A White Christmas

We traveled halfway across the country to be with Rachel's family in Gering, Nebraska, for Christmas 2007. And we were met with a beautiful white Christmas. The area had already had about 5" of snow during the previous week, and during the week we were there the drifts grew to more than a foot. We were greeted with big, thick snowflakes upon leaving the church at midnight mass!

Miraculously, the snow did not impede our travels. It seems as though our streak of bad traveling luck has ended! We left the Denver airport on the only day that we could have successfully made the three-hour drive to Denver, as the winds blew the snowdrifts over the roads the following day. Thankfully, the snow was only a beautiful addition to Christmas instead of the traveling challenge it could have been.

Our Christmas was filled with shrieks of delight and ticklefests, as we strove to make our nieces as hyper as possible! (You're welcome, brothers and sisters-in-law!) They are simply adorable little girls, and it was such a pleasure to spend a week with them. They are each growing so fast and changing so much between visits -- a reminder to get home more often! Here we are with Natalie (1 year) and Kaitlyn (3 years). Kaitlyn is quite the big sister and takes good care of Natalie, who is doing everything she can to keep up.

And Uncle Russ had tremendous fun chasing Kaitlyn around the couch...

... which was very successful...

And here is Hadlee Sue (2 years), looking adorable in her Christmas dress. Hadlee's favorite words are "mine" and "it's stuck," which seems to apply to literally everything.

Hadlee will also have a little sister soon. Due to arrive in January, little Saydee Ann was thinking about being born early but eventually thought better of it. We're hoping she arrives safe and sound in 2008.

Rachel's grandparents from Alabama also made the journey to the Midwest, and it was good to spend time with them again. Granddad, thanks for the good Scotch! Here they are, with Rachel's parents:



It was wonderful to be home with the Petersons for Christmas. Family members converged from across the country, family holiday traditions were maintained, and new family members were initiated in the joy of Christmas. It was a beautiful Christmas to remember.

Thanksgiving in Nebraska

While this may not seem like the typical Thanksgiving weekend picture, we did find ourselves playing hunting video games with the Millers that weekend. They are fierce competitors, each and every one of them. Even Donna took a turn shooting deer and elk and "critters."

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Millers in their new Lincoln home. All of the siblings were together for the first time since our wedding in 2006! Hopefully that trend will change in 2008!

Here we are with Russ's brother, Rob, and his fiance, Stacey. It was great to have a beer at Yia Yias again and revisit the old college stomping grounds.

American Freaking Gladiators!

I was flipping through the chanels the other day and found myself captivated by a marathon of American Gladiators on ESPN clasics. Man I loved that show as a kid! I looked forward to Sunday mornings with Nitro, Turbo, Siren, and Lace roughing up some comically smaller chumps on the gauntlet.

And now I hear they are bringing it back. Somehow I don't imagine it'll be the same. With or without the hulkster..

Eagles v. Giants

Rachel, wonderful wife she is, teamed up with our friend Carol to get her husband, Pieter and I tickets to an Eagles game. We decided to get our moneys worth by going down and tailgating in the parking lot, Wisconsin-style. We cooked up some beer-italian sausages (no brats to be found in philly).

Lagers and Brats = good. Lagers and brats before a football game = great.

Our seats were great, we had an excellent view of the game. It was definitely cold and damp, but that just completed the ambiance.