Another week has gone by, 10 days actually.  Wednesday was Christmas, which was a very low-key event this year.  No one in our family could muster up enough energy to put up the tree or decorate the place.  There were few presents.  Still, we had a nice time.  Our afternoon was spent with friends eating Vietnamese Soup and playing board games.

For the past 10 days, I have also attended more than the usual number of church services.  I’ve played electric, acoustic, classical and bass in that span of time, mostly due to others taking time off from the band to go elsewhere for Christmas.  I was even the sole male vocalist yesterday, and to my knowledge, that has never happened in 20 years of playing in this band; most of the time, they don’t allow me to sing at all (because I’m concentrating on playing and because we have plenty of singers)!  With the New Year, things should get back to normal at church… including getting back to The Story, a Bible Study series we’re doing for Adult Ed.  This means that I have a bunch of powerpoints to make for that Adult Ed. class.  I’ve made two this week, 17 more to go!

With Christmas over, I finally began to study for the English CSET.  In just a few days now, I have learned so much!  I hope I can retain it!  I feel like I have just been through a couple semesters of College English.  I’ll continue working right up until the test in two weeks.

I have also taken some time to rest in the evenings.  I call it quits around 5PM most days.  Barbara is more studious – she’ll work until past midnight most days for her CSET.  Courtney and I have been binging on TV series in the evenings (Heroes & Battlestar Galactica).  This weekend, we also saw a couple of movies on our new Amazon Video Channel.

We have heard from Jeffrey twice this week.  We were expecting the call we got yesterday because it was one of the three official calls Jeffrey gets during boot camp.  This was the week 4 call where he is supposed to verify that we’re coming.  He already knew we were coming, so we just talked.  He was also able to talk to us on Christmas Day (in lieu if actually getting Christmas off).  I wonder if he’ll also call us on New Year’s for the same reason?  It’s Barbara’s birthday, so that would be cool if it happened.  So far, Jeffrey is doing fine, but is also ready for boot camp to be over.  He is looking forward to “Beast Week” this week where the trainees spend a week surviving out in the wilderness and climbing up big hills in full gear.