Today kicked off 2012. We went to Church this morning and visited with Mem and Grandfather. Eva and Mem had breakfast and a walk while we visited. After that we headed home and I accomplished a bit of a task at the house. I cleaned out the garage so that I could get one car into the garage before it snows for the first time this Winter.

I still have to get rid of all the packing boxes but what you can’t see in the photo is that I have a bunch of stuff organized well. I even hung up some art in the garage. Allison’s car fits right into the garage perfectly. So this winter we’ll have at least one car a little warmer for the start.

I recorded an episode of Geek Dads Weekly with Daniel M. Clark. We recorded episode #106 but it is not up yet. A really good episode that we did was last week #105 and you can listen to it here.

The show record took longer than anticipated so we went out to Bliss Bros Dairy for dinner and then decided to head to La Salette Shrine to see the lights. Eva went with my parents earlier this year but Allison and I had not been there yet. So we popped over and saw that it was so full with people. I did not anticipate that and the traffic on Park street did not indicate that the place would be a zoo, but it was. We parked and Eva and I went to the Carousel while Allison fed Andrew in the car.

Eva and I finished on the carousel and walked over to the fountain with the giant rosary. There we ran into friends from Church. I took a family photo of them and they took this photo of Eva and I. Eva remembered that you throw coins in the fountain. I did not. I had no change, the next thing you know our friend is handing Eva some coins so she can toss them into the fountain. That was very nice of her.

We caught up with Allison and Andrew and then walked over to the Nativity Scene and the 28 steps.

I took a few more photos while we were there.

We had a wonderful time at the Shrine and hope to go again next year when we have a longer time to spend there.

While there Eva and Allison lit a candle in one of the buildings. I wasn’t sure how much a candle was so I figured it was a dollar or so but it is actually five. Allison had two dollars. Apparently the woman selling the wicks wasn’t too understanding. Allison explained to Eva that they did not have enough money to buy a wick. As she explained to Eva, who was distraught about this, a woman came over and gave them the additional three dollars so that they could buy a wick and light a candle for a prayer. What a wonderful woman. A great start to the New Year.