After waiting a little over 2 years, the much anticipated puppies have arrived. (The wait was due to several circumstances beyond my control.) Belle gave birth to pure bred Yellow Labradors, 7 females and 3 males. Delivery started around 3am December 22 (3 hours after Dad's birthday), and continued to around Noon that day. Dad had found a breeder back in the Fall of 2004. This puppy is a gift from Mom and Dad and I have been given first pick of females from the litter. After 3 weeks, Mom and I were able to go visit the puppies this past Sunday and we just fell in love with them! I will be able to choose my puppy in about 2 more weeks and bring here home in about 4 weeks. I have had her name chosen for 5 years, Sage. Her official name for papers has yet to be decided but will be something like Sage Along The Yellowstone. I chose Sage because of my Sage brand of fly rod and that I also love the smell of Sage Brush. Sage Along The Yellowstone will probably fit since I currently live a stones throw from the Yellowstone River. (I hope I don't have to move! haha) Stay tuned for more puppy pics!
After working Christmas weekend, I was able to be off for 12 days and spent a week in Petosky, MI where I met up with my Mom at my brother's. As a result of having 2 delays in Minneapolis Wednesday Dec 27, not weather related, I missed my connecting flight in Detroit and had to stay the night in a hotel. Of course NWA paid for the room and gave my a very generous $7 food voucher. (You can't even buy a pack of peanuts in the hotel restaurant for that amount!) As hard as it is to believe, NWA also gave no apology. So I flew up to Petosky the next morning. My sister had to leave at Noon so instead of a morning together we had our 2 hour Christmas of exchanging gifts. It was a fun week in any case. The above picture is of my Mom, brother and his wife, my sister, niece and 3 nephews.
My brother, Steve, received a golf ball/tee water globe. The oject is to get the ball to sit on the globe. Well, once I got it on there, my brother had to also. That started another brother rivalry for a week. By the time I left, Steve put the ball on the tell 90 times and I got it on 85 times. There were a few nights I would not go to bed until I caught up and tied with him. Current, the game is on hold as I don't have one for myself at home right now.
I took my niece Madison skiing at Nub's Nob in Petosky. Usually my brother has 2 to 3 feet of snow on the ground at his house but this year there was none. So the snow above was man-made but still fun.
My co-worker and friend Dan took this picture with his cell phone. We worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Eve together. We had a fun time as we tracked Santas journey around the globe and the country using NORAD's tracking system. We also ate very well as Dan brought Red Robin dinners for Saturday and brought in taco fixings for Sunday, and left over hams and side dishes for Christmas dinner. 
A week ago, Mom and I went to Josh and Tanya's for a Holiday Dinner. It was a good visit as we don't get the chance to get together as much as we would like. After dinner and a tour of the house, we had a group picture taken on the davenport. (That is a midwest term meaning "couch" for all of you who are saying "What the heck is a davenport?") As you can see, we had about two too many on the couch! We are sqeezed in there and I look 6'0, while Josh looks like a little kid! haha Thanks guys for a fun evening!
Here is a photo of my Christmas tree in my living room taken from above in my kitchen. I put 100 white lights and about 300 colored lights on it! Many have requested pictures of my house. With my old computer, downloading my digital cam pictures was a huge process and took forever IF it even worked. Now with my new computer I bought last Christmas, I have found this process very easy.
Here is another pic...this one of my kitchen area and balcony that overlooks the living room.
