Christmas Day

We had such a great time with our family on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, Chuk woke me up early wanting me to check out my stocking. Here we are grandparents and wanting to surprise each other still! I received a very special gift from him and will show each of you when I see you next!

Bryan and Claire, you should have seen all the guys working to make your gift spin. Ernest finally got it to whistle and wow, it was fun to see them go! Sandra and Ernest, Evy, Christian, and Grandma Shui were all here ;ast night, as well as Jeannie, Charlie, Jocelyn, Reagan, and Ivy. We all ate too much but enjoyed every minute together. Today we all just rested up at home. We spent the afternoon and evening at Sandra's watching movies, cracking jokes, and playing games.

Here are pictures of a pop-up book that Charlie and Jeannie gave me. It is so intricate and beautiful...these pictures do not give the pages justice but I so love this book!

Christmas Eve

Our Nativity reading with the grandkids.

Here is the drawing I gave Jeannie for Christmas. It is titled "A Mother's Love."

It's Beginning to Look alot Like.....

Christmas! Everywhere we go...in our house, there are christmas trees; little ones, big ones,, and snowmen, mixed among all our candles and Nativity scenes. We really love Christmas time! The sights, the smells and the music! We use our Christmas drinking glasses all year long to remind us that the gift of Christmas, His Son, is with us all year long!

We are drinking hot chocolate every night and watching all the old Christmas movies, crying with Bob Cratchet and Tiny Tim, watching Clarence earn his wings, and remembering that in spite of all our challenges, we too have a wonderful life........all this nostalgia will lead us to Christmas Eve where we will gather with our family to share a family meal and then share in a spiritual feast; dressing up the grandkids and each other to present a Christmas pageant that will rival anything at Jones Hall, sharing our feelings about Christ and each other, and then choosing the gift we will give Him this coming year, privately, individually...........it is a moment that centers us on our Savior and our gratitude for Him.

Christmas day will find us all relaxing and enjoying the company of friends and family and silently pondering the great blessings that are ours. And in spite of all that swirls around us in the world, we are reminded that He is in charge, guiding us, loving us, keeping us, succoring us. Christmas has become for us a day of rejoicing and gratitude for the life and the light that He has given us.
Above all things this year we desire all our friends and family to have peace in their hearts! Merry Christmas and God Bless Us Everyone!!!!

It's Snowing!

You cannot believe how excited people are around here tonight! Sandra and I took off for Church with the Evy and Christian to practice for an upcoming concert (yes, we are playing violin and flute for a Christmas concert), and everyone we talked to is just ecstatic about the snow coming down.












Christian was so excited that he started singing Jingle Bells in the car. I hurried home just to get a few pictures because, well, this is Texas, and by morning it may be gone.

Yep, we all needed something to get that twinkle back in our eyes. It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. Snow, hot chocolate, smells of cookies, the warmth of good friends and family. And my favorite.............

Christmas music and feelings of good will toward everyone! We so need more of this in our world!

Here You Go Cathy!

You wanted a look at our new dining set so here it is! This table has a drop down leaf that when pulled up gives us room for 6. Our old antique draftsman table is now our art project table in the family room. Finally tall chairs and tables for all us tall folks!

Designing Logos

Here are pictures of logos I created in my Design Communications class. We are going to try to register two of them.

I bet you knew the one below is our favorite!

Remnants from November

Here are some of my drawings from the past two weeks.

This 18 x 24 drawing was done in charcoal on the last day of class, my first time to draw an animal. This is a small dog (showing some of it's wolf ancestry) behind a chain link fence.


Okay, so this 18x 24 piece is one I did at home. It is very emotionally symbolic of my Christmas day when we lost our little granddaughter Natalie a few short years ago. Done is Charcoal and Pastel.


This charcoal and pastel 9 x 12 drawing is called "Miracles." On the day I drew this a meteorite hit Canada and I was attending the Temple and pondering on the miracles that are all around us that sometimes we miss.

This 9 x 12 drawing is titled "Bacon" and is a quick piece I drew in class in response to a website our professor showed us. Francis Bacon is an artist that distorts faces, etc. I used collage on this one with a piece of phone book and circled the name Bacon. That is me, looking up to the screen with a faceless profile and realizing that the face on the screen is me and the struggle I have had changing to understand myself as an artist.

So here is a self portrait (9x12) from my 15 day drawing journal done in charcoal, collage, and pastel.


This is another 9 x 12 drawing from my 15 day drawing journal entitled, "The Morning Stars Sang Together." I had read an article about the discovery of a new galaxy that is spinning out new stars at a phenominal rate. The galaxy itself is red, with tiny points of light. I collaged the song "Joseph, Guard Him," and then placed a bright star above the galaxy. Very symbolic to me!

This 18 x 24 drawing was done in class and is another landscape in charcoal and pastel.

Okay, so this is me at the Texas Art Alliance Center standing in front of the two drawings that were accepted in the Winter Open Exhibit. They are titled, "Peak," and "Tuesday."