Thanksgiving '09

Happy Advent!!! Who can believe that Christmas is almost here.

With Lindsey's help, I've included some recent pictures. Two are from Brian and Darci Weiser's wedding in Nov. Brian's older brother from Topeka is in the orange shirt.

We had a divine Thanksgiving. All arrived on Wed. night so we had plenty of time to play and eat-what more could we ask for? Each of the kids took a meal so I got to relax as well as enjoy gourmet meals. Daryl, Kim and David joined us on Fri. night for cream cheese stuffed pork loin with cranberry chutney, grilled asparagus and sauteed new potatoes/brussel sprouts prepared by Lindsey, Michael and Paula Dean. The best was lots of laughing and stories. Karis, Kellen and Chad went international with taco soup, layer dip and brownies topped with raspberry-fudge topping. My meals were quite ordinary!!!

Lindsey won the pitch session and Karis won Apples to Apples. My greatest feat was Uno!!!!

Chad flies to Chicago tomorrow for a medical seminar to work a display table. Kellen seems to have her new bank established well enough for the time being to get away for several days. This was not the case when she first started. Lindsey was busy studying for a test on Mon. She knows that her hardest semester starts in Jan. but then she will be able to move to Texas for at least the summer and maybe clinicals in the Dallas area as well. Michael's project gets underway in January-they'll officially break ground in late Jan. Up to this time it has been all the preliminary planning-he is SO ready to get going on it. Karis is busy at the Alco distribution center in Abilene and enjoys the fast pace-her days fly by.

Dick has been retired a month now and is really enjoying it. He spent about 20 days on the farm in eastern Ks. helping with harvest-his first in 34 years. It is so relaxed knowing that he does not have to be up at 4:00 to go to work. We have had several ice/snow days already where the UPS guys could not go out west so he is relieved not to have to worry about it. Lots of long overdue jobs at our house here are being taken care of too.

We are taking a Christmas trip for the first time in 34 yrs as well. We are going with Jerry and Lois Schippers to a time share in Fort Lauderdale Dec.18-24. This will be unusual for a UPSer.

All of ours will be home over New Year's for Christmas and Stef Gasper's wedding on Jan. 2.

I guess this is my Thanksgiving and Christmas card-Hooray for the blog!!!!