Family Mellmann

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. This is what has been happening in our last couple weeks leading up to Christmas. Christmas Concert at Trinity.  Patrick, and the other seniors, were narrators for the Christmas program. Patrick's last day of his last Advent Calendar.  Now that he's 18 his next Advent season will look different.  *gulp, sniff   Christmas Eve morning - here comes the tree!   We had to resort to a step ladder to get the star on the tree...no more little kids to put on Papa's shoulders. The tree is ready and the presents are in place. ...

One of my favorite parts of winter is the return of knitting season...who wants to knit in the heat of the summer?!  I finished this cowl just in time for Christmas.

Sleepless nights, never-ending laundry, learning to work with one hand tied behind your back (or using it hold a baby on your hip).  Then they sleep through the night, learn to do their own laundry, and add two hands to the kitchen instead of handicap one. After years of diapers, baths, doctors, dentists, noses, laundry, chores, summer camps, play groups, library runs, school programs, and a seemingly limitless list of tasks and responsibilities associated with motherhood and parenting, it's over.  Well, maybe not over, but things are definitely changing. Now, Patrick blows his own nose, does his own laundry, and drives himself to the dentist.  One thing that hasn't changed?  He still likes to have lobster for his birthday dinner.  One of my earliest pictures of him helping to prepare lobster was when he was not quite six years old.  I don't think this was a birthday dinner, but it was the beginning of a long tradition.   Lobster dinner - 2006...

Patrick and his fellow seniors (and the juniors, not pictured) hosted Trinity's annual Thanksgiving Luncheon.  The lunch is one of several fund raising events used to raise money for the junior/senior class trip at the end of the school year.  The class trip alternates between a smaller scale more domestic trip and a larger international trip.  In 2017 the juniors and seniors went to South Africa, then in 2018 they went to a large resort camp in North Carolina.  By alternating back and forth, each senior will have an opportunity to have a bigger, international trip before graduating. It looks like this year's seniors (and juniors) will be going on a larger, international trip; the planned destination is China.  There are several details to work out, but many details are falling into place already including affordable airfare direct to Beijing.  The early list of planned activities sounds really fun; it should be a great end to their high school experience...

Joerg and I enjoyed our second year attending the Oktoberfest in Burlington, down on the water front.  It's an "adults only" evening of beer tasting, (reasonably) authentic German food, and a little bit (this year much less than last) of "oompah music".  We ran into a few people we know, and Joerg was able to educate some local folks on the specifics of this brewery or that, or why Oktoberfest actually takes place in...September. Sunset, Bavarian flag suspenders, and a good beer.  "And that's why Oktoberfest is in September."

Last fall we had a big wind storm that resulted in power outages all over the region and tons of downed trees (months after the storm, tree services were STILL busy clearing away damaged and downed trees).  During that storm one of our large old pine trees was split vertically up the trunk.  In the wind, it groaned, creaked, and popped...those sounds you hear before a tree goes down.  This tree was located in just the right spot to land on our garage, possibly into the kitchen, or a propane tank - depending on which way the wind was blowing.  We were able to remove the danger that evening, but the event triggered our plans to have many of the tall "soldier pines" removed from our property. This past week we had a similar wind storm, but with no trees near the house to fall down we didn't have anything to worry about.  In the morning, after a long night of howling winds, we woke to this sight out the back windows.  The table and all six chairs had blown of...

So it begins.  Almost eighteen years ago I was taking pictures of firsts; first smile, first tooth, first crawls, first steps.  Now it's pictures of lasts. Tonight we had the first soccer game of the season - Patrick's last first game of high school soccer.  It was a tough game against a new competitor and we lost hard (7-0), but we had a chance to play many of our young players who benefited from the field time against a larger (it was their varsity team, so all juniors and seniors versus our 7th-12th grade players) and more experienced team. Here are a few shots of Patrick.   Hammin' it up for the camera.   You can't tell from this shot, but this was a lovely save. While we did lose the game, Patrick made more saves than he let through.

Tonight's dinner is an all hands on deck meal, and a family favorite.   Shrimp and vegetable skewers! 

Back in December Katherine refused to get on the stage and play for her recital. She disappeared into the bathroom and wouldn't come out. In January she turned around and played at the local mall, so it's hard to tell what drives her since the crowd at the mall was much larger than at the recital, AND she played her song twice! After all that, it was fun to see her take the stage, dressed in my favorite colors, to successfully play her song...from memory.