Happy New Year to All

Louise and I are about to go out to Barclay and Kristina's annual New Year's Eve Party. Since there are supposed to be high winds (25-35 mph) and low temperatures due to wind chill factor, it is good that we don't have far to walk. Let's hope that 2009 brings a brighter year than 2008---but a really wonderful thing happened in 2008 (let's not discuss politics!). Malcolm

Random Topics

Aha! Now I understand about the talk of a move. We really want to come visit! What will you do without your pool, though???

It is true about last night. I had to wait outside (20 degrees) for an hour waiting for AAA to jump Thaddeus's car. He had set out to pick me up and trade places with me, but my car (which he was driving) dies about a third of a mile from the house. Long story - But I think it is a goner. So the three boys had to walk home - poor Oliver in his full leg brace and big boot thing! So we are down to one car for now....

We four have spent the day getting ready for our annual New Year's Eve party. The snow is incredible!

Not much more to report right now.... Happy New Year to all!

How about that picture???

L.

A humble request...

Since we are all "the choir" anyway, the recipients of this wonderful present of the Brown family blog request that there not be political postings. Stick to regular e-mail for that. (and happy countdown to January 20th in any event. ) Happy New Year's Eve to all - enjoy your plans or lack thereof. Snow here -- fortunately, we only have to walk down the street for New Year's Eve festivities. Louise

Obama seeks questions

Try

http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions_20081217_private_url

and then click on "Foreign Policy".

Charlie

Housekeepinng tip

This from Lucia (though originally from Pat Thompson): iron napkins no more. Don't put them in the drier, but stack them ubfolded as they come out of the washing machine. They will eventually dry and not need ironing. Works for my ironable hand towels too. (Didn't know I ever ironed, didja?) Louise

Colo. confusion

Lucia I see why you were confused by Charlie's statement. We have not moved to CO -- at least not yet. Charlie's statement about moving to CO just indicates our state of mind not the facts, but we ARE seriously considering moving to C O (before the next big hurricane, we hope). We were hoping that the real estate market in our Piney Point neighborhood is still as buoyant as is was just before we came up here in Nov. while the real estate market in the Denver area is way down. It would allow us to live near the Horsts and be in a house that would suit us while not requiring as much upkeep as our Houston house with the pool and acre of land. We found a house nearby (1.5 mi. by road, much less on a bicycle path) The house is about to go into foreclosure which means someone may get it for a really good price but closing the deal could be very uncertain because we think we have to sell our present house first. The house is on a cul-de-sac and has a beautiful view of the frontal range of the Rockies which is rare for a house in its price range. It may require a lot of luck in timing.

I just took time out for a phone call from a college classmate who lives in Denver so we have gotten together every year we have been here. By coincidence she lived in Houston 36 years ago and we saw each other a few times before she and her family moved.

Oops, it it supper time.
More later.
Love, Ann

wind

It was windy here today, but nothing like that!!!

UC - I am curious about what you mean when you say "now that you have moved to Colorado" and Carla told me the same thing. Is it official? Did I miss something?? I am clearly out of the loop as I did not know about Karen's surgery - and still have not had a chance to talk to her!

Well, I am off to meet Ruairi at South Station. C &R were at our house over night on Sunday night, then of course two packages arrived from Ruairi's mom on Monday afternoon! I am the official delivery person.

I want to try to post another picture too - y'all are putting us to shame!

The wind explained

The great wind last night was apparently the Chinook phenomenon. It happens when west winds drop from passing over Rockies and heat up (adiabatically--that is on their own from the drop in elevation) and whoosh over the eastern plateau. Gusts to 85 mph were recorded last night. They took the plastic picnic table top and smashed it and blew a lot of cedar shaving ground cover to GOK. It is still in the 50's today but calmer.

Probably more than you really wanted to know. Love, Charlie

The view from our room

The view from our room the day the rock band went on stage. Go to Homsy Flicker link to see this group of pictures. We had 70-80 mile an hour winds from the Northwest all last night and the temperature was in the 50's. Absolutely strange. And we thought moving here would mean the end of hurricane fears!! Love the blog!!!

Charlie

Misc.

The fur is faux. The scarf is better on the outside. The blog says Charlie is 76 and Malcolm is 1965. What's confusing? Malcolm is 1889 years older than Charlie. I knew Karen and David were married in 1994. What I evidently didn't know is that it's 2008 - at least for a couple of days more. I think it's wonderful that E and B got a picture of the gator that done set down its tail. We didn't have a reading of the Cajum Night Before Christmas this year, so the picture helped.Louise

Okay, you fancy people who color your font (ie: my parents !!!??? @(*^#&#%^), I'll see your high tech selves and raise you a shade.

This is fun.  I love hearing about people who are all over the place (ie: Louisiana, Ireland, Wayland and of course, Sharon).  It's also fun to hear how my parents are doing because life is too busy for us to check in every day at the home here in Colorado.

I am at work today, and just as it felt on the 23rd, it does not feel good today as well.  Also, I've had another no show...  grrrr...  I am not very busy (with patients) these days and it aggravates me.  I end up spending time wandering from bank websites to youtube to facebook to email and back again.  Now I've got mormoshome as well to distract me.  I still have two phone calls to make and about two hours of signing up to be on insurance plans via a specific database to do.  Also, I have to drive 30 minutes into Denver soon to see my supervisor for 45 minutes and then drive back (for 30 minutes).  At any rate, it was great to see pictures of some of you. (I'm not sure how I'm related to the alligator, but oh well.)

We got Rock Band (the wii game) for Christmas, so here are a couple of photos of my band (my sister-in-law on drums and brother-in-law on lead guitar).  Love, Karen

Answer to One Question

The other two are Phil and Mallory. I will let Mom deal with her coat!

Questions

In the pic of the five walking who are the other two people besides Carla, Ruari and Louise?
Also Louise, is that real or faux fur you are wearing?

Dec. 29

Yes, Christmas is over. You are back at work and we are figuring out what will keep the kids amused and occupied while they are on school vacation. Karen and David are back at work and will be off on New Year's weekend. David's sister Katie drove down from Big Sky, Montana with Anna (one month older than Isabel) and Sam (4 or 5, the youngest of the Horst clan). Her husband is literally minding the store -- a sports equipment store in the height of ski season. Scott and Michelle's two girls make it a lively sextet of cousins here.

On Sunday evening we brought out the Bananagrams. Katie took to the game immediately and won the first four games. then we had a shift of players (keeping it to four players at a time). Nick learned to play and won his second game. We all had great fun with it --with much enthusiasm. You would have loved it.

It has been fun to get your blogs and the photo of Carla and Ruari.
Love to you all,
Ann

Malcolm explained:

"The "logo" for the Brown Family Blog is a wood cut done by Ruairi, apparently some time ago, somehow based upon a view of an ancient Irish wall (as in a house I believe)." Lovely art!! Louise, we had a good laugh at your postings but I don't understand the references to ages of Mal and me. K&D's anniversary is their 14th. We celebrated the 66 years together last night at Le Central, "an affordable French restaurant" with moules, goose, and boeuf bourguignon. We continue to have sun and relatively balmy (40's) weather here but your forecast is abysmal. Love and hugs to all, Charlie

Good morning all. I am back here at the office and not very happy about it. We had such nice Christmas - both in Wayland and in Sharon. Unfortunately for you, I have no idea how to do photos except the ones that are already on the home computer - and that I learned on Christmas Eve. I wonder if I could still remember. Not much else to report except that I had a bad dream at 5:00 and have been up ever since. Not a nice way to re-enter life - having lost the benefit of catching up on sleep. Zzzzz.....

Time

not corrected after all. L.

Happy Anniversary!

There has been lots of talk about weddings -- but let us not forget weddings past. Happy Anniversary to the Homsys and the Horsts - tomorrow, December 29th. I think we're talking 52 and 15 years respectively. As the only person except Ann and Charlie who was present at both, I can testify to snow, but not a lot, on both occasions. Champagne at both. Plaid glasses at only one.

The population at 62 Upper Main street has shrunk from 8 to 2, and I have no one with whom to play Bananagrams. Also, I note on the list of bloggers, that Charlie is 68 and Malcolm is 1965. I always thought Charlie was older. Who knew? Thanks, Ruairi, for correcting the time on this thing. Louise

Christmas 08

I'm finally here!

Isn't this a wonderful present! Thank you, Carla and Ruairi. We had Christmas all over again today with the Thompsons today. We mostly ate, played bananagrams and napped - some at the same time; some staggered. Now --- for some eggnog.

Hi,

I am curious about the Brown family blog logo? What is it?
Am I too dense to decode it?

Love Charlie

Hat lady

That lady is my adored sister-in-law!

Charlie

The Lady in the Red Hat

This is Louise, very proud of her new Red Hat, purchased for attending yet another wedding. That one was in England nearly two years ago.

This is an absolutely wonderful Christmas present to all of us. Many thanks to Ruairi and all his skills, and to Carla for finding him on that now famous bus and bringing him to us. Malcolm

One of Santa's gators resting after a hard night of work

Christmas Greetings from Wayland!

The Thompson contingent has finished breakfast and stockings and are now impatiently waiting for the stragglers to get ready to come to the tree. I got a full five hours of sleep and Thaddeus is functioning (?) on just over three. This parent business is crazy! Felix reported that he does not believe in Santa ...... and that he is sure that Santa does not mind!

This blog thing is fun!

Lucia

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas round the globe from Connecticut, to Louisiana, to Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, and across the pond. We hope this blog makes the world feel a little smaller (in a good way), be it 70 degrees outside your window, or under a foot of snow. Love to everyone, and merry Christmas to ya'll till we saw you some mo:)

Balmy Christmas!

It's pushing 70 very Chistmasy degrees down here. We'll be heading out to Barataria today to hang out with the alligators, and then back to the castle to try our hand at preparing Christmas dinner, replete with roast beast. Wish we could be up there with you in the cold, but we'll see you all very soon at the beach.

Merry Christmas!
love, E&B

Merry Christmas to Mom and Dad!!!

It is half and hour until Christmas and it is so strange not to be with you. I really miss you, but am using the skills I picked up from you (um.., I mean Mom) for putting together meal after meal after meal. So far so good. Breakfast is made. I just have to set the coffee and set the table. Oh, and then wrap! Now I am glad that O&F stayed up until 10:00; maybe they will sleep past 7:00.

See you very soon.... Look how Oliver has grown!

LUCIA

Merry Christmas from Ann!!!!!!! Thanks for setting up this internet party!!!

Love, Ann

From Ann and Charlie

Hi Y'all,

We wanted to share a few pics with you. The one above at the left was presented by Isabel at Grandparents Day at her school. The real folk are also shown but her depiction is is right on.

We hope all were well treated by the spirit of Christmas.

We are hoping to see everyone at Lakeville next summer. By that time we should be living up here at Arvada. With luck we'll be living in a home with great views of the Rocky Mountains and room for many guests.

Our love to all and Happy New Year!!!!

Looking forward to the reunion at Seaside Florida!!!!

Ann and Charlie

Nolaig shona duit (irish for happy christmas all)

Christmas greetings to the whole extended Brown family from all the Collinses
Great to see those photos of Nick and Isabel. We are in full Christmas mode here in Boston. There is about a foot of snow outside which means that my first Christmas outside Ireland will be my first white Christmas! Carla is working late tonight and then we hope to head to Sharon early tomorrow. I will post up a couple of pics of Christmas in Sharon on St.Stephens day.
As for my family. Gavin, his wife and their bump are fling from Norway to Ireland to spend Christmas with my parents. My younger brother Patrick is heading to his Fiances family home in the mountains of County Cork and my baby sis Helen will be Bar b q ing on Bondi beach in Sydney, Australia. Hopefully I get to talk to them all at one stage or another.
On the Blog, If anyone has any ideas, wants any links posted on the permanent right hand side column or wants a yourname@mormoshome.com email address (this email address will give you access to the site email, calendar and planner) just drop myself or Carla a Quick line.
Hope you all have a great CHristmas and look forward to keeping up to date with what you're all up to!
Heres an online version of a christmas card Myself and Carla put together.
Take care
x C&R

Hi all, 

I just wanted to write and say this is a great idea.  I have joined Facebook after seeing old friends at my 25th highschool reunion and capitulating to apparently never-ending peer pressure.  Actually, I am really enjoying following along with my community on Facebook and I'm thinking that this blog could be a Facebook for my family!!!  I'll attach some recent photos of our household, if I can.  I hope we all can be together some Christmas in the future.

And, to my dear Aunt Louise, thank you for calling me after hearing about my knee surgery.  I really appreciated your call.  To those who don't know, I unexpectedly had arthroscopic knee surgery last Thursday.  David,  Nick, Isabel and my parents have all been great at catering to my needs.  It's been especially nice to have my mom bringing me food:)

Love,

Karen

We join

Merry Christmas from Ann and Charlie. Hope the blizzard was not overwhelming. Thanks for your invitation to join in this venture.

Uncle Charlie

Merry Christmas to All

Shh....

Hello everybody,
This blog is our present to mama and papa Brown for Christmas 2008. Please feel free to post links, your thoughts, photos, video etc. The more on here, the better. In order to contribute to the blog, you will need an account. Please respond to the email to be an author on the site. Merry Christmas, and thanks
love,
C and R