It won’t be long and Christmas day will be on us.

The weather is just wonderful.

Katie Beth is enjoying running into her mother on the bumper cars.

Next up, Home Depot Workshop craft area.

Katie Beth has been playing tag with the other children. It reminds me of playing kick the can as a child.

The weather is prefect.

But, it all ended with the police ordering a forced evacuation of the area due a forest fire. And, the car wouldn’t start so a park range drove us to the Golden Bee.

Over head, we have seen fire retardant planes flying.

Our Hertz agents don’t know how to get us another rental car without getting their car back. We explained where their car was and they are still wondering what to do.

Well, we continue relax at the Golden Bee. Some of us are really relaxing.

We have some mini-golden fingerling potatoes simmering on the stove, which will made into smash potatoes with heavy whipping. We haven’t started the green beans.

I just wish we had started the brisket sooner. We are pushing it up against dinner time.

Karen and I have made an apple crumb.

All the children had a great time. We got cookies, tattoos, lemonade, stickers and more.

The hunting was great. Each age group was given different areas. Katie Beth and Leah both collected a lot of eggs.

The picture is of Katie Beth at her tree in the children’s garden.

Now, I’m taking my ladies to their favorite place for dinner: Bandito Buritto.

We are having five different chicken wing recipes and smoked deer loin. We have layered dips and chips. A great selection of beer is on the way, too.

The weather is wonderful today making for a great day to play outside while working the smoker and play with Katie Beth.

Update: Jay Kissell brought a Sierra Nevada’s Sierra 30th Anniversary Ale bomber to share. My dad brought Founders’ Breakfast Stout and Founders’ Centennial IPA. And, we cracked open the Jay’s previous gift of a Cigar City Brewing’s Humidor Series Indian Pale Ale. They were all every enjoyable during the game.

Dinner is coming along nicely, too.

We are using the first of my rubs that I received for Christmas, which is a Grill Mates Applewood Rub by McCormick.

The black-eye peas are simmering on the stove.

Happy New Years!

We are having blast this morning making our snowman.

Katie Beth loves her bicycle and is ready to ride it to the swimming pool.

We are celebrating the Ronning Christmas today with Karen’s Family.

Everyone is having a blast.

Faith came into town early to surprise mother.

Katie Beth wanted to help in the unwrapping.

Normally, we do something more bold like duck, turducken, or the like. But, we are keeping it simple this year and just smoking a turkey on our Big Green Egg cooker.

It is not often that I am up at 6:00 AM and cooking on a grill.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

She had a great time tonight. She topped it off with sleeping on the top bunk after getting to eat a few pieces of candy.

You can see all of tonight’s pictures here.

Remember, the username and password are “friends” and “photos”.

Katie Beth made a bird feeder.

Grandmother, Grandfather, Aunt Faith, and Jonah met us here this morning. Faith and Jonah are in town for a week to visit.

We ran into Jameson, Jessica, and Jeff Thornburg. Katie Beth and Jameson had great time playing on the inflatables.

We even saw Steve And Clair Tanner.

You can see more pictures here:
User Name: friends
Password: photos
Madison Street Festival Pictures

Our daughter asked when when her anniversary is. I laughed.

We have had a wonderful 14 years and I am looking forward to many more.

Many of Karen’s friend were hiding out in a skybox. Karen only had to look up to see them all pressed against the glass watching.

After riding into the game with Homer, we keep Karen on the field and then she learned that she was throwing out the first pitch of the game.

We then went up to the skybox to take Allison Tofflemire’s drink up to Steve Tofflemire. Allison told Karen that Steve and her parents were up there because it was so hot. It was over 90° degrees.

When we arrived at the skybox, everyone was already there waiting. Karen was surprised at seeing so many faces greet her. Janice Houston and Steve Tanner with their daughter Clair, Ann And Jay Kissell, Jeff Thornburg, my parents, Allison and Steve Tofflemire, Larry and Margaret Bennett, Larry Veeder, Meg Leach, Elizabeth and Bob Riggle were there. More dropped in throughout the evening.

We all had a great time and the food from Scott Tolmach of Sodexo was just wonderful.

Grandmother and granddaddy came tonight and they having a great time.

Allison and Steve Tofflemire have put on a great party.

Later at the Huntsville Stars game, Homer and the gang gave Katie Beth a set of play bugs. She loves them. Katie Beth threw out the first pitch and rode onto field with Homer and Matt. She threw her first pitch to Huntsville Stars player Chuckie #4.

Tomorrow, we keep it going with a pool party!

Katie Beth played with grandmother, Aunt Faith, and Joana at the playground.

We went to Stacy De Smet’s party. We had a great time in the pool and
seeing the farm animals.

We headed to the baseball game and saw fireworks, too.

Karen was not feeling good today so we put her to bed.

Old friends from Huntsville had invited us to their house for Easter dinner, which was very sweet of them. I took Katie Beth and she had a blast. She played with Greg (7) and Logon (5) inside and outside. She loved their toys.

Katie Beth had just opened her gifts from Baylie and Brooke. Brooke and Little Connell are my brother’s children and Baylie is Brooke’s daughter.

Little Connell, Brooke, and Baylie are all in town for the holidays.