MichaelandChrissy.com

We did send out a Christmas letter this year, but I wanted to post it to the web site anyway.  Who knows, maybe somebody who isn’t on our holiday mailing list would like to know what we were up to this year?  If you’re not on our Christmas card list, and would like to be, please let me know!  The “online version” is now enhanced with links back to blog posts that give more details.  Click “Continue Reading” to read the 2008 Christmas Letter.

Legend has it that Orville Redenbacher lived in the same subdivision in Valparaiso as my Aunt Linda, before he sold off the company and moved away, so the town has had a Popcorn Festival ever since.  The Festival is situated downtown, with the Courthouse at its center, and they close off a bunch of streets for the event.  There are booths with arts and crafts, an annual parade, and lots of food.  Everyone that I knew would be there every year, so it was always nice to catch up with people and talk downtown.

I actually saw Orville Redenbacher once during a Popcorn Festival.  I was about 15, and he came out from behind a building, flanked by a bunch of businessmen, on his way to give an opening speech or something.  I remember thinking how old he looked in real life, since I had only seen him on TV prior to that.  He walked right by me, but I was too stunned to say anything or even wave.  I mean, this was Orville Redenbacher, in the flesh, and being a boy from small-town Indiana, I had never seen a famous person before.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, I’ve gone to the Popcorn Festival towards the end of the summer.  So I can say from experience that it has been going downhill in recent years.  There used to be lots of arts and crafts, but now it’s mostly infomercial crap.  For example, I saw three booths for bedsheets, several for cheap sunglasses, and a couple for back massagers.  There were only about a half dozen for the crafty kitsch that we dig, but we had already seen those same vendors at the Blueberry Festival last week.

The upside was that they have a kids area a few blocks east of the Courthouse with face painting and the duck game and some other kiddie attractions.  There was a huge inflatable slide, and Aiden and I went down twice.  Getting up there was a chore though, since the ladder was very steep and Aiden had to go in front of me.  It would have been easier to toss him over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry.  It was a tough climb, but worth it because Aiden loved the slide down so much.