Xmas Eve 2006. My daughter-in-law, Sam, and my grandson, Asher. He's already getting tired of the paparazzi.

Xmas Eve 2006. The gathering of the family for dinner and the passing out of gifts to the families. We opted a long time ago to do our family get together on Christams Eve because there is always a bunch of visiting that goes on Christmas Day as well as the gift giving within the families themselves. We're just waiting for all the rest to show. A good time was had.

Xmas Eve 2006. Here's Christa with our new Grandson. Man is he going to be a monster, he's growing leaps and bounds. At 2 months he is holding his head up well and trying to talk.

Mid-Dec 2006. We fially have managed to get away for a little trip. Sadly it is without the RV as it is in the shop for repairs. However, as we already had our tickets for the Cowboys/Falcons football game, we were not going to let a broken RV interupt our game plans. So we packed up the jeep drove to Atlanta staying in the Omni Hotel adjoining the CNN center. I have to say, this was pretty neat. We were able to walk to the Georgia Dome for the game on game night. The rest of the time we were able to walk to a local MARTA station for all the other places we visited while in town. One of those other places was the Atlanta Museum of High Arts where a gift presentation of art was on loan from the Louvre in Paris. Scupltures, paintings and some never before displayed drawings by the masters. Unfortunatly, my small camera blitzed out me for this trip so all pics were from the big Olympus. Great shots but bulky to carry around. Bottom line very few shots of this trip, big, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum anyway. This shot was taken from the open air hallway toour room. The globe depicts the entrance to the tourist walk around the CNN newsroom. The bottom floor is a food court/gift shop area. We stayed on the 14th floor. Pretty nice hotel.

Entrance to the downtown Atlanta Centennial Park. Yea, the lights are a little shaky, but I didnt have anything to steady my shot with while shooting this picture. Christa and I took strolls through this park every night (except football night) while we were here. Beautiful with a lot of people taking advantage of the Christmas feeling presented by the well lit park. This park had received a major remodel for the '96 Olympics and the influence is everywhere in the park. This is a must see place if your in the area. One thing that encouraged us to get out for the walk was that the park is directly across the street from the hotel we stayed in. Great way to kill a couple hours in the evening.

Some of the Christmas lights in the park.

Another of the reflecting ponds in the Atlanta Centennial Park.

The Christmas tree in Centennial Park, downtown Atlanta.

A night shot of the entrance to the Georgia Aquarium. As has been stated earlier in my blogs, this is a really great place to explore. However, this trip was for the game and the Louvre Exhibit at the Museum of High Arts.

One little attraction that was brought into the park for the holiday season was this relocatable/tent type ice rink. People were really lined up for this venue and really enjoyed themselves. We had a good time watching everyone from the viewers gallery as well.

This ice rink was a major attraction during our 3 day stay in Atlanta. We really enjoyed walking the park at night, especially with all the Christmas lights up. This rink was fun even for us non-skating types, but the people inside were having a ball.

Reflecting ponds in the Centennial Park of Atlanta.

Mid-Dec 2006. Young folks hanging out by one of the many statuaries in Centennial Park, downntown Atlanta.

Here is the post-landscaping picture Uncle Ray and I accomplished. This is actually the foundation of an exrensive naturescaping effort that will begin with the new year. Also to be finished will be patios, walkways and drives.

Dec 2006. When we got back from Thanksgiving, it was time to get back to work. Here Uncle Ray (down from Colorado) helps me with some landscaping work on the front yard. My Unc has a better hand with the tractor and blade than I do. He's on his way down to his winter fishing grounds, but stops by for a month or so, and is always a welcome hand. Aunt BJ is a great cook and is also a welcome treat for the visit.

Nov 2006. Well, I'm back. Sorry about not having made an entry lately, but haven't been traveling much. The new house build took (takes) up a lot of time. We did however have a chance to breakaway for a trip to East Texas for Thanksgiving with the extended family. Here are all of this year's players (except for Aunt Nancy, I didn't realize that she wasn't in the shot until I processed the photo-sorry). Anyway great time had by all with lots of food (aarrgghhh-too much - almost).See y'all down the road.