Roasting Pan Weather

OK, we live in the North Georgia Mountains and we DO NOT own a sled or tobogan. What is up with that? I remember seeing them at Ace Hardware just last week, thinking, well, we probably wouldn't get any use out of one of those.

When we were kids growing up in "Western New York", having a sled or tobogan was an absolute must. Having come from a large family, we had the ultimate, 12 seater and baby, could that thing fly.

For hours,we would go sledding and tobogganing, until our body limbs froze and come home happy little clams. I remember how I would get to the top of the hill and start down, with a tobogan full of people and think, what on earth is gonna happen when we hit the bottom? But, we managed to get up, brush it all off and head back up the hill again for more torture.

Tonight we watched the snow fall, quietly and gracefully in the yard. At every commercial, we took turns getting up to "check the snow" status. I am just sorry now that I didn't buy that sled at Ace last week. BUT, my sister suggested using my roasting pan (only one big enough to fit my butt)and use that to go down the hill in the back of the house.

School is closed tomorrow, and I am going out to play. Then wash the roasting pan and bake the Turkey I thawed for dinner!

As Sarah Puts it - Operation Christmas 2007

As Sarah wrote in her blog,

"Some of you may have already heard about "Operation Christmas". This took MONTHS in the planning and a couple of death threats to little kids that couldn't keep their mouths shut!!! But we managed to pull it off. I flew to Orlando the first week in December for 5 days to photograph The Weeks Family and Staley Family... all the while never telling mom and dad that we were all together. 2000 photo's later (that includes many other photo shoots) we had completed the first half of Operation Christmas. Our entire family, including Nana Langdon, was able to come to Texas this year for Christmas; the surprise took place Christmas Eve evening. Everyone gathered around the tree, Mom and Dad still do not know anything. And then my dad went first..... See below!! Everyone was emotional; by far Rayah Lee's reaction was the best. This precious angel, only 3 years old responded with such emotion, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. The pictures tell the entire story...A video was made at the end and we sat around and viewed over 300 amazing photos to music and tears. It was a Christmas Eve we will NEVER forget."

As I post this, what was cool was when we saw the first picture which was Nicks, it had all 9 grandchildren in it. It was at that point we remembered that up until this holiday event Sarah had never met Ty Ty in person - or so we thought. I think that is what triggered the chain of event on the emotions, it was then that they all breathed a sigh of relief, the secret had been kept.

I honestly did not know what to expect when I opened my picture, thus my reaction.

We did take pics with Santa hats on while we were at the "tree" and those will follow at somepoint. Sarah's job is never finished. She takes the shots and then has to work her cropping magic on them, till we get them. More to come.

Couple more pics

Pics of Natalie with "Bubby" (Hunter) and Ya Ya (Rayah Lee). Sarah took these at Lake Lily in Florida on a sneak visit to get pics for us for Christmas.