December 25...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I Smell Cookies!

Yep, it's that time of year, the day when Dave goes into the kitchen bright and early and works hard all day making Christmas Cookies for all of the good girls and boys at his office...and at home, too! This year he has recruited two elves as assistants, and they are ready to roll...



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Casey gets just the right amount of peanut butter (stop licking your fingers, please) and Alex stirs up the batter...





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They lay out the cookie sheets with minimum chatter...






And when they're all done, we know they'll be the best...
But who do you think will clean up this mess??!!


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The cookies are done, so it's on to the tree.
Hurry, Santa, we're waiting patiently!

For now anyway!

Thanksgiving in Denver

We had 5 days of Thanksgiving vacation ahead of us, so after school on Tuesday we packed up and flew off to Denver to celebrate with Dean, Karen, Max, Riley, Dave and Shirley. Even though it's the busiest travel time of the year, we had an easy trip and arrived late that night. We woke up Wednesday morning to find snow had fallen during the night...

What a treat for the kids!

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Since Dave and Shirley weren't scheduled to arrive until late Thursday night, we spent our Thanksgiving Day getting ready for a Friday feast. The kids were so excited to see Nana and Papa, and the next day we finished our preparations and settled at the table for a great holiday dinner. Friends joined us, and we had 16 in all.

Wow, these are great rolls!

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Even though Saturday is not the official Donut Day, we sent Dave and Alex out to hunt and gather a few for a special treat. Riley loves those Apple Fritters!

Later we went to the Denver Museum to see the Titanic Exhibit.

Everyone had a great time.

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The Rocky Mountains are beautiful....

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With all of the excitement of being together, it was hard to get the kids to sit still, but by snapping about a dozen shots we did manage to capture all of their beautiful faces...

Our last night, and our trip wouldn't be complete with out S'mores...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Book Character Day

We made some fun costumes for Book Character Day...

Casey is Rani from Rani in Mermaid Lagoon, and Alex is Mary from Indian Captive.

Charleston Vacation

On Friday we left for our Charleston Vacation. We stopped in Augusta for the night to break up the five and half hour drive, but were up and away early and arrived in Charleston before lunchtime. We stopped at the Visitor's Center to pick up some brochures, then checked into the King Charles Hotel on Meeting Street. It was said that Edgar Allen Poe stayed here while he was stationed at Ft Moultrie and worked on a story called The Gold Bug.
After checking in we set out to find some lunch and then on to Ft Sumter. Alex has just finished studying the Civil War, so she was very excited to see the place where it all began.

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Alex in the garden.

The Cooper River Bridge.

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On Sunday we went to Patriot's Point to tour some of the ships. First we saw the aircraft carrier Yorktown. It was huge and it took us a couple of hours just to finish two of the five tours available. We went down to see the berths and living areas and other areas below deck first. We can't wait to try out this recipe for chocolate chip cookies!

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Then we went to see the submarine. It was a very tight squeeze!

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Then we went on a destroyer. Not as big as the aircraftt carrier, but plenty of decks to tour. Dave wants one of these lockers for his office...






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We took a Ghost Walk that night. It seems Charleston is a very haunted city! Casey was especially interested in the restaurant haunted by a dog named Poogan. And she was really scared of the Boohags, so don't even mention them!
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Monday morning we walked through the South Carolina Aquarium. Alex and Casey loved the hands on Amazon exhibit and the tank for touching the sea urchins and other animals.

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We were so close to the ocean we just had to spend one afternoon at the beach. We drove about 10 miles to the Isle of Palms and found a place to get our feet wet. A little chillly, but irresistable...

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On the way home we stopped near Augusta and visited the Sumter National Forest. It was a great day for a hike in the woods!