Thursday evening was the first program after the holidays at the auditorium in town – the Noel Friedline Quintet. What talent. This picture I got was just of Noel himself – an incredible piano player. Wow.

Tuesday the rains and winds that had been predicted arrived – all of the local schools were on e-learning that day, to keep the school buses off of the roads – and it absolutely poured almost all day long. Once they had finally passed over late in the afternoon Jeff & I walked down to inspect the creek, which is normally just sort of a trickle under our driveway. Our next-door neighbor, who can see the creek from his house, reported that it had flowed over both of our driveways during the worst part of the rain. It had receded a little bit by the time that we got there. Here are a couple of pictures. Wow. In the second picture you can see the new little creek that made itself from the run off from the road. Crazy.

Last week before the kids went back to school for the new semester, Adam & I went to Captain Steve’s for lunch for one more outing before it was back to the grind. He is such good company, and as always the food was delicious.

Yesterday afternoon we were in Rock Hill to see Adam & Charlie play in their games. It was Adam’s first of the season – Charlie played once before Christmas, but it was the day Adam & I went to participate in the Wreaths Across America program, so this was the first time we’d seen either of them play. Adam’s game was first – he is in the white, right in the middle of the picture.

After a Woodland UMC victory we all went out for a quick lunch at Salsarita’s, and then to Charlie’s game. He’s playing for St John’s this year – there weren’t enough kids at Winthrop to field a senior team. That’s him with the ball.

Tuesday night Liz and McKenzie AND Lesley & Connor were in town for Christmas from Seattle and San Diego, and we had supper here to get in as much visiting as we could. Such a fun evening. We got this picture before everyone started heading home. We also celebrated Charlie’s 18th birthday, which was the following day. Seated in the picture are Char & Jeff. Standing are Elise, Ryan, McKenzie, Andy, Amy, Clara, Addie, Lindee, Lesley, Liz, June, Adam, Mallory, Connor, Shea, Little Hope, Boo, Andrew, Meg, & Mike. What a special night.

Elise picked up my camera & made some pictures as the evening was winding down, including this one of the two Hopes. It was a great night.