Christmas Card Picture and Letter

Okay, once again a LOOOOOONG overdue post. Here is this year's Christmas picture and letter. Somehow, this year, we never managed to get a picture of all of us together. So, I did a Picasa mosaic and came up with the "photo" below.

Hope to get on a more regular routine of posting. Thanks for hanging in there :-) See you soon.

1. Blain practicing his Cello
2. Adam and I at the Bellagio in Las Vegas
3. Hayden's 13th birthday - He & Christian are on their way to their first concert (Shinedown)
4. Blain and Parker at Parker's baseball game
5. Christian and Nicole - pre-Homecoming pics
6. Adam outside of Maple Grove Farms in St. Johnsbury, VT
7. Christian (snare drum) and Hayden (clarinet) getting ready for the FWB Christmas Parade
8. Hayden practicing his Baritone Saxophone for Jazz Band
9. Hayden and Parker hanging out at the beach
10. Blain and his clubs
11. Parker at the bat
    

Merry Christmas everyone! Boy has it been a busy year, but we are lucky to have our family, our health, and happiness as 2010 arrives. Last year’s incident with my gall bladder resulted in successful out-patient surgery with no problems since. Once again we spent a lot of time with band activities; for Hayden as he started with the Pryor Middle School bands and with Choctawhatchee H.S. as they prepared for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! We enjoy helping out the band and while I continue as a fund raising chairman, Julie manages the band’s web site. Christian played snare drum for Marching Band, plays bass drum for “Indoor”, and still plays bass guitar in the church Praise Band. Hayden plays clarinet in the Pryor football and concert bands, and also played baritone sax for the jazz band – the instrument case stretches all the way across the van when he has to bring it home! Up in SC Blain continues to play the cello, and Parker stays very busy with sports (baseball and now basketball).

Spring cleaning was one of our chores this past year – we cleaned and helped renovate the H.S. band room. The band room was basically gutted and then refitted with new instrument lockers, carpet, and paint. It looks GREAT and is a source of pride for the students. We removed, cleaned, and stored hundreds of trophies; and have some fun videos on our YouTube site including “teenagers with sledge hammers” tearing out the old lockers. Julie also shared “Best Show 2008” honors with the Jekyll & Hyde cast from her Stage Crafters group. She hasn’t been as active on stage this year but she’s been busy building their scrapbooks as one of the Board Members. All those “mad craft skills” were also validated as she became a Stampin’ Up demonstrator and is now in business building her sales and ideas – she also has lots of great stamping/crafting videos on the YouTube site. Julie and I closed out March with a trip to Las Vegas during one of my work trips. We had a great time, saw one of the amazing “Cirque” shows, and got to visit Julie’s mom and Tony during the short 3-day trip.

April arrived with some fun April Fool’s Day pranks (chocolate covered “foam” marshmallow candy…) and some good times together with Blain and Parker for Spring Break. Along with some golf and quality time together we also got spent some time at the pistol range, where we tried out some of my guns I’ve been gathering for “when the zombies come to get us” – as Julie likes to joke. Seriously, it’s fun to learn gun safety and good shootin’ and I know our collection will continue to grow. Even Christian’s girlfriend Nicole joined us and she (and Julie) put a few rounds into the target (we’re still looking for the other shots!). In April Christian joined the work force with a job at Chick-Fil-A, including the 5-0 “D”, or 50% discount for employees. He still enjoys working there as much as his school and band schedule allow. Julie also chaperoned Winter Percussion to Dayton, Ohio for the championship and had a good time even though the team did not fare as well as in past years – more to work toward this year!

In May/June Julie and I spent a weekend on the Harley at Thunder Beach – an awesome motorcycle rally just an hour away in Panama City Beach. We checked out a great southern rock/classic rock band that helped us raise money for the Macy’s trip, got to catch up with some old friends from Korea and my “Baron’s Motorcycle Club” time, and sat on the side of the road watching bikes “cruise” the street along Florida’s beautiful white sand beaches. I also traveled to SC to see Parker play on the Spartanburg Phillies baseball team – they came back from a 2-loss start to battle a last inning game and take 2nd place over a long weekend tournament. It was great to see Parker play ball, and he, Blain, and I enjoyed the time together too. Back in FL Hayden also played baseball for his second year. Christian turned 17 and Blain & Parker turned 13 in May, and Julie and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. After successfully painting the kitchen together I think we’re good for a few more years, too!

During the summer break Julie and Hayden worked with our church’s Vacation Bible School, Blain enjoyed some extra learning with a Vocational Technical school program, and Parker continued with baseball. Blain visited FL for some vacation time and we got in some more golf too – he was part of the golf team at school this past year and is interested in continuing…he is starting early and learned a lot already. Julie and I went to Vermont for a week and loved the solitude and travel. We drove around northeast VT and enjoyed time on the porch reading & relaxing. It was also cold enough to have a fire in the woodstove at night – something I’m sure our “northern families” will grin at.J In July the roads got a bit more dangerous as Christian registered his own car! Actually he did an impressive job resurrecting an ’89 BMW that one of his friends had left to him, and the car runs fine for getting him to/from school and all of his activities. He is very proud to be a licensed driver and it does help out a LOT with all the running around we seem to do every week.

As summer wound down and school started back, I traveled on my annual “pilgrimage” to Korea for work, fun, and great friends. The football season started with all of the band activities and fund raising for Macy’s, and Hayden participated in a Robotics competition against kids up to H.S. age – we had a couple of fun weekends watching their robot work through the tasks and compete, and they learned a lot for “the next time”. Hayden turned 13 in October with his traditional “ice cream sundae burger” and a “kiss for the stuffed moose” at McGuire’s, in addition to his first concert (Shinedown) with Christian in Pensacola. Julie went to Chattanooga for a Stampin’ Up regional meeting, and Christian was named a Homecoming “Gentleman” for the H.S. TV news club. Julie was a proud Mom, for sure -- she still substitute teaches almost daily and enjoys keeping up with the school goings-on. I still work for L-3 and enjoy my work and occasional travel supporting Air Operations Center training for our brave and busy men & women that serve our nation.

So as December arrives once again Julie and I wish you happiness and thanks for what you mean to us. We feel blessed and hope that things are also good in your lives and the lives we all can touch. Even with times as tough overall as they are we have so much to appreciate, be thankful for, and be thoughtful about. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We – including our dog Lexxie -will travel to upstate NY (everyone wants SNOW) for Christmas, but you can keep up with our activities and photos with the on-line links below:

http://www.juliemichellesblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.juliemichelle.smugmug.com/
www.myspace.com/karaokejulie