Christmas 08

We spent Christmas with my family this year and it was tons of fun. We ate lots of great food, played fun games and I became a Rock Legend on Guitar Hero. My sister and her family made the long trip up from Houston, TX to see the snow. But the weather turned for the better and was a scorching 45 degrees.
This is the newest member of my sisters family Alaura. She is a happy and plump baby that likes to hug. It turns out that she looks just like my Grandma Goldie. Yes, my Grandma looks that young.

My nice Maiya was given a Webkins for Christmas this year and I was disturbed to find out that the little pet cyber animal that one can grow to love and cherish dies after a year. I can see it now this time next year all those animals are going to die and what will be the only thing that will console the broken hearts of all those children... another Webkins. Brilliant marketing scheme.

One of the many high lights of my day was going outside to play with Noah and Paisley. It seems everyone in the Bennett family was given a remote control car. Ah the memories.

This ham might not look like much, but I am telling you! It was the greatest tasting ham ever. And I not just saying that because I made it and I don't think its the bourbon in it either. But if you were wondering... yes that is a dish towel in the pan... adds to the flavor.

Merry Christmas from the Nativity Cat

We have been slowly getting ready for Christmas this week. I had to work on Monday, and get the rest of the week off, so we have had some time to do some fun things. Our first stop was to the liquor store to pick up some bourbon. We left it under the tree for Santa, and he can have as much as he wants--just as long as he saves some to baste our Christmas ham with.

Then we headed to Wheeling for a day of browsing antique shops, gambling on the nickel slots, Olgebay's Festival of Lights, and lots of wrong turns on the convoluted, crazy roads. We decided to become members of the 'preferred club' at wheeling park, and recieved free coffee mugs and WV lottery tickets. Dj ran into some luck and scratched off a dollar win; this nicely evened out the dollar we spent on the nickel slots.
Other than that, we have been making lots of cookies, enjoying our joint present of DirectTV, wrapping a few presents, and visiting with the Chapman's. Merry Christmas everyone!

(Picture from the Festival of Lights--giant glowing marching soldiers...)

The Christmas Sweater

"Eddie, we can't control what happens to us, but we can control how we react to it. We are all meant to be happy. Even you, Eddie, as hard as it is for you to believe sometimes, you are meant to be happy. If you're not happy, it's not God's fault, it's not my fault, or anyone else's fault. It's your own."
--Glen Beck, The Christmas Sweater

I never really watched anything on CNN until I found Glen Beck. Immediately, Becky and I were glued to his talk show every night at seven o'clock. Sadly, he is no longer on CNN; he has moved to FOX News and now I can say there is nothing worth watching on CNN. I know because I tried to find a replacement for my Beck addiction. But all I found was mind numbing babelings of a very left-wing liberals spewing nonsense out their nostrils. In order to remedy the problem we are getting Direct TV for Christmas. I can hardly contain myself. But now for the exciting part in the Glenn Beck story...
We had the opportunity to go and meet Glen at the premier of his is play, The Christmas Sweater, at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. It was a truly moving story-deep and thought provoking- and if anyone would like to buy it go to GlenBeck.com (enter plug here). Glenn Beck performed his story with such captivating emotion, humor, and rawness. After the play, we waited in line to shake his hand and get our book signed. Not once, but twice. Becky went through first, while I snapped a picture that didn't turn out. Then, since traffic was at a stand still in the parking garage, I went through with the same book to meet him myself. He was such a friendly guy, very genuine and down to Earth. Notice the NRA shirt. We love this man!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent the last week in South Carolina visiting Hannah, Brandon, Caleb, and Audrey. We were able to spend a couple of days at Myrtle Beach, collecting shells and enjoying the balcony on our serbert-colored hotel. We had a fun time visiting Caleb's school, playing at parks, watching animated movies nonstop, getting clawed by Kiki, and discovering golf on the Wii among other things. Dj and I enjoyed kidnapping both Caleb and Audrey and doing random things with them: the carwash with Caleb and the scary monster blow dryer with our windows rolled down and feeding Audrey fried okra at Little Pig's BBQ. The visit just reminded me how much I want to live closer to them all, so they can be a bigger part of our lives!

Dj and I bundled up under the pier.

Audrey the Velociraptor enjoying the view on the balcony.

And we came back with plenty of stuff to keep us occupied. Brandon gifted us with his entire music collection burned in mp3 files on a million CD's. Better than winning the lottery.

Hannah taught Dj how to crochet. Dj decided to make a camo blanket. The blanket kept growing and growing. I think the tread is starting to strech out more and more, because the blanket keeps growing. It is now much larger than him. We had to stop three times to buy more thread. We will see how wide this blanket gets with 14 bundles of thread, camo thread...

Decorating Time

Since we will be busy visiting in South Carolina for Thanksgiving, we decided to decorate our tree today for Christmas. Yes, I know it is really early, but this is the only time we could do it until December! With the snow falling outside, it could not have been a better time. Every year we try to get new ornaments as a keepsake of fun memories we have experienced. Here are our new ornaments for 2008:
This wreath was knitted by my Grandma Golden using a milk jug ring for the center mold of the wreath. Although she passed away in 2000, I was finally able to get one this year to keep forever.

Dj's first set of dentures. What else can I say? I think it is rather cute.

My Grandpa Golden worked very hard to win each of his grandkids a medal from the senior olympics. And every year he kicked butt big time! I decided to turn my medal into a Christmas ornament.

Lastly is our fishing boat from Maine with the little lobster trap in the back. Every year, we save our special ornaments for the very end, and try to remember stories to tell about each ornament as we hang it on our tree. Years from now, we will be able to look back on Dj's years in dental school, our trip to Maine, and the sweet memories of my Grandma and Grandpa Golden.

This is a picture that I took out at coopers rock. We wanted to try and capture the fall season in a photo. But most of the area was still green or a dead looking combo, not the typical fall colors we were hoping for.

This is our puking pumpkin George. He had a little too much eggnog. But the neighborhood kids sure love him.

Fall Visit

I've had a crazy time since last week. My wonderful grandpa passed away at the age of 95. I was able to drive down to Buckhannon and hold his hand one last time, and he was able to hold and squeeze it back. My sister drove up, and we spent some time with her cute clan. The kids are so grown up, so well behaved (for the most part!), and so sweet! Most of our time seemed to be spent shuttling back and forth to Buckhannon. Hannah was able to stay another day, so we actually got to visit and took a nice walk at Friendship Hill with everyone.