10 Days and Counting!

In 10 days we will board a plane for a much anticipated trip back east. Eastman pays for one trip home each year. We will be flying from LAX to Detroit and then on to Knoxville, TN on January 18th. We will spend a couple of days in Kingsport before traveling to NC to spend the week visiting family. We planned this trip in conjunction with a 70th birthday party being given for Brian's dad. We will return to CA on the 29th. We are looking forward to spending time with our families and our Kingsport "family". We are also looking forward to our Lord's Day worship at Westminster PCA. We have been able to stay in touch with family and friends through email, letters, phone calls and visits, however we have deeply missed the preaching, singing and fellowship at Westminster.

A Belated Christmas Gift

In a previous post I mentioned asking Andrew for 2 Christmas presents. The first one, a smile, he provided several days before Christmas. He has now given me the second gift... a full night's sleep! He has been sleeping 8-10 hours for almost a week. This gift was a little late arriving, but I am very thankful for it.

Rose Parade

Fluor, the company Brian is working with, treated their Eastman co-workers and families to the Rose Parade. Brian and the oldest 5 children attended.

I woke the children at 3:15 a.m. to get ready. They dressed in layers as the temperature at 6:00 a.m. was around 45 degrees while the noontime temperature was 70 degrees. Everyone met at the Fluor office at 4:00. A chartered bus drove them to Pasadena. All buses had to be parked by 6:15. Brian and the children then had a long wait for the parade to begin at 8:00.

Their seats were located at the beginning of the parade. This was good in that they didn't have to wait long for the parade to reach them. However they were just before the TV cameras. Some bands didn't begin playing until they reached the camera spot. They also missed seeing all of the movement on some of the floats. I don't think any of this bothered the children. They loved it. Luke and Will had never been to a parade. As soon as it was over Luke asked Brian if they could watch it all over again! Below are some of the children's favorite floats.

This was Emily's favorite.

This was Luke's favorite. There were cowboys on top of the buildings staging a fight.

Ashley enjoyed this one addition to all the horses.

This is the band from VMI. The young man on the left is Daniel Emery. He is a member of our church back in Kingsport.

Kathryn's 2nd Birthday

Kathryn turned 2 on December 28th. When Ashley turned 2 she had a huge friend party with a professionally decorated cake, Pooh theme, favor bags, etc. Kathryn had a simple dinner with her family followed by chocolate cake for dessert. Thankfully we no longer do friend parties at such a young age, because this year we wouldn't have had any friends to invite!

Kathryn received a baby doll for Christmas. She keeps it with her constantly. For her birthday she received a stroller and diaper bag. She loves playing Mommy to her baby.

All smiles

I asked Andrew for 2 gifts for Christmas. The first thing I asked him for was a smile. The second was a full night's sleep. He gladly provided the first several days before Christmas. We are making progress on the second.

Mystery Solved

The mystery gift has been opened and is now receiving much use. It was an air hockey table. The girls figured out what it was after overhearing Brian in a phone conversation with his Dad. The boys never knew. They were all very excited to receive it. We have had lots of air hockey battles since then. Luke has proven himself quite the player. He seems to enjoy playing more than anyone else (except for Brian). When no one else will play with him, he plays with Kathryn. Thankfully he hits the puck very slowly when playing with her as opposed to his usually slams!