Surprise Visit!

Yesterday, we received a surprise visit from Leo and Brandon Knowlden. It was so nice seeing them and catching up with their family. Jessica is still traveling and loving it. Brandon is working for an ad agency in Chicago. He graduated from CCS with an art degree. He is super excited to hear about Renee and her painting success. The younger kids are working and in school. Leo is living in a log cabin a mile from his old house. He loves it. I'm so happy they stopped by.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Another wonderful Thanksgiving starts with a turkey in the oven and Paul at our door. I was so happy to see him.

 Carla and Mike brought the rolls and salad.

 Gramma and Paul...

 Grampa and Mike (Grampa claimed Mike has a strong grip...)

 Grampa's checking out the baby.

 So much fun!

 Carla's getting big...

 Tony's up to his old tricks.

 My boys...

 Paul elected to carve the turkey.

 Tony is sneaking a piece...

 Interesting presentation...

 I think there's enough food.

 Waiting patiently.

 Let's dig in...

 Ready for dessert. Gramma made a pumpkin pie and an apple pie. They were delicious.

 Saying good-bye..

Regen is ready to go.

Getting Ready for Christmas

The reindeer are getting ready at the gate...

Hi-ho, here we go!!

Grampa is the electrical engineer providing a million cords for the lights.

Hard to see but this reindeer is all lit up and ready to go...

Final inspection...

Whew!

The reindeer are ready to pull Santa's sleigh. More night pictures to come.

The Sorting of the Cards

Part of my job involves using a card pack of approximately 200 phonetic sounds. After a 5-day training, the cards are well mixed. Helmut always volunteers to put them back in numerical order. He has a system....

More Caribbean Pictures...

Renee sent these pictures from the cruise and I thought I would share some more shots. 

 

 Leaving Miami the first evening.

 Exploring the ship the first day. We ended up spending a lot of time at the pool.

 The glorious veranda...

 Cozumel from the scooter.

 The last day at sea, Renee helped at the pool volleyball game by holding the net. She did a great job!

 I felt the need to post both of these videos so you could experience the full effect of Karaoke on the ship.

 Our last sunset.

 Hello...

It was wonderful!

 

Putting on the Darn Mask

In Roatan, we rented snorkeling equipment....mistake. The masks leaked and were a super huge pain to on, as you can plainly see...

 Grrrr...

 Super attractive...