Vous nous manquerez, M. McCoy

This weekend was my only completely work-free, travel-free weekend between the end of October and Christmas, so we attempted, with moderate success, to stay close to home. Since I didn't have to round at the hospitals or race off to O'Hare, David and I took full advantage of my Friday off. We stayed in our pajamas until after 11:00 and only left the house for a quick run to Target. Friday night was the Screenflex office holiday party, so Alma and Sabrina came over to play with David. He had a fantastic time, as did Snoopy who ate the cookies Alma brought for the kids.
Saturday was St. Nick's Day. In Kevin's family, that means the first of 18 visits from St. Nick/Santa. St. Nick delivered presents to all of us via an enormous stocking and Grandma Maas. As you can see below, David was very interested in his new animal pajamas and toy car.

Later in the morning, we went to the Illinois/Georgia basketball game at the United Center with Adam and Laura. This was David's first sporting event outside of Uncle Dave's baseball games this summer. He was very well behaved, especially considering the fact that the game was during his usual nap time. He especially enjoyed the music and the water fountains conveniently placed every 20 feet around the concourse. Here are pictures of David with Kevin in front of the Jordan statue, David enjoying some of Adam's fries and a rare picture of the three of us.

Saturday evening, we braved the cold again and went to get a Christmas tree. We put it up in the basement this year because we believe that to be the location in which the dogs are least likely to knock it over and die of internal bleeding after ingesting all the ornaments. David was my helper while I watered the tree and strung the lights, and he smiles every time he sees the tree all lit up.

On a sad note, Mr. McCoy, my former AP French teacher and the student activities director at my high school died Sunday of liver cancer at the age of only 61. He fought a horrific case of senioritis to somehow teach Alexa and me enough French to pass our AP exams, and we couldn't have had more fun doing it. No one was more pleased (or, I think, more surprised) when we got those scores back. He was a great teacher and a wonderful man. The school district has set up a scholarship fund in his memory, so for those of you who knew him or who want to support local kids in Columbia or who want to remember a great teacher, here is the link for more information: http://www.richland2.org/content.aspx?id=16338.