Huge Upset

Austin's WMU team played nationally ranked (#24) Toledo yesterday in the final MAC Conference game of the year. Toledo was heavily favored to win the Western Conference of the MAC (with whom WMU was tied), and to go on to win the MAC title. Western Michigan won the game in grand style, 35-30. That win certainly improves their Bowl position and they will find out where they will play in a meeting this Sunday. We are excited to find out where and when they play, and are super excited for Austin who gets to play in his second consecutive post season Bowl Game.

The biggest part of our day yesterday was taken up with getting out our Christmas decorations and putting up our tree. I strung the lights outside and didn't fall once from the ladder. I had hoped to get more of the outside lights done, but will try to finish those today. This is what it looks like so far:

Josie concentrated on the inside while I worked on the lights outside. We did get the tree set up and this is the first shot of our new, undecorated tree:

The inside of our house will eventually look like a Christmas store. I didn't realize how many decorations we had in storage until yesterday. This is one example of the "neat" decorations that Josie has placed around so far:

This is easily the best time of the year and the time when Josie is happiest. This month is a renewal of the kind of Christmas holiday that we are used to having and probably is the single most significant event that we have missed over the years that we have been traveling. Living in the fifth wheel had many advantages, but one of them was not being able to decorate and enjoy the Christmas holiday to the extent we are now able to enjoy. The next 30 days will certainly be filled with lots of Christmas joy...