The Journey Home

Well, Santa came across a lone Wii in Target several weeks ago, so our boys got one of the much coveted game systems. They had been asking for one for Christmas, but Jonathan “fainted” when he saw it. Maureen had a good time trying it out. I got some great video that I’d love to post on You Tube, but I really do like being married and want to keep that relationship intact. The cutest part was the end, where Maureen raises h er hands in victory and Jonathan looks up at her and says, “You lost.” (Drop by the house for a private viewing!)I hope that you and yours have had a great day today.

Many blessings for a Happy New Year!

Jonathan Faints on Getting a Wii\Maureen tries out Wii

Maureen & Friends at the Grand Canyon

Originally uploaded by claypotparker
Maureen returned home to Albany Monday night with her good friend Irene (Sock Mei) Lee. Needless to say, there is great rejoicing in our household. Click on the photo to see a larger version of Maureen and her friends at the Grand Canyon. Maureen and Irene are on the right, and they are joined by Margaret Goh, also from Singapore, and Peggy Lee, who lives in Albuquerque. I assume that Peggy’s husband, David, took the photo.

Santa’s House

Originally uploaded by claypotparker

Santa was in Albany last night at the home of Red & Shirley Alexander. The boys were mesmerized by the lights that the Alexanders have been putting out for the past sixteen years. Although I had told them to have in mind what they wanted to ask Santa for, they were both a bit tongue tied when they say on lap of the jolly old elf.

Although I know analogies between Santa and God are dangerous, I wonder if there is a comparison in there somewhere with being speechless in the presence of an awesome and holy God, whose dwelling place is far more glorious than any earthly dwelling.

Family Christmas Photo 2007

Originally uploaded by claypotparker

We tried to take our Christmas photo this morning before going to church. We got good expressions on everyone’s faces, but the picture came out unfocused and too dark. So, finally, tonight, after–morning worship, a pot luck fellowship lunch, baby shower, raking leaves, watching some Harry Potter with Jonathan, small group meeting at the church building, “Bible in 90 Days” meeting in town, small group at our house, boys bathed and ready for bed, remembering we still needed to take the photo, getting everyone dressed again (is there a Sabbath in there somewhere?)–we got this photo about 9:30 p.m. tonight.

We needed to get it tonight because Maureen leaves tomorrow morning to join some Singaporean friends in Albuquerque, and they’ll go see the Grand Canyon from there. We guys will just stay at home and batch it for a week. When Maureen returns, she’ll have Irene, her good friend from Singapore, with her for about a 10 day visit here with us.

First Snowman

Originally uploaded by claypotparker

After we got home from the Bradfords’ (see previous post), and during halftime of the Cowboy’s game, the boys and I built our first snowman together! OK, it’s not the most symmetrical, but it’s an effort and we had fun.

Thanksgiving Snow in the Country

Originally uploaded by claypotparker

Today we were invited out to Calvin & Pat Bradford’s farm/ranch for Thanksgiving Day. Guy “Bear:” McCain (Calvin’s stepson) and his wife Charlotte are part of our church family in Albany. We had a wonderful away-from-home Thanksgiving meal with turkey, ham, and all the trimmings. The amazing thing was that it started sleeting and then snowing beautifully with accumulation that defied the weather predictors. Just before we left, I took this snapshot outside the McCain’s house on the Bradford property.

Our Scarecrow

Originally uploaded by claypotparker

Today was scarecrow day for the kindegartners at Nancy Smith Elementary School. Jonathan wasn’t too excited about feeling itchy all day, but we thought he looked cute. And yes, he did put on shoes before he left for school!

As you can imagine, communication in our “poster family for diversity” can be a challenge, with all of our varied accents and assumptions. Here’s a recent example.

Our 9 year old, Jeremy, rides a school bus home. Each day his bus drops several children off at a local youth center for an after-school program called “Aspire.” Jeremy had heard something about this and so he had asked Maureen what “aspire” meant. She had him look it up in an online dictionary.

Jeremy still wasn’t sure why the children were getting off the school bus, so he asked his bus driver (who later told me the story) what the children were doing. She simply told him that they were going to Aspire. “What’s Aspire?,” Jeremy asked. “It’s a place where they can go and do their homework, have a snack, and play after school,” she replied. Jeremy responded, “That’s what I told my mom, but she said a spire was a pointed thing on top of a church building.”

Caught one

Originally uploaded by claypotparker
We have several “favorite people” in Albany, and Robert and Emma Hudman are two of them. Yesterday afternoon they called us see if we wanted to go “down to the river” with them. Not sure exactly what that meant, I had the boys grab their fishing poles, and we rode way back on the Cook Ranch where Robert works as a ranch hand and a hunting guide. Robert has sharp eyes (after having cataracts removed and implants put in) and knows the name of every tree, bush, or weed in Shackleford County.

Robert and I (Anthony) both caught pretty good sized yellow catfish, which we ate tonight together with the Hudmans and the Wilson family. When I say the catfish were “good size,” I guess they were 3-5 lbs each. (In Alabama we ate catfish whenever we could, but even a small catfish plate usually has 2 fish on it. Tonight we fed six adults and four children on these two fish, and we all had as much as we wanted or more than we needed.

After fishing for a while, we drove further down the river and grilled hotdogs, and came back in time to catch the beautiful sunset and quite a few white tail deer.

You can see more photos from the outing on my flickr page.

Tonight was opening night for the high school football season.  Our Albany Lions defeated the Eastland Mustangs (whose mascot is a bull — go figure) by a score of 36-15.  Pretty much the whole town turned out.  There is a lot of support in Albany for the students.  At the game I ate a Kilie’s Custard, which is locally made and available not only in the ice cream shop, but at lots of local events.  Here is the story behind Kilie’s Kustard — just another reason that Albany is the coolest little town in Texas.

Click here to watch the report from KTAB, an Abilene television station.