Inventor Ian

Every year for Ian's gifted class, he has to
create an invention. This year he decided to
make a new toy for dogs. He drilled out the
center of a tennis ball, filled it with peanut
butter and then threw it for Angel to fetch.

His teacher like it so much that she wanted
one for her dog. She offered him $5 for one.
He's no fool...he gave it to her for free.


Getting everything lined up.


Preparing the drill...safety first.


Drilling out the hole.

Ian carefully filled the hole in the tennis

ball with peanut butter. He then gave

the ball a toss and ....

We had one happy pup! We had a very successful

test subject!

Merry Christmas 2009!

Happy 38th Birthday John! Instead of the

typical birthday lunch, we did a big ole

breakfast. Yummm, biscuits and gravy,

bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes and more!

Acie, The Girls, David, Marjory and our

family were all there to help John celebrate

getting a little older and wiser, well...just older.

Yeah! Santa came!

Automatic firing Nerf guns and

a portable cd player = hours of

fun and laughs!

Can it be? A Nintendo DS for me?

Thanks Santa!

The totally awesomest gift came

from Grandma and Grandpa, a

"Biggest fan" autographed

photo from LaDainian Tomlinson

to Ian. He LOVES it!

Ahhh, Christmas in Florida.

Instead of snow, we have floating

Christmas trees with palm trees

in the background.

The Forrers gave Jenna a mini-cake pan set.

She made and decorated cakes, and I do mean

decorated. : ) She decided they needed a cream

filling so she took the icing gel, poked the

tip in the middle of the small cakes and squeezed

in as much as she could. They were then topped

with gobs of frosting and a nice thick layer of

sugar sprinkles. When she was satisfied, she

wrapped them up and delivered them to all

of our neighbors.

Papa thanking Jenna for her

Christmas treats.

The Burrough's Home at Christmas

For the past 32 years, the Women's Club
decorates the Langsford-Kingston and
Burroughs homes. For a small fee,
you can tour the homes and enjoy
the historical homes, beautiful Christmas
decorations, a visit from Santa and some
lovely Christmas carols.

If you would like to learn more about
the Burrough's home and several of the
other historical homes here in Ft. Myers,
click the link below.

http://cloisterslakeworth.com/history.cfm



Jenna walked right up to Santa,
climbed on his knee and let him
know she really wanted a
metal detector for Christmas.


Ian was much more cautious. He opted to shake
Santa's hand versus sitting on his knee.


Ian and I on the front porch
balcony.


Grammy and the kids. Marjory
came with us to tour the house.
We all enjoyed the adventure.


The home was decorated so
beautifully. Here is an example
of one of the Christmas trees.
This was in one of the 2nd floor
bedrooms.

Do you believe?

We wrote our letters to Santa
and headed off to Macy's to
mail them away.


Jenna's letter went on and on
and on and on...you get the idea.
I think she wanted everything
in the Toys R Us catalog!


Ian believes. I wish I had kept a
copy of his letter. He asked Santa
for everyone to be happy, to please
remember Angel and to give him a
new Nintendo DS game.


We believe...how bout you?

Nativity Night

A local church does a walk through nativity
scene. We met Jennifer, her family, Toni and
her kids for a tour.


Our guide was on her way to Bethlehem for the
census. She offered to let us join her family and
go with her to the city. Along our way, we met
some Shepperd's who told us a story that the
Savior was going to be born tonight.


This glorious angel told us of
the coming of the Lord.


This was our guide. She warned us to be polite
to the guards that were stationed outside of the
city gates. They were very intimidating.


After meeting with several inn keepers, who did
not have room for us, we finally found the Holy
Family in a stable.

Our kids were a little awestruck because Mary
was played by Heather Turco, from the local
TV station. The kids kept whispering "that's
the lady from the news!"


Our final stop was to chat with three wise men.
Our kids warned them not to go back to Herod
because he was going to kill baby Jesus. They
were amused at how well the kids knew the
story.


The travelers...Michael, Ian, Sophia, Chelsea,
Morgan and Jenna. We all enjoyed cookies, milk
and carols after our journey to Bethlehem.

Visitors from Afar

Every year Rosie spends a week
or two year in Florida. We always
look forward to seeing her! We
met her and her long time
friend, Mary Kay, for some
shelling and pizza. As expected,
it was a great evening.


Jenna found lots of treasure along
the beach. She took home quite
a few new additions for her shell
collection.


My cousin Sarah gave Rosie this great book
"12 days of Christmas in Florida". The kids helped
Rosie with the verses.


Ian, Rosie, Jenna and Mary Kay.



Ian feeling Madison's kicks.

After Rosie's visit, Aunt Amo
came to see us. Amy came out
to see her college roommate Alison
get married. We were so glad
to see her (and her cute little belly!)!

Football Fanatics

Tricia has season tickets to the Tampa Bay Bucs
and took me with her to see them play the J-E-T-S,
JETS, JETS, JETS. Since the Bucs were having such
a non-rocking season, they let season ticket holders
up grade to club level seats. What a difference a
level makes when watching the game! Despite the
whomping the Bucs were given, we had a lot of fun.
We both are busy and don't see each other as often
as we used to so it was a great day to catch up, have
beer and cheer those Bucs on to yet another loss.


Oh yeah, gotta have a picture taken with the Pirate.

My head and Ernest Graham's head are almost the

same size. Too bad I can't run as fast as he does.

We bought tickets for the tailgating party done

by the stadium. The tailgating zone was next

to where the players come into the stadium.

We were able to shake hands with several and take

our pictures with a few. Very neat!

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams signing "his" jersey.

Tricia and Geno Hayes

This is where we pretend that Caddy had a break-out

run and scored an amazing touch down. In reality,

I think this is our defense on the field and we

probably let Thomas Jones bust out a run.


Perks of club level seats. Instead of sweating

outside, waiting for food at the snack lines. We

got to wait in an air conditioned lobby, with giant

TV screens showing the game. In case the TVs

weren't enough, there were windows lining the

level so you could watch the game from

over-stuffed couches.

Half way up that corner section

is where we should have sat. I've

watched several games from those

seat so don't get me wrong, those

seats are great...unless you have

club level seats . :)

This was taken five rows down from where we

actually sat. They were GREAT seats.

Fire the Cannons! The pirate cannons are shot

when we reach the red zone or score. Sad to say,

they were pretty quiet that day.

Despite the loss, it was a really great afternoon.

Thank you Tricia for taking me with you! Maybe

2010 will be a better season...can't be much worse!

GO BUCS!