Nice Gifts From Notre Dame

Aunt Jean shows off a few of her nice gifts from Notre Dame University.

The Showtime series, "A Season with Notre Dame," provided an incredible, behind-the-scenes look into how the Fighting Irish went after a national championship on the football field this year.

I watched a few episodes and immediately knew that Aunt Jean would appreciate the show as well. So I took my iPad down to her a few months ago and she took it in as well. Unfortunately, the season did not go as well as Notre Dame had hoped and the Irish fell short of being one of the top four in the nation and making the playoff.

But along the way, I wrote an email of appreciation to Senior Associate Athletics Director John Heisler. I thanked him for opening up the school's football program to a documentary crew. To my surprise, he wrote back and later wrote back again, asking if Aunt Jean would like something from the school. ("Of course," I wrote back.)

So that led to a surprise package showing up recently for Aunt Jean. She was treated to a variety of very cool keepsake items, including the "Play like a champion" towel and pennant pictured above. What an amazing – and totally unexpected – surprise. Go Irish!

More Snow!

At 9 o'clock, the sidewalk had already been plowed ... and snowed over again.

Omaha schools are closed for the holiday break. This means today's snow event (officially known as "Snowmageddon" or the "Snowpocalypse") is not as significant for students. It has already made its mark, though, with shoppers clamoring for bread and milk at the grocery stores Sunday, in anticipation of a forecast that called for at least eight inches of snow.

But Omahans woke up to scaled-back predictions of four to six inches of "dry" snow. But combined with strong winds, it is still going to make for difficult driving conditions and more shoveling and plowing on the heels of last Thursday's Christmas Eve snowfall.

Christmas Is Here!

The girls show off their presents.

Lauren Got Her Wish...

Yes, it was a "White Christmas."

Under The Tree

Santa delivered some nice things.

Christmas Eve Snowfall

What it looked like three hours after it began to snow.
It is always a nice surprise when you wake up to snow that was not expected. That was precisely the situation on Christmas Eve here in Omaha.

Almost as bizarre? A strange flash of light that occurred about six hours before the first flakes began falling.

By 9 a.m., there was already an inch. And up to six more were still to come.

Last Trip To Piccolo Pete's

We lunched at Piccolo Pete's a week before it was to close its doors.

Christmas Letter Time!

Veronica decided to "decorate" someone's face...

Things came together rather quickly when we got down to business on this year's Christmas letter. From Friday night to Saturday afternoon, we finished everyone's text portion, got the letters printed at CopyMax, addressed more than 140 envelopes and stuffed and mailed them off. Emily, Julia and Veronica were the biggest of helpers, with Olivia chipping in and Lauren ... well, being Lauren.

Thanks to a trip to the main post office, we expect the letters to start arriving in the Omaha area on Monday and faraway places after that. The only regret this year? That I did not have time to write a personal message on each one of them. Sorry!

Veronica (right) handled stamps and return address labels this year.

How Emily addressed envelopes while wearing my glasses is beyond me...

Bell Ringing Fun

Veronica (far right) was one of several students collection donations outside Hy-Vee on Tuesday.

As part of Veronica's election to student council, she earned the opportunity to be a Salvation Army bell ringer this week.

Her half-hour shift began at 4:15 p.m. at the Hy-Vee at 50th & Center. So we had really had to hustle to be there on time. Fortunately, traffic was light once we escaped the maze that is the area around the school.

Sporting a Santa's hat (borrowed from Aunt Bridget), Veronica had a great time taking shifts ringing the bell. Fortunately, the weather was on the mild side.

Another nice aspect of the volunteer work was watching the generosity of people young and old. There was a near constant stream of people stuffing cash into the red kettle. And each time, Veronica and her classmates thanked the people who were kind enough to donate.

Veronica was all the more cuter, thanks to her Santa hat.

Basketball Begins

Julia got some help getting started from former Central High principal, Dr. Keith Bigsby.

Julia continued her help behind the scenes with the Central High athletic teams tonight, assisting on the striv.tv broadcast of the girls basketball game.

She is a bit busier with this sport. In volleyball, she got the broadcast to commercial during timeouts. In basketball, she is still doing this, plus keeping the score and running the clock. It's a lot of work for a freshman, but she is a master multi-tasker and pulled it off with flying colors.

I pitched in to help the broadcast team on the stats. It was a bit of a shock to the system, but after awhile, it all came back to me. I was only wishing I still had my stat forms. (They are probably tucked away in a box somewhere or on a floppy disk!)

A (Long) Season of Joy

"As seen on SnapChat," Veronica was in the front row during the chorus performance.

For the first time in years, I was able to attend Veronica's holiday music program. Two performances were on offer today and I chose the morning one.

The cover of the program.

I was particularly looking forward to this event because I got to attend a music class during a "parent's day" at the school last month. It was quite an eye-opening experience, considering music classes were typically out of control when I was in grade school. (Mostly because the students acted up and didn't respect the teacher.)

But what I didn't know was how ambitious this program would be. That is, until I opened the program. Wow. This was going to be a show of shows. As it turned out, the first three songs took 15 minutes and, after 65 minutes of performances, there were still 10 songs still to go.

Here's a sampling of Veronica's performances (three songs in one video) and a few photos.

I usually figure three minutes per song. This was shaping up to be a long show.

The chorus sang four songs in the morning performance but only three in the afternoon.

Yes, Veronica, we wish you were, too!

Veronica's New Look, Part II

Veronica sent over a few more photos of her "new do."

Uh Oh.

Julia spotted this. She said she could hear sirens as the buses were pulling away from school.

New Look For Veronica

How do you like Veronica's haircut? She got quite a bit chopped off.

As Seen on SnapChat

No caption necessary.

Midtown Crossing Holiday Lights

A sample of the 15-minute holiday lights show at Midtown Crossing.

Last year, Midtown Crossing launched a nightly lights show in the former Turner Park area. We enjoyed it and thought we would return again this year.

What we didn't know is that things are a bit more extravagant this year. They have added smoke and spotlights to the 15-minute show. It was pretty nice, especially since the weather was fairly mild (mid-40s).

These lights on the building looked pretty cool.

The periodic smoke is new this year.

There are also spotlights this year.

Student of the Month

Check out the backdrop for Veronica's "Student of the Month" photo.

Earlier this week, we received a nice note from the school telling us that Veronica was chosen as "Student of the Month" for her classroom. Wow!

It read:

"We have high expectations for our Jefferson Elementary students. In order to be selected as "Student of the Month," students must excel in all of the following areas:

• Be a good citizen who is responsible and respects others.
• Be a hard-working student who always turns work in on time and always does his/her best.
• Be at school on time and attend regularly.

"Veronica has demonstrated all these traits on a daily basis. We are so very proud of your childre and we hope you are too! Students cannot be successful without the support of their parents. We thank you for being a supportive parent. Congratulations to you and Veronica for a job well done!"

Veronica got a sprinkle donut with juice. (My donut was plain and they gave me water.)

The certificate sure is nice.

These two food cards were a nice – and unexpected – bonus.

Veronica showed off herself on the classroom's door decoration.

As Seen On SnapChat

Emily went "old school" today.

It Is Almost Time...

Look what is in progress at the YD house...

Isn't It Too Early For This?

It will not be too many years before this is a reality for Veronica.

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Watch the lighting of the tree.
This year's tree lighting ceremony at Shadow Lake Towne Center was a special one.

While I don't believe we have ever attended one at this popular shopping place in Papillion, we had good reason to be there this year. That's because the tree that is on display came from the yard where Jon Brooks grew up. His dad donated it in memory of Patti, who died a few years ago. Because of this, we enjoyed a nice view from the VIP section next to the stage.

We enjoyed pretty moderate weather conditions (though the wind did kick up a bit at the end) and the ceremony itself was very nice. It included a concert by the "Peppermint Elves," as well as several characters from "Frozen" and other Disney movies – plus the entirety of the Papillion-South Titans marching band. That was impressive.

Here are a few photos: 

Santa Claus was there, along with radio personalities Chris and Ricky from Star 104.5.

The tree looked much larger on display than in Jon's front yard.

Julia got her picture taken with the Grinch. Well, kind of.

Olivia (right) and Julia posed in front of the tree.

Lauren was helping out with Neil's children and Emily was in Colorado.

This was a nice sign to help remember Patti.

I felt like I was live tweeting an event...

Here is Santa's arrival.

Julia's Time Lapse

Julia made another nice time-lapse video.

Robin Hill Pool Spaghetti Feed

"Noodles 4 The Pool" took place at the VFW Hall.

Julia and Olivia helped out at this afternoon's "Noodles 4 The Pool" fundraiser for Robin Hill Pool at the VFW Hall. It was a bit of a slow start, but things picked up nicely as the afternoon wore on. At day's end, more than $900 had been raised.

Some of our first customers!

We dressed up the front door so as not to be confused with a bridal shower next door.

As Seen on Snapchat: Friday the 13th

This is how you know it is Friday the 13th.