I'm back . . . did you miss me?

I'm out of practice . . . blogging, that is. It's been three months (or more) and I think the best thing to do here is just roll out some photos (no particular order) to kind of bring myself current. I'm up way past my bedtime so I fear that I may be just plain incoherent. Okay . . . let's roll.
Jord, Scott, Steve and Brent at the airport just before leaving for . . . South America! Patagonia. Backpacking, they are. Sleeping in tents on skinny mattresses in the chilly mountains of Argentina. Gee, I wish it was me.

Some of the women who have been left behind . . . supportive, if not thrilled!

Steve with his Grandma and Grandpa Hale.

New Year's Day. It appears that Jordan can't hold his sparkling cider.

Steve and Kalli toasting the New Year. I think they were great sports to wear these dorky looking party hats, don't you?

More New Year's revellers (and another dorky hat). Happy New Year Scott and Rach!

The Wii (particularly Beatle's rock band) was the surprising hit of the Christmas gifts this year.

Scott is a very intense drummer . . . I knew I should have given him percussion lessons as a kid!

She loves me yeah, yeah, yeah . . .

Brent's nephew Aaron, his wife Haley and their darling kids, Emma, Jonathan and William. No, I don't know which one is William and which one is Jonathan. They were visiting from Georgia and we were lucky enough to get them for a couple of days. We've surely missed this little family since they moved to Atlanta.

For all of you, who love National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, I would like to say that I'm actually married to Clark Griswald (pronounced Brent Hale). When we first moved into this home, we decided that we needed a big Christmas tree to go along with the ridiculously vaulted ceiling in the front room. Brent and his brother and some of their children went marching into the wilderness to cut down fresh trees . . . twice (yes, we had a permit). I opted not to go on the second attempt after the first attempt yielded nothing more than frostbitten extremities. Anyway, I was out shopping when Brent arrived home with the "Griswald" tree. I drove up just in time to see Brent frantically dragging the tree OUT the front door. I immediately had a bad feeling about it. Apparently, he had cut the bottom off the tree (you know, so that it would draw water properly . . . needs to be in water within five minutes of having it's bottom cut off) and when he and Bob hoisted the six million pound pine into our Christmas tree stand it apparently collapsed the stand . . . obliterated it! So he was hauling the tree outside where he was planning on putting it in some sort of container of water while he ran down to buy a new Christmas tree stand (the Binford 2000 model). Anyway, when I walked in the front door I was absolutely stunned because I was greeted by the sight of an AVALANCHE from the front door all the way into my front room. Branches, pine needles, snow, water, dirt, a lot of sap (lot of sap) and possibly a squirrel or two . . . in his haste to get the tree into water in under five minutes, the man's brain had just completely shut down. It took us and hour and a half to clean up the mess. I was extremely unhappy and he was completely unrepentant. The way he saw it, he had no choice but to move quickly after cutting the bottom off the tree . . . there was no time for incidentals like making sure the stand was big enough or taking measures to protect the carpet. Sigh. It took him three days to put lights in the tree and we had to kind of back it into a corner because he had dragged all the needles off one side of the tree while pulling it off the mountain with a snowmobile (another story).
This was repeated the following year, and by the third year I became quite firm about the fact that we needed to purchase an artificial tree. It still takes forever to decorate and de-decorate it, but at least we don't have to cut the bottom off it and get it into water within 5 minutes AND we don't have to relight it every year! Merry Christmas, Sparky!

Jordan's graduation from Weber University. He's been accepted to the master's of tax program at Weber. Congratulations, Jord. Lucy on Christmas morning. She was having fun opening presents but she gassed out and was taking a little rest on the Wii box.

Everyone waiting to open presents on Christmas morning. I couldn't help myself . . . it's a tradition to take a picture of everyone at the bottom of the stairs. They're smiling but they were ready to lynch me. Clothes for baby girl Hale (expected at the beginning of April).

"Sandra Claus" and Lucy (who appears to be trying to bite the head off her doll

Uh . . . back to November, Thanksgiving Day in particular. One of our favorite card games, "Thump, Thump". We had a great time with Bob, Beth and family.

Cooking up a storm on Thanksgiving Day 2010.

Annie's mission president's wife, Leslie Kunz, has a blog where she posts photos of the missionaries in the Nebraska, Omaha mission. I checked it tonight and hit the jackpot . . . a photo of most of the sister missionaries in Annie's mission. I, of course, burst into tears when I scrolled down and saw this photo. I miss her so very much, but I know she's doing exactly what God wants her to do right now. Her letters are full of faith and joy and gratitude for the goodness of the Lord.
It's three o'clock in the morning. Guess I'd better pull the pin. Glad to be back. Til next time . . .