It's Christmas-time Again!

All right. Here's the promised "brighter" photos of our homestead. I realize that it's the same thing I do every year (there's a reason for that which has to do with how busy I am at this time of year), but for those who may be missing home just a little - well, here's some comfort and cheer.

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I especially like the one on the right because it has the conjunction of Luna (the moon), Venus, and Jupiter hanging just above the west end of the roof line. Meanwhile, the one on the left displays (rather gaudily) our security light hanging just below the east end of the roof line.

Thanksgiving with a vengence

Thanksgiving day was BEAUTIFUL here! (as you see in the first photo) Must have gotten up nearly to 70. We got up late and piddled around doing the last of the food preparation. Mom cooked a turkey and I helped by making the Little Smokies wrapped in crescent dough. We ate over at Rich and Joannes. That's David's hand getting into the turkey before we're ready to eat. ("Don't you touch that turkey, it has a hour left to cook. You'll get worms!")

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Joanne did her usual great job of putting on wonderful table settings, which were mostly comprised of items from her Mom's dinner ware. This is a before and after shot of the "adults" table.

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Steve was there of course (and brought a pork loin roast to supplement the feast), along with James and Sabrina (who brought one of her YW from her ward who had no wehere else to go I suppose - I never did get the whole story on that) and you see the missionaries too. The photo on the right is of the "children's" table.

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We played horse shoes in the back on Rich's newly installed horseshoe pit, and ate pies. Didn't I mention the pies? Pumpkin, French Apple, Chocolate Pecan. Umm, umm. GOOD!

5K in Under 30 minutes

This morning I did the Hands of Hope Turkey Trot. It's the first race I've run in probably 15 years. The Hands of Hope organization is a group that is building a program to assist homeless families who have children attending local schools. It's headed up by some friends of mine and I was out there to support them. I was number 552. . .

. . .and I have to admit that I could have done without the "Woo Hoo!" " You're doing great!" "You're AWSOME!" they had people shouting at us before we had even gone 3/4 of a mile. The best part was that after the race there was free pancakes and sausage! My favorite way to run.

Goin' to the chapel and I'm. . .

For those who know/remember the Millers from when we lived in Sutter, this is their daughter Kersina (who got married on Halloween) and her husband at their reception. I did the music for the occasion (what, you didn't know I did DJ work on the side? Yo, my homies say I can scratch it with the best of 'em)

I'm not sure why the groom looks like he's going to hurl. Except it must have been a long day. . .

UNDER $2 A GALLON?!??

I have to admit that (in spite of my eternal optimism in many things) I never thought we'd see the day when gas was under $2/gal. Now, I understand that some of you may have had prices this low for some time - but here in California it has been a while.

I'm so pumped up (pun intended) that I might even start hoping for a return of prices under a dollar. . . [now that's just crazy talk!]

Where does the time go?

This past week was something else. I think I'm still recovering. Actually, there's more truth to that than you might guess. I caught a cold last week and struggled to get through it and the necessary obligations of work and Church duties. Fortunately, there were a couple of minimum days at one of my schools (for Parent/Teacher Conferences) so I didn't have any students those days in the afternoon.

Friday night Mom and I went down to Granite Bay to meet for dinner with all of the stake presidents in our mission. We met at Elder Trythall's place. I was a great meal. We had turkey roast, rice, a really good salad with raspberries and candied walnuts. There was also this delicious raspberry relish. Yummm! Of course it was a privilege to listen to Elder Trythall relate stories surrounding the passage of Pro. 8 - and what was yet to come.

We're excited to see David this weekend, and maybe Kim next week. Very fun.

A Return to Honker Stadium

This has to have been one of the busiest weeks of my life. Right at the end of one of the busiest months of my life, Right after one of the busiest summers of my life.

Okay. Now that I have that bit of complaining out of my system... let me tell you about going back to YCHS to help with a half-time marching band performance at a football game. It's been about 18 years since I've done those. The occasion was a kind of a recruitment opportunity to bring middle school band students there to play with the high school band.

Many things are very different now than from when I was director there. A lot of things they do now are things I would like to have done, but wasn't allowed to do at the time. I did remember how cold it can get and dressed warmly. It turned out to be a good time - and I was able to leave after half-time, which is also something I was never able to do before.

I guess the final thing to put it all in to perspective is this: the current YCHS band director is a gal by the name of Jennifer Campen. She's doing a great job there and is about Kim's age (when I asked her if she remembered Kim, she said: "I think so, but I DO remember your son Chris! she gushed). Anyway, it struck me that when I started teaching at the high school - this girl hadn't even been born yet!

I don't think too many people will disagree that I'm getting older. But I'm not sure anyone will admit that I've grown up. Below are some photos from the evening's activities.

Marching over to the field............................................In the stands
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YCHS Band on field....................................................Combined Bands on field
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One more once. . . Bwuhaahaahaahaa!

Okay. I promise this is the last Halloween photo. Friday night was pretty wet, but not nearly so much as Saturday. We had 3 inches fall that day. So when things finally started to clear on Sunday I happened to see our jack-o-lantern had sprouted a new feature. No that's not a tongue sticking out it's mouth - yes, it's a snail (a slug-in-a-shell). I just couldn't resist posting the photo. See ya in the funny papers!

Halloween LII

That's right, 52 (LII) versions of Halloween for me. Below is what I did for our place this year. The skeleton I bought last year is still great. I bought a hooded cape for the Jack-O-Lantern, and the flashing eyeballs are another purchase from last year.

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I took a couple of "ensemble" pictures to try to give you the whole effect. But best of all is the video clip that shows the fog machine going.

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We've got people who come by our place just to see what I"ve done this year. In fact, one couple said they had to come back this year because last year their kids were too afraid to go up to our door. Yes!
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