Well...we're back home now after a week in Cincinnati visiting our families. 
On the way to Cincinnati we hooked-up with Jane's brother in Breezewood and convoyed to Cincinnati. The drives out and back were okay--no complaints. We arrived in Cincinnati last Saturday and enjoyed dinner at my niece's house. On Christmas Eve my whole family gathered at my older brother's house and we had dinner and opened presents. Among our holiday traditions are tasting my Dad's homemade italian sausage (this year's batch was exceptional) and the game Me Got-Me Want-Me Take. This game must have originated some time in antiquity because it sounds like Caesar's Veni-Vidi-Vici and, as the number of presents dwindle, is played with the same ruthlessness--jokingly of course and everyone has a good time. I'll write out the rules for playing Me Got-Me Want-Me Take on some future post. I always enjoy my all to short and infrequent visits with my siblings at Christmas. On Christmas Day we sat around my parents living room (Mom, Dad and Astro are 
pictured above) and opened presents. In the afternoon, we moved over to Jane's sister's house and had second Christmas. We opened presents, met Jane's sister's recently adopted puppy, Eliot (Jane with Eliot in her lap are shown at left) and had a great dinner of steak and tater tots. We all sat around and played Scene-It, a game that Judy got this year for Christmas. All of us played against Jane's brother who is a trivia maven and movie buff, but we managed to win one game. We had a great time with our relatives and were sad we couldn't spend more time.
On the way to Cincinnati we hooked-up with Jane's brother in Breezewood and convoyed to Cincinnati. The drives out and back were okay--no complaints. We arrived in Cincinnati last Saturday and enjoyed dinner at my niece's house. On Christmas Eve my whole family gathered at my older brother's house and we had dinner and opened presents. Among our holiday traditions are tasting my Dad's homemade italian sausage (this year's batch was exceptional) and the game Me Got-Me Want-Me Take. This game must have originated some time in antiquity because it sounds like Caesar's Veni-Vidi-Vici and, as the number of presents dwindle, is played with the same ruthlessness--jokingly of course and everyone has a good time. I'll write out the rules for playing Me Got-Me Want-Me Take on some future post. I always enjoy my all to short and infrequent visits with my siblings at Christmas. On Christmas Day we sat around my parents living room (Mom, Dad and Astro are 
pictured above) and opened presents. In the afternoon, we moved over to Jane's sister's house and had second Christmas. We opened presents, met Jane's sister's recently adopted puppy, Eliot (Jane with Eliot in her lap are shown at left) and had a great dinner of steak and tater tots. We all sat around and played Scene-It, a game that Judy got this year for Christmas. All of us played against Jane's brother who is a trivia maven and movie buff, but we managed to win one game. We had a great time with our relatives and were sad we couldn't spend more time.We went on a couple of outings. One to Findlay Market, a Cincinnati landmark with a farmer's market in the summer and year
round specialty food shops. Findlay Market was renovated a few years ago and it was nice to see that there is a substantial retail trade going on there but the downtown area surrounding Findlay Market is still deeply depressed by urb
an blight. We were there the day after Christmas and all, or mostly all the stores were closed for the day. We had made the trip to Findlay Market with Jane's brother who wanted to purchase Cincinnati sausage and cottage ham to bring back home. So when we saw that all the stores were closed we quickly improvised a plan B. Plan B was a visit to Mount Adams, an oasis for the hip and trendy in Cincinnati nestled on a hilltop overlooking the downtown skyline. Here, the stores were open but the streets wer
e completely isolated-there was no sign of people going about their daily activities. The ghost-townish feeling was was just a tad eerie. I took the picture of the church steeples (see below) while we walked aroung the deserted streets of Mount Adams.
round specialty food shops. Findlay Market was renovated a few years ago and it was nice to see that there is a substantial retail trade going on there but the downtown area surrounding Findlay Market is still deeply depressed by urb
an blight. We were there the day after Christmas and all, or mostly all the stores were closed for the day. We had made the trip to Findlay Market with Jane's brother who wanted to purchase Cincinnati sausage and cottage ham to bring back home. So when we saw that all the stores were closed we quickly improvised a plan B. Plan B was a visit to Mount Adams, an oasis for the hip and trendy in Cincinnati nestled on a hilltop overlooking the downtown skyline. Here, the stores were open but the streets wer
e completely isolated-there was no sign of people going about their daily activities. The ghost-townish feeling was was just a tad eerie. I took the picture of the church steeples (see below) while we walked aroung the deserted streets of Mount Adams.Lastly, we desperately wanted to go on hike and scheduled a day trip to Miami Whitewater Forest, a park approximately 30 minutes from my parents house. The trails were okay, not exactly what we were looking for but it was a nice sunshiny day and as the temperatures warmed we felt great to be outside getting some exercise. On the way back, we took a side trip to Oxford, Ohio to have lunch and drive around Miami University. Elroy was with us but didn't really have much interest in exploring the campus but wanted to get back to grandma's house to watch TV and play with his cousins. The woodsy picture below was taken at Miami Whitewater. Sadly, we departed on Friday. Today as I'm writing this post it is New Years Eve---Whoopee!!!! We'll be fixing appetizers for dinner; pigs-in-a-blanket, pop-in-your-mouth sausage balls, shrimp and cocktail sauce, cheeses and plenty of chips and dip to complement the champagne my Dad provided. Sooo, if anyone reads this post---we wish you a very happy and healthy New Year.
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