if needed or play other games – usually the Marble Game. After our holiday breakfast on Sunday (caramel rolls, bacon, eggs, etc) we went to 11A Mass and then did our gift opening – after the traditional Christmas photo. We loved having Kelli as part of our family for Christmas and the unanimous opinion was that her personality made her the perfect fill-in for Tom. But if truth be told we’d like to have her AND Tom next year! Anyway, the beautiful additional “daughter” you see in our Family Christmas Photo – is Kelli. In the photo l-r are Holly, Kurt, Mary, Luke, Diane, Joan in front of Dale, and then Caleb in front of Cal in front of Kelli.

Kelli also sat in for Tom for the opening of the Monson Cookbook gift; with Camille's help I finally got a copy of the book made for each of my kids & their families.

Kelli and Cal & Family left Sunday evening for another few days of school or work. On Tuesday the rest of us drove to Cal’s for the evening – our last evening all-together. We took Mary & Kurt to the Appleton Airport the next day (Dec 24th) and waited with them five hours (played whist!) until we were sure they would be getting on the plane. Their flight was cancelled but they did get as far as Kansas City that night after being rerouted and then home on Christmas Day.

On Christmas Day Dale, Luke & Di drove back to Cal & Joan’s and enjoyed their new Wii and also delicious Christmas Dinner by Joan. Next day we spent five hours fixing a puzzle and then everyone but Joan came back to Rapids. The weekend after Christmas was for sledding and snowmobiling – and more whist and eating of course. For Cal & Family it also included the Panzer Christmas.

Luke's visit and 30th Birthday

Luke’s arrival home on Dec 13th was a happy distraction after multiple failure days at our house: blue screen warning on my computer, washing machine quit, and router died. Cousin Dan & his fiancée, Cherish, were already here and went with Dale to meet the flight. Later, friend Brad arrived and for the next several days Luke enjoyed socializing with his best friends. (While home Luke also installed a new wireless router for me and helped me get rid of the blue screen issue – for now anyway. Dale eventually got my washer working but not until after Christmas.)

We also celebrated Luke’s 30th birthday while he was home; he turns 30 Jan 3rd. Since Luke prefers beer to cake we decided to put candles on a case of beer – a 30 pack of course! Luke was home until 3AM on Dec 28th when he & Dale left for the CWA airport.

Holly's 9th Birthday

Holly celebrated her 9th birthday this year. Grandma & Grandpa were not able to attend her offical birthday party in Appleton on Dec 13th so we had our own separate party the evening of Dec 1oth when we were babysitting the kids while Cal & Joan attended the TransSiberian Orchestra Concert in Green Bay.

Luke Flies F-18 to Visit Tom in GA

The first week of December Luke's squadron received an email saying there was a "cross country window open if anyone was interested." Luke was immediately interested and checked into it. He matched the list of approved flights with places he wanted to fly. He was able to reach Tom by phone and so that was his choice. About noon on Friday Dec 5th Luke departed for Robins Air Force Base south of Macon, GA. Luke & Tom had determined in advance that Tom was not going to be able to get on base without Luke (or get close enough to watch Luke fly in) so Tom waited at the Visitor Center. Luke spent the evening with Tom in Dublin and later with Kathleen, Jordan & Mason who arrived about 8P from Ocala, FL.

Saturday morning Luke took Tom & family out to the base. The Robins AFB has a lot of huge transport jets like the C-5 Galaxy and as they all drove on base Jordan & Mason were awestruck by those huge jets and when they saw Luke's little F-18 they thought it looked small. But when they got to actually sit in the F-18 they were impressed. Dale & I have not had this privilege; Luke said that because he was on a USAF base instead of a Navy Base he had extra leeway as the "senior officer." Above photo is of Luke telling Kathleen about his F-18. This flight was extra flying hours for Luke and gave him some significant instrument time, especially on the return flight. He had to be concerned about icing conditions on the return flight and so we talked about the protocol for that situation. It seems the usual F-18 procedure is to fly fast enough to build up enough heat to melt the ice; alternate procedures are to fly at lower or high elevations.