When last we left our intrepid NYC adventurers (Mary and Kurtis) they were headed for some troubling busy times…but now the continuation of our saga. 

Wow it’s hard to believe that almost six weeks have passed since we last posted on the blog.  In that time our household has seen some crazy stuff.  Mary has been working for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular as a Rockette dresser as well as working for Jersey Boy as both day crew and as a wardrobe swing(a person who fills in for a full time crew member when they are out sick or on vacation).  This time lead to a wealth of new experiences, friends and opportunities.  Several of the new “friends” are the camels at Radio City which she can name and provide an excerpt of their inner monologue at a glance.  

Kurtis is also keeping rather busy with his job as Technical Director at the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.  Since taking over the position in August he has been to Germany twice for tours built several new shows and had lots of new growing experiences.  However with this new job also comes with several weeks of assigned vacation time which he was able to take off both Thanksgiving week and Christmas week.  He was able to do this mainly because both of those holidays followed tours and or tech weeks.  However in typical Kurtis fashion he ended up working over hire gigs during those weeks to help out friends or supplement their income. 

Christmas found our heroic pair starting new traditions of their own.  With Mary working at Radio City and Kurtis working up until the 23^rd, going home was not a realistic option.  To top off the long hours, opposite schedules plagued the dynamic duo.  But still they found time to walk the paths of the Rockfellar Center with the large NYC Christmas Tree, share a hot coco and enjoy great food together. They were able to spread out the opening of presents and make Christmas last around work and the urge to open all of them on the 13^th of Dec when they arrived from Kansas. 

 

This year has also given rise to a new hobby, brewing beer.  At first this seemed like a daunting endeavor so in typical Kurtis and Mary fashion they dove head first into bubbling depth of malty goodness with zeal and gusto.  So far they have brew three successful batches of beer, a Robust Honey Porter, an India Pale Ale and an Irish stout.  The results are in the beer seems to be a wild success. 

This ends our installment on location in NYC.  Stay tuned next time for more updates from those two crazy kids.

Who had Who for Christmas 2011

Hello all:
I thought everyone might enjoy (especially those who couldn't be with us) seeing the list of who had who for the sock exchange.  If you have not opened your sock gifts yet you may not want to read any further.   Here it is, I think it is correct.

Grandpa     Chris shopped
Grandma    Kurtis shopped
Randy        Samuel shopped
Pam            Grandpa shopped
Sarah         Dave shopped
Dan            Grandma shopped
Olivia         Vicki shopped
Mary          Cassi shopped
Kurtis         Tim G shopped
Charles       Hannah shopped
Dave           Andrew shopped
Cassi           Randy shopped
Adelynn     Sarah shopped
Tim S           Olivia shopped
Vicki            Pam shopped
Hannah       Kate shopped
James          Charles shopped
Andrew       Auntie shopped
Erik               Dan shopped
Samuel         Adelynn shopped
Tim G            James shopped
Auntie          Mary shopped
Kate              Tim S shopped
Chris             Erik shopped

Happy New Year
Love
Auntie

Merry Christmas from the Givan House
This post was inspired by Kate.  She recently read an article about family Christmas trees and ornaments.  It said that ornaments can tell a families history.  Here is some of our history.  Enjoy.

This year Chris had a tree at his Eco House.  It is pretty cool and just decorated with whatever they could find.  Have fun looking for common household items (and not so common) in the pictures below.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Love Auntie

Merry Christpostmas

Holiday Greetings to all from the Johnston household!

Charles here, writing for Mom and Dad and of course ME!

For those of you who are not able to be in our company this Christmas, Mom Dad and I thought it might be nice to have a special blog post that includes some highlights from our season so far.

Of course, you cannot separate the Johnston Christmas traditions from our outdoor display. The set-up changed this year although the religiously themed decor remains on 12th street at the front of the house facing the church. We were pleasantly surprised this year to have people stopping and commenting on the decorations as we were setting them up. We think they're pretty special and it is nice to know that people appreciate them too.

Next, I had the privilege of traveling to NYC this year to celebrate my graduation from Kansas State. It was a lot of fun spending the time watching shows and seeing the Christmas season in a New York state of mind. In addition to all the activities, Dad, Tim Shook and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Mary and Kurtis and I played Santa Claus by bringing all of their Christmas goodies from Kansas to their apartment in Brooklyn (note their "Christmas Tree" behind Kurtis). We left NYC having had a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall where we saw some of the key players in the live nativity.

But the highlight of every Christmas holiday is getting to spend time with family and friends. Love to all and Merry Christmas.

Charles