It was back-to-work day for your Good Morning Indiana anchors.  As it turns out, Dan was also off yesterday.  Dan spent his 3 day holiday shopping in Chicago with his girlfriend.  Dan also had a chance to visit with his sister, who lives in the Windy City.  Thankfully, the snow didn’t blow them away and Dan and his girlfriend made it safely back to Indianapolis.  Dan also reports that he’s finished his Christmas shopping.  I’m sure he made some wonderful purchases and won’t be left out in the cold during this beautiful season of giving.

I enjoyed my 4 day weekend, although it got off to a shaky start.  My 4-year-old came down with a mild case of pink eye.  My 20-month-old daughter came down with a case that was a bit more severe.  She didn’t feel bad.  I hate to brag (but I will).  My daughter has the nicest, sweetest disposition.  She smiles all the time.  Even after she gets a shot at the doctor’s office, she’ll scream for a minute… and then flash the nurse a huge smile.  So luckily, after a few doses of eye drops, both of the kids bounced back rather quickly.

I’m happy to report that I’m done with my Christmas shopping and all of the presents are wrapped and ready for delivery.  The kids received their letters from Santa Claus.  Thank you to all of the elves who worked so hard to send each of my children his/her own letter!  Each child felt so special.

We didn’t do a lot of running around this past weekend.  Needless to say, we were in hibernation.  It was kind of nice to spend time with the family playing games, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate.  Speaking of movies, my kids are now addicted to Charlie Brown Christmas.  We’ve been watching it twice a day for about the past 5 days.  My boys are starting to recite certain lines.  They’re especially fond of when Lucy refers to Linus’ blanket as that “stupid blanket.”  Now, everything that my daughter plays with is “stupid.”

I am amazed at how boys (and men) love to recite lines from movies and television shows.  Maybe there are ladies out there who love to do it, too.  It’s just been my experience that guys can go on and on reciting lines from something they saw 5 years ago.  Today, Dan and Tom were reciting lines from Back to the Future.  I must admit, I saw Back to the Future at least 4 or 5 times and intially, I had no idea what Dan and Tom were talking about.  I needed a few minutes to get my brain back in time, before I could recall Back to the Future.

Perhaps it’s just that I have different interests than my co-workers.  Ask me for a line from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and I’m sure I can deliver.  I hope all of you are enjoying this last week before Christmas.  Enjoy the snow… and in case you’re wondering, I’m a little like Lucy.  I never eat December snow.  I always wait until January.

Now that we’re well into the holiday season, let the vacations begin!  Paul is off today and tomorrow.  Since yesterday was his 26th wedding anniversary, I’m sure he and Mrs. P have something special planned.  Can you believe Paul has been married for 26 years??  Clearly he and his wife met when they were 10 and got married when they were 12.  Happy Anniversary, Paul!  I wish you and your wife many, many more happy years together.

Paul will be back for four days next week.  Then he’s taking off Friday and all of Christmas week.  While Crystal will be filling in most of those days, Kevin Gregory will be making a rare appearance on Good Morning Indiana on Christmas Eve.  Won’t that be fun?  Those of you who’ve watched RTV-6 for many years probably remember when Kevin was the early morning weather guy and Paul did traffic.  You never know where you’ll end up on the road of life, do you?  I guess that’s part of the fun.

I’ll be off tomorrow and Monday.  We plan to do a lot of Christmas activities, including a visit with Santa Claus.  My husband and I are invited to two Christmas parties, so we hope to attend both for some holiday fun with friends.

I also hope to finish wrapping all of our Christmas gifts.   Wish me luck!  Since my husband is also off on Friday, I’m thinking he can help keep the kids out of sight.

As you wrap up your holiday plans, I hope you enjoy a stress-free, fun-filled time.  I’ll see you Tuesday!

Paul and Tom, and hopefully many of our viewers, enjoyed a trip down memory lane during Good Morning Indiana.  During our 6 a.m. hour, Cowboy Bob and Janie stopped by to promote their new Christmas CD.  During the segment, Paul showed a picture of himself from Channel 4, taken back in the 1980’s.  I like to call the 80’s Paul’s Tony Orlando days.  He had long dark hair and a really thick dark mustache.  I guess Paul was destined to always get going before “dawn.”

It was really fun for Paul and Tom to see these two t.v. legends again.  Unfortunately, Dan and I didn’t get a chance to see them when we were growing up, but sounds like we really missed out.

Speaking of memory lane, I’d like to thank a frequent visitor to our blog, Jim, for sending me a link to a news open from a San Antonio television station.  It was from the 1980’s!  It’s so fun to go back and see how far television graphics (and hairstyles) have progressed.  Thanks, Jim.  I grew up about 200 miles from San Antonio, so I didn’t watch KENS T.V., but I did have a friend who accepted a morning anchor job there.  Thanks for the memories.

I haven’t looked at any of my old clips from the 1990’s in a few years, but you probably wouldn’t be able to see much of my face anyway.  I was on the air in Texas and I definitely had the Texas hair thing working.  (You know, everything is bigger down there.)  I’m sure the viewers were thinking… I know that girl has a face in the middle of all that hair.

Once I moved to Indiana, I toned down the hair and the accent… although, I never had a really thick Southern accent.

No doubt, many of you will share trips down memory lane this holiday season.  I hope you enjoy them… and they’re not too hair-raising for you.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Hopefully you’re fully awake and ready to hit the road running this Tuesday.

I, on the other hand, apparently spent part of the morning “sleep working.”  Two of my three children are fighting a cold.  First, my daughter woke up about 30 minutes after I put her in her crib.  About 30 minutes after that, my 4-year-old woke up and wanted to know if I wanted to go downstairs and put more stickers in his new sticker book.  As fun as that may be for him, I’d much rather stick to my routine of getting some sleep around 10 p.m.  I escorted him back to bed, rubbed his back a little and he drifted back to sleep… at least, for a little while.  It was just one of those nights.

Once I got to work, I thought, I can make it through this day.  Then Dan asked me if I knew what December 11th meant.    You would have thought he asked me the square root of 5,446.  I just gave him my best blank stare and said,  “no.”  It was pretty funny.  Dan quickly reminded me that we only have two weeks until Christmas.  I guess since I finished my shopping several weeks ago, I’m not quite as in tune with the calendar as I should be.  At any rate, it provided us with a very funny moment on the set.  It also proved to me that I’m not as good at sleep working as I thought I was.

And so, I hope you make it through your day awake… alert and ready to answer all of those not-so-tricky questions that may come your way.  As for me, I’m going to work on getting a nap in this afternoon.

Good Monday morning, everyone!  All of us on the Good Morning Indiana crew hope you had a great weekend!

Tom was a helpful husband this weekend.  His wife, who’s an attorney, has her first jury trial today.  Tom spent the weekend helping her prepare.  The verdict is in and Tom is guilty of being a great husband.

Paul turned one year older over the weekend.  He had a good time with his family.  His wife cooked her great spaghetti dinner and everyone seemed full and happy.

Dan and his girlfriend went to a concert in Bloomington Saturday night.  He says the band didn’t even take the stage until 11 p.m.  I was impressed that Dan could actually stay awake.  I can barely keep my eyes open past 9 p.m.  I must admit, however, that I broke my usual routine Friday night and stayed up late.  I had a nice nap Friday afternoon and I just wasn’t very tired.  I addressed some Christmas cards and kind of enjoyed a “quiet” house for a change.

The rest of the weekend was fun, too.  The kids have mailed their letters to Santa and now they’re waiting patiently for a response.  I’m really proud of my kids because they really haven’t asked for a lot of toys.  At one point I even asked them… is that it?  Hopefully, that means my husband and I are doing a pretty good job of teaching them the reason for the season.

We hope you’re enjoying your holiday season!  Have a great Monday and we’ll see you tomorrow.