Warm Friends, Hot Cider, and Cookie Decorating

December 18, 2015 - A few photos from what was officially a "Cookie Decorating Party."

Luminaries - southwestern decorations you rarely see in the Midwest

Up on the housetop...

Is that a star from the East?

Or Josiah holding a flashlight?

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

...but the fire is so delightful.

It was impossible to feel cold with hot cider, warm friends, a roaring fire, and heated card games of "Bluff" and "Nertz."

Isaiah 40:3

We all sang some carols around the piano.

Because the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing aloud for all to hear.

Decorated cookies

The extent of my decorating consisted of spreading the icing like butter on the cookie and immediately eating it. #minimalistdesign

Operator!

"10 circles in a picture" (behind)

"chestnuts roasting over an open fire"

"what light through yonder window breaks" 

- turned into 'something' and "about a thousand toothpicks"

As the fire was slowly dying

my dears were still goodbying...

...and planking...

...and sharing stories and 'random facts.'

Thanks for having us all over!

FCM Conference 2015

May 5, 2015 - Wow, this is a long time coming...better a month late than never I suppose?

Family pic after dinner

I scream!  No, I really almost do when it comes to ice cream!

This little mid-break snack was melting all over me.

Random.  Granted.

But it's not everyday that you see Bruce Wayne out for a drive.

There are always good times waiting in the lobby of the hotel during conferences.

This place has holds some great memories from over the past 7 years:

2010

2012

Chatting with friends and solving the world's problems.

Time for Dutch Blitz!  This card game is a bit of an annual tradition.

This has got to be the biggest game of Dutch Blitz I've ever played.  There were close to a dozen people (in teams.)  As if Dutch Blitz wasn't crazy enough.

CHEF 2012: Day 2

I’m just too tired to wake u-did you say they have a “cooked to order” breakfast?

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CHEF 2012: Day 1

 

(Technically Day –1; the day before the conference began)

1/2 Food   1/2 Clothes

  After checking in to the hotel and unpacking we ate snacks in the lobby and met a few familiar faces and began a conversation and concluded in a jump in the pool.

It was a great evening so I took a stroll outside the convention center.

We spent the next morning helping vendors get their booths setup.  There was quite a crowd of fellows and many hands make light work!  However, it was still thirsty work so thank you again to Kate Whittington for picking up sodas !

Yeah, it looks like we’re working hard.

What with all of the sessions and shopping and meals it’s hard to socialize too!  Why not kill two birds with one stone? 

I’m sure there’s a more complimentary way of phrasing that.

After the last lecture…that word sounds much too dull…we joined friends in the hotel lobby for some cards.

Casual Skip-Bo…

…and an intense game of Dutch Blitz-a CHEF Conference tradition.

                                           “Are you looking at my cards?”

Now back to the casual Skip-Bo…

 

  Is that a “5” I seen in her hand?

Look!  In the sky!  It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…

“Suermann!”  (No, that’s not a typo)

1:20am