The Thanksgiving Hike

One of our favorite holiday traditions is a family hike. It's our twist on what I grew up doing--going for a neighborhood walk after the family meal together. This year we went to Double Rock Park, where the girls always love throwing rocks in the stream and Alan and I find our sanity revived along with our awareness of what life is all about--knowing, thanking, and glorifying the Creator of this beautiful world.

Giving More Thanks

Thanksgiving has got to be one of my favorite holidays. It's just getting together, eating a meal, and hanging out, and I just love it. Mom and Dad hosted a wonderful meal, and we all reveled in the memory-making. Here are a few more pictures to add to the earlier post. (Aunt Barbara still loves putting black olives on her fingertips...and eating them off!)

Catching Up

Whew. Life kind of picked up speed in December, and my cyber space photo album suffered. I'm going to put up a bunch of posts that summarize some recent highlights, starting with my cousin, Charles' visit before Thanksgiving. He's my Uncle Chuck's son and lives outside L.A., but we were happy to have his company for a few fun-filled days. Here he is relaxing w/the girls and striking a pose outside our walking-distance pub where he & I enjoyed an evening of conversation (and a nice visit by Sung Ko & another friend!)

Celebrating those five year olds!

It took so many tries to get the videos loaded into this post--but now they're in and ready to share! The weekend before Thanksgiving we met Grandma & Grandpa Blackman at Matt & Becky's house to have a belated party for Casey and Evelyn. I wish I had more pictures--we always have such a good time when we visit together. Casey's into space these days, so the glow-in-the-dark solar system we got him was hung in his room before we left. He's five and he can name all the planets! Evelyn loved her princess and ballerina gifts, and all of us enjoyed the fellowship (including playing "Rock Band" together. Nobody plays video games like Becky--it was SO much fun!And yes, that is Grandpa playing guitar in teh one video! You didn't think Alan's talent was a fluke, did you?) We are looking forward to Christmas together!
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I Found Thanksgiving!

Actually, Alan found the pictures...funny how even w/all this computer technology I can still "lose" a file of pictures. So here are just a few from our celebration with Mom, Dad, Jon, Courtney, Anna, Aidan, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Diego, Lindsy, Kelby, Shelley, Cousin Ryan, and Esther. More to come...and pictures from our birthday celebration the week before Thanksgiving with Casey and the Blackmans (sounds like the name of a band!)

Always giving thanks for everything. (Eph. 5:20)

The Nut House

We've already arrived at stir crazy--not a good sign! Must be the new schedule that doesn't allow for as much outdoor time (really, really miss that!)

This morning, amidst a cacophony of noise and perpetual mess, Alan and I were trying to have a simple conversation about laundry. Our voices were slightly raised over the hubbub, and Alan said, "Just put it in the hamster..."

We lost it. Our brains are officially mush.

We are now going to go get our Christmas tree in a wet, slithery snowfall. Wish us luck.

Fun with Aidan

I don't know what my fascination is with videos of these kids dancing--perhaps I'm just a little envious of their complete lack of self-consciousness. And the giant tree slide at the zoo is always a place to stop and enjoy the glory of repetition. It was also a place where other zoo-goers marveled that I had 3 children so close in age. When I confessed that one was my nephew, one woman actually remarked, "Well that's a relief. You are way too calm for these to all be yours."

Turning 40 = Excellent Adventure

Jon & John turned 40 this fall & to celebrate, backpacked the Grand Canyon with their wives. Isn't that cool??

While they were away, I was able to spend an extra day with their kids--taking Aidan to the zoo with the girls, then taking both Aidan and Anna to AWANA with us that evening. It was a special presentation night and the kids had a blast in the front row--below they are checking out a snapping turtle.

Congrats, Jon, Courtney, John, & Jolene, on your hike!

"What's that terrible smell, Mommy?"

Evelyn asked this as we got into the car this morning to take her to school. It seems that between the hours of 8 pm last night and 8 am this morning, someone sat in our car and smoked a cigarette. I guess worse things can happen when one leaves one's car unlocked in Baltimore on a cold night.

UPDATE: After talking with Alan about this, it seems more likely that some people slept in the cars last night to escape the cold who just smelled of smoke. To which we say....you're welcome to use our cars to stay warm whenever we forget to lock our doors. :)