After a full week Christmas is now past

Another great meal, another fun family gathering.

We finally warped up the 2010 Christmas season tonight. We had Jo's family members here tonight for our annual Christmas dinner. Jo's Mom and niece were with us, Mardell and Carrie, along with Carrie's son, J.J. After a great ham dinner we retired to the living room to exchange gifts and watch J.J. tear into his presents. We had gotten J.J., who just turned four earlier this month, a firetruck that was almost as big has he was. To his mother's consternation it made siren and radio noise when you pushed buttons on the side. Also, his great grandmother had gotten him a police helicopter that also made sounds when you pushed the buttons. (He had been asking for a helicopter for some time so he was really a happy little boy.) After opening the presents we had a really good visit with Carrie. We did miss seeing her husband, John, but he was involved playing soccer this evening. Being another gun enthusiast John and I usually have fun comparing our collections.

Christmas Day with the Stone Clan

Plenty of food, plenty of family, a good time by all.

The annual Stone Family gathering this year was in Purcell, Oklahoma, at my oldest brother's house. We did have a houseful although there was one person very obviously missing. This was the first Christmas that our mother was not with us at the Christmas Dinner Table. She is no longer able to walk and is confined to the nursing home a few blocks away. This was the first time in my parents 73 years of marriage they were not together on this day. Dad did go visit her this morning and was going back over after we all left. We did not stop by the nursing home today since we had so many of our group with us.

Joanne and I had ten people attending this years Christmas gathering with us. Pictured here are (l to r) Alan and Cathy, Joanne, Mardell (Jo's Mom), myself and Alex. In front are Cathy and Alan's girls, Madison, Katlyn and Cadence. Not included in this picture is Cathy's sister, Grace, who was visiting from Wisconsin. The other family members were: My Dad, George; brother Bill and his wife Nancy; brother Chester and his wife Susan, plus their son Jason and son Tim with his wife Sherry and their son David and daughter Sara; brother David and his wife Elizabeth; Nancy's Mom, Lilas, and her brother Charlie and his wife Amy. Several of the family members were absent due to work schedules or being with their spouses families. Each family brought part of the meal so there was plenty of food for everyone with much left over.

We all spent the afternoon visiting and catching up since the last time we were all together. This was Madison and Katlyn's first time with all these family members and they seemed to have a good time and enjoyed our large family. Dad had requested that we not bring him or Mom presents this year. With Mom in the nursing home there is very little that she needs that is not provided for her. Also, at age 91 they both pretty much have everything they need. Dad did receive presents of the edible kind, which he really does appreciate. He was able to open packages of peanuts, cookies and peanut brittle. He did wear his red "Christmas" shirt, which has become a tradition. His older brother, Delmer, bought these shirts for himself, Dad and their brother-in-law, Joe, many years ago. Dad has worn this shirt every Christmas since. It is even more meaningful since Uncles Delmer and Joe have passed on.

Another Christmas gathering

Three more little girls and more presents opened.

Tonight Alan, my youngest son, came to visit with his family. He and Cathy brought our youngest granddaughter, Cadence, and her older, twin sisters, Madison and Katlyn. This was the first time the twins had met our new little Bridgit Jeane and they all had a big time playing with our little dog. After the girls all opened their Christmas gifts we all sat around the table and shared a chocolate chip pie and visited. We had a big time with the girls and they seemed to enjoy the gifts they received. Cadence will be four years old this next February and the twins are now eight. It's kind of funny, as a Dad I only had little boys. Now as Grandpa I'm surrounded with all these beautiful little girls.

An afternoon with the girls

Some big horses, playing at McDonald's and feeding a few birds.

We decided to take our two oldest granddaughters, Emma and Aurora, out for some fun this afternoon. We've been meaning to do this for awhile but just have not done it. First stop was the Express Barn. The Express Personnel Services company is owned by a guy named Bob Funk. He also owns some huge farms where he raises registered Black Angus cattle. (An article in this mornings paper showed that he was the 57th largest land owner in the United States.) In addition to his cattle operation he has a large team of Clydesdale horses that appear in parades around the country pulling a large wagon. He has his specially built barn open to the public to see the horses six days a week. The barn was built by hand by a group of Amish folks that came from Iowa to build it. These are beautiful horses in addition to being huge. The girls really enjoyed seeing the horses plus the other livestock on the place. This included a Zebra and some miniature horses. Each horse has it's own stall and are very friendly. Most will come to the door of the stall to allow you to pet them, as "Elvis" did here in the picture. Others just stood back and watched us. Marty would not come close but stood their twitching his nose at us. After touring the barn we went outside to look over the other animals and other items on the farm. The girls got a chance to board a stagecoach. Since both girls are cat lovers they had a big time playing with the friendly barn cats that were on the premises.

After leaving the farm we headed back into Oklahoma City and stopped at McDonald's for a quick snack. The girls had a great time playing on the indoor climbing toy for an hour or so. All refreshed we headed to Lake Hefner, one of the city reservoirs, after stopping by a local grocery store for a loaf of bread, to feed the birds. We drove around the lake to Stars and Stripes Park where the largest collection of birds hang out. Here we found an abundance of ducks, Canadian Geese and seagulls. We spent a while feeding bits of bread to the birds. The ducks and geese would come right up to us begging for a treat. The large geese can be pretty intimidating but one would eat right out of your hand. Aurora was the only one brave enough to hold out her hand to feed this goose. The seagulls would fly above us and grab the bread out of the air when we threw it up toward them. This was a great outing with two of our girls. Something we need to do more often.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The tree is up and the first Christmas gathering has come and gone.

We finally got the Christmas Tree up this past Friday and the other decorations put out. This is little Bridgit Jeane's first Christmas as part of our family and she was not really sure what all was going on. We have already found her trying to check out what was in the Christmas presents that were in the sacks under the tree. Had to set them up on the mantle since they had edible items in them for the grand daughters.

Due to scheduling problems we usually wind up having more than one Christmas gathering to be able to include all the extended families. Tonight we had our two oldest granddaughters, along with their mother's, here for dinner and exchange of gifts. We had Emma and her mother, Shelly, and Aurora and her mother, Maegan. Emma's little sister, Lily, was also with us. Also joining us were my oldest son, Alex, and Joanne's mother. Aurora, the middle grand daughter was dropped off early by her other grandmother so she got to spend some time with us before the rest of the folks arrived. This was her first time to visit since Bridgit Jeane came to live with us. She had a good time having Bridgit chase her around the house. We had a great lasagna dinner followed by Joanne's fabulous upside down apple pie. After dinner we adjourned to the living room for pictures and to have the kids open their presents. They made a good haul and all seemed to enjoy what they got.

The picture to the right is Joanne and I with Emma, Aurora and Lily. The picture on the left is Emma and Aurora playing with Uncle Alex. The next gathering will be on Christmas Day with all the Stone clan at my oldest brother's house. Then on the next day, Sunday, we will have Joanne's family here at our house.

Bridgit Jeane in her new home

A new home and meeting new family members.

Bridgit Jeane has now has spent a little over a week in her new home and appears to be settling in just fine. Once we got home Buddy Joe started to accept the fact she was staying here so he should make the best of it. He now shares his toys with her, runs and plays with her and puts up with her barking. He plays much more than when he was here by himself now so it appears that Bridgit will help him to stay young.

Outside of her barking, which we are working on, we've only had a couple of problems. Here is Bridgit (in the foreground) with Buddy behind her. She loves being outside and spends most of the daytime in the backyard. If we take her out through the front we must keep her on a leash since she has a tendency to run. First time was last week when I went out to put some mail out for the postman. She slipped out and took off. Here I was, still barefooted, on the chase. She immediately ran across the street to the neighbors yard and then headed north. Three yards down she darted back across the street. She made her mistake at that point by going into one of the neighbors backyards. There I was able to corner her and get her to stop. Oh, did I mention I was barefooted? This was around 9:00am and the temps outside were in the 40's. I did not realize how cold my feet were until I started walking back to the house. The second incident was this past Sunday morning as we were preparing to leave to take Joanne's mom to lunch. Bridgit was outside and being abnormally quiet. She has had a tendency to get under our deck, which is very muddy, and we thought we had closed up every place she could get in. Anyway, she did not come when called. We did a big search of the backyard, checking under the deck and checking the fence to see if there was anyplace she could have gotten out. We also looked all through the house but did not find her either place. At this point we each got in our cars and started driving the neighborhood looking for her. I finally came back home and as soon as I got out of the car I heard her barking coming from our dining room. She was now in the house. We have still not figured out where she was hiding but from her appearance it did not look like she had been under that deck. (Due to going under the deck she got two baths her first day after she got home from Savannah.)

During the past week we have had two of our three granddaugthers come to visit and meet Bridgit. First it was our youngest, Cadence. She came over for a few hours to see Grandpa and Grandma while her folks ran some errands. She had a big time playing with our dogs and posed for the picture on the right. Today our oldest granddaughter, Emma, spent part of the afternoon along with Lily, her little sister. This was also their first time to meet Bridgit. (This is Emma on the left.) All three of our granddaughters enjoy coming to see Buddy Joe and he is great with them. It appears that Bridgit Jeane is going to be just as good with the girls, which is a blessing. Our first Miniature Schnauzer, Brandi Jane, was kind of anti-social and really did not like to be around little kids. Pretty much anytime we had visitors Brandi had to be locked in a bedroom because we were afraid she would bite someone. It is really nice having these two dogs with such great personalities.

A new family member

Mission: Retrieve one very small Miniature Schnauzer as new family member.

Required: Travel from Oklahoma City to Savannah, GA. (2400 miles round trip.)

Status: Completed.

Last Tuesday Joanne, Buddy Joe and I piled into the car at 6:30am and headed east for Savannah, Georgia. A childhood friend lives in Savannah and is very involved in the volunteer effort of the County Animal Shelter. She had notified us that they had a "rescued" one year old Miniature Schnauzer that had been abandoned by her owners. Knowing our love of these dogs she wanted us to take her, especially since we had lost our Brandi Jane three years ago. Although we enjoy our current Schnauzer, Buddy Joe, we had decided to not get any more once Buddy was gone while we were still doing the RV thing. After Diane sent us pictures of the little girl we were hooked and have been attempting to work out how to get her to Oklahoma. Due to scheduling conflicts on both ends she remained at Diane's house for the past three weeks. This week we decided to just go get her.

The trip out was fairly uneventful. We drove east on I-40 to Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville the first day. About Little Rock it started to mist rain and that was our weather conditions all the way to Nashville. We hit Nashville around 4:30pm, just in time for their rush hour traffic, which was horrendous. After about an hour on the Interstate and only traveling about six miles we spotted a Motel 6 and stopped for the night. We headed out Wednesday around 7:00am and went south through Chattanooga, Atlanta and Macon before turning east again to Savannah. We arrived at Diane and Russ' house around 4:30pm. Diane got home shortly after and we met our new little one for the first time. We had already decided to change her name. The original owners had named her "Tru". Since we could not live with that we named her Bridgit Jeane. Diane had already started using that name so she was answering to it when we got there. Buddy was a bit overwhelmed while we were there with meeting a new "sister" plus the fact that Diane has six dogs of her own (two Mini Schnauzers and four Shih-tzus). The picture on the left is me with all four Schnauzers. In addition to Buddy and Bridgit there is little Hanna and her sister, Shadow, sitting up on the back of the chair. In addition she had a mixed Golden Retriever that she has been fostering in an attempt to find him a new home. Add to this she has several cats she is fostering. Needless to say Buddy was not comfortable in this atmosphere.

We stayed at Diane & Russ' house Wednesday and Thursday night and had a good visit. We got to tour the new County Animal Shelter and met the great people that operate that facility. Diane fed us a great Pot Roast dinner on Wednesday and on Thursday they took us to Fannies on the Beach out on Tybee Island. We had been with them to Fannies when we visited them back in 2007 and really like the place. They have a beautiful home in Savannah that is very comfortable and homey. Diane and I have known each other since the second grade and were best buddies all through high school. When her and Russ got married 44 years ago I was stationed in Norfolk as a young sailor and Russ was at Quantico, Virginia, as a young Marine Lieutenant. I was given the privilege of walking Diane down the aisle at the wedding when her Dad was unable to make the trip from Oklahoma to Virginia.

After our short visit it was time to head back home. We left Savannah around 9:00am on Friday heading west. We went back west to Macon and then north to Atlanta but at that point changed our course. We again turned west toward Birmingham, Alabama, and stopped for the night in Jasper, Alabama. This was Bridgit's first night away from all the dogs but she did very good. She had been trained, by Diane, to stay in a kennel crate and we had gone to Wal-Mart and gotten her a new one. When it came time to go to bed she went right in the kennel and settled in for the night. We did not here a peep out of her all night long. On Saturday we continued northwest to Memphis and I-40 and then west home. We arrived back home around 8:00pm. During the trip home Buddy pretty much laid on his pillow in the back, totally ignoring Bridgit. Bridgit, on the other hand, felt she should ride up front with us. She would lay on her pillow for awhile and then start trying to sneak up front. Even after we wedged a small ice chest between the seats she tried climbing over it. It was a very long, fast and fun trip. Not something I'd recommend on a regular basis but after getting Bridgit home we feel it was well worth it. By the way, once we got Buddy home, in his own environment, he has decided that Bridgit is not so bad and has spent most of the day today chasing around the house with her. He has even made several attempts to get her to play tug-of-war with some of his toys. He also has been a big assist in teaching her to use the doggie door to the back yard.

The Texas Hill Country--Day 7

A lazy day, a great German band and another rally is wrapped.

Other than a general club business meeting this morning there was nothing scheduled for the rally during the day today. The weather all week has been beautiful with sunny skies and warm temps. A cool front rolled in last night and although it was nice and sunny today the temps dropped from the high 70's we've gotten used to down to the low 60's. This made for a good day to hang out in the coach and watch a little football. Got to see the first half of the Oklahoma-Texas Tech game before it was time to head over for dinner and the evening entertainment. Didn't get back to the coach until after that game was over and at the halftime of the Oklahoma State-Texas game. This was the last day of the rally. Most of us will be heading out tomorrow morning. Here are out Rally Masters doing the final announcements before the entertainment started. These four are the folks who put this all together and did a great job. Thanks Terry, Cathy, Bridgit and Carsten.

Tonight's theme was Germany. There are several German communities in this part of Texas. Dinner was brats and sauerkraut. Later we were entertained by a great German Oompa band called, appropriately, The Sauerkraut's. They did music in both German and English interspersed with humor and audience participation. These were a great group of musicians. The leader not only sang but played multiple instruments himself. In addition to the usual instruments of tuba, accordion, guitar and drums they did play one number on these twelve foot long Bavarian horns. Several folks got up to dance to the polka numbers but when the band played The Chicken Dance almost everyone was up and joining in. This has been a very enjoyable rally and was wrapped up with a rousing night of music.

The Texas Hill Country--Day 6

A birthday, a visit to the Alamo and a rousing game of Bingo.

We spent most of today away from the rally. Since today is my birthday we decided to take a road trip. After breakfast we headed southwest to the big city of San Antonio. First stop was the SAS Shoe Factory. We both pretty much exclusively wear SAS shoes so when we are near the factory we like to stop in their outlet store. Actually I was in need of a new pair of sandals since from May through September that is about all I wear and I had pretty much worn out the last pair. I also needed to replace my everyday shoes. Jo looked through the ladies shoes but either did not find anything she wanted or they did not have the ones she needed in stock. Anyway, I did present myself with two new pair as my birthday present.

Our next stop was to downtown San Antonio to visit the Alamo. We have been to the Alamo before but always enjoy going back. This is an inspirational shrine that every American should visit. There were several bus loads of school age children touring the shrine. Due to this we got to hear one of the tour guides give a great history lesson about the siege by Santa Ana and the Mexican Army. He explained how the Mexican General/President thought this was going to serve as a warning to the rest of the Texans who were attempting to secede this land from Mexico. Instead it turned the tide and soon after, with the slogan of "Remember the Alamo", the Mexicans were defeated and the Republic of Texas was born.

After our tour of the Alamo we crossed the street and made our way down to the River Walk. The city has done a fantastic job of transforming the river that runs through the middle of town into a great area. I remember being there many years ago when they were first getting this started. Today the River Walk brings a great number of tourist in, giving the area a tremendous financial boost. We strolled down several blocks on the river level, which is one level down from the surrounding streets. After a while we went back up to street level and headed back toward the car, which was parked behind the Alamo. By this time we were getting kind of tired so we stopped in at the famous Buckhorn Saloon for something cold to drink and a chance to sit a bit. The Buckhorn claims to be the oldest saloon in Texas. Besides the saloon itself there is a 40,000 square foot museum, mostly stuffed animals and hunting trophies. This building also houses The Texas Ranger Museum.

After returning to Kerrville and the coach we relaxed awhile before joining the other rally attendees for dinner. Each night of the rally has had a different country theme. Monday night was American and Tuesday was Mexican. Tonight was Italian with a good Italian dinner. Tonight's entertainment was Bingo games. We played several games and had a good time, even though neither Jo nor I won any of the games. (Last month at the rally in Tucson we both were winners at Bingo.) Here Wallace and Sarah Johnson call the Bingo numbers.

The Texas Hill Country--Day 5

A great luncheon and then some good entertainment.

Today was mostly a down day as far as planned rally activities. There were a couple of seminars scheduled but I decided to pass on them. There was a great luncheon at a place called The Inn of the Hills for all who were interested. Usually at the rallies with this club the ladies go to lunch together on one day during the rally. This time they decided to invite us guys to go with them. It was a great buffet and everyone got plenty to eat. Recently a friend commented on one of the blog entries that it appeared that we only ate when we were traveling. Since I seldom do blog entries when we are sitting at home it may appear like that. We do find we do a lot of eating when we are out in the RV. Since much of our travels include RV rallies this is especially true. It has always been traditional when people gather together to share a meal. The "breaking of bread" is mentioned in the bible in several places. So if you see references to our sojourns out to eat you will understand this long time ritual.

One of the benefits of attending the rallies is getting to cross paths with good friends that we have made along the way. That is true with the current rally. We have been lucky enough to spend some time with Bob & Maribel Clerc this week. We first met Bob & Maribel in early 2007 on our trip to Florida. They were one of the seven couples (motor homes) that traveled together to the rallies we attended in the Sunshine State. We have seen them since at the RV service center and in Minnesota at a RV rally.

Tonight's program started off with a short history of Veteran's Day and a recognition of all our veterans. This was followed by Ray Gutierrez, a local musician/singer. He did a great one man show performing music from Pop to Country to several Spanish numbers. The crowd got into the music with many couples getting up to dance and interact with the performer. Ray was born and grew up here in Kerrville and has lived here most of his life. This was a very enjoyable evening of music.