After Christmas

We had a nice Christmas day together at home. Here's Annie on Christmas morning in the debris field of gifts and cast-aside wrapping stuff. She got earphones, Japanese language learning software and a Borders gift certificate - oh boy!

For a number of years we have been deemphasizing the "stuff" giving component of Christmas. We stopped exchanging with my mom, sister Karyn and in-laws Lee and Yvonne and instead do charitable donations to Ronald McDonald House, Highlands Sanctuary and Cincinnati Freestore Foodbank in their names. Lee Ann and I are giving each other a shared B & B getaway weekend to be named later.

Jackson Christmas Visit

On Saturday Lee Ann, Annie and I started out bright and early and made the five hour drive to Jackson, arriving about noon. We had a nice visit at Mom's, and then at Brian's. It was nice to see the 8 inches of fresh snow that Jackson got in the last storm - we had rain in Cincinnati, which is typical.

On the way home we passed though a band of northern Ohio that fell between the snow and the rain and got ice. Luckily the sun was out for us and trees, fences and everything ice-covered were glittering like crystal - beautiful. This is always easier to appreciate when you're not having to deal with downed power lines and fallen limbs in your own yard. Here is Annie posing in front of an ice-coated tree just north of Van Wert.

Here is an action shot from the Tower House kitchen project, which is in its very early stages. This room was the kitchen originally but at some point previous owners moved the kitchen to another room and screwed up the floorplan of the house. We are moving it back. This photo shows the floor after I removed carpet and padding and began putting a new plywood underlayment in place. I will be buying tile pretty soon.

Post-Thanksgiving Festivities

My brother Brian and his family traditionally visit us the Saturday after Thanksgiving, on their way back to Michigan from Terre Haute, where they spend Turkey Day. Here is the group - Brian, Lorrie, and girls Lindsay and Megan (and Mom, of course), mixed in with us.

Along with the people, we had a reunion of dogs - and when they get together they always play cards. At the table you see (from l to r) Danny "Dangling Ace" McAlpine, Oscar "I'll See You And Raise You " McAlpine, and Barkley "What Are These Things On The Table?" McAlpine. We really were trying to recreate the famous "Dogs Playing Poker" picture, but our dogs are not that high-functioning - they kept dropping the cards.

The last photo shows Oscar, mom's dog, with his nifty haircut. Brian and sister Karyn bought Oscar for Mom for Christmas a few years ago. Oscar is a Giant Miniature Schnauzer - a very rare breed.

Saturday was the City of Lebanon's annual carriage parade. This is a wonderful event with Christmas-themed horse-drawn carriages and nothing but. The parade runs twice - the first time as a daylight parade, and then after dark when the carriages are lit up with everything from antique lanterns to strings of Christmas lights.

We have a party every year coinciding with the parade. This is a chance for Lee Ann to invite her "horsey" friends over to talk about the horse world and then to walk the few blocks from our house to the parade route for the night version of the parade. I didn't get any pictures, but here are some I stole from the City's website.