Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Santa delivered a brand new Nintendo Wii on Christmas morning. Santa's elves were kind enough to set it up in the basement before leaving! Needless to say, the kids spent the entire weekend playing it. It has been a tremendous hit, as you can see in this entertaining video. We have enjoyed Wii games including Super Mario Brothers, We Cheer 2, We Ski and Snowboard, and Sports Resort. Cari also bought me Guitar Hero for Wii as a surprise.

Cassie Turns Seven

Our Cassie turned seven on Christmas Day! She enjoyed parties in Springfield last weekend and at our house on Christmas and also has one with the Eckerts in St. Louis over New Year's. It is hard to believe that seven years has past since she was born. She just about received her two front teeth by her birthday, by the way. Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Tommy Sings at Bombeck Center Christmas

Tommy and his friends in the Jets room at the Bombeck Center sang three songs for his Christmas party on Wednesday: Cascabel, Walking in Winter Wonderland, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Videos posted below. Enjoy!

Happy Christmas Week from EckSpot!

We would like to wish you a blessed Christmas week! We are staying in Ohio for the week as Cari has the Christmas week as one of her holidays to work this year (she is off on Friday but works on Thursday and over the weekend). We enjoyed a wonderful trip to Springfield, IL, last weekend to celebrate with Tom, Mary Ann, Eric, Dawn and Ali, and are going to Missouri for the long New Year's weekend to spend time with Leo and Sandy and many other friends and family members at gathering at Todd and Nancy's and Dan and Linda Knoll's.

We have posted other pictures of the kids you may enjoy on our
Picasa web album:

General Christmas Pictures (we'll add pictures to this folder through New Year's): http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.c.eckert/Christmas2009#

Pictures from JCP Photo Studio: http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.c.eckert/ChristmasPicturesJCP#

Merry Christmas from Cari, Cassie, Tommy and Jason Eckert!

Cassie's Artwork featured in St. Henry's Mailing

Cassie's Christmas card design was one of the student designs featured in an all-parish mailing advertising Christmas schedules at our parish. A scan of the actual card we received in the mail appears above. We are very proud of her work!

Merry Christmas from UD Career Services

I solicited the help of my student and professional Career Services staff members here at the University of Dayton to record our second-annual Christmas card. Most participated without too much arm twisting. :) We sent it out to the campus community and all of our employer partners. Enjoy!

Cassie's Solo Performance at the BLS Christmas Concert

Cassie's first grade class performed five songs on Monday night at the Bishop Leibold School Christmas program. Cassie had a solo speaking performance telling a joke as a part of the "Silly Holiday Song." Cassie's line appears at about the 59 second mark of the video. Her actions at the end of the song are also priceless. For the record, her joke was, "How long does it take for a candle to burn down?" The students respond, "About a wick!"

We are very proud of her -- all five songs were great!

Tommy Basketball Video

Tommy scored the final basket of his final game in the YMCA 4-5 year-old basketball league, as you can see from this video. He also had two rebounds and two blocks (which are not necessarily encouraged) in the game. Tommy had a great time and does plan to continue his basketball career!

Cassie's First Experience as a Lector

Cassie was selected to read part of the Responsorial Psalm at the Immaculate Conception Mass at Bishop Leibold/Our Lady of Good Hope on Tuesday. She did an excellent job and projected very well. (We'll work on that eye contact at a later date.) :) I am very proud of her. Both Tommy and I were able to attend the Mass on the feast day to support Cassie.