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Halfway


As in, we are halfway through Tony being in Korea, away from us. He took two weeks and one long flight to spend Christmas with us. We awoke at 3:30 yesterday morning to get him to the airport. He kissed each of the kids good-bye and we ventured out in the 5 degree pre-dawn chill. Immediately I noticed that the grass and trees were sparkling like I have never encountered before. It was a wonderland of glittering ice everywhere the headlights shone.

Christmas was lovely and crazy and cozy, which is how it should be. We then settled into days of playing new games and enjoying our time with Tony. Jack's birthday is in a few days and he requested that we go to a railroad museum and antique shopping with his dad as an early gift. My parents joined us for lunch and antiquing, skipping the museum. The museum is on the ETSU campus, and we chose to explore Jonesborough for the antique hunting.

I have lots of organizing and cleaning to do, which I let slide during Tony's visit, though today is another of those gray, dreary, excessively cold days which has sapped my energy and motivation for all things domestic.

I do have a chicken roasting in the oven for dinner, the first meat in the house in almost two weeks. Tony has continued on his vegan adventure, losing almost 30 pounds on the way! I have been channeling my creativity into making meals that will both please the kids and meet his dietary restrictions. I found a great cookbook at the library, "The Oh She Glows Cookbook" by Angela Liddon. Everything we have tried thus far has been delicious! My goal is to have more vegan meals than not each week, slowly acclimating the kids to a new way of eating.

Lastly, I bought Lightroom 6 software for the computer and tried it out for the first time today. I still am trying to understand it, but it may be the only option for the time being. My Ipad died right before Christmas. I am waiting on a new battery to be shipped to see if that will save my Ipad. If that does not work, I am taking it as a message from God that I was spending entirely too much time with that device (which I already knew). The Lightroom apps for the computer require more than our computer has, so the software option is all I have at this time. Wish me luck!




Christmas morning. The cat seems less than enthused to be part of the photo.
 
I had bought only one "power popper". Tony informed me that this would never do. A second one was purchased for battles.
 


The battle begins.



This face. I see it all the time. There is much silliness in this boy of mine.


 

Look closely. You can see his face in the top lens.

G scale model train set

Watching the trains


There was a scavenger hunt for the kids, so he needed a bird's eye view!

Someone is not a fan of model trains.
In historic Jonesborough Tennessee

in the antique store

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