December fun!

Although we had several gatherings with friends and family this month, I've decided to post about the last one first. I'll do the others later. On Saturday, 12/30, we had our annual gathering with several of our life-long friends. We get together with the same group each year and it's always one of the highlights of the holiday time. This year about 20 people were there.

This year we met at the Mozingo's. One of our favorite spots, since it feels like we're getting out of town even though it's just extremely west Phoenix, or officially Waddell, AZ. As you can see from the pics, it's like being in another world with a gorgeous view of the White Tank mountains in the distance. You'll also notice that it's now Autumn in Phoenix. Interesting that we don't skip the fall, we just delay it by a month or so to confuse everyone.

We all got there by mid-afternoon carrying lots of food and drink to share together. We found out that Rand was up at 3:30 a.m. to start smoking the meat! Now that's a committed chef and it was well worth it for us! That's another reason why we love going to Rand & Michelle's. They LOVE to cook and we LOVE to eat their creations. Michelle made a delicious seafood bisque (see photo above) to get us started. I definitely need to get the recipe. It was awesome!


Along with that we had tons of other food to keep us all happy until late into the evening. There is just too much to write about and too many pics to post here so I've posted them to this site if you want to see more.

Around 5:00 Randy started the big bonfire so it would be warm and toasty by the time the sun went down. You'll notice that Michelle also enjoyed poking around a bit in the fire. By the time it was dark it was perfect, even on such a chilly night! It was probably in the 40's by the time we left.

It always such a joy to see how all of our kids interact and have a great time together. They've pretty much known each other since they were born and I love to see how their relationships are evolving into close friendships as they grow up. Kevin and Shawn have a very similar sense of humor and are always laughing about some random thing. On Saturday Miranda & Nicole joined in with Kevin and Shawn and just sang their hearts out. They sang everything from Oldies to Christmas carols to Don Henley with some of the most "surprising" harmonies you've ever heard! I think they had a blast and even the older folks joined in for a while!

I also got to try out the new remote control for my camera. As you'll see from the 2 pics below, the remote eliminates the vibration that happens when you press the button on the camera to take the picture. Now there are two cool things about using the remote. 1. My night shots without flash are much clearer. 2. I get to be in the picture! (Open up the one of all of us around the fire. I'm on the far side of the circle. ) Cool huh?

Well thanks for staying with me through this long post.

I hope you have an awesome 2007, filled with the love of friends and family!