My family was very happy that Obama won the election and that it was a done deal even before we went to bed on November 4th. We look forward to the Inauguration now!

We had a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas, although I was so busy I barely got to enjoy it. Had fun at Christmas celebrations on both sides of the family. My family did a White Elephant gift exchange. Parameters were that the gift had to weigh about a pound and cost $10 or less. I ended up with some Charmin’ Ultra Plush toilet paper and while my sister thought toilet paper would be the ultimate gag gift (and we did laugh about it!), my family was in desperate need of toilet paper, at that precise moment, so we were glad to get it! LOL! Gary got a bundle of bungie cords, Sarah got some fancy hot chocolate mix, and Emily I can’t remember anymore. Gary almost got candy, but that was stolen away by a candy-hungry nephew! Bungie cords are more useful for him, anyway.

I didn’t get to open Gary’s present, until we were together with Gary’s family. He had it shipped to their house and then had my SIL wrap it in 3 different boxes, each one completely wrapped with ribbons and bows, too. It turned out to be an 8G iPod Nano in turquoise blue! So, I’ve been busy uploading music and getting that all set up to my specifications! Also, we had to delete a ton of music from my iTunes library that even Sarah wouldn’t be listening to anymore.

Emily earned all but $20 towards a Nintendo DS. She got Polar White and is enjoying it very much. Sarah was doing some video work for my nephew Ryan and got paid nicely for that, so she went out and bought a Wii. We’ve all been having fun with that. I bowl better on the Wii, than I do in real life! The cow racing game on Wii Play is hysterical. It’s also hard to play the game, when everyone is laughing really hard.

I’m way behind on posting pictures of finished knitting projects, but I was finding time to get them photographed.

The first weekend in August, is always Brat Days. It’s a 4-day festival with bands, a flea market, stuff for kids and of course, bratwurst in abundance. It’s a fund-raiser for the Kiwanis Club (I think). We hardly ever go buy the over-priced brats, but we always go to the parade.

Today, however, we only got a partial parade and thankfully, only a few people got hurt. As we are sitting there, a car FLIES by, at a freeway speed, or faster, through the residential neighborhood, where the parade was happening. Fortunately, when he went past us, it’s a divided road and the parade participants were on the other side. At the bottom of the hill, though, he hit a median and did hit some people. Apparently, injuries were non-life-threatening, as far as I know. It could have been FAR worse.

Eventually, this idiot was followed by quite a few cop cars and sheriff’s vehicles. I heard from another by-stander that the high speed chase started in Kohler, about 3 miles west of us and continuted into the middle of Sheboygan, where families lined the streets for the Brat parade.

My hubby, who works as a news photographer, started taking pictures and eventually walked down to the intersection where it ended. He’s now at work processing pictures for the newspaper and the website.

I came downstairs to his work cellphone beeping and it was the managing editor’s voicemail about the incident, but he’s out of town and doesn’t know that Gary’s all on top of it already.

Oh yeah, needless to say, the rest of the parade was canceled. At least we got to see the Budweiser Clydesdales, and the dalmatian, though! They were about ready to make the turn, to the road that goes to Kiwanis Park, when the yokel FLEW past us. I’m glad they were high enough up, on their wagon, to see it coming, and kept the horses in place, on the road, so the horses didn’t get hurt.

What I want to know, is how the idiot got through the barricades that were up, to block the road, for the parade. I really have no clue. Someone must have moved them, because they knew it was coming.

I felt bad for the little kids across the street, who had bags for the candy that is always thrown. They had to go home, empty-handed. I felt bad for me, because I had to carry Gary’s heavy chair home.

For more info later:
http://www.sheboyganpress.com

I guess I’m involved too, since I’m fielding phone calls, about where Gary is, etc.

Also, the La Quinta hotel near our house, had a packed parking lot.  Tomorrow night, we will see how crowded it is over by Blue Harbor Resort.

Opening ceremony tickets hard to find
Photos of set-up for gymnastics meet

Starting tomorrow, in the North High School gym, is the 2008 YMCA National Gymnastics Championship!  We don’t have tickets, though.  It’s just exciting seeing lots of out-of-state license plates.

The high schools both built brand-new gyms in the last few years, so they have enough room, to hold a meet of this magnitude:

4,000 tickets sold
1360 gymnasts
21 different states

http://ymcanationals2008.org/teams.php

I see there isn’t anyone participating from Maryland, but maybe it’s a spectator!