I know...I've said it before...but today truly is Kevin's last ride of 2006. He was 45 miles shy of riding 2000 miles. So yesterday (Dec 28), the sun was shining and it was in the upper 40s and he got out and rode 30 miles. Today the sun is shining again and it's in the low 40s and, hey...he only had 15 miles to go. So he's out now, reaching his goal of 2000 miles for the year. A great achievement, considering he had a basement to build this summer! Way to go, Kevin!

(Kevin has returned from his ride since I posted the above. He actually logged 2006 miles in 2006...without making that exact mark his goal. He returned with a big smile.)

A Kentucky Christmas...

It was an 11 hr drive. Gene and Suzy (Kevin's sister and her husband) live about 30 min south of us and left shortly after we did. We ran into them in Illinois on the interstate! What fun!



A view on our way south...(don't even know if this was in IL or IN)




This is one of Kevin's favorite activities to do on his parents' property...search the garden for arrowheads. He is a patient hunter....or should I say "brave"?




Marlene (Kevin's mom) asked that we put up the Christmas tree. (Their home had been flooded from a broken water heater pipe and they lived in the RV for several months. They had just moved back into their house the day before we arrived.)




Family picture. L-R: Kevin, niece Erin, Rob (bro), Carol, Ray, Marlene, Suzy, Gene, Amy



Ray and Marlene with all their kids.... L-R: Kevin, Penni, Rob, Carol, Ray, Marlene, Gene, Suzy



Sharing funny stories (not so funny 20-30 years ago. If you let enough time pass after something horrific from your childhood, everything is funny when recalled in front of mom and dad)



Eating Christmas dinner on Aunt Edith's Willow dishes.



Delicious food....great company.



Women of 3 generations: Suzy, Marlene, Amy



We took the short walk down to Lake Cumberland and hunted for geodes embedded in the shale. Erin and Rob dug and pounded and reaped a harvest for their labors.



Kevin and Suzy looking for geodes that just lay out in the open



A view of Lake Cumberland



Kevin skipping rocks. I love to watch him do this...he can make them skip so fast that they actually skim on the water surface.



Birthday gift for Ray from Gene, Suzy, Kevin, and me. Ray has wanted one for some time...(brilliant idea Suzy, for his gift)



Christmas at home....


This is what's left under the tree after Kevin and I opened our gifts. Like the stockings? Those are actually some old ones of Kevin's that he no longer wears. I loved how they look so old fashioned....so they are filled with Jesse's and Julie's little gifts.



Kevin's gifts to me...new pjs, DVDs of "As Time Goes By" (British comedy), memory stick, lotion. (he looked at many, many cameras for me and couldn't decide on one. So he told me I can go pick one out for our anniversary...which is in less than 2 mo. Anyone have any recommendations? I want a good zoom, instant shutter, a battery that doesn't have to be changed every couple of hours)



Here's Kevin's big gift...Werner carbon fiber paddle...weighing only 28 oz. It was time for a new one.

The biggest Birthday celebration.....
Christmas (Jesus' birthday) is coming...all the preparations...shopping for just the right gifts for our loved ones, baking, decorating...and just driving around on a quiet night, looking at all the Christmas lights that people have put up.



Christmas wreath cookies. (Hint...when shaping these, rather than buttering one's hands, dip fingers lightly in a small bowl of water. It works way better to keep the cookies from sticking to your fingers.) They look delicious, don't they? Well....as I was carrying them to the basement to put into the freezer, the container opened and all our labor fell down the steps. I could do nothing but watch them tumble...most of them landing upside down. So...bought more marshmallows at the store the next day so that Kevin and I could make more. Those are now safely stored in the freezer.



Molasses cookies in progress. Rats! I only need 1 more tsp ground cloves for this recipe. Kevin graciously ran to the store to buy some for me.




As I was looking at the gifts under our lit tree this morning, God quietly reminded me again the reason we give gifts to our loved ones....it is our giving that is a simple symbol of what He graciously gave to us many years ago...the gift of His only loved Son. He offers this Gift to everyone, but it is up to us to accept (or reject) this most precious of all gifts. As we hand out our gifts this year, I want to be very much aware that God gave me His gift. And as we accept gifts from our loved ones, I want to gratefully remember the precious gift I accepted many years ago. A gift that does not grow old or stale, but one that grows more precious with time...if I do not neglect it. "..but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) Merry Christmas, everyone.




This was the view out our front window, early one morning this week.



My friends, Belinda and Beth came over to celebrate my birthday one evening. We get together every year for each others' birthdays.

Allow me just one more Thanksgiving post...

Last Saturday was Thanksgiving in our home for my side of the family...not very many could come, but Makenna and Andrew were among those in attendance.....



And it was even her birthday! She came in wearing a personal billboard that Andrew's mom gave Makenna. (Thanks for coming on your birthday, Makenna. And thanks, Andrew for sharing her on her special day.)



Makenna's birthday is the day after mine...so here are the birthday girls. (Of course, my sister, Deb and I share the same birthday...3 yrs apart...but she wasn't able to be here to share all the fun.)



Kevin forced me out of the kitchen when it was time to do the dishes. So I went about my business of taking the family pics. After I took this one, I told Steve that I just took a picture of him not doing dishes. So...



he picked up a dish towel and posed...Marti would claim this is not a candid photo.




My nephew, Zeke brought along his friend, Scott...a very nice young man. The 2 of them played Snake Toss. We were blessed with yet another warm day and spent a lot of the afternoon outdoors.



The adults played Bocce Ball...we played 2 "man" teams.



Not that we're competitive.



Back inside after Bocce Ball....
Ok, Julie is ready for a new game. So we decided to play Scattergories.



Marti and Steve joining forces.



Now, we can't use adjectives...or it doesn't count.

Thanksgiving with Gma and Maynard....



"Help me, Jesse." Julie...going up the down slide.
Jesse and Julie wanted to play on the rocket slide (newly repaired and painted this summer) that Jesse fondly remembers playing on when he and his siblings were little...always a favorite place to go when visiting Gma and Gpa...Sunset Park.



In the entrance to the incline leading to the big curvey slide.



A newly painted rocket slide. Julie, as you can see, is a free spirit.
Upon reaching the top of the slide, ready to come down, Jesse notes that "this slide is smaller than I remember".



At the bottom...




I was strongly urged to go down the slide...still a thrill. Guess this famed rocket slide is ageless.




Hey, who's the new kid in the neighborhood? Shall we let him play? Yah, as long as he can push us on the merry-go-round, too. He looks like he can make it go really fast! Plus, he's cute.



"Faster!!!"



Centrifugal force maximized by 2 men...Maynard and Jesse




Ok...our turn. I begged Kevin to slow down...but see the evil in his face? It's still a scary ride when it goes too high.




The log cabin in the park. It's closed for the season.



Still, there's a way to see the inside because there was a will.



Julie and Mom/Gma. They do egg each other on. Mom can hold her own, believe me! Julie knows how to keep Gma on her toes. And that's a good thing because Mom is still very spicey. Her eyes dance when she's having fun...a good thing to see. She reminds me of how Gma Widmer used to get that same look when she was having a great time with family.
We all had a great day together! Mom and Maynard are still very young!

As Jesse was looking at my kayak hanging in the garage, he noted: "I see your kayak came with instructions."

Birthdays come once a year...which is becoming too frequent for my liking. But when they're as fun as mine was this year, it's ok. Kevin pampered me (of course, I reminded him throughout the day that it was "all about me".)


I did have to work that day...so here I am ready to leave. Kevin was home because he had the day off. But then....



...since it was the day after Thanksgiving and we had no patients scheduled after lunch, Dr B said we're closing shop and we all got the rest of the day off. It was an unusually warm November day, so Kevin loaded up the kayaks and we took off for Palo Lake. This is our view from inside the car en route.



The conditions were perfect...a real gift (I like to think it was a birthday gift from God)...it was warm ( I don't remember it ever being so warm on my birthday), the sun was shining for the most part, and the water was like glass. And we pretty much had the lake to ourselves.



The colors reflected in the water were so vivid.



We paddled back in the swamp area and Kevin spotted this young bald eagle. (Sorry, but I don't yet know how to crop and enlarge [i.e. edit] photos to post. Can you see him?) We just sat in our kayaks and watched him for several minutes. But then he flew up into a tree and tried to perch on an upper branch. Instead, this inexperienced adolescent broke through the branches all the way to the ground. Poor thing.



That evening Julie and Jesse met us at Red Lobster for my birthday dinner. (I love the Lobster pizza there.) And it was such a treat to get to see them again
.


Birthday girl with the man who made it all about me. Thanks, Kevin for a great birthday! (Thanks, Julie for the great pic)