The Reason for the Season

I was really excited this year because our little family went to see the Nativity Scenes at church. They had over 600 nativity scenes from around the world. When I got home from that experience, I realized that what my Nativity was missing was a stable. The next day I went out and purchased a stable and some straw and it made all the difference. For unto us a child is born...

I wanted to share the Nativity story with Chase and Tyler but I was worried that the figurines might get broken so I purchased a child friendly Nativity. Tyler, Chase and I put both Nativity Scenes together and discussed each one of the pieces as we put them into the scene. I loved the opportunity to discuss the Reason for the Season with my little grandchildren.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may we all take a moment in our busy lives to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Here is the Christmas tree before we begin. We had actually put on the lights first before the decorating began in earnest! Chase with his favorite decoration -- you guessed it! -- a Christmas tree.
Here's a picture of Kate taking a picture of Chase putting on a decoration on the tree. Chase wasn't as interested in putting decorations on the tree. He was more interested in keeping his little stuffed Christmas tree. He didn't want to give it up to the tree and even got a little upset when the stuffed Christmas tree actually was put on the tree.
Tyler was really into decorating. He loved helping put Christmas decorations around the house and even went outside to help his dad and Rob do the outside decorations. He wants Christmas to be a very special occasion. He put on every decoration with great concentration.

This is one of Tyler's uncheesy smiles. I really love this picture of Tyler. He is so happy to see the tree getting decorated and to help make the tree look so wonderful. He even said that he wanted to make the tree "beautiful."

Kate putting a finishing touch on the tree.

Rob concentrating on getting those decorations all in the correct spot and not too many in the same place. He was our "front" man who made sure that decorations were also placed where people looking in the window would see some decorations as well.

Ryan working on the tree

Tyler placed the star on the tree with a little help from his dad. The star changes colors and when it first came on the color was a crystal blue. It was a beautiful sight!

In this picture you can see the blue light of the star. We had a lot of fun decorating the tree with Kate, Ryan and their wonderful boys. We look forward to a joyous Christmas!

ElfMyself and Rob

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Exercising on the American River Trail

This was one of my favorite pictures of the exercise experience on the trail. Tyler was waiting patiently for refreshments... A beautiful view from the trail...
Tyler impatiently waiting for refreshments....
A view of the American River

Giving up the wait for refreshments and heading to the halfway point (the bridge at the University), crossing the bridge to the other side and then heading back along the opposite side of the river. Tyler was biking the entire 5 miles and we were jogging/walking. FYI Chase was in the jogger being pushed by either his mom or Aunt Jenna.

Rob trekking along the trail...

Not sure why I'm so excited...I've still got about 2 miles to go!

Crossing the American River at the Watt Avenue bridge and looking down the river the way we came.

The end is almost in sight!

Chase came down the path to encourage his grandma to the finish line. Everyone else (Kate, Ryan, Tyler, Jenna and Rob) are already there. This is where I'm supposed to raise my hands and hear the cheers from the crowd as I cross the finish line. In actuality, I was just glad to finish! :)

The "Watch Dragon"

Some homes have a watch "dog" protecting their homes from burglars and thieves, but our home is equipped with a two-headed dragon with a little dragon for good measure. Tyler, my grandson, created this combination by propping the dragon's tail with his boot so the dragon could balance on the windowsill and look out the window to protect our family from the bad guys/girls! Kate suggested that we get a picture of our protectors and I didn't realize that there was a little dragon sitting on one of the dragon heads until I took this picture! Pretty cool, Tyler! Thanks for helping take care of the family!

Scary Halloween Office Pics

Here is a picture of the Brown, Fink, Boyce & Astle, LLP sign that Jen worked on with all the spider webs! Notice the spider on the corner of the sign -- spooky! This was one of the first pictures that I had taken with some of the office spooks. There's Tina, the angel, me the Hello Dolly woman or Mary Poppins', Jen the vampire and Kathy, the witch :)

The office really went to alot of work - even got a few "head" hunter supplies for the table.

Our scary vampire, Jen. Check out those teeth!

Me with one of the ghouls in the conference room - wanna dance? Hmmmmm - no thanks!

This was one of the great additions to our conference room.

Bonnie (Jill) from Bonnie and Clyde!

Here is our resident used car salesman - Great costume, Ben!

Check out our hippie, Elena and again our witch, Kathy.

We really had a lot of fun this year with Halloween in the office. So many of us dressed up for the event which really made it alot of fun. Then the Halloween Committee did an excellent job planning and decorating for this event. Thanks, Jen, for editing some of my pictures and making them so great - appreciate it! This was a recruiting event and we had about 20 recruits, also dressed in costumes, going through our office and meeting all of the employees and partners.

Apple Hill

The beauties of Apple Hill in the fall.First on the agenda was a ride on the train. I think Chase and Tyler were a little disappointed in the train ride. Probably because they had gone to Disneyland and were expecting a "Disneyland" type ride - it was a very short ride that went through a tunnel and around the pond and back to the station.
Tyler on the train as we go around the pond.

Here is a picture that Kate took of Tyler and I....and a scarecrow.

One of the things we planned to do at Apple Hill was to go to a pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins -- we never found a pumpkin patch, just a bunch of pumpkins already picked...This is the road we walked down in hopes that we would find the pumpkins - didn't happen!

We did find an old truck instead and thought it would make a cool picture. Thanks for posing for me, Kate!

I wanted to get this last shot of Kate and Chase, but Chase refused to smile :) He was so cute as we encouraged him with "Now don't smile Chase -- we don't want you to smile!" He just couldn't resist that, but he tried really hard not to smile!

We got some great shots, ate apple pie, but didn't come away with one pumpkin!