More Christmas Activity

Christmas is over and we are now on to the next adventure! The last few days have been great, but everyone is moving on today for the New Year. Kristy and Brian are headed home via Blowing Rock, NC -- one of their favorite destinations. Kirk flies home later today, and Chad and Jen are on the bus heading from Mexico City to Guatemala. (P.S. Just got email from Chad. He says, "The city is in full holiday spirit. The weather is spectacular.")
We had plenty of good Christmas celebration time; encouraged by Connie's extensive decorating and preparation. Here Jen and Kristy enjoy Connie's "little tree" in the dinning room.
We had plenty, plenty to eat. Consulting Chef Chad expertly carves the turkey for his Chief Chef, Mom. Chad is actually the gourmet cook in our family and he always brings a professional touch to the kitchen chores. It was good!!!We spent several hours on Christmas Day at our Positive Action office facility in Whitakers. Our ministry conducts seminars and youth activities and so we have an excellent game room that is equipped with a Wii set-up. Here Jen and Chad try out the virtual tennis courts.
The grand finale for the day was lighting sparklers on our deck (left over from the 4th of July) and that ceremony produced this interesting photo of Kristy and Kirk.

Warm Christmas

The Carlson family sends "warm" Christmas greetings from 60 degree North Carolina! Our gang arrived on the 23rd -- well, actually Kirk, Chad and Jen didn't get to our house until 3:30 a.m. on the 24th. Kirk had a difficult time getting out of Detroit and then his luggage did not make it to Raleigh with his flight. But after a good night sleep, we were all revived and thankful to be together again.
We started out with a Taco Salad lunch and moved on to a "Chad" project in the afternoon. Chad fabricated a custom bike rack for the back of our 5th Wheel. He did a great job!
Then our neighbor's son, Jett Bunn, came over at Connie's urging to show our kids his Green Bay Packer helmet and scrapbook. His dad, a native of Rocky Mount, who has been a life long Packer fan took him to Green Bay for a game this fall. Jett won the helmet as a door prize at a VIP reception at Lambeau Field.

Later we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Beef Stroganoff and all the other goodies.
Christmas morning we had our 2-hour gift opening ceremony. As always it was a great time, with some interesting gifts. Kirk got some ECU (his alma mater) gear, including a beautiful pictorial history of the university.
Fisherman Chad's prized gift was an Abu Garcia fishing reel (made in Sweden -- go figure) to support his Wisconsin hobby. Kristy has more pictures on her site Life's A Stage at http://www.tnwalker62.blogspot.com/.
This morning at 3:00 a.m., Chad and Jen left the house to catch a flight for Mexico City. From there they will take a 12 hour bus ride to Guatemala for a two week adventure. Oh, to be young! But, we leave this weekend for Sebring, Florida for two weeks in our 5th wheel.

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Merry Christmas from North Carolina

We want to extend a Christmas greeting from our home to you and your family. In the next few days our family will be arriving for a time of celebration and joy. We wished that we could have sent out a family photo on our Christmas card, but that was not possible prior to our gathering time at Christmas. However, in the coming week we will be able to take some pictures and post them on this site. We trust that you, and your family, will have a blessed time remembering the Savior's birth and fellowshipping together.

We have finished our fall convention travel for the 2008 season. This year we logged over 9,300 miles as we traveled through 19 states and Canada on three different trips. Our first trip took us to the Midwest, and we enjoyed the comfort of our new 5^th wheel trailer.

After a brief two weeks at home we headed out, without the trailer, to Toronto. On the way to Canada and after finishing our convention, we spent time in Niagara Falls. Years ago we spent a short time viewing the Falls during a visit in the rain. This year the weather was clear, although cool, and the view of the Falls was spectacular. We were able to see the Falls from both the US and Canadian vistas. It is truly a marvel of God’s creation.

From Niagara we headed to Kingsport, Tennessee to have a visit with a distribution company that we are endeavoring to work with in the homeschool market. From east Tennessee we headed to Dayton, Oho for another large Christian school convention. Then it was back home for less than a week before we hitched up the trailer to head for Dallas, Texas.

After the first two cold nights we ran into fairly nice weather. This was our third year traveling to Dallas and I had always wanted to visit the site of the John F. Kennedy assassination. But it wasn’t until late in our visit last year that I discovered that the location for that historic event was just a few blocks from our convention venue. This year we planned to slow down after the convention and visit the 6^th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. We highly recommend this very interesting museum.

The assassination shots were fired from the 6^th floor of what was known in 1963 as the Texas Book Depository. The museum today occupies the entire 6^th floor of that building. There are many photos on display that chronicle and explain the events leading up to, and surrounding, the life and death of President Kennedy. Probably the most fascinating aspect of the museum is that you can stand within a few feet of the window where Lee Harvey Oswald obviously propped his rifle to shoot the president. Also, you can look out the windows on the roadway at Dealey Plaza where the presidential motorcade passed the building.

From Dallas we drove back home at a little slower pace. This year we celebrated Thanksgiving dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We are glad to have this opportunity to serve the Lord and see the country.