Merry Christmas to All

We had a busy Christmas starting with our extended-family party at my cousin's house where Kiara got to play with lots of second cousins...


Had Christmas Eve dinner at a friend's house, which was delicious! (Didn't get any good pictures, though.) Then went home to "get ready" for the next morning. Here's how the tree looked after Santa visited late that night...


Christmas morning... Kiara changed into her new camo pj's she got as a gift and happily opened her next present - karate sparring gear.


Later that day, we had lots of visitors. My mom and Kiara's aunt and uncle came over for dinner, then some good friends of ours stopped by for an evening of fun! We just got back from hanging out with these same friends tonight. Had homemade pizza and watched "Underdog" at their house. Cute movie!

Next celebration... New Year's Eve! Hmmm... what will we do?

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Today is my brother's 38th birthday. He is a year-and-a-half younger than me, but he looks much, much older. Just kidding, Scott-- (but the hat I got you for a gift did serve a purpose... to hide your thinning hair! Ha, ha.) Hope you had a wonderful day!

All Aboard!

Yesterday we took Kiara and her friend, Caroline, to a nearby small town called Blackstone. There's a hardware store that sets up a huge train display every Christmas. We had always heard about it and finally decided to check it out for ourselves. It WAS really COOL. It looked so realistic and had a lot of special effects. There was a drive in theater with the movie Happy Feet actually playing (created by a small portable dvd player). Even the roller coaster worked! (see bottom right hand corner of picture)




My favorite was the house that would "catch on fire"... smoke and all! The alarm would sound and the firestation next door sends a fireman down the pole. A firetruck then comes out of the station with its hook-and-ladder to put out the fire. They had real water shoot out of the hose to "put out" the fire!


The girls had a great time, and so did we! Think we'll make this trip a yearly holiday tradition.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Kiara's class Christmas party was today, and her teacher asked me to come in and do an activity with the kids. I chose to have them make this adorable pinecone tree. This is Kiara's finished product:

Here are two of my friends' kids helping to decorate the tree in our house...

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My dad would've been 62 years old today. Mom and I spent the day in Richmond running errands and shopping. We are back at her house now getting ready to settle in for the evening. It was our tradition to have shrimp for dinner on his birthday, but we opted for leftovers from our lunch at Panera's. Happy birthday, Dad... I miss you!

What Happened to Winter???

It's like 75 degrees outside now! Hard to believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away! Our Christmas parade Friday night went well. Tried to take a few pics of our Roselawn float, but it was too dark out.

Well, I think I'll slab on some sunscreen and go out on the front porch to enjoy the sunshine... It is a beautiful day. Unseasonable, but beautiful.

No School Today

Kiara woke up this morning to a surprise day off of school. Apparently, the weather was bad somewhere in this rural county. I checked outside to find no snow, no ice... nothing. We even had to convince Kiara that school really was closed. She was off yesterday because of a bad cough, so this makes an extended weekend for her!

Our Keysville parade is tonight. Roselawn B&B will be in it with several of our animals. We re also involved in setting up our church "float". This parade is one of the highlights of life in the country.

Paul is working to purchase this building in town with his sister and brother-in-law as partners. The plan is to rent out the 5 offices upstairs and two 2 storefronts downstairs. The back part of the building will be a vendors' mall. So, we'll see what happens...