Christmas Finale

Here are the last few (real) Christmas photos (I have one more story from the trip in Alabama to come). Rufina and I at my Nana's house.

This is my cousin's daughter, Ella, sporting my sister's shades at a Christmas luncheon.

One of the more humorous things that happened this Christmas involved a gift to Nana- no, that's not her below. My mom got her this giant universal remote thinking it would be better for her since she is getting older and not an electronics wiz. We had to tape over most of her old remote so she would only use the numeric and arrow buttons on the remote and not mess up the TV by hitting menu buttons and the like. That's the new remote below.

My brother-in-law Earl decided to help out by programming the new remote.
Now, Earl is a big guy- around 6'3" and he's eaten his fair share of prime rib- so you can see how big the remote is compared to his hands. But you can also see the glasses he is wearing. Those aren't his; they're my mom's reading glasses. Ironically with such a big remote that was developed to make life easier by having big readable marking and easy to find buttons, the manufacturer failed to carry over that concept with the instructions.

It was basically all fine print on this huge fold out sheet that told you how to use the remote. Doh!

Enjoying the best gift of the year.

But now she is on her way back to Hong Kong.

And if you Rufina's departure turned on the waterworks, you are only partially right. More to come...

Cookie Monsters

Another activity that I wanted to do with Rufina during the holidays was building a gingerbread house. Last year when I was in Thailand, we made gingerbread houses at a Christmas party and I really enjoyed it. This year, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church also had a gingerbread house competition and the houses were absolutely beautiful. So that inspired me to do something like that with Rufina, but time was short and the only kit we could find that was reasonably priced was one with 8 gingerbread men... er, people.

Here is the first pair. Rufina made the cute gal on the left and I made the dapper guy on the right.

Rufina made the odd-ball on the left that kinda looks like a robot mixed with a clown (or at least to me) and I did the vision-impaired girl in the frilly dress on the right.

Rufina's cheerleader and my football player.

Rufina was inspired to make this beach boy after I came up with the sun-loving lass in the string bikini.

Here we are with our creations. We had such a great time and I hope its the start of a tradition that we can keep up (because she is cuter that Wee- sorry about that, bro).

The look good enough to eat...

"Don't eat Herschel!"

Thankfully, we were better at making them than eating them, so they made it through the holidays, unless Ella ate the pair we gave her.

Lights, Camera, Action!

One of the first things Rufina and I did when we got to Huntsville, Alabama, to spend time with my family was to check out some Christmas lights.
About a block from where I used to live in Huntsville, there are 2 guys that go all-out with Christmas decorations. One owns a liquor store and the other is a doctor. Here are photos from the doctor's house before the crowds really built up.

If you have ever tried to take photos of lights, you know it is difficult to convey the grandeur of it all. If you take a wide shot, the detail and number of lights don't come through, but if you take a close-up, the magnitude of it isn't reflected. So hopefully, I can give you a taste and you can fill in the rest.
Rufina and Elmo take in the Christmas Express. Along the length of the driveway is a train with several cars.


After the caboose, there are a number of little houses that each have a different theme, such as Disney, Looney Tunes and, as seen here, Sesame Street, where Elmo met... uh, himself?

There is even a snow machine that kicks out an arctic blast every once in a while.

I stumbled into a Coke commercial here at the North Pole with the polar bears and the penguins.

Elmo catches a ride on Santa's sleigh. Typically, this sleigh would be pulled by real reindeer, but because of a neighbor's complaint, we had to settle for inflatable ones.

Rufina and I got to visit with Santa and give him our wish list. He was just one of 3 special guests there, including the Grinch and another Dr. Seuss character.

One of the other Christmas scenes was this ginger bread house, which is a nice segue to the next post on my blog.

Christmas Packages

Sorry, it's been so long, but I thought I would "unwrap" a little of what's been going on lately.

A few weeks ago I had to drop off a video at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and while I was there the G.A.s were selling cookies and baked goods to raise money for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (which used to pay for my living expenses)



Last weekend, we were blessed with unseasonably warm weather and I was able to take advantage of that by playing in the 12 Days of Christmas Tournament hosted by the AFDC. It was my first HAT tourney since I was in Thailand and I had a great time. This was the bunch of crazies that I played with. Honestly, they were a really good bunch of guys and girls and we had a good time playing.
Front Row: Mary Ann, Julia & Richard Back Row: Seth, me, James, Suzie, Kid, Wood, Gwinner, Alex & Dino.

Here is a shot of the semifinals. The green team won this game and then lost in the finals.


Last night, our Sunday school class had a Christmas party. After some chit-chat, we had a dinner with a huge spread.

Then we headed over to the Christmas tree...

...for a White Elephant Christmas exchange. Greg was the proud winner of the "Chia-Shrek", but he lost it on the final round.

But Greg got the last laugh with this autographed photoshopped picture of him (and Arnold). You can imagine Austin's excitement.

Here's a closer look at Greg beefcake style.


But the big new around the homestead is a special visitor flying in from Hong Kong tomorrow... and no it isn't Santa.