2008 Chirstmas

This year we went to Jan's on Christmas Eve and Kelli, Ken and the kids came as well. We had lamb and rice and green bean casserole. Later, Dylan played the Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) on the mellophone. I have a video of that I will post later. Hope everyone had a great Christmas! There are a few other holiday pics. in there as well... Oh and no, the kids aren't drinking alcohol - it's sparkling grape juice...

Sara performs with Stone Memorial High School Dance Team

The Stone Memorial High School Dance Team performed Tuesday night at the girls basketball game. This video is a bit grainy because of the lighting. Sara is the dancer who does all the turns in the middle - if you can't tell which one she is.

The Nutcracker at Cumberland County Playhouse

Sara was in the CCP production of the Nutcracker again this year. The show is only done every 2 years so this was her final performance. She was in Waltz of the Flowers, The Snowflake dance, Russian dance and was the soloist as the Columbine Doll. It was of course a beautiful production! Dylan was in the show as a guest at the party and Kim served once again as backstage coordinator for all of the cast - 100 people. She organized what dressing rooms they would be in and how they came on/off stage, etc... I'm very proud of all of them.

Thanksgiving 2008 in Tennessee

We had Kelli, Ken and the girls and Nana and Papa at our house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a nice visit and an awesome dinner. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and blueberry pies. Of course we had turkey - made by Nana - and green bean casserole, noodles, stuffing, rolls and sweet potato casserole. Here are a few pics. After dinner the kids went out and played some sort of a no-net badminton game seeing how long they could hit the birdie back and forth. The picture with Kelli and Nana and Papa is when they were looking at Kevin's blog and Monica's blog pages.

Old Smokey

Well, old smokey, my 1993 Ford Taurus station wagon just turned over 200,000 miles. It's been a very good car. Other than a few minor things it's only had the normal maintenance stuff done to it. It's taken me all over the place, FL, IN and to countless news assignments all over Tennessee. But, she is starting to smoke and use oil. Kim says it reminds her of the car in the John Candy movie Uncle Buck. I guess I'll keep driving it until it can go no more. When the odometer flipped over to all 000000's again I pulled over and snapped a pic. I've already put on another 200 miles since a couple days ago.

Sara is Tiger Lilly in Peter Pan ~ Cumberland County Playhouse

Sara is cast as Tiger Lilly in Peter Pan at the Cumberland County Playhouse. Here are some pictures of her from the opening night performance. It is an amazing show and Sara is an amazing dancer. This show offers Sara a chance to demonstrate just how great she is at dancing, singing and acting. Her dancing skills are awesome! She really looks great in this show. There are 2 video clips from dress rehearsal also.

Sara Gets A New Car!

Sara's Sweet 16 Birthday is Tuesday, Feb. 19. We have been looking for a car to get for her for this birthday for several months. I finally found an older Dodge Neon from an older couple. The car has a new paint job and runs and looks great. It will be a great first car for her once she gets her license. She plans on trying to do that in the next few weeks. In the mean time Kim and I will be driving with her a lot. She has been driving with a permit now for about 7 months. Sara has always had straight A's on her report cards and is a very responsible girl. We are very proud of her and wanted to make this a special birthday.

We got the car on Friday and took it to get cleaned up and an alignment and on Saturday we took the car over by Kim's sisters house and parked it. We went out for lunch, then on the way back we went to Jan's and gave Sara the keys. She about fell over – she didn't have any idea she would be getting it. When she got it she screamed, "Holy crap!" Then she jumped out of Papa's truck and ran over to the car. Kim had decorated it with a big red ribbon bow.

Here are a few pictures when we got home.