The Christmas season kept Carrie and I very busy with our jobs, church, and the kids.
On Sunday, December 5th, Carrie and I attended Hannah’s and Caleb’s church childrens’ program. Both had significant speaking and singing parts in the presentation. We went to Joshua’s and Hannah’s band concert on Tuesday, December 7th in Tomah. This was Hannah’s first band concert. She plays the French Horn and Joshua plays the Trumpet. On Thursday, December 16th, we attended Joshua’s and Hannah’s choir concert. Hannah was in the 6th grade choir and one of the Show Choirs, and Joshua sang in the 8th grade choir.
Christmas Eve was spent with me playing in the church’s band for both Christmas Eve services. After the services, we went out to a Chinese restaurant with about 60 of our closest friends from church. 
Christmas Day was spent in Hokah at Diane and Gordon’s farm. It was fun to catch up with everyone.
3 days later, we had all 5 kids over and went back out to the farm to go tubing by Diane and Gordon’s cabin. Gordon had plowed a path with his tractor and Carrie and Diane had gotten some tractor tubes and had them blown up before we got there. There are lots of videos of the tubing time at http://www.youtube.com/hamot2.
New Year’s Eve was our 2 year wedding anniversary. I worked in the morning until 3:00 and then we went out for dinner around 5:00. Unlike last year, we didn’t go out and spend $2,000 on a new TV, stereo and vacuum. Instead, we drove back home because the roads were icy and there were a lot of cars were in the ditch.
New Year’s Day was spent watching the Wisconsin Badgers play in the Rose Bowl. Ben and Giselle were over to watch the game with us. Even though the Badgers lost, it was probably the most entertaining college bowl game this year.
Finally, today we watched the Packers beat the Chicago Bears and qualify for the playoffs. What a great way to end the holiday, wouldn’t you say?
More next time,
~Tim