Ryan comes to visit!

We went into downtown Raleigh for the New Years celebration. It's like a progressive party where you go to concerts, see improv, plays, make things, and gather at the end for the acorn drop and fireworks.

Jennifer, Stephanie, Jaclyn and Ryan under one umbrella

A little damp, but still having fun.

Almost all the way down...

"YOU!!!!" Stephanie and Ryan fighting over who won Rabbit Rabbit... Somehow I think the Regime has lost again, eh Buddha?

Playing a little Thump Thump, Old Thunder, 7 Up, whatcha-ma-callit

The Ford favorite: 5 card hand Sorry. Stephanie and I redeemed ourselves against the boys, winning by ONE MOVE!

We had a great time shooting down some cans in the woods with the BB and pellet guns but here's a little Nerf War that broke out last night... Ryan kept up quite well even though he had the lesser weapon.

Christmas the 28th: FOOD

Unfortunately, these are the only pictures of the Christmas dinner we had on Thursday: the preparations. I made the cashew nut loaf and Stephanie made the sweet potato casserole while Mom was at work.

Christmas the 30th: Family

Uncle Kit, Aunt Pat, and Lindsey came for the weekend. It made our Christmas week complete to have family around.

The two stooges

On Saturday night the kids played...

...while the parents watched Death of the Penguins. Apparently Uncle Kit found it riveting.

Making a difficult decision in Dutch Blitz

Uncle Kit is a good shot (better than some of us) even with his Parkinson's!

Lindsey takes a turn with the worthless BB pistol that shoots about 6 feet in a descending arc.

Eyeing the target

Target practice

Dad stapled Post-Its to the trees in our back yard. He's a pretty good shot! Apparently he's had lots of target practice in his pre-children days. Don't we look like rednecks? This post strangely reminds me of another family's recent holiday blog from the backporch. Maybe the Iversons and Fords will have to have a little feud.

That sucker is hard to pump! Well, for Stephanie and me. For Dad, it takes about 3.2 seconds...

And then we took it out to the back 40... (aka, the woods behind our house)

Christmas the 27th

Hooray! I'm finally home for Christmas! And we get to have it all week long... Because we have two nurses in the family, we opened presents on the 27th (and we're having dinner on the 28th when Mom is off, pictures to follow). This Christmas has to be one of the best on record (except for the fact that I had to work the real Christmas Day). I got lots of presents. As Tara would say, they are mostly practical but that's what I asked for!

It seems like this is our traditional Christmas present, but since this is just about the only time I get them, I usually NEED them.

Stephanie wanted lime green CROCS; I complied but I was almost blinded buying them

The movie count grows: 5 from Stephanie and 1 from Mom and Dad

I found her a red sleeping bag!

My random present: a penguin cookie jar with Biscotti in it. It's cute don't you think?

We got Mom a soft shawl type thing because she's always cold on Sabbath

We bought Dad a pump BB rifle, a little hard to pump, but a lot of fun. Just so you know, he gets the award for strangest present of the year. That's a dog bed he's laying on but I think it's going to go back to the store in favor of some other pillow that makes the cut.

Ryan sent me a Christmas package with PJ pants, slippers, a yummy smelling candle, a card, and a Buxtehude organ book. How did he know that's the next organ book I wanted? He's amazing... and he's coming in 3 days! (By the way, a little Ford trivia for you, our lawn mower is named after Buxtehude)

Still, still, still...

I took a walk at Southern this afternoon. Campus is so quiet at Christmas time; the dorms are shut down, everybody is gone. Such a change from the hustle and bustle of exam week. Sometimes it's nice to spend some time by yourself in the peace and quiet, alone with a camera. It reminded me of the days of photography class except now I have an unlimited amount of film and changes are just a click away! Carrie's got me working with a new (free!) program called Picasa. It's amazing.

I even payed a visit to Lucille (that would be Ryan's car ;-)