More at Colby & Kathy's

(Continued from the post below - Celebrating Christmas with Kathy & Colby) We have Colby modeling his new shirt, and Kathy showing her new blouse. Kip looks happy with the lantern he got from Grandad. It collapses, so it'll be handy to pack for camp. Ayden, Kip and AJ wait patiently at the table for dinner. They were all well-behaved ... probably because no uncle was making them laugh by showing them a mouth full of food! Some of you know who I'm talking about... And Colby and Lon were not allowed to sit next to each other at the table, ha ha. For those of you unfamiliar with their antics, imagine surprises added to your milk, like peas, salt, olives... some boys never grow up. But they provide a source of amusement to us all!

Pre-Christmas with Colby & Kathy

Two days before Christmas we drove up to Colby & Kathy's and spent the afternoon and evening with them and Allan. We had a delicious ham dinner and opened presents. Kip received several camping-type gifts: an all-purpose tool, a lantern and several flashlights. Lon got a couple very nice-looking shirts and ties. I was ecstatic to receive a generous gift card to Barnes & Noble! Everyone knows by now that I could spend the rest of my life in a bookstore or library and be perfectly content. Here's AJ putting a bow on Colby's head; Ayden and AJ watching Kip play his Game Boy; Kathy reading to Ayden before bedtime. It was good spending time with them for the first time in about 6 months.

Trimming the Tree

Kip picks our tree every year, and each year he picks a really nice one. This year he is tall enough to put the angel on the top without a stepstool or chair! (We measured ourselves yesterday, and he is now 1/4 inch taller than me!) Kip was taking pictures of Blizzard in front of the tree, and I was fooling around, but this turned out to be Lon's favorite picture, ha ha. See the dog's expression, I startled the heck out of him!

Blizzard the Pink-Nosed Rein-Dog

We got the Christmas decorations out, and were waiting for Lon to come home so we could trim the tree. Of course we had to torture the dog, ha ha! Blizzard bore it well, to Kip's delight. Looks like we'll be working on next year's Christmas card picture, eh?

Winter Concert

Kip chose Chorus this year as his elective, and they had their Winter Concert last week. The 7th graders are required to wear a necktie with their white shirt and black pants, and boys always look so nice all dressed up, don't they? Kip surprised us that evening with a certificate showing that he had made the Honor Roll for the first quarter! You can see from our expressions that this is not a regular occurrence, but we hope it becomes one. I tried to post a 20-second video of the concert, but with dial-up, it never finished loading...sigh...

More Thanksgiving weekend

Hadn't seen Norma's sister Natalie in a couple of years, so it was nice to have her and her girlfriend come by while we were at Norma's. Spent a couple of hours laughing about old times. Here's the twins together; Nat with me; and Nat & me with her girlfriend Ann Marie. Is she tall or what?!

Thanksgiving in Connecticut

The Prathers spent Thanksgiving in Connecticut with my best friend, Norma. She and I have been friends since 2nd grade! We left Tuesday night after work, driving into the wee hours and arriving about 3 or 4 in the morning. That was cool though, since that's when Norma gets up for work! (Ugh!) Her son Dean taught Kip a couple riffs on his guitar, and we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to the skillful carving of the expert, Lon.