Christmas 2019

A lot of fun family time in MN and OH (where it was in the 60s!). At Tippie's for an early Christmas: Colin, Sydney, Lexi and Lucas wrote a Christmas rap and Miss Quinn sang Ba Ba Black Sheep and Twinkle Little Star.

Papa Beard's tree. 

At Wild Woods park. Syd said she loves Ohio,

 "because it's so warm and so many people wear Ohio State stuff." 

Sammy took to Uncle Bill.

Santa and Mrs. Claus

The first year that Colin didn't sit with the little kids to listen to Santa at the Preserve. Both he and Sydney did share some things on their list and sit for a photo. They won't tell me what Santa whispered to them. Hmm...

Feed My Starving Children

AJ arranged for everyone to volunteer a few hours at the non profit Feed My Starving Children. It provides funds and packaged goods to malnourished countries. The kids really enjoyed being a part of the activities and connected with the idea that they were helping others. Our 'team' worked well and we packed 10 boxes of food.. well, rice with 'vitamins'. Syd really liked the samples they provided at the end.

Bill and Deb with Syd, Lexi and CP

Rick and Lexi prepping the food from Lucas and CP. Bill helping with the heavy lifting. I'm in the back with the fun job of using the automatic sealer!

Christmas Cookie Baking Extravaganza!

Aunt Anita hosted everyone for an afternoon of frostapalooza of Christmas cookies. The adults made some pretty tasty rum balls, too.

"Melting" snowman

Quinn and Parker joined in this year!

Sledding

Whew! The sledding hill was fun, but coming back up the hill was a workout.

Thanksgiving 2019

Enjoyed a nice long weekend and the first significant snowfall over Thanksgiving.

Colin's turkey appetizer 

The kooky cousins

Started off with some walking the mall to end hunger and ran into the TMNTs. 

Leaves

The kids love planning the annual leaves photo. Colin is sort of faking that he hates raking leaves.