2022-12-31
Breakfast with some of the kids this past Monday
The day after Christmas. Johnny has perfected the one eyebrow raise, hahah!
I grabbed this moon shot as I was packing up to leave my moms.
Just my camera phone in the driveway. :)
I’ve always liked my mom’s manger scene :)
The real reason for the celebration of the season, Christ the Lord!
My mom and dad made these when they were first married.
The broken fragments of auto glass glued into place, grouted with plaster and then painted. My flashlight made a good candle. Now we each have one of these candles of our own too. :)
2022-12-30
I loved the way this rubber ducky shot turned out.
The colors, the snow. A perfect winter scene. Glad I was inside!
Oh the fun-loving ordered chaos that is our family Christmas time❣️
I wouldn't trade it for anything!
You just never know WHAT to expect at these family gatherings…
The look on Savannah's face sums it up pretty well!
We all headed to my mom’s house for Christmas lunch.
She even joined the "kids" table which is quickly becoming the adult table. I guess that means we're sitting at the old folks table or maybe the handicap accessible table? Hahahah.
2022-12-29
Julie’s showing off her new earrings that Stef made her for Christmas.
I love this lady! She makes a great life companion and happens to be the love of my life too!
We had the boys over on Christmas morning to open their stockings.
It's always good for a few laughs. What is that pink "worm" coming out of Johnny's, not to mention the styrofoam cone in Andys…?!
It’s always fun to spend Christmas Eve with Stef’s family.
We have dinner, presents, and games. Her house is always so cute with the decorations too. :)
It seems like the boys like head rubs and to have their hair done, hahahahaha.
2022-12-28
The annual Rice Krispy treat!
This time the girls got to join in. Julie and I satisfied ourselves with a bite or two. :)
Even the Shark (Edge Boy) made an appearance at our Christmas gifting…
This pic sets the tone pretty well. Knives, coffee, Kendamas and sharks. Sums me up pretty well.
You can see that Zoe was the star of the show with Hannah and Savannah…
Zoe was in heaven too.
I like how the Barton Girls refer to themselves as the "Annah Committee". Love it!
2022-12-27
Andy thought it would be fun to play dead in front of the tree…
…Zoe had other plans! If you can survive her investigation, only then do we know you’re really dead.
It was nice to have the boys over for our traditional Christmas Eve activities.
They brought +1's this year. We refer to that bonus as "the Barton Girls"
Emily decided to call the original cousins group "the Ones" since we have taken to calling all the additional girlfriends and boyfriends plus ones, hahahah.
This is our typical “in front of the tree” pose.
But I liked the way this one came out better. It shows the tree better and more what normally goes on “Christmas Morning”…
The boys were hanging their stockings for each other.
They've taken to running around and buying random fun things for each other then filling their stockings with them. The three of us braved the elements and did it together. It’s fun for them to hit the budget and still be able to fit it all in the stocking. They don’t quite have the balance right yet. Haha.
I bought for Zoe, who is very interested in the process as well. I think she can smell the goodies… :)
It’s fun that we still use the stockings my mom made and presented them on their first Christmas.
2022-12-26
We finally had to move Julie’s Christmas paper to a more permanent container.
It had busted the seams of the box we used to use.
After that, Andy and I went to lunch.
We enjoyed some Subway in our cute little town of Waynesville. :)
So we had some nice winter weather the day before Christmas Eve!
A few inches of snow, negative temperatures, almost 3pm-have winds, and wind chill around -30º. I went shopping. ;)
This was the vibe on the trip home.
2022-12-25
I was on my way to a date with Julie…
The folks down the road from us usually pull this car our for Christmas. I couldn't pass up the chance to grab a pic with the pretty sunset. The dynamic range on the iPhone is impressive!
Winner winner Christmas dinner.
Of course, we had to have a little friendly competition…
I beat everybody (18 folks) at the range for bragging rights and a box of ammo, :) It was a single elimination .22 10 shot speed drill. Shooting Glock 44 with iron sights at the tiny orange dots at 25 feet.
We had 20 seconds to load, charge, and shoot. Highest score with the fastest time won. In the final match we tied at a score of five, but I finished first by 0.200 seconds or so.
It's hard to find people that are safe, can teach, AND can shoot. I hope one day I can be decent enough at all three to continue in the footsteps of my mentor and friend Jeff…? ;)
Taking a break from blogging…? ;)
Actually, I am just pausing on the regularly scheduled entries so I can keep up with the Christmas festivities a little more real-time. This was our Christmas celebration dinner at the range a couple nights ago. There were 25 or so of us there enjoying food, company and fun.
2022-12-24
Exciting way to watch the sun set…
We rented two boats for the 40 of us. I liked this shot of us speeding along at 40mph in the ocean while the we watched the sun set over Miami.
The first HINT of sunrise.
I sat on my balcony and watched the sunrise the next day. Here, you could JUST barely start to see the sky lightening.
In contrast, this was my walk on Miami Beach last week…
You can see Orion where the clouds cleared. It's amazing to be able to capture these kind of shots, in the dark of night, while on a random walk. I think back to how hard it would have been in years past.. This was 10p, and dark, in the middle of "winter".
2022-12-23
The light of the snow?
I went to bed at midnight. this was the view out our bedroom window. I have always enjoyed how much more brighter it seems at night when the snow reflects the moonlight. This picture shows that well.
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