Decorating For Christmas

 Had to do this while Quinn was home from college.

What our house used to look like

 While at the Little Brothers Dinner on Thanksgiving day, a woman came up to me.  "You're Monica Aho." she said.  "Yes," I replied, wracking my brain as to how I might know this woman.  To be honest, she looked only vaguely familiar.  But everyone looks vaguely familiar up here.  It's a small town.  How did she know who I was?

"I'm Carol.  My husband Bob grew up in your house.  We met 15 years ago when you found those old letters in your walls from my husband's uncle and got them back to us?"  Holy Good Memory!  SHEESH!  I had met her once all those years ago, and she still recognized me?  A little context: back in 2007, when we were building our addition, we found some letters from a soldier stationed in France during World War I hidden in the wall.  Apparently, this was Bob's uncle, and he had died in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918.  We assumed the letters were too painful for his family after his death and they stored them for safe keeping in the wall.  As generations passed, they forgot about them.  Bob's grandparents built our house in around 1910.  His mother and uncles were raised there, and then when his mother got married, their family stayed in the house as well.  Our house had been in their family for over 50 years, until it was sold in the 1960's and then used as a rental for a few years before the Ohtonens bought it.  The Ohtonens lived in this house for another 40 years until we bought it in 2003.  

Anyways. Carol recognized me at the dinner, and brought Bob over and we got to talking.  He mentioned how he would love to come see the house he grew up in.  I invited him over, and they came, and it was just so fascinating.  He said he wouldn't have recognized the house if I hadn't given him the address - it had changed so much.  Still the original hardwood flooring, original bay window, original stained glass in the back hallway, though!  There have been three additions to the original farm  house over the years, and numerous other changes.  Crazy to think of all the people who have lived under this roof.

Bob gave me pictures of the house from the 1920s and 1930s.  SO COOL.  

And this one is from 1963.  Those trees are still in the yard!

Family Tour of MTU

 Colby really wanted to show Quinn and Rob around MTU like he had Reagan and I earlier this month.  We decided to make a day of it and play some family pool.  We literally had the entire MUB to ourselves, which was pretty cool!

The MTU buildings are always open for the students, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.  Colby loves that about Tech, as this is not true of campuses in bigger areas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Andrea hosted this year, which was nice.  All five of our immediate family was together, which was also nice.  We are missing Mim and Chuck.  Our family gatherings are getting smaller as we lose loved ones and the kids grow up and leave.  But we still have much to be thankful for, and it was a lovely day.

The morning started with Reagan performing at Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly for their Thanksgiving dinner.  She accompanied her baritone instructor Leah, and the girls sounded fabulous together!

And it was Jennie's golden birthday!  24 on the 24th!  Happy Birthday Jennie!

Wayne State Swim and Dive

 

Rob and I finally got to drive south to see one of Quinn's diving competitions.  It was so great. The drive was more than a bit harrowing as we got caught in a snow storm, but luckily Rob was at the wheel instead of me.  Very slow going, but without incident.

I love watching Quinn dive.  He is fearless.  I cannot even begin to imagine how he does what he does.  This was our first time seeing him on the 3m high dive, as that is not an event at the high school level.  We've seen him jump off many a high surface (bridges, train trestles, light houses) but not "officially" for competition.  Super proud of this guy, and how hard he has worked for his team. He's gotten so good!  

GO QUINN!

The Wayne State University men's diving team.  The kid on the left hit his hand on the board during warm up and broke his hand! 

The entire diving team, with their coach Jason.

MAN do I miss this kid.