We Wish You A Merry Christmas...

This year we trekked to Oklahoma for Christmas. By trekked, I mean drove - 21 hours down and 21 hours back to be precise. It was actually a very nice drive. The weather was great both going and coming, which is rare for December in the west. Unfortunately, because we had to be back to work on Tuesday, we had to leave on Christmas day. Fortunately, this moved up our orgy of greed by a couple of days!!!

Shyla and Clay always plan a "project" for Bruce when we come to visit. He thrives on it and it helps them out as well. This year's project was putting cabinets in their family room. This will give them a lot of storage space. As a bonus, we had Bruce's dad there to help out. The three guys were in Nirvana!!! Sawdust and tools everywhere. A vacation can't get much better than that.

As for Shyla and me, we just tried to stay out of the way of swinging hammers, buzz saws and flying sawdust. We also tried to keep the troops happy with food. She and I also found a little time to have a pedicure.
On Saturday night we took a ride to Chesapeake, where Shyla works, to look at their amazing Christmas lights. I was in awe of the amount of work it took to put it together and to choreograph the light show!!! Amazing and beautiful!

The highlight of the trip was the sharing the news with Clay and Shyla about the upcoming addition to their family. I know that all first-time parents are a little frightened - and by that I mean scared out of their wits - but I know that Clay and Shyla will be great parents!!!
And now, without further adieu, a few pictures of our wonderful holiday.

Shyla and Clay's beautiful mantle.

Papa and Bruce.

Clay and Shyla.

Tigger with his new best friend?!?

Sassy with Papa.

Some of the beautiful lights. The lights below are the exact same lights as the ones above. They are synced to turn from white to their various colors in a ripple effect down the street. It was phenomenal.!!

We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year full of God's blessings.

Gratuitous Pictures...

I just had to post these pictures of the cutest granddaughters in the world. (I stole them from Alyson's blog)

I dare you to show me two cuter girls in the entire world!!!

Turkey, stuffing and Karaoke???

I'm a little slow with writing about out Thanksgiving Day. Before we went to a friend's house for a WONDERFUL dinner, we helped deliver food to the shut-ins for the Montana Rescue Mission. This is the third year we have done this for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. We always enjoy it, but this year was made much nicer by the very warm weather!! We didn't have to freeze our tushies off.

For dinner we went to the Monday's house where we shared a great meal with several friends. After thoroughly stuffing ourselves, we gathered around the living room for a rousing time of Karaoke. What a hoot!!! We had a great time. Here are couple of embarrassing pictures to document our fun.


We hope your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Remember to be thankful every day of the year for God's bountiful blessings.

Poor, poor Thanksgiving...

I feel sorry for Thanksgiving. It is the fogotten holiday. Halloween is popular because of all of the candy involved, and Christmas - need I say more??? But retailers and people in general just slide over Thanksgiving.

The local radio stations are already playing Christmas music!!! Can you believe that??? I believe that Christmas music should not be played until at least the day after Thanksgiving, and I refuse to listen to it. When it comes on the radio, I change the channel.

Maybe part of the problem with Thanksgiving is that it isn't self-serving in nature. It is a day set aside to give thanks for the things we have been given: family, friends, homes, health, food, etc. I am standing up for Thanksgiving!!!

Now will you please pass the turkey, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie, and don't forget to turn on the football games!!!!

Meanderings of my mind...

I cannot believe it is November already. What happened to September??? Oh yeah, I was sick for three weeks of September. Oh, well.

Winter is in the air. We had a fairly short Autumn, but the colors were beautiful while they lasted. We are expected our first snow fall this weekend. Hopefully it won't last until May, but who knows.

The changing of the seasons reminds me that God is definitely in charge and He has a wonderful imagination. Who would think to turn the leaves bold, beautiful colors before they die and fall away? I think God blesses us with this kaleidoscope of colors before the dull gray of winter so we will have fond memories before we freeze our tushies off!!!

On a completely different subject, can you think of two more adorable Halloween spooks that these two:

Lily was adamant about being a skeleton zombie, and what a cute one she is. Of course Grace's elephant is near to my heart because of my love for elephants AND for Grace!!!

Another non-sequiter - Bruce fell last week while bear hunting and dislocated his shoulder and has a small fracture on the ball of his humerus. He is ok, but a bit achy. He relocated his shoulder his self while walking out of the woods to his truck. He sees the ortho guy today for an update. As an aside - he was hunting ALONE!!! Feel free to chastise him - although I don't think it will do any good.

Well, I guess that's about it for today, so I will leave you with this quote about Autumn:

"If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It's a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it's time to reflect on what's come before. " Mitchell Burgess

Two Wonderful Visits...

We have had the privilege of spending time with both daughters, sons-in-law, and granddaughters in the last month.

Let's start with our trip to OKC. We went down to watch Shyla's Regatta. We had wanted to see her row since she began, but this was our first opportunity. The weather was perfect and we had a great time.

Here is Shyla and her partner returning up river after their double.

This is a dramatic (admittedly less so than Clay's) photo from the bridge. Really cool angle, don't you think?

Another thing we did while in the city was to visit the zoo. If you know me at all, you know I LOVE elephants, and baby elephants in particular. Well, the OKC zoo had a baby elephant born in March, and I just had to see it. It was well worth it. We got to see it play in the water, nurse, etc. It was SOOOOO cute!

Here is a picture of the cute "little" thing. (If something can be considered little when it weighed 300 pounds at birth!)
Here she is with her mom. Her mom was none too gentle with her, but that isn't unusual with first time elephant mothers.

Another cutie at the zoo was the baby chimp. It had lost a portion of its arm in an accident at another zoo and the chimps here accepted her and loved her. She was so cute and very entertaining.
In an odd coincidence, our good friends, Robin & Steve Scovel, were in OKC at the same time. They were down there seeing their first grandchild - Ford. He is beautiful, but Grandma & Grandpa took time out to go to the zoo with us. Here is Robin feeding the giraffe. It was great fun.

September flowed into October and we got a visit from Jim, Alyson, Lily and Grace. The weather was a bit snarky, so we had to fit things in between rain storms. I have been saving up old bread to be able to feed the ducks. We did this once before with Lily and she really enjoyed it, so I decided we would do it again.

Lily had a great time and even got some of the ducks to eat out of her hand.
Grace was less impressed.
We also carved pumpkins. Here is Lily with the finished products. SPOOKY!!!

One of Grace's favorite things is to show off her belly button. All you have to do is ask and she will quickly oblige!
Lily liked to sit in "Gramby's" chair and tease me. I asked for a really cute picture of her and she put on a beautiful smile!

We loved both visits and always look forward to the next time we can be together.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALYSON....

Today is Alyson's 29th birthday. She has grown into a wonderful woman, wife and mom.

We love you always!! We hope you have a wonderful day.

9/11 Remembered...

It has been 10 years, but in some ways it seems like yesterday. When I see the pictures and hear the stories, the pain returns in waves just as it did on that fateful day.

When I first saw the fire pouring from towers one and two, I truly believed the death toll would be in the 10 thousand range. At that time of day, in that city, in those buildings, how could it be any less? I think we were "fortunate" that there weren't more killed. (nothing about that day can be considered fortunate)

Watching the documentaries, seeing the brave firemen and policemen that ran into those infernos, gives me a new respect of those public servants we so often complain about. Having had brothers and brothers-in-law that were firefighters, I have always respected their bravery and dedication.

Asking why doesn't really help. What we really need to ask is how can we prevent this from happening again. I understand that we won't be able to be completely safe from fanatics, but I think we should make every effort to build a world where hate and fear are not the norms.

If anything has touched your heart on this 10th anniversary of our nation's terrible tragedy, please dedicate yourself to building a better world in any way you can. Volunteer, perform acts of kindness, get involved in your community, or at the very least, pray.

May God bless our nation with peace.

A Day Late - SORRY!

Yesterday was Shyla & Clay's 7th anniversary. I'm sorry I didn't post our congratulations yesterday - mea culpa!!

Anyway...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SHYLA & CLAY!!!!!

We love you both so much and wish you many, many more wonderful years together!!!!!

p.s. I know it is an old picture, but I am at work and its the only one I had on this computer (not my computer, either).

Boasting...just a bit

Last night was our golf league playoffs and our team took first place. YEAH!!! It was a group effort of Linda, Sara, Shelly, and myself.

Its sad to see the season end, because that means that winter is all that much closer.

Oh, well, all we can do is totally enjoy the remaining warm weather!!

Hope you have a good one today - God bless you all.

Pop's Visit...

Bruce's dad, Dennis, is visiting for a few days. We went golfing on Friday and had a great time. Today, they went fishing with a friend of ours - Mitch - and totally enjoyed themselves.


Apparently the only one who got his picture taken was Pop. Here he is with one of the two big fish he caught.

We are glad he came to visit us on his whirlwind tour. Can't wait to see him again soon.

More sadness...

I lost one of my sisters today. Judy fought a valiant fight against cancer. She is now pain free and the angels are rejoicing at her homecoming.

Judy was always one of the happiest people I know. She had a very hard life but never lost her faith or her joy. I admire her for her courage and her unending love.

She will be missed by so many. I will look forward to the day that I will see her again.

Blackketter Family Reunion 2011...

We spent this last weekend in Phoenix with Bruce's family. We had a great time. It was good to see all the in-laws, out-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, etc.

Here is Pop with his kids.




Here's Papa with all of his grand kids and their spouses - at least those who have one:)

Shyla & Clay working the puzzle.
Lily's beautiful smile.
Sweet Grace.
Jim, Alyson & Grace enjoying ice cream.
Lily loves for people to read books to her.
Grace loves to be tickled:)
I know that my pictures center around my kids and grand kids - so sue me. We did have a great time with everyone, but my camera seemed to have a one-track mind.

I think everyone had a great time at the reunion. Hopefully it won't be long before we are all together again. By that time, we should have a couple more babies and maybe more in-laws!!

Family Camp 2011...

We spent this past week at Family camp. We were fortunate to be joined by Jim, Alyson, Lily and Grace. Their friend Shelly was also able to attend. It was a wonderful week weather-wise and we had a great time of fellowship with old and new friends.

Here is our beautiful Lily posing with her "flower".


Lily wanted to fish so Geezer took her fishing in the canal (the river was MUCH too high). Much to all of our amazement, she caught a fish!!!

Grace had so much fun just playing in the dirt.

On our day off, we went swimming at Chico Hot Springs. Bruce spent his time working on his computer while we swam.


One afternoon came a terrific rain storm. Lily wanted to play in the rain, so she was allowed to get soaking wet and muddy and she had a BALL!!

We were visited a couple of times by a very small bear. He seemed very sickly and/or injured. Here he is up a tree trying to escape prying eyes.

Lily LOVED the playground. She played on the swings and the slide and the climbing wall.


Grace's birthday was on Saturday, so we had a little party for her. She loved her gifts.

One day, while in line for a meal, Lily was a little fussy, so her dad told her to sit in the chair until he came back for her. This is what he found when he returned.

Here is a gratuitous smile from Miss Grace.

Grace loved to walk!!! At the first of the week, she didn't want to let go, but by the end of the week she was doing very well by herself.

I think Lily really loved everything about camp!!!

People weren't the only families at camp. This nest contained three little Robin babies. It was so much fun watching the parents take turns feeding them and tending the nest.



On Friday night we have a "no-talent" night. Lily got up and sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat. She did a great job!!!

Here are all of the wonderful people we spent time with this week. There were about 145 of us and we enjoyed great food, great fellowship, great lessons, and great weather. God truly blessed us this week!!!


I will leave you with one gratuitous shot of a flower. God's nature is a beautiful marvel!!!