Last week, before June started back to Winthrop for the spring semester, she & I went out for lunch before things got so busy we would hardly be able to get together, as it usually does once school starts back. As always, when June gets to choose where we eat, she picked Mexican, and it was delicious. I got this picture while we were eating.

A few weeks ago Lindee hit a deer on the way to work. She wasn’t hurt, but we couldn’t say the same thing about her car, so it’s been in the shop ever since. Luckily it was while Mallory was home on Christmas break, so Lin could use her car. And one of those days, when Lindee was using her car, Mallory had a dentist appointment, so I took her. It was just a day or two before she was due to return to school, and she could certainly have driven my car, but I figured that was a little more time I had to spend with her, so I took her And funny thing – she still goes to the pediatric dentist. When Lindee was pregnant with Mal, for some reason the enamel never formed on her teeth, so Mallory has spent lots and lots of time with this dentist her whole life, and I think she & Dr Katie have just bonded so strongly that Mallory would go to her forever if that was possible. I understand it is not, though – just as long as she is on her mom & dad’s insurance. Anyway, I had never even been to a pediatric dentist office before, and it was SO cute. I especially loved this playroom 🙂

I actually finished this puzzle before Thanksgiving, and it’s just been sitting back on the bed in the guest room out of the way of all of the holiday activities since then. Now I’m about ready to get started on another one, though, so finally got a picture of this one today. It’s one that Andy & Amy passed on to me, and funny story – I had actually worked on this puzzle a little bit when I was at their house for a few days back in the summer 🙂

Last weekend Lindee, Mallory, & I headed to Columbia to the SC State Museum to see the traveling exhibit of many, many costumes from some of the live action Disney movies. It was just incredible. I hope the information about these costumes will enlarge enough to read. I loved it.

It’s been maybe three weeks since we were at the School District Auditorium for the final Christmas program of Clara’s high school Choraliers career. As always, it was amazing. I got this picture during the performance – she loves participating in that so much.

To say that we are proud grandparents is a huge understatement. The show has just been a highlight of our holiday season for so long.

We had a good crowd here to celebrate Thanksgiving this past November, although we missed Lindee & Jackson & the girls, who were home with the flu. I honestly think Lindee is still trying to get over her cough. It was a great day, though, and we got our traditional picture on the front steps. With the bright sun and serious shadows, it didn’t turn out great, but we were so thankful to have all of these people here. Front step is my niece Liz’s wife McKenzie holding nine-month-old twin Coleman, me, Meg, her daughter Hope, and Hope’s boyfriend Marcos; second row is Liz holding Coleman’s twin Jack, Charlie, Andrew, June, & Jenny; third row is Amy, Jeff’s sister-in-law Cinnamon, theri daughter Allison, Al’s husband Logan, & Addie, sitting behind them is Mason & Jeff’s brother Dennis, standing are Andy, Adam Meg’s husband Mike, Jeff bending down, and you can barely see Elise and really can’t see her boyfriend Brock standing behind her at all. It was such a special day.

It was the first time any of us other than Andy & Amy had met the twins, and we all had a hard time keeping our hands off of them. I got this picture of Addie holding Jack. Just a day when I couldn’t stop counting my blessings.

Charlie had to work so wasn’t able to be there for Jeff’s celebrating at the racetrack, so the next day he and his girlfriend Sydney brought lunch over for us after church. We had a great time with them, too.

Jeff’s 70th birthday was November 15, and the kids came up with a huge surprise for him. We all headed to the other side of Charlotte, where Jeff rode around the track at the NASCAR track there. He absolutely loved every minute of it, and we all had so, so much fun. I got this picture of him and Andrew as they were standing in line to get Jeff helmeted up to get in the car.

Coming back after his ride was over. Afterwards we went to eat lunch at Mac’s Speed Shop. So, so much fun.

I have not been on this computer in six weeks, I don’t think, so am trying to get a little bit of catching up done while I have a down day today. It was about the middle of November when the Bearcats lost in their second playoff game. They were pretty big underdogs, so we weren’t surprised, and we were so proud of the season that they had. Here are a couple of pictures from the game.