#Miller6Pack

The night is progressing. 2007 is winding down. We just finished watching a movie "Amazing Grace." Gracie viewed her own private screening of "Meet the Robinsons" while we watched our movie. We have 1 hour left before the ball drops. Here are a few more pictures of the festivities.

Well here it is New Year's Eve and another year is upon us. We are once again ringing in the new year at 419 W. Mission with Grandpa, Grandma, Jim, Delene, Ruth, and Scott. (Simon, Amy, and Gracie) I am going to post into the new year! With pictures from the festive event. We are starting out with a nice spread of food for "dinner." We are all enjoying the company and the great food. 8:45 Update: Food, fellowship, and fun continues. Only 3 more hours of 2007! Here are some more pics.

OK, yesterday was a travel day. We made the trek from Tacoma to Kellogg to return from our Christmas adventures. The roads were actually not bad, until after 350+ miles and 2 major mountain passes when we hit Cataldo, Idaho. The last 20 miles of the journey were the most treacherous! So I figured I would post a quick few lines about snow. All of this wonderful white stuff brings back some great memories for me. We loved playing in the snow. It always amuses me when people have such negative feelings for snow, when they live in North Idaho! Granted, it sometimes makes travel difficult, and I know it makes it tougher for people to get out and about. In fact, I know of people who even recently have had close brushes with slippery road conditions due to snow. But given all that it brings, I still love it when it piles up! Today we celebrated "Christmas II" at my parents' house. The snow made it even more fun! It was a magnificent day. And as I type, the snow is still coming d...

OK, I have blogged about some family related Christmas memories the last couple times, so I figured I would switch gears for a bit and reminisce about some recreation type memories, more specifically, sledding! We used to do a lot of sledding on "Sunnyside," and had lots of fun doing it. In my opinion, the best place to sled was on Chestnut Hill just a half block from my front yard. We used to walk all the way up and race down for hours on end. We had a few different trails that all ended up on the main road. We would have spotters at the bottom where Chestnut met Mission Ave. too, so no one got squashed by an oncoming car. What great times those were. I remember we had an antique wood stove in our little house on Mission, so when we were all wet and cold, we would head to our house where we usually had the front door open that wood stove heated the house so well. We would have some hot chocolate and hang up the coats, gloves, and boots by the wood stove and it would dry out...

Well, after spending the entire day shopping in the greater Tacoma area, I was at a loss for things to post. But I don't want to ruin my run and my commitment to post more regularly, especially now that I am on Christmas Break. I thought that today I would continue on the Christmas Tradition thread and perhaps focus on those traditions that have been "retired" for lack of a better word. One such tradition was the "After Christmas" dinner party hosted by none other than my Grandma Perry's Aunt Charlotte D' Andre. And when I say hosted, I really mean hosted. "Auntie Charlotte" as she is well known had everything prepared for us when we got there. Upon arriving at her cozy house on Mullan Avenue we were treated to snacks, chips, and beverages. One of Auntie Charlotte's specialties was the "Tom & Jerry" drink for the adults. I also remember being fascinated by the classic "matchbox" car collection that my cousin Paul and...

I have always considered myself very blessed to have such fond memories of Christmas, both of childhood and on into adulthood. The most negative thing I can think of regarding my Christmas experiences was (and still is) my hyper-sensitivity to how fleeting time is. I used to hang on to Christmas for as long as I could, even going as far as creating a little "time capsule" that included a branch from our tree, wrapping paper, and maybe even a gift tag or two. I remember loving the Holiday season as a kid and immersing myself in the festive anticipation. I loved snow, Christmas lights, Christmas movies, Christmas treats, and most of all, Christmas music. I still remember falling to sleep night after night to the sounds of Bing Crosby and other Christmas classics. My dad had a friend he worked with that would take records and dub them to cassette tape. Speaking of this sort of thing, here are a few of my all time favorite Christmas Movies: 1. White Christmas 2. A Christmas Story...

Well, I am not doing so well keeping up in the "Blog-o-sphere" so I figured I would try to post more regularly during the CHRISTMAS holiday. Yes that is right CHRISTMAS. That is what I celebrate and believe wholeheartedly in. So if you are offended by that, I guess this isn't the blog for you! I have many fond memories of Christmas Eve all the way from childhood to recent years. Some of my favorite memories are how we used to spend the day out at Grandma Donna and Grandpa Bud's with the Van Vleet side of my family. We always had a really fun time, both kids and adults. One particular Christmas Eve we had what we firmly believed was a real encounter with Santa. It was evening and all the kids (Me, Sarah, Paul, Dawn, Danee) were anxiously waiting to open our presents when outside we heard what sounded like sleigh bells! We immediately went into a frenzy and when the adults joined in. "Is that Santa?" they said with excitement. Immediately Paul and I rushed out...