Family Photos

These  pictures have been secret for over 4 months.  August second while Beth's sister, Sarah was in Colorado, they  had their families together for a  photoshoot. It was to surprise their mother with these great pictures. Of course while keeping the secret, I was kept in the dark as well. So, I was also

surprised and thrilled to get these and about 40 more pictures now.  I sat down right away and 'scrapbooked' them, since I was about ready to publish another book.

Now today, as  I was getting everything together for this next publication, I realized I had not finished 

'scrapping' the photos taken in October when all of ORU was together here in Ohio. So this evening, I've been working on those pages. I have been sitting way too much. At this time, I'm more than ready to dive into bed, but that had to wait until I can complete this, since I've missed two days in a row already.

Late winter

I have plenty of great Christmas pictures to work with, so perhaps I'll have some on here by spring, well hopefully before that. Maybe even tomorrow. But today, I'll show you one of Ron's Christmas presents to himself that he bought in early December. It is a leaf vacuum. Leaves are a big problem here with so many oak trees and he would never be able to rake  them all, so he has used vacuums for several years. The last one he had broke in November. Thankfully when it did the leaves hadn't started falling in great numbers. They did later in December and he had his new toy, sorry, machine, to do the work. Here is Ron with his prize possession at present.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve

I have several photos taken while the kids decorated the Christmas tree this year. They did it with such thought and care.  I'm anxious to get the chance after Christmas to make more layouts in able to hold onto the bright memories. First there is John holding Caleb up to put the star on top. This has become a tradition at their house. When Caleb sees this layout, he may be surprised...since they do not own an ornament like the one he is holding the second picture. I wonder how that happened. HA.

Varsity Drive In

Our grandson, Mason is in three choirs, The Mustangs, Paragon and a mixed boy/girl choir. In late October of this year, all those choirs went to Atlanta  to perform in a concert. They had some fun on that  long weekend trip. Two of the places they visited are shown on this layout. Six Flags and a special drive in called The Varsity. After I read about it, I wondered why I hadn't already heard.

The Varsity in downtown Atlanta is the original, world famous location. There are others around the country. This enormous restaurant sits on 2 city blocks and can accommodate 800 diners inside. Opened in 1928, this store quickly gained the reputation of being "the world's largest drive in".

Guess we just missed it when we were there. It is hard to believe since there are 7 locations in the Atlanta Athens area.

Expressions

I love these expressions. Before I found  out what Oliver and Julia were thinking about, I tried to guess. I was wrong, but it was fun trying.  I noted on the layout the why of those looks.  Julia doesn't seem certain, but  Oliver may be considering all the choices with that look on his face.   They  were trying to decide where to eat breakfast that morning. It looks like it  could be a very important decision in his mind. 

 I don't know where they ended up going to eat, but I do know that when they got home they had lots of energy and went out to play in the leaves while daddy raked. I posted a few pictures of that play in late November.

"I'm Lit"

We have our life group over on Tuesday evenings for a meal, Bible study and prayer. We always have fun as well, but this Tuesday was extraordinarily fun. As has become our custom,  sometime during the Christmas season we have a Christmas party with a White elephant gift exchange. We gave it a political theme this year, at least some of us did. So the gifts were unusually funny. 

The  present I ended up with had several cool things in it including a reindeer candy dish (with candy) and this 'necklace' of tree lights. I failed to don them while everyone was here last night, so I did that today and got a picture of me with the 'necklace'. Then I sent an email with this layout titled "I'm lit". 

This  layout will go into my next book to be published  in the near future.  So we'll not forget this gift for a long, long time. 

It Was Just Last Month

The boys were acting like...BOYS. And what fun they were having. This was just last month and now it is almost Christmas. 

My favorite season is fall, but Christmas and snow are very special as well. No wonder  I live in the north.  All four seasons are wonderful.