I love the way young children take to the Internet and embrace it. James had not seen a computer without a mouse and, after a brief show and tell, he was up and running. PBSkids has some wonderful games for his age group and he loves them all. However, Curious George is by far the most important game there. There are all sorts of fun things that he can do with that website and he is darn good at all of them. I see where my children have gone with computers when introduced to them as children, and I know where I am with a mature adult introduction, makes me wonder where this generation that gets them from birth on will go. There is so much positive that can be done with computers if they will just learn to master the negative and put it in the trash where it belongs.

And the other thing I love about this picture. Look at that amazing posture! I spend my life trying to remind myself to stand tall, and heaven only knows I have suggested to Lawrence a million times that he needs to stand tall. He and I are the worst in the family. But our little J-bers, my oh my but that is good posture. I sure hope he keeps same but I acknowledge the reality that he probably won't.

Winter dinner at beach

We had a family gathering at the beach and used the new bar for the first time. We can seat seven people at the bar with comfort. We put the kids at the bar, minus Logan, and the adults ate in the living room. Then we finished off the dinner with Caramel apples thanks to Linda. Messy but oh so very good. She helped the kids make their own and let them dip them in m&m candies.....what's not to love?! I will do some serious mopping on Monday but it is well worth the clean up, and the kids were really good about them. It would have been nice to have them go outside to eat them, but something about it being well below freezing made that not such a good idea. We miss the summer outside but it is still a fun place to gather. All my designers and workers have made a nice family place and I am enjoying same.

in

Thanksgiving Dinner

I love holidays that give a person an excuse to focus on dessert! 2 apple and 2 pumpkin pies, now that is a topic that I can totally invest in. While thinking of the myriad of things I am thankful for one must include being thankful for food in all its abundance. What I eat today is wonderful but I want something different tomorrow, and the life style that we are allowed to live allows that privilege.

We had Thanksgiving with Emily and her family. She set a beautiful table, my father would have been proud. My father always disliked the reality that we carved the bird before we presented the bird. He allowed as it looked like left overs before it had ever made a first appearance. I do agree, but it is ever so much easier to carve it at the kitchen and then present the food to be eaten. Emily did it on the table and it worked well. We needed a few more people however, because we didn't do much damage. Truth be told, we are not much for turkey, most prefer the dressing to the bird. But the two have to go together and we all love the soup and will enjoy an encore performance tomorrow.

And, as is tradition in the family, we will get together again this evening for a major snack and dessert. One eats the main course for a noon meal and then just enjoys the desserts later in the day, like at dinner time. It saves a person feeling the need to over eat as much. I love it this way and am pleased my children have continued the tradition started by my Grandmother. She knew what she was talking about when it came to food!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

Today my baby turns 23 and is awaiting the birth of her baby. Life is certainly made up of circles. I waited and now she waits. And there will be a time where this child shall also wait for the birth of the next generation. It just keeps rolling on in a God-given pattern. I love the peace that those circles give. No matter how crazy life can get, and it can get mighty crazy, the patterns just keep rolling on as God has intended them to roll on.

But who would have predicted my cute blond baby would become the woman she has become. I knew from the beginning that she had potential to move mountains, but I guess I never really thought she would actually do that. When Nancy puts her energy into something things happen, be they mountains moving or other things less dramatic. I am in constant amazement as to what she manages to do and how she does it with such class. That is a gift she came from Heaven with because I have neither the knowledge nor the skills to teach that one.

And now I will move on to the circles of today....not as dramatic but equally as interesting and important.

Try again....

Stuart the Ninja. Claire the princess. Amy the Fairy Princess. Kristin the pioneer girl. James the Iron Chef and Peter as Jack Sparrow. It has taken way too many tries to get these pictures posted. Someday I will learn how to do this a whole lot better, until then I will just keep trying. But the results were worth the effort and there is daylight savings time coming to an end tomorrow so I will hardly notice how long it has taken with my extra hour in the morning! What ever works, works in my book!

We had a good Halloween on Island and hope everyone else did too.

Million dollar view

This is a beautiful picture of my front lawn, so to speak. I live in the $5,000 shack with the million dollar view! Mind you, my intentions were to post the Halloween pictures but this is what came up when I attempted same. I will try again, but the picture was too nice to ignore, so I am including it.

Halloween before the party

As a child I did not much like Halloween, it was always a bit of a disappointment. But as an adult with more control I think it is a fun little tradition. As a young child we would go to Woodland Hall and the community club would have a party for all the kids in the community. That was fun, but it stopped happening when I was around 10. From that point on it was just another day and I felt left out of the loop. But now, I get to be part of the loop and I completely enjoy the whole build into the candy rich festival.

The season started for me when I was able to participate in the selection of Garret's first Halloween costume. He will be a duck tonight in a costume hand made by his mom with his Grandmother watching on. It will be fun to see the finished results in pictures. The costume was cute, but the hat was the defining part of the critter, and the hat was not done when I left. And, true to the age, he is not fond of keeping hats on his head. Putting them on is fine, but keeping them on is a totally different story.

Linda and I made J-boy and cute little Chef costume that pleased him and looked really good. He got sick on Friday so I am pretty sure he didn't get to wear it to his pre-school and that was sad. But there is a church function tonight and, if all are well, I know he will enjoy wearing it there. And I don't know what Logan is wearing, but it will be cute, of that I am sure.

And then the biggest chunk of family, the Campbell contribution. Kristin is wearing Nancy's pioneer trek gingham dress and looking amazing. We had to shorten it a bit but it is going to work just fine for her. She also had another costume for the M.S. band concert, she was asked to do an interpretive dance to one of the songs and dressed in gypsy garb...i.e. an old dress I found and cut up and made into a flashy skirt etc. She looked great and Danced well too. Peter is donning a funky wig (Captain Jack Sparrow), a home made shirt with black laces up the front, a detested pair of church pants cut up and other stuff. Stuart is the Ninja and is pretty much going in black. Claire is the princess. We made her a wonderful costume with lots of Tulle and fluff, a coned hat with tulle coming out of the top, the whole thing. She is so cute and the costume is just as cute. Amy is the little fairy princess complete with wings and flowers...a purchased costume that is perfect for her.

I took Amy with me on Friday to play with the "Fun Band" at the senior center for their monthly dance for the altimers patients (no spell check help but you can figure it out) and seniors in general. She entertained everyone and got out on the dance floor and did her hokey-pokey along with the rest of them. She is really good in front of people and found a whole room full of grandparents a good place to be. I think I will take her back with me when I help out again. We made a good team!

And now I need to collect myself and be of some help to someone. Emily is in charge of the whole thing tonight so her plate is really full. She is good at this kind of thing, however, so I am sure she has it all under control. Now I need to post pictures which means I need to take them.