Merry Christmas!

Ooh, look who consented to make a guest appearance in honor of Christmas! Of course, she insisted on total artist control over the use of her image -- this is a self-portrait!

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a new year full of love and joy!

Christmas Eve

We went to a candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve. That Grace loved the singing and joined in, loudly. She had fun with the candles. It was beautiful -- a very peaceful interlude in the midst of all the activity of Christmas.

Family Christmas

We had a family Christmas party on the 20th. Instead of turkey or ham, we had Mexican food. That Grace helped mix the guacamole.


Aunt Donna and Papa.

Our beautiful niece.


Hanging out with Daddy. That Grace is wearing the traditional Christmas shift. I think it was about 70 degrees that day.

A new baby.
Two beautiful nieces and 2 babies! That Grace had a great time once she got used to everyone.

Two Weeks in Two Minutes

The past few weeks have been a whirl of activities. We've been shopping ...


eating ...

lots ....



taking pictures of our food (what, you don't do that?)...
cooking, of course...

pouring...

drinking tea...

and we spent a fun day with Aunt Donna and Uncle Craig, baking cookies ...

and rearranging furniture!

Christmas Trees and Bad Musicals

We went to the tree farm for our Christmas tree yesterday. It was getting dark when we got there, so these pictures aren't the greatest. That Grace really got into it this year. We just let her run wild.

She finally decided on a pretty but very prickly one. She helped Dad cut it down.

Dad was tired after cutting down the tree, so he let That Grace load it on the top of the car. Good thing she's stronger than she looks!

We had our Disciple class at church tonight and as we were leaving Caroline tells me that her friend, who went to the mountains with us last week, said our family was like a bad musical. I was not offended, because 1) I'm extremely hard to offend -- you really have to work at it and 2) I have heard myself sing. However, bad singing aside, we do sing a lot around here. We have the Good Morning song, the Good Night song, songs for cleaning up, songs for getting dressed, songs for doing chores, animal songs, food songs, weather songs, traveling songs, etc. In just about any situation, we are likely to break out in song. In the unlikely event that we find ourselves in a situation that does not lend itself to a song that we already know, we will make one up (i.e. I'm Sitting on the Potty but I'm Not Sure if I Need to Pee -- a rollicking number sure to win the hearts of the Grammy committee soon). That Grace loves music and fussing/whining can often be circumvented by an appropriate musical selection. She is always an appreciative audience. Caroline and I were butchering Baby, It's Cold Outside tonight and when we finished, That Grace begged for more. She definitely has her favorite CDs, though. Elizabeth Mitchell is the hero of long car trips.

Playing Catch Up

I planned on posting updates while we were on vacation but, surprise!, there was no service at the top of the mountain, so this will just be a quick update. I don't think the picture above really needs a caption. It kind of speaks for itself!

Visiting with Aunt Donna (who is not a fan of the Pebbles 'do). She and Uncle Craig dog sat while we were gone, which we really appreciated!

Hmm, she's almost got it!

Eating a hearty breakfast in the mountains.

Thanksgiving Day!

Apparently deciding her stomach was too full for any more food, That Grace decides to feed her feet!

Having fun on the way home -- before we got stuck on the interstate for 6 hours.