Thanksgiving and More...

We had a great Thanksgiving although we missed being with all of you. Seung Hwan was off all week and Benjamin and I got spoiled. Tomorrow will be a hard day. We had the Boney's for the first part of the week - which was so fun... but we did not get any pictures, and Claire for the 2nd half. We had so much fun with Claire. We ate too much, visited Aunt Marty and Reid and Kim and family, went to the mall, decorated for Christmas, and played and played. Here are a couple of pictures...





Alice went to Claire almost as soon as she walked into the door.



This Santa sings like Alan Jackson... Benjamin was amazed.

And because I am so behind in blogging... here are a couple of pictures of the little monkey...

Arrived in Afghanistan

Hello Everyone! I don't have any cool pictures to post yet (I need to eventually since the mountains here are beautiful and covered in snow - it's just real foggy and they're hard to see at times), but I wanted to let everyone know that I got over here safely. After many long hours of travelling, I eventually made it into Afghanistan and to my unit. It has been snowing and freezing cold out since pretty much my arrival to camp marmal. I think I'm finally getting accustomed to this time zone, which is 9 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern time. They have us living in tents, so I've got a bunk bed and about 10 square feet to myself cordoned off by a couple of hanging blankets. The food has been much better than I expected, and the German food in particular has been pretty good - a nice break from the run of the mill American food. They do serve a variety of different dishes, which is nice, and I was even able to celebrate Thanksgiving with all the trimmings.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving back in the states. I wish I could have been there with everyone. Also, thank you for all of the prayers for Claire and myself. They are greatly appreciated.

Vale's Thanksgiving Play

Check out our little Indian.

Halloween Video

Thought you might like to see a snippet of our Halloween in motion.  Check out how small Beck's outfit really is and how fast that Buzz can move to get some candy...

Up next, some videos from Beck's last dance creative movement class.  Nothing super exciting, but cute nonetheless.

Oh, and there's a certain little monkey that we're all dying to see pictures of.

Heritage Tour

Last weekend as part of our trip to Doug Starr's daughter's wedding in Lexington, NC, we made 4 side trips.  They were to Regi;s, Miriam's, dad's and my homeplaces.  It was a very special trip.  These are a few of the pictures that we took.  Hope that it brings back some happy memories.  I regret that Melissa, Seung Hwan, and David did not ever get to Greenville. (And David - not even to Hartwell).  Although these pictures can't capture the whole "feeling" of home, they sure did make John and I to relive some happy times.  Enjoy!

Big news of the day was the tree coming out.  Fascinating to watch.  Pondman Todd told me yesterday that I had to choose between the tree or the pond.  They do not play well together.  I chose the pond.

Don't you think that the navy coat hanging over the bird feeder is attractive?  I would have never thought of that!  It definitely keeps the squirrels out...and the birds too, I'm afraid.

I had to hurry and take pictures before the rain started so the project is not completely finished.  Whatever is not finished today will be finished on Monday.  But I think that you can still get a good idea of what it will look like.  We are so happy with it.  And Scott (the main man) said that it will take 1 year for plants to mature. Wow!

Day 3

Yikes!  This was my view as I opened the door of my office this morning!



This was the view from my room for most of the day.



This was the result at the end of 3 long days of work!

AAAHHH!  Beauty...wish I knew how to include an audio to the sound of the water flowing over the rocks.  We will sleep with out door open tonight!
Tomorrow the plants if the rain holds out. Otherwise it will be Monday.  But I will do a final post.