Christmas Is Here!

The girls show off their presents.

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.

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...

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!

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.

It Is Almost Time...

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

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.