Decorating the Christmas tree!

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favorite activities this time of year. I love the beautiful decorations, everyone participates, and I get to play Christmas music as loud as I want and no one gets to turn it off. What could be better?


This year was particularly nice, as we had the entire family here. Not a single person complained (have they learned from years past?), and it was done in record time.

We had some self-portrait fun...



And there was even no arguing about who would put the angel on top of the tree (has that ever happened before?)!


Everyone posed for pictures without a single complaint, and I almost got smiles out of everyone, including the dog!



Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope your holidays and family traditions go just as smoothly and are as stress-free as this one was for us!

B

Reno Air Races

Last weekend we made a super quick trip to Reno, NV to attend the last two days of the National Championship Air Races. After spending Friday in the ER with Bill, he still wanted to go, so I packed us up and we headed out. Here we are Saturday morning in the bleachers, after about 3 hours of sleep.


We saw a whole lot of exciting races, beautiful and screaming fast planes, and a whole lot of sun. It was a jam-packed full two days and Bill made it through in spite of the fevers and painful elbow. We saw awesome demos by the Thunderbirds, the Air Force's F22, and quite a few incredibly talented aerobatic pilots. It was a very exciting and exhausting weekend.

Now that we are back home and back to a regular schedule, Bill isn't quite healed, but he is heading in that direction.

Megan and I were trying to take a few self portraits that would show our brightly colored hair, but we weren't too successful. You can see a tiny bit of my pink and her red here.


When she walked away, I got a really good picture of her red. It's faded a lot now, and the shampoo we used in the hotel stripped the red out pretty bad (live and learn), but it was a really great color red for about a week. :)

The Reno Air Races are really exciting if you get the chance to attend. Especially if you have a passion for airplanes like Bill does. I've gotten all the pictures posted on our family site, and you can see them here: http://www.strahanfamily.com/FamilyPhotos/RenoSep08.asp.

B

Handstands and Birthdays

Katie has been working hard on her handstands the past few weeks. She's gotten them very stable and can hold for a few seconds at a time. Here's yesterday's practice.



Katie's birthday and party were also within the last couple of weeks. With school starting at the same time, it has made for a very crazy few weeks. Katie had her party at Jumptown, and it was really a lot of fun! Jumptown is a really great place for kids parties. The kids can go crazy on the inflatable bounce stuff, and the staff does a great job of hosting the party. Jumptown is closed on Saturdays and Sundays for parties only. They typically allow three parties at a time, but we were lucky enough to be the only party scheduled for Katie's chosen time. We had the entire place to ourselves and the kids had a blast!




And just so we don't forget how quickly they grow, here's one of my very favorite pictures of Katie as a little girl. She's about 14 months old here, ready for Halloween in 1998.

B