Holden finished preschool this spring. It was a tough journey but he's really excited about officially being a big kid now. I was able to attend his end-of-the-year picnic at the Schuman Park. We had a morning full of games and playground fun. The parks department even came down to give the kids a tour of the Frisco steam engine on display at the park.

It seems like we've been taking a lot of weekend day trips lately. Visiting the Petra Rock Gym in Springfield has been fun and relatively inexpensive. Jen has crossed over to the dark side and started climbing too. We've helped the gym staff out at two birthday parties now and received free passes in exchange for our assistance. It's a nice gym but a poor business model. I have no idea how the place makes a profit.

Since our last post, we attended the "USO Day at the Zoo". Holden's friend Jaimison came with us. The pair had a great time. The USO continues to improve this event every year and they've really done an outstanding job. They do such a wonderful job supporting service members and their families. Their efforts are even more impressive when you consider they aren't funded by the government...



Another exciting trip was visiting our friend Lucas Robison. He was in St Louis for a wedding and we were able to spend the day with him, Michelle and his family. It was great to finally meet Michelle and his sister's family. Hopefully we'll have to get out to Seattle for a visit. We met them at the City Museum which continues to amaze me. They recently opened the roof to the public with a new ferris wheel ten stories above the city. We had lunch in the Laclede's Landing and visited the Arch after. Jen, Holden and I all were able to take the tram to the top of the arch for the first time. The views were amazing and Jen was relieved that you couldn't feel the arch moving back and forth like she feared...

We decided to spend this unusually warm January day hiking at Meramec State Park.

First we stopped at an outfitter in Sullivan to get Jen a decent pair of boots and we got to the park a little after lunch. It was our first trip to Meramec and it has numerous hiking trails and beautiful camping and picnic facilities constructed in the 30's by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Geologic features are easy to see in the park including sinkholes, caves, losing streams and bluffs. Holden has been very hyper the last couple of days and we were determined to walk the energy out of him. We let him clear the path of all limbs that might pose a tripping hazard. It kept him moving along the trail dutifully throwing sticks off the trail.

We wrapped up the day with a trip to Bruno's for a dinner and a pint...

Holden and I went to City Museum yesterday. It was an unseasonably warm day for December and we decided to take advantage of it. Holden's favorite part was running in the half pipe. He ran for a solid twenty minutes and was just dripping in sweat at the end... It wasn't too busy in the morning but by lunch the place was packed. Luckily it warmed up enough by then to enjoy the outside activities. Holden loved finding his way up to the airplanes. The picture below is a stock photo but I wanted to show the way up. We finished the trip with lunch at Burger King...Holden likes their mac n' cheese and shakes.


In the afternoon, we stopped over to visit with Ron, Stephanie, Alex and Abby. They recently got a Wii and they invited over to try it out. Jen liked the Wii Fit... Holden loved running in Wii Sports (Mariokart was too much of a challenge). I did surprisingly well at the bowling but not at keeping my distance from the TV screen. Nothing was damaged but I'm sure I made Ron a bit nervous. It was a real fun time. Maybe next Christmas we'll get one....

Christmas this year has been a time for Jen and I to relax and recharge and it has been exciting for Holden. Holden had a Christmas recital at school and his class had a birthday party for baby Jesus. We actually put lights up outside this year and hung a wreath. Previously, we were never in town for Christmas so we never borthered really doing much. Holden and his friends helped make and decorate spritz cookies (my favorite) and they all took some home to set out for Santa. Our little artificial tree even seemed too small for the amount of Christmas spirit in the house this year.


Holden was really good this year and he worked hard on his letter to Santa because we told him that Santa wanted it to be written by him. It was a great motivator for him to work on his handwriting. Christmas day was exciting; I woke up at five and had to wait a full hour and a half for Holden to get up (seriously it was torture). Holden was relieved to discover Santa only ate the cookies he left on a plate and not the ones in the kitchen that he intended to eat. Half way through openning the presents, we took a break so Holden could play and we could make breakfast. After round two of presents, we spent the rest of the day together, Jen and I cooking and Holden playing. I cooked a turkey and made a crockpot of Gluhwien to enjoy for the day. Jen made Great Grandma Bleiler's cranberry sauce, which was a perfect compliment to Grandma Jean's applesauce. It was a great dinner with enough leftovers to last the remainder of our vacation.

We've been trying to keep active during our winter vacation at home. Holden got a chance to trying shooting a bow at Beaver Creek Conservation Area. He had a good time but the draw weight on the bow was a bit too much for him so we got him an 18lb children's bow to practice with for his birthday.


We followed archery with an afternoon of roller skating at the Zone (local skating rink and play zone.) Holden's friend, Alex, invited us to join them for the afternoon to play and skate. Holden really started to get the hang of using his Fisher Price skates by the end of the day and I learned that skating uses a entirely different group of muscles... I was so sore that night. Lots of fun though.

We also were able to head up to Runge Nature Center in Jefferson City for an afternoon of hiking. It was Holden and Jen's first time there and the weather was unseasonably warm, around 60. Everyone had a good time. Holden was able to participate in a treasure hunt with the Naturalist at the center. We hiked one of the many trails there and visited the Naturescape garden. We wrapped up the day with a trip to Chipotle for lunch.



Not too much else planned for the week with the exception of New Year's Eve and our anniversary. We'll be spending New Year's with our friends, Nate and Lori and their daughter Haley and we'll be celebrating our anniversary a bit differently. We're all going to watch the Saint Louis Blues play the Columbus Blue Jackets. It wasn't really the plan but the game schedule happened to fall that way. It will be Holden and Jen's first game. Hopefully the Blues will put on a good show!

Just for good measure, I've included my recipe for Gluhwein... Enjoy!

Gluhwein
2 - 750 ml bottles of red wine
2/3c - sugar
2 - orange rind strips
1/2c - orange juice
2 - lemon rind strips
6 - whole cloves
1t - coriander seeds
2 - cinnamon sticks

1) Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Stir over a low heat without boiling, until sugar is dissolved.
2) Stir mixture until it begins to simmer. DO NOT BOIL.
3) Simmer uncovered for approximately 20 minutes. Strain and serve.

* I've also made this in the crockpot allowing the batch to be held warm for a long period. The key is to not let it boil.

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Indiana. For me, it was a nice quiet and relaxing trip...It was great hanging out with Phil, even if he can't hang when it comes to eating wings. Jen amazed me with her ability to pull off an all-night "Black Friday" shopping spree. Holden had a great time visiting with Grammy and Grandpa, taking care of the animals and playing with Kaiden.