About That Are Those Sleigh Bells Still Ringing (December 8-14)

Dear Family and Friends,

Roger, Bear and I are now into week #4 at Grapevine Lake in Texas. This week was lots of fun beginning with a race for Roger while I took care of the grandchildren. Without a doubt, I had more fun. Abby (7) and Jackson (4) arrived on Saturday afternoon. Our daughter-in-law, Suzanne, picked Roger up and returned to Dallas because Suzanne, Roger and Rob were planning on running the Dallas Marathon (Suzanne) and Half Marathon (Roger and Rob) on Sunday morning. More about the race later.

 Abby loves anything to do with arts and crafts.

 Jackson lives in the Star Wars universe. Here, Darth Vader is battling Luke Skywalker.

 Bear loves having the children in the Tour.

Lots of puppy kisses.

 Jackson and Abby love the playground at the park where we are staying.

 Big sisters come in handy!

Sunday night we headed into downtown Grapevine where we participated in the Christmas festivities. The entire Main Street is devoted to the holidays.

 Jackson loved the mechanical elves.

 Abby and Jackson are fascinated with a display about Santa waking up for his Christmas Eve trip.

 Jackson is "rocking" the singing Christmas tree.

 Please do not touch baby Jesus, Jackson!!!

 Bronze sculptures are located throughout the town.

Sunday morning was a trip to the Gaylord Texan, a hotel and convention center that houses a huge ice display for the Christmas holidays. A team of 25 ice sculptures spend several weeks creating a themed collection of giant ice sculptures. This year it was about the Speilberg movie, Madagascar. I knew nothing about the movie, but Abby and Jackson did.

 Walking through the atrium to get to the ice show.

 This nutcracker points the way to the Ice Show.

Before going into the ice area, we don heavy outerwear. The ice sculptures are in a below freezing environment.

 Santa with Abby and Jackson. Food coloring is used to define the colors in the ice sculptures.

 Abby loved sliding down the five shoots completely made of ice.

After leaving the ice arena, we quickly returned our outerwear and went back to the atrium where we took a few more shots.

After an amazing morning, it was back to the Tour for lunch. What a fun morning with my grandchildren!

Meanwhile, in Dallas:

Roger had been preparing to run the half marathon for 6 months. To have the opportunity to run with our son Rob, was a dream come true. After carbo loading on Saturday night, Roger and Rob started the Half-Marathon at 8 o'clock. Their time was 1:57. Roger was 13th in the 60 - 64 age group.

After the race

The rest of the week flew by in a hurry! We had lots of fun with family and friends. Nancy (a friend from elementary) and Sally (a friend from middle school) met me in downtown Ft. Worth for a quick bite and a lot of catching up. We were so busy talking that I forgot to get a picture. They both look great and it was a thrill to have the opportunity to see them.

Jackson spent Friday night with us so be prepared for more family pics next week. Thank you for checking in with us.