The season begins

The holiday season is well underway, and Vivian and I have been a little busy getting our new home unpacked and ready for visitors sometime soon. This year, we had Thanksgiving with Vivian's parents down in Bellevue, enjoying a turkey dinner with all the trimmings -- stuffing, yams, and "Taber salad," a savory gelatin made with mayo and tomato soup that was actually quite tasty. On Friday, we dropped by the Durham Museum for the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony and spent a few hours helping kids decorate cookies as part of the festivities.

That night, Vivian and I went on a double date with Jenny and Keith in the Old Market. After dinner at Spaghetti Works, we walked around the Gene Leahy Mall, which had just turned on its Christmas lights the night before. Downtown Omaha is always beautiful this time of year, and it was nice to be able to look around before the temperatures dropped below freezing. Even so, we dropped in at 13th Street Coffee to warm up a bit and play with the plastic wind-up toys at the counter before heading off to enjoy all of 30 minutes at JNO.

A moving experience

It was a pretty busy weekend for Vivian and me. On Friday, we were able to close on our new home in Bellevue right on schedule. We signed the note (along with a hundred other pieces of paper) and got our copy of the deed to the house. All we had to do next was move in. We'd been packing for the last week or so and had to forgo a night at the Eagle's Lodge in order to keep on track. We did manage to swing by Vivian's office party at Venice Inn as a kind of victory dinner for the two of us, however.

On Saturday, about a dozen friends from the Omaha Jitterbugs and our new bible study dropped by our apartment to help us move, including Jillian, who came all the way from New York City to lend a hand. I don't know how we could have managed without all the help we got — we certainly couldn't have thrown Vivian's old couch off the balcony by ourselves. We filled a 26-foot moving van to capacity with all our worldly possessions, including a new couch and love seat, a refrigerator, and a washer dryer set. Getting all these things into our new home was nearly just as a challenging — the fridge couldn't get through the split-entry stairway without taking its doors off. We were all finished and ready for pizza a little before three, and Vivian and I took a couple minutes to "consummate" our new living space with a brief Lindy Hop in the living room.

Once we get done unpacking, we'll have everyone back over for a proper housewarming party (likely sometime in January). I have to give a special thanks to Rob, Eric, Nick, Lisa, Justin, Kelly, Jillian, Lee, Mark, Jon, Jack, Donna, and everyone else who dropped by and helped us make the big move to our new home! God has blessed us both with such wonderful friends and we don't know what we would have done without you.

Wedding dresses and Cal Thomas

At the moment, Vivian and I are busier than usual because we're packing up to move into our new home in Bellevue! It's been a long road so far, but it looks like we'll be closing right on schedule on Friday at 4 p.m. Right now, we're boxing up all our worldly possessions and getting set for the big move on Saturday (and hoping we don't have any rain or snow in the meantime!)

We've still found some time to have fun with friends over the last week or two. Last Saturday, Vivian attended a "wedding dress party" with some of our friends from Bible Study. I had a guys night out with the gentlemen from the same bible study, playing pool at Pockets and watching the Cornhuskers play Oklahoma. The girls showed up in their wedding dresses, which drew some attention from other patrons of the large sports bar. I had worn my tuxedo t-shirt, so Vivian and I looked like the perfect couple for a redneck reception.

(And speaking of weddings, congratulations to my brother Nathan, who was married to the lovely Ranae on the picturesque Eternity Beach in Oahu, Hawaii.)

The next day as started packing and then went to see Cal Thomas speak at Christ Community Church. I was actually surprised to see Cal sitting almost by himself at a book-signing table in the lobby, so I had a chance to shake hands and talk with him a bit. The place was packed, but Vivian and I were lucky enough to grab some seats fairly close to the front. I'd only seen Cal on political talk shows on TV before, but the man is quite funny in person, and it was good to hear someone talking about healing the political divide in the country today.