Books I have read in 2010

•Mockingjay

•Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

•The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella

•Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague

•The Red Pyramid

•Understanding Exposure (Revised Addition)

•The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography

•The Digital Photography Book

•The Help

•The Book of Mormon

•Princess Academy

•When You Reach Me

•Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Demigod Files

•The Last Olympian

•The Battle of the Labyrinth

•The Titan's Curse

•The Sea of Monsters

•The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

•The Lightning Thief

•Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (would NOT recommend)

Merry Christmas!

Jackson 2010 Update

For the first time in a decade our Christmas Greetings are not originating in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. After ten memorable and practically perfect years in Kentucky we made the leap across the Ohio River to our new home in Cincinnati, Ohio last summer. I finished my residency at the University of Kentucky in July and am now completing a one year fellowship in Neuroradiology at the University of Cincinnati.

We were very comfortable and happy with our situation in Lexington, Kentucky and it was a difficult decision to make the move to Cincinnati. However, I have been amazed at how quickly Cheryl and the kids have adjusted to their new surroundings. Within days of arriving in Cincinnati the familiar routines of soccer and baseball games, dance classes, homework, neighborhood friends, scouts and piano lessons were in full swing. We are truly enjoying this latest adventure in the “Queen City”. We are also looking forward to the coming year. My formal medical training will be complete on July 1, 2011 and we have accepted a position with a practice in Utah. The prospect of leaving the Ohio Valley that has been our home for the past decade is sobering, but we are looking forward to living in closer proximity to our parents, grandparents and siblings.

We are so grateful for wonderful friends and family that are the source of so much happiness in our lives. We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love,

Rich, Cheryl, Trey (11), Josh (9), Matt (9), Brynn (4), Kaitlyn (4) and Zach (1)

Believe...

Macy's Santa Mail, where real wishes come true.

NCAA Basketball

The 1986 film Hoosiers was filmed at Hinckle Fieldhouse

Standford Cardinal warming up

CBS Sports Live Broadcast

Random bits of life....

The hustle and bustle of Christmas is in full swing here in Cincinnati.  A visit to the Post Office has been made with my trusty and strong helper Josh.   It took both of us (with Zach in my arms) to get all those packages in to get mailed.   170 Christmas cards have been stuffed, addressed, licked (yuck!) and dropped in the mailbox.  Wrapping paper is strewn across the floor by Zach every chance he can get his hands on a roll (which seems to be often).  The Christmas tree is twinkling bright and I have been pleasantly surprised that a little 16 month old has decided to leave it alone, most of the time.  Egg Juice (egg nog) is in the fridge, pine scented candles fill our home and Christmas carols are heard from our three budding pianists every day.  I find myself humming Christmas tunes all day and the girls love to do their actions to We Wish you a Merry Christmas that include major arm swings that could knock out a tooth if you got in the way.  The girls' preschool Christmas program was a delight. Brynn class party was a lot of fun (I volunteered to help) and the teacher and neighborhood gifts are slowly getting passed out.  Last Sunday the ward choir sang Christmas hymns while a narrator spoke of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I got Rich's mom's wassail recipe and the ingredients have been purchased. We have eaten no less than 4 boxes of Candy Canes and too many bags to count of Christmas wrapped Hershey Kisses (mainly eaten by Trey).  We watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas on YouTube for Family Home Evening.  Elf, Dora's Christmas, The Grinch who Stole Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and It's a Wonderful Life have been viewed.  Our birthday gift for the Savior is under the tree and we all are finding good deeds to do so they can be written down and placed in the box as a gift for Jesus' birthday.  Toys, hats, gloves and gift cards have been purchased and donated helping the kids recognize the need to help others less fortunate, especially this time of year.  Spare change has been dropped into the Salvation Army bucket by the girls and their eyes shine bright as the bell ringers wishes them well as they walk away.  The girls and Zach have visited with Santa at the mall three times.  Brynn feels like he's a really buddy.  In fact, the last time we popped in (no line at 2 PM) she began to fill Santa in on Matt's need to share his toys a bit more often.  I cringed and then told Brynn to tell Santa what to bring her big brother.  I think we got him covered.

The world is a beautiful scene of white.  The boys had a two hour delay on Monday after 5 inches of snow fell on Sunday night.  How nice to have the kids actually in school when snow is on the ground.  We were pounded by a second storm yesterday (nearly 6 inches with ice in Northern Kentucky) which shut the schools down.  450 schools in the area were closed, the Today Show was preempted to allow the local stations to track the weather and a Level 2 snow advisory (no cars on the road unless absolutely necessary) in a few counties (thankfully not ours) was in effect all morning.  After ten years of snow woes and school closings, I still laugh at the hysteria snow and ice can bring, but Rich told me last night that yesterday morning's drive downtown was the most dangerous snow conditions he had ever driven in, which is saying a lot.  The freeways were snow packed, the plows could not keep up, especially during the morning rush hour commute and tiny cars skidded and slid off the road.  Everything was smooth sailing by late afternoon, but it's been the snowiest December that I can remember.  Our winter snow season usually starts after the holidays.

It's not all been perfect.  After a booming crash late one night we discovered the next morning that the garage door spring had broken.  We had to haul the garbage through the house last Sunday night and it has still yet to be fixed.  I also accidentally locked the kids out of the house after school when I forgot to leave the house unlocked.  They usually use the key less entry to get in.  The reason I wasn't home when they got out of school is because the day before I went to Kroger to get groceries and exchange the propane tank.  It was only later that night when I saw the old propane label that I realized that I forgot to get the new tank.  Whoops!  I had to pop in the next day after I picked the girls up for school and grab it.  Yes, I lost my mind long ago and this proves the point.

Then after the garage incident, I discovered late Saturday night that the sink in the basement next to the washing machine, which is used for the washing machine water to drain, was totally back up.  Rich and I scooped up the water and poured in down a drain in the floor.  We tried to plunge the thing, but ended up cracking the pipe below.  Nice.  The next day we found out that the same pipe was connected to the garbage disposal when food showed up downstairs in the sink.  Yippee.  We had a family over for dinner on Sunday and after I left for a Primary meeting Kaitlyn rushed upstairs and declared "Dad, there is HUGE disaster in the basement!"  I had started the dishwasher before I left and that water had made the sink fill up and then spill out like a waterfall.  Desperate we pour Liquid Plumber down the drain (well, into the sink of water) and later remember the bucket below catching the water leaking from the pipe was overflowing, which meant this caustic cleaner was all over the floor.  Wow.  Seriously problem now.  The next day I didn't know what to do.  It's great to be a renter because the problems are not yours to pay for, but on the flip side, you can't call and get it all fixed.  It was a waiting game.  By Monday morning I had serious laundry to do and dishwasher full of dirty dishes so I decided to run the washing machine and the dishwasher at the same time and then pour the back up water into the drain in the floor.  After an hour of constant watching the sink and many bucket fulls of water, the drain suddenly cleared.  I am not sure if it was the pressure from both machine mixed with the Liquid Plumber, but it worked.  HUGE blessing.  Yes, the pipe is still broken and needs repair, but at least we can wash our clothes, dishes and use the kitchen sink.

Our other headache is our house in Lexington.  It's still for sale.  We had a showing this week, but the buyer said they need something bigger.  My water bill for the past two months has stated that 3000 gallons of water has been used at the house, which seems impossible unless there is some invisible leak somewhere we have never seen.  We are paying to heat a house that is vacant too, but you can't turn it off and think it would show well or have perfect pipes in the spring.  The housing market is rough, but we count our blessings are are confident  that it will sell in the spring.  I have no doubt that it will.

Today is the first day where I can sit and not feel totally uneasy about not doing some Christmas project or crossing something on the to-do list.  We are hoping Rich gets home early enough to go to Macy's and mail the Christmas lists.  Life certainly doesn't slow down at Christmas, but I do feel that we have tried make time for our holiday traditions, focus on the real reason for the season and be a bit kinder to each other. 

The major difference this Christmas is after nine years of traveling home to Utah and hauling toys back from Santa we decided to stay put this year.  After all it's our last one until we move to Utah and we need to go home over spring break to look for a place to live.  Two weeks after we informed our families that we would not be coming home, I got a phone call from my mom.  My brothers Jeff and Brad are staying in Wisconsin with their families for Christmas.  Since Jeff is a third year medical student, he has a break from school.  He called and told my Mom that they should send Kurt up to Milwaukee to spend Christmas with them.  Kurt had never been up to visit, so the idea sounded great to him. I mean who can pass up a trip to Chicago at Christmas!  My parents got thinking and asked if they could fly out and spend Christmas with us.  It's a direct flight and they'll arrive the afternoon on the 22nd and leave on Monday the 27th.  We are thrilled to have family with us, especially since Santa can finally bring some bigger sized items now that we won't have to pack them back into suitcases to get them home.  We will dearly miss all our loved ones in Utah, but March isn't too far away and then we'll be there for good this summer.

We look forward to a wonderful Christmas holiday, give thanks for our children, our good health and Rich's new job and appreciate the true gift of the Season- the Life of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Preschool Christmas Program and Class Party

 

Every class presented their song or poem and then all the classes came together and sang a few Christmas songs as a group. 

Kaitlyn's class recited a poem about mittens.  It talked about how they had asked for toys and lots of fun things, but ended up with mittens instead.  And they certainly had not asked for mittens.  At the end a boy in the middle raised up his hands and said, "but I got gloves!"  It was cute.

Brynn's class recited a poem called 'Shy Santa' and how he only brings toys when the kids are in bed!  She loved wearing her pink Santa hat.  I was impressed with how much of the poem she knew on her own.

I was so happy when they let Kaitlyn and Brynn stand next to each other.  They sang Jingle Bells, Away in a Manger, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a song called A Special Night.  It was a real Methodist/Christian style Christmas song about Jesus' birthday complete with animal sounds.  I remember the boys singing a few like that back when they were in preschool.

Kaitlyn's teachers gave her a book and these funny glasses for Christmas.  She loved them.

The next day (Wednesday) I went to Brynn's class to help with her Christmas party.  They decorated trees, made snowman by wrapping a child with toilet paper and had a sugar cookie treat.  Every parent signs up to help with one class party, so I was sad that I couldn't see Kaitlyn, but I already helped with her Halloween party and I didn't want to infringe on the other parent's opportunity by showing up.  Brynn's teacher doesn't care who comes, the more the merrier she says.  That's my philosophy too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!