Tag Archives: Gene Leahy Mall

Bi-Polar Weather

We’re experiencing some bi-polar weather once again, with snow one day and too warm for a jacket the next. It means getting outside can be confusing, particularly when you don’t know how to dress.

It was warm enough on Saturday last week to bring Harold and his mommy outside to graze for a bit in our yard. Afterward, I took Aaron down to Ralston Park to get in some quality playtime before Sunday, when we had an actual dusting of snow for some reason (leaving us and the guinea pigs inside).

I rode my bike a bit more during the following week, heading up by the Vinton Street silos one day and down to Oak Park in Ralston the next. It was so nice on the latter trip that I was able to take off my jacket. I also rode by Ralston Park again (sans Aaron) and got to get a selfie with a train before heading back to work.

On Friday, I drove down to the Student Center at UN-L in Lincoln to see a comedian named K-Von, who tours college campuses with Turning Point USA. He told a variety of jokes, poking fun at his own Iranian heritage and Covid-19.

About 30 other people showed up as well (and no protestors), and it was nice to get out of Omaha briefly for an evening. I also got to hang out with a few of them afterward chatting about the nonaggression principle and man in the state of nature.

Then on Saturday, I dropped by the Bellevue Library to get a free pass to the Zoo (with a bunch of other people). Then I spent much of the day at my parents’ house, going through some more old slides of my childhood and then watching home movies while eating food from Taco John’s. We played a ground of “Guesspionage” on the Switch afterward, and I had a round of Boggle with mom and Nathan before heading home.

It was warm enough that evening to bring the guinea pigs out again, and then Hannah and I walked down to Chick-Fil-A for ice cream after dinner, picking up a coconut on the way back (of all things).

On Palm Sunday, we took the kids down to the Gene Leahy Mall for Autism Awareness Day (or something like that) in the afternoon. Mostly, it was a nice excuse to get out and see the remodeled Mall with the kids. They got to go down a couple of the slides, play on a few of the new climbing structures, and roll down one of the turf-covered slopes.

I still don’t think it’s an improvement over what used to be there, but I was glad the kids got to enjoy it. The kids spent a good deal of time playing basketball and shooting a bubble gun, and we also got a few balloons and some lemonade before heading back to the car. I also walked along the small water area with Hannah with the Yellow Head sculpture by Jun Kaneko.

Then on Tuesday, Vivian and I planned on having lunch at Malara’s, an Italian restaurant we’d been to numerous times before that’s now about to close forever. Naturally, a bunch of other people had the same idea, filling the venue to capacity, and prompting them to lock the front door while I was inside.

It was an hour wait just to get a table, so Vivian and I decided to run up the street to Louie M’s Burger Lust for lunch instead. Louie M’s has been a favorite of mine since 2001. We both had some Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburgers with Onion Rings and fries for lunch, and later in the day I got to walk off a bit along in the Keystone Trail in the lovely 72 degree weather.

We’ll give Malara’s another try next week — and hopefully get there much earlier.

Forest Walk and Lobster Bisque

1 Reply

The heat is on! It’s mid-July and temperatures are in the 90s pretty much every day, but that’s not keeping us from getting outside. On Friday afternoon, I joined around a hundred sign wavers down on Dodge Street in front of Children’s Hospital. The crowd was surprisingly diverse, with blacks, Hispanics, and some Asian families joining the crowd. There were also a few political folks, such as legislative candidate Julie Fredrickson and school board candidate Sean Swanson. A local YouTube channel Name the Unknown was also on site with their cameras, interviewing a few rally-goers as well as a few counter-protesters across the street.

The whole protest was organized somewhat spontaneously by a local prayer group, and I have some of the details over on my polticial blog, if you’d like to read it. It was mostly nice just to see so many people exercising their first amendment rights, even in the near 100-degree heat.

We had a fairly quiet weekend otherwise. I got some free Chick-Fil-A for breakfast on Saturday and then spent the day doing some laundry and cleaning up the garage, and Vivian went out to get a present for her mom’s birthday, which happened to be Sunday. The kids also decorated their own cards for her.

We went by Grammy’s house after church to wish her a Happy Birthday with lunch along with a few presents and cards. I also got a few photos of Grammy with Vivian and the grand-kids out on the front lawn. I came back a bit later so I could mow Grammy’s lawn for her and trim a few tree branches (as a last minute birthday present). Hannah also wanted to explore a bit of the forest in the backyard, but the steep slope and nettles proved to be a bit too treacherous for us to hike through.

We returned to the Fontenelle Forest on Monday evening as Our Gathering Place hosted another “judgement free” dinner experience. We attended their last dinner back in 2019, nearly three years earlier, and it seemed daunting that so much time had passed since. Kinesha has some teriyaki chicken and brisket for us once again, and the kids played with balloons and got to hold a few baby chicks thanks to a volunteer from 4H who was on site.

After dinner, we went out to explore the trails for a bit. It was nice to get out and walk in the shade for a bit, and the kids found a lovely, bumpy tree to sit on along the way, even though we didn’t have time to go all the way down to the water as we had before.

Then on Tuesday, Vivian and I put on our wedding clothes and headed on down to Shucks Fish House & Oyster Bar to celebrate our fourteenth wedding anniversary! We got couple lobster rolls (our first since our honeymoon), lobster-stuffed mushrooms, and lobster bisque. I also had a whiskey sour and shrimp cocktail in honor of my dad’s choice of appetizer from the last time we were there. It was good food all around and took me back to our lovely honeymoon in Bar Harbor, Maine. We also had a couple presents for each other. Vivian had a lovely 14-year old Glenlivet for me, and I had a white elephant teapot for our “ivory” anniversary. Of course, I also had my annual Anniversary Comic, commemorating some highlights of our last year together.

We had a bit of a walk afterward down to the remodeled Gene Leahy Mall as the sun went down. I won’t lie — I don’t exactly like what they’ve done with the place. Visually, the place is a mess and will never compare to the beautiful little waterfront it had had for the past forty years or so. They threw in a giant lawn and a handful of play areas and splash pads, which I think the kids will enjoy if and when we bring then down. The place was crowded with loads of other people having fun in the new space, though, so I’m glad some people are enjoying it. Vivian and I still had a lovely little walk watching a family of ducks go swimming along, and I even took off my shoes to get my feet wet halfway through our downtown stroll. We finished off our evening returning home, where Hannah was still awake to see the new drawing for our wall, and we got to have some of Grammy’s blueberry marshmallow fluff for dessert before calling it a night.

Happy anniversary, Vivian!

Fish Fry, Skating, and St. Patrick’s Day

Leave a reply

The Lenten season is upon us again, so that means touring some of Omaha’s famous fish fries, in particular the one at Holy Name. It’s is one of the biggest draws in town, attracting such guests as Congressman Don Bacon, as well as our tiny group. The fish is good, and watching it being battered in a custom-made contraption is a show all in itself.

This particular fish fry is baffling as many in the crowd outside — and packing the halls inside — seem more interested in standing around drinking instead of lining up for fish, making it difficult for the rest of us to know where to go. It’s a fun time once you make your way inside, though (and the smell will linger with us for weeks).

The next day, I went downtown with Hannah to see the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It had been delayed a week due to unexpected snow and nasty weather, and it was about half as long as last year as well. We still saw the standard of parade participants, ranging from politicians to Star Wars characters, to Irish dancers, clowns, and even a Family Reunion of sorts.

The weather was just about perfect, with temperatures rising to the fifties, so Hannah and I spent a little extra time watching geese fight along the now tree-less Gene Leahy Mall and looking at some of the flooding along the Missouri River. We even took a few minutes for a daddy/daughter date at Chick-Fil-A before heading on home.

Later that day, we celebrated Uncle Jonny’s birthday with my parents and Uncle Nathan. Jonathan wanted to go roller-skating down at Skate City on Fort Crook, so I brought Hannah along and spent some quality time staggering awkwardly around the rink with her for an hour or two. It was legitimately the first time I’d ever gone roller skating, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined (particularly after one guy helped tighten my skates). Hannah, much to my surprise, had a grand time skating around the rink using a kind of walker they had on hand for the little ones.

Then that evening we headed back to my parents’ house for some Marco’s Pizza and pumpkin pie for dessert. We finished off the evening watching some family slides with the folks and then playing some Choose Your Words before calling it a night.

On Sunday, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes and Irish soda bread, though we also had some special green foods for the kids that we hoped would be more palatable.

Then on Monday we headed down to the waterfront a family to get a look at some of the flooding from the Missouri River. The devastating flood has made national news, but we live and work far enough away from the flooded area that we’ve been largely unaffected. It was daunting to see the statues at Lewis and Clark landing drowning once again (as they did in 2011), as well as the entirety of River’s Edge Park completely underwater, making me wonder about the fate of Loessfest this year.

The kids mostly enjoyed the chance to get outside and run around, and we also saw a number Canadian geese migrating overhead, flying in wave after wave heading north in a V formation. The effects of the flood were sobering in the meantime, but I couldn’t be prouder of the response of our friends and neighbors, who are stepping up with volunteers and supplies gathered at nearly every church I can name, including the ones we attend on Sunday and Wednesday night. Nebraska Strong, indeed.

Unseasonable

Leave a reply

The year 2019 is well underway, and we’re enjoying some major unseasonably warm weather. Among other unseasonable events, the 2020 Presidential Campaign seems to have kicked off way, way early, bleeding into the mid-terms in what feels like a never-ending political season.

As such, Elizabeth Warren decided to drop by the Thunderbowl banquet hall in Council Bluffs to start her campaign. The venue held only 150 people and was clearly incapable of hosting the 300+ people who showed up. The Massachusetts Senator certainly had name recognition among the crowd, though most people who dropped by seemed more curious than committed to a candidate. Some left early after seeing that they wouldn’t be able to get inside, while those of us who stayed got a surprise when Warren herself dropped by half an hour early to greet the overflow crowd. She said a few words and then was immediately mobbed by spectators wanting selfies on her way inside (I almost got one myself). She gave a brief stump speech and held a brief Q&A, with questions selected via names from a hat. She then stuck around for more selfies afterward.

It seems like yesterday I was hobnobbing with candidates like this, mingling with the merch vendors hawking buttons and standing in lines of people waiting to see candidates. I enjoyed hearing what Warren had to say, though she’s farther to the left than most any candidate I’ve heard before and stands opposite of me on nearly every issue. It’ll be interesting to see which candidate throws his (or her) hat into the rig next.

The gorgeous weather continued into Saturday, and to celebrate the twelfth day of Christmas, the city of Omaha set off the fireworks it had intended to set off on New Year’s Eve (but postponed due to high winds). We walked through the Gene Leahy Mall with the kids, which was lovely still with its Christmas lights lit. We met up with Kate and her girls and let the kids play a bit on the slides. Then we took a brief walk on the (still) frozen ice as we waited for the fireworks to start.

The show was supposed to happen at 14th and Farnam, but the fireworks were actually set off from behind the buildings in Heartland of America Park, obscuring our view from the east end of the mall (as if the organizers pulled the world’s biggest “psyche!”) Once the show started, we had to rush with a thousand other people just to see them. Fortunately, we got a fairly good view from tenth street. We let the traffic clear itself out as the kids played together, and then Vivian and I headed home to enjoy some jalapeño poppers (courtesy of Vivian) after putting the kids to bed.

On Sunday night, we took the kids to play at the playground of First Presbyterian Church in advance of their Family Movie Night. They got a good dose of playing outdoors despite the weather turning a bit more seasonable, but it made our dinner of chili hot dogs even more welcoming once we were done outside. Then Hannah and Aaron got to join several of their little friends on the floor and watch Ferdinand before calling it a night.

Then on Monday, Alabama got to lose spectacularly to Clemson in the college football national championship. I watched the game with my dad and Jonathan, taking advantage of a free trial with Sling to watch on ESPN via my dad’s laptop (connected to the TV via HDMI, which worked great). It’s one of the two football games I usually watch each year, though Hannah doesn’t pick a winner for this one. We’ll see if Alabama and Clemson meet again next year for yet another re-match.

Thanksgiving Birthday and the Longest Christmas Season Begins

Leave a reply

It’s been a busy, crazy couple of weeks preparing for both a birthday for Hannah, Thanksgiving with the family, and a handful of celebrations to kick off a long Christmas season.

The fun started last weekend as Hannah had a kitty cat themed birthday party with a handful of her little friends at our house. Grammy made a Zoey birthday cake, which was both adorable and frightening, particularly when Vivian decapitated it to give Hannah the first piece. Lily (and Jonah), Nicholette, and Sammy came over to share in the cake and make paper cut-out cats with Hannah. Hannah also got a bunch of presents, which included Play-Dough and a sequined toy that was particularly fun for Hannah to “draw” on.

Thanksgiving the following week landed right on Hannah’s birthday, so we had to juggle both roasting a turkey for our Thanksgiving Dinner and hosting a family birthday party with Hannah. Grammy brought a new, “little Zoey” cake for Hannah, and she got to open some more presents in the morning, which included a Knuffle Bunny and her long-expected “Hannah Doll” (an American Girl actually named Willa).

All four grandparents dropped by, along with both Uncle Jonny and Nathan. Grandma read the kids a story as Jack and Vivian got Thanksgiving Dinner ready. Then around one, we sat down for turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, Taber salad, and also pie for dessert. Hannah also got to eat her cake, of course, blowing out the candles before going “head first” into a new sugar rush.

That evening, we took the kids downtown to see the Gene Leahy Mall lit up in Christmas splendor for the last time before its multi-year demolition. It had warmed up to a lovely 50 degrees, but there was still enough ice left on the waterfront for some geese to walk on (“Just like Jesus,” said Hannah). We got a glimpse of Christmas Island and saw a man playing Christmas songs on a legit hurdy-gurdy near 12th and Farnam. Aaron (and mommy) tried out the slides before we headed up to 14th Street for the lights to turn on.

Some young kids sang some Christmas songs on a bandstand in front of the library before the emcee from 104.5 rattled off an endless list of sponsors. Then Mayor Jean took the stage to lead the countdown for the mall to light up. It was bittersweet to see the beautiful lights with the kids for the first — and last — time together. We stuck around just long enough to get a photo in front of them before hurrying on home to bed.

On Black Friday, I had an early-morning breakfast at the 11-Worth Cafe with Uncle Jonny and my folks, starting the day with hash browns and sausage biscuits smothered with sausage gravy (AKA the “General Lee.”) Afterward, Vivian and I did just a bit of Black Friday shopping, specifically enough to confirm everything advertised had been sold out on Thursday.

Around four, we dropped by the Durham Museum to have Christmas at Union Station. The kids got to meet Santa and decorate cookies with Grammy and the River City Confectioners Association. They had some reindeer crafts, but we spent most of our time on a reindeer scavenger hunt downstairs, finding nine cut-out reindeer in order to claim a light-up glow stick upstairs as a prize. There were some toy trains (and a piano) that Aaron enjoyed playing with, and Hannah got to run through the various train exhibits and vintage passenger cars on display. We also saw the model of the 1898 World’s Fair in Omaha, a building of which one other girl said looked like “Donald Trump’s House.”

Later on upstairs, we got front-row seats for the tree-lighting, as the only spot to sit was right in front of the stage. Michael Lyon was back to sing some Christmas songs (after a recent bout with throat cancer of all things) before Mayor Jean and a handful of VIPs took the stage to lead the countdown. I let Hannah handle the video this year as I snapped some photos, and then we managed to join everyone else in the crowd in getting a selfie in front of the tree and playing in the paper snowflakes to kick off the Christmas season.

We had some lovely weather on Saturday, which I spent putting up our Christmas decorations and taking the kids on one last wagon ride to my parents’ house for a visit. Our neighbor Betty also gave us some kolaches, and Vivian planted our tulip bulbs while we still had one last warm day before winter.

On Sunday, we got a dusting of snow that mostly just left the streets wet and slushy (before they turned to ice). It was fun to hear Aaron exclaim with a gasp, “It’s Christmas!” as he looked out the window. We were still able to go to church and then drop by Sam’s Club afterward for cheese and ice melt (among other things). We spent the rest of the day indoors catching up before our four-day weekend came to a close.

One interesting thing I learned this week was that when Hannah’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving, what follows is the longest Christmas Season possible on the calendar — 33 full days. I’m glad we were able to start them off right!

Happy birthday, Hannah — and Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Applejack and Calamari Steak

Leave a reply

Fall is officially here, so we kicked it off with our annual trip to Nebraska City to celebrate the 50th Applejack Festival. We dropped by the firehouse for our pancake breakfast with the Pancake Man and let the kids climb inside the fire trucks. We walked down to the library hoping to see a traveling exhibit from the Omaha Children’s Museum, but they didn’t have one this year, so the kids played with Legos for a bit before we headed out.

We headed on up to Kimmel Orchard around noon and gave the kids a good amount of time to play on their new playground. Then we took a hay rack off to the orchard to scavenge for some apples. It seemed every apple we found was rotten or full of holes, which was disappointing, but we somehow managed to find enough trees with good apples to pick about twenty pounds of them, which we took home with us (perhaps to turn into Apple Donuts, since the line for those was so ridiculous).

A few days later, it was Vivian’s birthday! I took the whole day off so we could go out to lunch together at Spaghetti Works downtown. It was a beautiful day, so we had lasagna together (and ice cream) with a few friendly birds outside and then had a nice walk up and down the Gene Leahy Mall, enjoying the scenery before it all gets demolished and paved over in the next couple of years.

We also stopped by the Imaginarium in our walk through the Old Market, which was a kind of vintage toy store with many items Vivian and I recognized from our childhood. In particular were a couple Rainbow Brite dolls and a handful of Masters of the Universe toys, many of which I personally owned.

That evening, Jack and Donna came by and grilled up some calamari steaks for dinner (which they got from some secret seafood distributor in town). I grilled up some shrimp-on-the-barbie and we had a tasty dinner with the kids, followed by raspberry lemonade cake (with candles). We had some presents afterward, including some cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and cards personally decorated by the kids (and me). It was a fairly full day, with more than a few leftover left over.

A White Christmas

Leave a reply

Merry Christmas, everyone! We’ve had a busy holiday weekend here in Omaha, and also a bit of snow to make this Christmas seem just a little more authentic.

We kicked off our holiday weekend by splurging on some siding repair, banging up my shin slipping on some icy bricks, and then introducing Hannah to some Facebook photo filters. Then on Friday we took a tour through some neighborhoods lit with Christmas lights, which included one attended by Santa himself (who gave candy canes to Hannah and Aaron through our car window).

Then on Saturday night, Vivian and I celebrated our eleventh “first date” anniversary by seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the Aksarben Theater and then dining on a massive selection of Dim Sum around the corner at the Gold Mountain restaurant. We wandered downtown to get fudge at the Old Market Candy Shoppe before a quick trip through the icy cold Gene Leahy Mall to see Holiday Island and get our annual picture on the bridge before heading home (where we found someone waited up for us).

We got a couple inches of snow overnight, which gave us a white Christmas to enjoy after all. I shoveled the driveway and then watched the kids for an hour or two as they played in the new-fallen snow, making a few tiny snowmen and smiley faces out of footprints (for mommy’s amusement). Mostly, though, they just wanted to pelt daddy with snowballs. Even Hannah’s “friend” Layla got dressed up to spend some time with us outside.

That evening, we had a Christmas Eve dinner of roast beef and potatoes with mushrooms and gravy (and Vivian’s famous veggies) with all four grandparents. Grammy was nice enough to watch the kids as Vivian and I went to a candlelight service at Twin Valley Church.

Then we returned to give Aaron and Hannah their new, matching Elf on a Shelf jammies before reading them the story of Jesus’ birth from Aaron’s new picture book bible, as well as reciting T’was the Night Before Christmas before sending them off to bed. Vivian and I opened our “stocking presents” with Grammy and Pop-Pop afterward and got all the presents arranged underneath our beautifully-lit tree. Then I snapped some lovely photos of the tree and our house lit up with the new-fallen snow outside before going to bed for a long winter’s nap.

On Christmas morning, Hannah was up bright and early to find her Tinkerbell toy under the tree. Daddy, Aaron, and Grammy and Pop-Pop came shortly thereafter to open presents with the rest of us. Hannah got a new digital camera (which she used to document every moment of the rest of the day), Aaron got a walking, roaring dinosaur, Mommy got a Google Home (from daddy), and daddy got a Pebble smartwatch (from Mommy). Both kids also got an assortment of PJ Masks toys, which they will hopefully be able to share.

Somewhere in-between, I made up some Christmas quiche, which we ate for brunch along with a Strawberry Shortcake for Jesus’ birthday (Hannah blew out the candle).

That evening, Vivian baked some Johnny Marzetti to my parents’ house for a Christmas Dinner and pumpkin pie with my brother Nathan. We ate and opened presents with my folks, and Hannah got to spend more time getting pictures with her camera.

It was such a full Christmas Day that we didn’t even have time for stockings, so after a long winter’s nap, we took the kids downstairs to open them on Boxing Day Morning in the basement before daddy headed off to work. Then that evening, Grammy and Pop-Pop came back to help Hannah make a fairy house and finish off some leftovers (with shrimp salad).

It’s hard to believe the big day has come and gone already, but we’ll enjoy the soft glow of Christmas for as long as we can (or at least until New Year’s).

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Rain, rain, go away

Leave a reply

We’ve had more than a solid week of gloomy gray skies with rain off and on that’s kept us indoors for the most part. We did take the kids for a semi-random romp downtown on the Gene Leahy Mall downtown on Friday. We got to see some ducks and a robin in-between going down slides and getting our first family photo on the First Date Bridge. Mostly, however, we were looking for Jesse Watters from Fox News, who was in town for the Spin Stops Here Tour. I was hoping he would be doing some man-on-the-street interviews downtown but had no luck spotting him or his crew.

Then that evening, we squeezed into St. John Vianney’s with our kids for our second fish fry of the year. We saw a few familiar faces there, and we talked a handful of our friends into coming with us, including a few little ones who danced up “on stage” (as Hannah called it) with the Wynn Lander the Guitar Guy for a few songs. I mostly stuffed myself with fish in-between getting photo bombed, but it did feel good to come back to this place… for the eighth year in a row now!

In other news: Hannah made a gingerbread house.

A Stormy Little Christmas

Leave a reply

Another fabulous Christmas has come and gone. This year, we got to enjoy a three-day weekend for the holidays, which was particularly nice since we had a whole Monday just to recuperate and clean house after a busy time with the whole family.

The Christmas weekend started on Friday, with Vivian and me celebrating ten years since our very first date way back in 2006. We managed to squeeze in a movie this time around, ducking into the Aksarben Cinema to see Rogue One before anyone on Facebook could spoil it for us. We went down to the Old Market afterward to get our Christmas fudge from Mike at the Old Market Candy Shoppe, and then we crossed the street to have some Indian food for dinner at Himalayas (located in the Indian Oven’s old spot).

Vivian and I got to reminisce about old times before our traditional walk up and down the Gene Leahy Mall, lit with festive Christmas lights. It was much warmer than usual, with not-quite-freezing temperatures that made it a much more pleasant walk. Several other couples were out at the same time and asked us to get their pictures on the bridge while we were getting our own. We made one last stop by Ted & Wally’s for some date ice cream to celebrate ten first dates together!

2007: The French Café
2008: La Casa Pizza
2009: The Melting Pot
2010: The Passport
2011: The French Café
2012: España
2013: Venice Inn
2014: J’s on Jackson
2015: Le Bouillon (formerly the French Cafe)
2016: Himalayas

On Christmas Eve Day, we got a little taste of a white Christmas as the world was covered with fog and icy mists throughout the day (what Vivian would call a “California Christmas”). After spending the morning cleaning house and getting food ready for the next day, we dropped by First Presbyterian Church in Bellevue for their Children’s Christmas Eve service at three o’clock. They had some live music and some traditional Christmas songs, as well as a story for the kids abut Mortimer Mouse.

We returned home to put some reindeer food out on the lawn before going inside for Christmas Eve Dinner. Jack and Donna made pork and chestnut stuffing along with some mincemeat pies for dessert. Hannah and Aaron put on their jammies, and I recited I recited T’was the Night Before Christmas before sending them off to bed (dancing sugar plums optional). After that, we — I mean Santa — filled the stockings and laid the presents under the tree. We also opened a few stocking gifts for each other, and Jack hot his milk and cookies before taking the sleigh on home.

On Christmas Day, we got to have some thundershowers early in the morning as the kids got up to see their presents. We let them open a couple to each other, including a set of matching baby kitties for Hannah to go along with her plush black-and-white cat Zoe. I made some banana and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, which we ate before we headed off to church. Yes, I insisted on going to church — it only happens once every seven years.

Back home, I made up our Christmas quiche for lunch before we opened some more presents. Hannah got a new “friend” named Layla, who stayed with us for the rest of the day. Aaron was quite happy with his train set and drum set, and mommy and daddy got a few gifts as well. Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came by later with Uncle Nathan and Jonny to spend the evening with us. We had some Christmas pizza for dinner and opened more presents, some of which were goofy gag gifts from the kids to us. Hannah got a good deal of mileage out of some wind-up Groucho Glasses. Even Santasaurus had a gift before Christmas was done.

It was a busy, busy weekend, and I’m glad we had Monday to recover. Mostly, it was wonderful just to have all our family under one roof again. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Office Party

Leave a reply

Christmas is coming fast, with weather that’s so up-and-down that we’ve had days of lovely sunshine at the park followed by weekends full of rain. Yes, rain. In December. (At least we don’t have to shovel it.)

One of the latest Christmas traditions for the Johnson Family has been the Pope Paul VI Institute Christmas Party. My current employer has been the only one so far to have a legit Christmas party every year, always at some hotel with catered food among other things. What’s also nice is our mix of co-workers who can actually have fun with one another outside the office as demonstrated by a couple of our physicians’ creative uses of peppermint cones. The choir from a local Catholic High School came to sing a few Christmas carols for us over dinner, and Vivian and I both got the chance to catch up with co-workers and their spouses, who we usually only see once a year. Plenty of photos were also snapped, of course.

Then on Tuesday, we had an Unexpected Sushi Night out with the kids. I’d bought a Groupon to Matsu Sushi back in August, hoping to use it while downtown with the kids, but they were unexpectedly closed on Sunday. That meant we had to use our Groupon before it expired, so we sat down for some bento boxes and tonkatsu pork for Hannah and Aaron. I was very impressed how Aaron dug right into his dinner and even tried a maki roll, while Hannah managed her chopsticks like a champ.

I’d hoped for a lovely walk by the river to look at Christmas lights, but the kids seemed more interested in slides and a playground frog instead. That was fine, but then it started to rain again, which became a downpour that sent us a home a little early.

Christmas is just around the corner!

The Cornstalker's Journal: Matt & Vivian's Blog

Family, friends, and food (and sometimes politics) — our life in Omaha since 2006!

Tag Archives: Gene Leahy Mall

Bi-Polar Weather

Forest Walk and Lobster Bisque

Fish Fry, Skating, and St. Patrick’s Day

Unseasonable

Thanksgiving Birthday and the Longest Christmas Season Begins

Applejack and Calamari Steak

A White Christmas

Rain, rain, go away

A Stormy Little Christmas

Office Party