The Flood and Other December Highlights

We started having sump pump problems on a Saturday morning yet, despite our efforts to get someone over to fix it, no one came...and Monday morning we woke up to several inches of water in our basement. Ugh, what a disaster! Unfortunately we didn't have all of our stuff in plastic bins so we lost a lot of books and papers and made an attempt to salvage photos and memorabilia. There were a lot of tears shed over the loss of many irreplaceable items. Definitely not the best start to our Christmas vacation. 

It's hard to see but in the first picture David's feet are immersed in water up to his ankles. At that point he had been able to get the pump running so the water was started to go down. It's amazing to think it was even higher at one point!

What a tremendous blessing that our insurance covered everything! Although it was the week leading up to Christmas, we were able to get a crew in that helped us clean up, throw things in a dumpster we were able to rent, bring in fans and dry everything out, and get things cleaned up and back in order. Another blessing was that it was just water, not sewage. Plus, we learned our lesson and made plans to get things better organized and into plastic bins.

We did try to enjoy our first week of Christmas break. We made homemade pizza one night which was delicious!

Xander and I went caroling with the other youth in our ward at the local assisted living center. We started in the lobby...

then the older group sang as we wandered the halls in the alzheimer's unit.

Back upstairs to join with the younger group for a few carols...

and then back down to the lobby where we were accompanied on the piano by Michelle.

We have such great youth!!

Cleo...

and Noah's newfound love - egg nog!

We got festive flowers for Dad...

and got hit with some nasty weather two days before Christmas! David and I braved the blizzard like conditions to get our Christmas grocery shopping done!

There might be a storm outside but all was peaceful and calm inside. We are ready for Christmas!

Wreaths Across America

This December we did one of the coolest things - we placed wreaths at the graves of veterans as part of the Wreaths Across America program. I was actually assigned to be head of this commitee for my DAR chapter so of course I wanted to participate and I made sure to drag my family along with me, ha ha.

The event started with a short program honoring all branches of our military and an explanation of what this event is all about.

Then it was time to lay the wreaths. Wow, was it a frigid day but, as David said, this is one of the best things we've done in awhile so it was worth it!

As we laid each wreath, we said the veterans name which was definitely an emotional experience. So much gratitude in our hearts!

As Xander went to get a few more wreaths, he ended up helping people and handing out wreaths. It was so sweet!

This will definitely be a new tradition!

Wrestling - Miamisburg and Liberty

Wrestling season continues.