Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Seasonings















The season started off with promise, with a good Brandon visit, and then Ima ("Ee-ma" short for Imary) came over (with her parents) for a dinner.  She is very reminiscent of Bela at that age, which was a nice flashback for us. Scary flash forward for Tere and Aldo?

The Stuff
Finally the long awaited threat is fulfilled.

Socks for Christmas! BwaHaaHaaaHaaaa!

Oh no, this isn't all? It's not >just< socks? That ruins the whole idea! Now it's just... nice.








Some gifts seemed to have Audrey in mind.







Ysabela got her first sonic. Watch out.







Not many action figures this year. But the ones he got completed the Justice League.







Fluffy the Vampire Slayer. She wore this to church. No one noticed?
The big thing was what the kids got themselves. They've been saving for the Wii, and some generous grandparent presents helped them cross the line. So we've crossed some kind of line. The parents are nervous.




Then we got a quick trip in to see Carmen.  She seems like she's recovering well from the defibrillator procedure. We also got in some quality time the Roelants. Grace and Cate are great, and have become Sleeping Queen experts of first rank in short order. We also taught odds and evens, Nim, and zip-zap-zoop in one dinner.  

Looks like a quiet build up to the New Year: blessings on the ends and beginnings to you and yours.






Friday, December 23, 2011

2011 in Rearview



Well we did it:
a) survived another year
b) redid the main basement room (mostly)
c) actually got together a Christmas letter!

It says in the letter that we would put the photos up here, so here they are! In technicolor, and clickable for full size. Plus some bonus pix that didn't make the letter.

The card: Low resolution but viewable online. High resolution to download.



































































































































Special web bonus: the script for the comic and an unused panel!





Merry Christmas!








Thursday, December 15, 2011

Gingerbread in the House

So this happened.

Here's how.













Cupcake Break!

Finishing touches:
This is gingerbread pride from the Golem family!

Thanks to Ellen and everybody at Desserts by Design.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Two Videos

Pictures of Gingerbread Decorating Action coming soon. Till then, two videos. We just watched tonight this awesome 50s teledrama, The Answer, starring David Niven. Features the great line, "Let x=world peace. Solve for x." Carolyn Jones also has a brief fun part.







The other comes from realizing that my favorite fun Christmas song had no YouTube video. Found this copyright free old Disney clip, and cut it down to fit the song. Check out the Klezmonauts at Amazon - fun group. Give it a try and you'll watch mit groise fargenign.




Hope that's a treat; 'tis the season.




Friday, November 4, 2011

Halloween 11

 So there was this nice demon...
 ... who could really hit the high notes and appreciated a good Sea Breeze.

We had our usual Halloween gathering, but not on Trick or Treat night which was actually nice. We, of course, regathered a bit for Trick-or-Treating, so it was like getting two Halloweens.














There were epic battles.
Children of the night.


















A good variety of creatures and heroes (and a cupcake).
















Treats for having and sharing. We estimate about 180 trick-or-treaters.













And our humble pumpkins as well as the Minnebo's wowser-o'-lanterns.