STOCKINGS

When we moved to Texas.  Larry worked at Ace hardware.  They had lots of clearance little toys.  Like cork pop guns, train whistles and stuff like that.  Add a candy cane and an orange, became a finale present.  Surprisingly it became a favorite part of Christmas.  I watched for fun things on clearance to put in them.  Oh yeah, a stocking was made and filled for everyone that showed up, adult and child.

Well this year, with Nathan in PA. and Brody's gang moving to ND, I didn't feel in the mood and announced at Thanksgiving I wasn't going to do the stockings this year.  The uproar that caused kindof surprised me.

"It was their own fault if the others weren't around!  We shouldn't be punished"  They love the stockings and the surprises they held.  I said it was expensive!  They said they would chip in to keep it going.  "It's one of the best parts of Christmas"  Although they probably didn't remember the year I put in bags of rice and beans to help fill them.

One of my gifts this year is the special stocking fund jar.  It was even primed by Joel and Damon.  So the hunt starts again, trinkets, bargains and fun stuff to be put away until Christmas 2015.  Two more stockings to make for new family members in 2015.

Christmas 2014

Our little family

 Ghost the cat, everyone loves her.  She gives kisses and gets Enzo in trouble.  Charlie the old guy.  He likes to act like he's put out with the new ones, but plays with them and shares his bed with them.  Enzo, my sweet little guy.  Ghost knocks things off counters, then Enzo tries to chew them up.

 Our silly group picture.  Charles and his girls fit right in with this bunch.  I had the opportunity to spend a day with them, going to see Annie and a little shopping.  We had a good time, real nice girls.

 The proper family picture, we would have loved to have fit the missing (Brody, Stephanie, Axel, Nathan, Jodie, George, Jenna & Jake) into the picture.  We would have needed a bigger space, maybe some day.

 A variety of food.  Honey baked ham, funeral potatoes, mac & cheese, tamales, pickled eggs and biscuits and more.

 We had to puppy & kitty proof the house for the season.  The tinsel tree would walk, thanks to Ghost. be knocked over and little pieces all over.

 Ghost would knock things off the 3 ft tree, that was duct tape to the card table, Enzo would gladly chew on it for a while until I found it. She thought she belonged under it, too!

 Presents,  Diego was excited with his tablet once he knew it wasn't a decoy box.  

 Waiting to open,  sibs sitting nicely together....they are growing up and almost act like adults.

 Joel, soon to be son-in-law was excited with his gifts, cool shirt from Kelly, and PS4 game from us.

Oscar's wish list to Mom was a cloak,  now orders are in for more.

HOLIDAY PREPPING

Our school district has Thanksgiving week off.  Larry thought it would be nice for the boys to come over and help get things ready for Christmas. Our yard art needed some new paint after several years of Texas weather extremes.

 Diego fixes the Christmas boots

 Axel whitens the snowman

 Larry changing the Christmas lights attachments

 Damon clearing frozen plants

 Ghost wants to join the boys in back, you just can't hear her meowing in the picture.

 Axel removes old broken lights

 Oscar doing fine detail

 Axel drilling holes to put new lights on 

 Damon putting the lights up, Diego helping.  We are grateful that Damon isn't afraid of heights.  He has been helping and now putting up the lights for about 5 years now.  

 Enzo wants to help too, but spent most of the day in his pen

 Break time for a wienie roast.

 And s'mores

On Tuesday, Oscar came for some cooking lessons and prepping for the Thanksgiving feast.  Learning to make cressant rolls, homemade cornbread for stuffing and Kandy's cranberry salad.

By the end of the day, yard art ready to put up, house lights up and working,  4 boys kept busy all day, and exhausted grandparents.

National Parks

This trip we hit the national park trail.

 Our first stop was The Grand Canyon.  I might say this is our favorite, our 9th visit. to quote J. B. Priestly:

"There is of course no reason at all in trying to describe the Grand Canyon  those who have not seen it will not believe any possible description.  Those who have seen it know that it cannot be described..." 

Yosemite

In oregon we went to the Lewis and Clark NP, Fort Clatsop, but no pictures.

 The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

 Old Faithful

 Devil's Tower

 Mount Rushmore

 Chimney Rock

Scott's Bluff

Lot's of history and beauty and miles.

Family and Friends

Part of our vacation plan was to try and see friends and family whenever possible.  We had some success and some failures.  But when we did hook up we had some nice visits.

We got to visit twice with my father and Fran, and Jodie also made one of the visits.

While in the Inland Empire, I was able to connect with and old friend from my DPSS working days.  Sue was one of my assistants for several years.  She always found a way to lighten the day with fun sayings and cartoon art work.  I have used one of those saying while working guest services at Target.  All of our state forms had letters and numbers to identify them, on of the best was the 210LLPOF  (Liar Lair Pants on Fire)

 Our friends, the Daniel's always let us stay with them whenever we are in California.  Larry and Jim used to work together at Norco, they also rode bikes on the weekend.  Larry & Jim got to ride a few times again.  Linda went to the Regan Library with us.  We have such a good time when we visit them.

 And we love their dog,  Murphy.

We got to meet up with Tammy and Eric, Brittani and Regan for lunch in Huntington Beach. 

 We were able to see my Aunt Lynda (Bobbie) and Uncle Bernie in Mariposa. We have not seen them since before we moved to Texas.

This is my youngest cousin Danny, his wife Katy and son Garrett.  Danny is only a year older than Kelly.  We also got to see David, Kristin and son Matt, although no pictures.  

 We met up with Jodie, Jenna and Jake and spent 2 days at Disneyland.

 We spent almost 3 weeks with Jodie and George in Snohomish

 We had fun with our friends Dave and Linda Grant.  We always have an adventure with them.  We met on our mission when we both served at Morningside Farm on Vashon Island, WA.

 A few days on Vashon Island with Jim and Diane Copitzky.

We also spent a day with Roy and Carroll Chapman although no pictures that day.

 Our visits with our family and friends was a true highlight of our vacation.  There were others we would have liked to have seen, but vacations and illness prevented it.  Maybe next time.

Vacation 2014

Last year I thought it would be nice to take a vacation for about two months during the hot part of the Texas summer.  It took lots of planning to make reservations months in advance, plot the drives, try to meet up with friends ands family, save the money and make the arrangements for a leave of absence from work.

We left July 8, our first stop was at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas

 Here it is tradition to spray paint graffiti, so Larry painted the Warrzone brand.

 We got home August 27, 2014.  Larry got to spend his birthday driving over 700 miles.  I could not find anything I would want to do in Kansas so after a couple of stops on Nebraska, we wanted to get home.

August 26, Carhenge, in Nebraska, was one of the last places we visited.  I had seen a Yahoo post about the 10 best roadside attractions in the U.S. and this was on the list in addition to Cadillac Ranch.  It happened to be just a small detour from our original plans.

So we started with car art and ended with car art.