Happy New Year!

And what a glorious New Year it is! We had an awesome New Years Eve! I hope you did, too! Early in the evening, I went out on the back porch and took a few pics of the moon and Venus.

Venus doesn't appear to be much more than a little star in the bottom right of this picture, but objects are much larger than they appear. :0) It showed up much better the night before, but I didn't get a decent picture then. Oh, well. Those are the breaks. We decided to have a wild and crazy night for New Years Eve, so the hubby and I grabbed the kids and headed on down to the local Applebee's for dinner. It doesn't get much more exciting than that. For some reason, I can't step into an Applebee's now without thinking of that scene in Talladega Nights. Anyone else have that problem, or is it just me?

Then it was on to our traditional New Years Eve entertainment...the Alaska Aces Hockey Game! They always play a home game on New Years Eve, so we like to go and cheer them on. We've done it 3 out of our 4 years in Alaska. It was a great game, and very exciting. We always seem to run into friends at the game, too, so that adds to the fun.

I have to admit, I was a little worried for a while there. Stockton had us at 2 to 0 for a while, but then the Aces got in their groove. They tied the score (2-2) by the end of the game.

Check out our Zambonies. Brandon loves the blue one. It looks like you could drag race on it.

The game went into "Sudden Death Overtime". They set the clock for 5 minutes and let them loose. It was a tough fight, but the Aces scored again and the crowd went wild. It was a great end to a great game!

We made it home around 10 pm, so the fun was just beginning. We got a Wii for Christmas, and the kids have been hooked. (OK, we've all been hooked.) They started playing Star Wars:Clone Wars and zoned out for about an hour. Then we played some of the sports games to get our blood circulating again. That's always a lot of fun.

In case you were wondering, the cats had to get in on the action. Poor Ashley was trying to enjoy her family time by taking a nap in front of the TV. Tink wouldn't let her relax. She jumped up on the ottoman beside her and tapped Ashley over and over again with her paw. You can just imagine the conversation. "She keeps touching me!" "Am not!" Ashley refused to give up her warm spot, and eventually, Tink gave up and found her own nap site. Kids! Anyway, Have a super and very Happy New Year, from our family to yours!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It has been a great one. This year, both kids helped me prepare our big turkey meal. Brandon (the muscular one) cracked the eggs and made the Broccoli Cornbread. Not just any wimp can crack an egg, you know. It takes brawn as well as brain. Jess helped make the cornbread dressing as well as clean up. (And occassionally posed well for pictures.) Both kids are growing up so fast. It won't be long until they are out in the big world and cooking for themselves. (Then Russ and I can just show up and eat!)

Russ did the dirty work for me and helped clean up my mess after dinner. Definitely the most valuable job today. It's hard to come out of a turkey stupor long enough to wash dishes. In case you think it was all good times and merriment, there is a dark underworld in out Thanksgiving holiday. You know, the relatives that always fight throughout the meal. This is what was going on under the tablecloth.

I told them that Santa wasn't going to bring them anything if they didn't try to get along a little better. I'm not sure they believed me. Time out for these two. And no pumpkin pie!

Tink & the Great Escape!

We used to have just one cat. At 13 lbs., Ashley is a whole lot of woman, but she is a good cat. The vet was concerned about her weight and suggested we get her another "friend" to play with. Enter "Tink." We adopted Tink from the pound when she was an adorable little baby. We had no idea what we were getting into. Ashley was (and is) not amused. We named her Tink ( short for Tinkerbelle) because she was so tiny and always getting into trouble. Now that Tink is almost a year old, she has a daily goal of trying to drive Ashley crazy. She chases Ashley up and down the stairs, attacks her from hidden locations, and constantly picks on her. Then she wonders why Ashley won't let her cuddle up to her. Tink waits until Ashley falls asleep, and then sneaks up near her and takes a nap. Sometimes Tink is weird. Yesterday, Tink tried to run away from home. She loves to go outside, but we only allow her out on the enclosed back patio with adult supervision. She can not be trusted. Brandon went to play with friends yesterday and didn't fully shut the front screen door. Tink snuck out, and the door fastened behind her. At least that is the theory we are going with. (The other theory is that Ashley pushed Tink out the door and shut it behind her.) We aren't sure how long she was outside before she realized that it was not a good idea. Brandon had also left the garage door open, so Tink entered the garage and started scratching on the door leading in from there. Luckily, Russ heard the sound and went to check it out. Tinky was glad to be home. She was loving and grateful for a full 5 minutes before she started checking out the doors.