On This Date in 1998

Another beautiful day. The temperature must be in the mid-50s right now, but I haven’t been outside except to walk to Walgreen’s to pick up some pictures. I completed my outdoor chores yesterday. I could rearrange the perimeter area of the garage, which we use for storage and clean out some of the junk in the shed to make room for the trunk I bought almost 20 years ago. That will free up some space in the back hallway for a bookcase. We also plan to attach a few shelves to the wall, one with hooks to hang the boys’ backpacks and other stuff.

JoAnna is having some friends over this afternoon for a baking party, so I went grocery shopping this morning so she’d have enough of all the basics: flour, white sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, pecans. I also stopped at Barnes & Noble hoping to accomplish some Christmas shopping. I found a book on Cajun cookery for JoAnna. I’ll have to look elsewhere for the other two people still left on my list. JoAnna wanted me to buy a couple replacement kitchen chairs at Shopko, but what they have in stock doesn’t match what we currently have. Plus, I saw a corner seating unit with table, both made of pine, that would look very nice in our kitchen. I thought it was a pretty good buy for $300, but I haven’t made the purchase yet. Had to run it by the wife first. She gave the idea a thumbs up.

Right now Eddie is watching a Muppet version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. JoAnna is getting things set up in the kitchen and watching the Packers play their usual brand of mediocre football, and Andy is wondering why it is taking Rex and his family so long to return home from buying a Christmas tree. The pictures I picked up at Walgreen’s earlier today are reprints of two shots of the boys that we will enclose with our Christmas cards. (One per customer. I just couldn’t decide which one was better.) I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to compose a Christmas letter. I may just decide to wrote short personal notes in each card. That project will get underway as soon as I sign off here. 

And I guess it’s time to do so now. 

This will likely be your last letter from us this year, as next week at this time we’ll be in Two Rivers, enjoying the start of a two-week family vacation. See you on the 26th! We’re looking forward to our visit.