Welcoming a NEW year

12-31-10 recuperating brain

Greg read an article in the paper to me this week which said that 2010 was "the year of the tiger". This is reference to the Chinese Calendar. This article explained that "the tiger" is not kind to humans. Maybe this could explain some of the weird events in 2010? I'm wondering if I can blame "the tiger" for me being sick most of this week? Either that, or the germs I picked up spending time with the family... several who were coughing the sneezing.

Today, I'm feeling a bit better, but still not full speed.
The good news for today is that 2011 is "the year of the rabbit".... and the rabbit is always kind to humans!!

I'll close this year with a new more pictures from Christmas vacation... as I gladly welcome in the rabbit!

Christopher, Sarah, and I worked on "ginger bread houses" one afternoon.



We went sledding. I went down twice before I remembered that I'm not suppose to engage in activities which might cause my retina to detach. Thank goodness I didn't receive any blows to my head this year.

Christmas Day

12-29-10 family brain
We attended Christmas Eve service in spite of the new 10 inches of snow on Friday. Then Saturday, Christmas Day, we started the morning off with our usual breakfast... Greg cooked scrambled eggs and we had really good sweet rolls made by a neighbor friend.


Then the "ELFs" showed up to distribute the gifts from under the tree, and we all took our positions. We open up gifts one by one... and really take our time.



Somehow the cat always ends up in the middle of the room playing with the discarded pieces of string. Over the years, we have tried hard to move away from wrapping paper and now use recycled wrappings, especially cloth bags.



One of my favorite gifts... the box set of Bruce Springsteen's "The Promise Land" which comes with CDs and DVD. Since no one showers prior to opening our gifts, the Santa hat comes in handy to cover my messy bed-head.

Iowa Christmas

12-28-10 amazed brain
I took a million pictures of the frost.... I just couldn't put the camera down, even though most of these pictures were taken from the car window. I was in such awe of the beauty of nature. This made me appreciate winter in a whole new way. That's easy for me to say THIS year. Des Moines has only received a fraction of the snow we had last year, AND in KC this week, there is no snow and temperatures will be in the 40's, 50's and reaching 60 by late week. Finally an early January thaw we never had last year. This picture as we left my parent's house yesterday.


Above, Dad's Marine flag surrounded by white background. Below the new Charles City Suspension Bridge.







Pictures from our family Christmas will follow all this week.

Holiday report

12-27-10 vacation brain
Charles City in northern Iowa today was visited by hoar-frost. Temperature 7 degrees.

View from our wonderful B&B in Charles City, "the Sherman House"... probably only B&B in town for all I know.




This picture was taken by my nephew Christopher's cell phone camera, shows the side view of the Sherman House. Greg and I got to spend 4 days here, since my parents house was full enough with Jan's family.

Snowy Christmas

12-26-10 snowy brain
We have had a very snowy Christmas up in northern Iowa in my hometown.
Luckily we have Christopher, a strong 26 year old, with us to help keep the drive way shoveled. I believe we had at least 10 inches.

Merry Christmas

Click on picture to enlarge. I'm going "paper-less" for the most part this year, with our Christmas cards!

MORE lights

12-24-10 xmas brain
Back in Des Moines and Ann wanted to visit the house in Grimes decorated for Christmas again this year. I was game.




We did stop by Kelley's house to deliver a package to my God son, Ben. We got to see Kelley's new living room windows which looked very nice! Kelley's house was wonderfully decorated for Christmas, dang wish I would have taken a picture.