New Year = New Brother-in-Law

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Morse. Married December 3rd, Patricia and Jeremy were wed “in a beautiful chapel, in a castle, on top of a mountain, surrounded by vineyards in the heart of the Chianti region of Italy.”

Most of us didn’t get to go to the wedding, so instead we had a marriage celebration on New Years Eve with friends of the family in Graham. We had a tent and a dance floor and even karaoke! Thankfully the tent had a heater because even though it was 65 degrees just before it started snowing the week before, it was cold on New Years Eve!

Dedicated to the Italian wedding, my Mom made the Doma in Florence for a wedding cake. The photo in the frame is one that my other sister took while they stayed in Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo. Beautiful.

While Trisha was celebrating her new life with her new love, I was burning my old ones. My Mom did a major cleaning and I got to go through my things from the attic that were stored for years and years. Part of my storage was just about every rose I received in school. A red rose or a dozen to prove their devotion…and letters and letters and letters from boyfriends and friends and even enemies-I guess I had them in high school. I thought I would share one letter from a boyfriend-I will leave him nameless so it won’t be too bad—but I didn’t have too many boyfriends, more than 2 though! Ok, here quotes “Jennifer, It’s the day before payday and I was broke. I looked everywhere for some money to come up here and get you something that shows you how I feel. I couldn’t find any so I boxed up my CD player and returned it. After all that trouble and turmoil, guess what, they had nothing that showed how much I care for you. Nothing was large enough. They could have boxed up the whole world and sold it to me and it still wouldn’t have been big enough to compare my compassion for you. I’ve got a great secret to share with you---I love you, XXX” I burned the roses, but there is no way that I am burning the words! I think they are too priceless.

Yes, Alyosha—one day, you too will box up your terabyte i-pod/videogame/mp3/hologram projector/DJ to the MAX player and sell it for the world for a pretty 14 year old girl too.

The whole clan. We are getting bigger! It is wonderful.

Snow, yes Snow!

Yesterday we went to the park. We could have worn short sleeve shirts and shorts! Roma rode the bicycle and we played under the sun for a couple of hours. No hats, no jackets, no wind. That was yesterday.

As I am typing and looking out of the window, we have a blizzard! When the wind blows it swirls around the snowflakes like we are actually peering out of a window at a Swiss chalet. (I’ll have to confirm that with my sister-she just got back from her honeymoon which was at a Swiss chalet) I’m off to sit in front of the fire here in our Texas chalet. Merry Christmas!

Texas Christmas Tree

In Graham, you have to go to the gas station to get a Christmas tree. Can you believe that! The Kiwana Club used to sale trees as a fundraiser but the expense of getting the trees here and the amount they had to charge to compensate for the trees they didn’t sale ended up being about $150 for each tree so they stopped that fundraiser a few years ago. A Lowes opened for business about an hour and a half drive from here—they sale trees for $60 each so most people just stop by Lowes on their way home from Christmas shopping in Ft. Worth.

Luckily, after 10 years of adjustment, my parents/family are used to our hippie ways and are even becoming a little hippie themselves. (I, by the way, do not classify us as hippie—but have been called as much by people who will remain unnamed who have joined our family recently. Did I mention that my sister just got married? That is her husband there, he just joined our family recently. More about that later.)

Anyhoo, where was I? Oh, hippies, buy local, organic—do it yourself rather than rely on the system and the chain stores to provide, that’s right. Douglas firs don’t grow in Texas. We have cedar trees here. They grow without effort or Monsanto. So, take a look at the beauty we drove out into the country to cut down…It’s wild and Texan, so no, it isn’t triangle but trees don’t really grow as triangles anyway (except in Estonia, according to Roman – but everything is perfect in that country, so it doesn't represent the whole world). We all love the tree, it is beautiful.The snakes and scorpions are very slow in winter here, so Roma was happy to get down and cut the tree. We might think 70 is warm and perfect, but here it is so cold that reptiles have to hibernate. Grandpa is directing the action here. It should always be a whole family effort to bring home the Christmas Yule. It represents life and spirit and tradition. I’m glad we didn’t get it at the gas station. I’m also thankful my parents have friends who are gracious enough to let us come to their property and cut a tree down! If not that, we would be having a Circle K Christmas—our back up plan. It is a beautiful tree and it will be perfect to liven up our Christmas spirit. Decorated pictures to come. That doesn’t happen until Christmas Eve!

Possum Kingdom State Park

This is the train that we took out to Possum Kingdom Lake for our 4 days of camping out in Texas in June just before the official start of summer. It was hot and we sweated our way through the day and listened to the crickets chirp us to sleep at night.
It actually wasn't too bad. When you keep in mind that this area has been inhabited by people for the past 10,000 years, you know that the luxury we had of modern tents to keep out the flying and annoying bugs and the soft air mattress to get us up off the hard ground--it makes it easy to enjoy roughing it. We even had air conditioner to give us some reprieve from the hottest part of the day. The lake was cool and felt wonderful. I actually enjoyed sleeping outside under the blanket of stars and the quiet night. It is funny that it still feels quiet even though there are a million crickets chirping in unison.
Patricia and Jeremy joined us for the first two days. They are babysitting Harley while Stacy is off exploring the Greek Isles. They supplied us with plenty of beer and bratwurst, two necessities when you are camping out! The boys loved that Aunt Trish came to swim with them.
Niki had his first experience with the red waters of the Brazos.
Granny came and camped out with us too. Harley kept her company in her camper during the night. Luka was pretty wary of the boat at first and he stayed put right next to Granny so he wouldn't fall off of the boat.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was just riding on the boat in the lake. It seems so peaceful and the air is so fresh.

Trisha and Alyosha on the tube behind the boat. Luka didn't like it too much, but I think Aleks will be the first on the water every time. I am sure Luka will join him when he is just a couple years older.

Niki had his own life-jacket and stayed in my lap while we were speeding on the boat. He was happy most of the time even though he was in his cocoon of water protection.



It seems like Niki has found his tongue and likes to show the tip of it to anyone who is interested in watching him.
Grandpa let Alyosha drive his first boat. He did a great job and didn't run over any fish or run into any docks.

Even Roma, the man from the cold North, enjoyed the heat. It may not be something he wants to experience every day of his life, but for these 4 days, it was actually a nice change of environment--it is 50 in Portland! I will take a nice crisp 95 and a cool dip in the water anytime over that!


Luka is now king of the world by the end of the boat trip.
Possum Kingdom at sunset is probably one of the most beautiful sights in the world!

Fun time with Friends

We had a get together with some of my former high school classmates and all of our kids. I think that the kids had a blast together playing in the water and hitting the pinata. The adults all chatted together about the past 10 years and where our lives have taken us thus far. Life's paths are so varied-it is amazing that even though we start out from the same spot, basically, we end up traveling in so many different directions and ultimately we end up all back together again. I don't think I have been very good at it, but it has always been important for me to keep up with any friends I have made at different points of my life. I think it is important to have good people around you and to be a good person yourself-the only way to keep good people around you is to keep the good friends you have made along the way. Anyway, it was a fun evening!

Roma dressed up as the "Hula-Monster" to get the kids while they were searching for the pinata. Luka was really afraid and didn't join in the search-although he realized it was papa dressed up he wasn't sure about the game.

The kids made their own ice cream in ziploc bags. It was a great success! It just takes one cup of cream with 2 table spoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Put all the ingredients in a small bag and put that in a large bag with ice and salt and viola- after 5-10 minutes of shaking you have ice cream! Add in M&M's and you have happy children!

Our table of food--we had almost 40 hot dogs and about 20 sausages along with cabbage salad and grape salad, watermelon and cantaloupe...EVERYTHING was devoured!

Jacob, Justin's son, helped cook the 'dogs. He did a wonderful job.

The swimming pool turned into a swamp after the kids jumped in and out a million times. But they enjoyed it and it survived.

Slip N' Slide fun again.

Boys and their beer!

Texas Flora and Fauna

We spent the today day camping in Ft. Richardson State park in Jacksboro because I heard that there are still plenty of wildflowers around in the gorgeous Texas countryside. As we were pulling up to the State park Grandma (Granny to the kids) said that when she lived in Jacksboro she would take a walk in this park every day and she would run into a road runner. As soon as we pulled in to the park we met Mr. Roadrunner--and in fact, I took a walk with him down the trail a little later. They are really fast and even better-they like to fight rattlesnakes. Did you know that the roadrunner is the American version of the Cuckoo bird? They are in the same family.

Luka is in mid air in this picture--the kids are cooling off in our spot in the shade under the old oak tree. We didn't see any snakes or scorpions but tons of beautiful red birds and ants.

These next pictures are our attempt at getting a portrait of the boys with the Texas wildflowers. Luka wanted to hold Niki every time and pouted when he didn't get to, but Niki was in danger of falling on a cactus so we had to take a quick shot.

Yet another display of brotherly love and Niki is caught in the crossfire.

The cactus were blooming with yellow flowers. The sun went behind clouds when this was taken so they all hid and closed their bloom--but it is still nice.

Literally

Literally two minutes after arriving to Grandma and Grandpa's house the clothes just fell off the two boys and they jumped in the water. That is how we are going to spend the next 4 weeks, mostly naked and wet! With this knowledge, Roma bought his tickets today and he will join us next Wednesday!! Yeah!!!

Nikolai Talking to Granny

Вернулись!

Мои вернулись из Техаса сегодня, все четверо, все в целости и сохранности. Накормил, обласкал, наслушался историй про индейцев, буффало, новых и старых друзей, раскопки. Посмотрел и поцокал языком на найденный "лично Алёшей" наконечник стрелы племени каманчи.

Как приятно видеть их дома, слышать возню парней, наблюдать за расползающим по всем комнатам беспорядком.

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