Games And The Guys That Love Them

Last Christmas Joe was dying to get the boys a board game called Samurai Swords. It is no longer being made so you really just have to find a used one. Well, it did not happen last year, but he made sure that he got it this year. This was originally a game called Shogun, and it is somewhat similar to Risk.


The guys (Joe, Bubba, Butch, Wesley, and BJ) got together on Friday evening around 8pm and started playing between 9:30-10pm (after all the setting up and learning rules). I came home and put Otter to bed around 10:30ish. Would you believe that the guys played until almost 4am! I could not believe my Joe was able to function at that time of the morning!


To show how bad it was the guys all slept in to around 10:30-10:45am Saturday morning. If you know my two boys, then you know that they never sleep past 8am. What was more surprising is that they were ready to play again within a hour of waking.

Merry Christmas

I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas with your families.

Nadolig Llawen (Welsh)

Movie Night

Sunday night is our movie night at Church. We will be watching Prince Caspian if anyone wants to join us. Food, fellowship and a movie. What more could you want? I was reminded of this as I was listening to the Switchfoot song This Is Home today.

Favorite Christmas Songs

I thought I would share a few of my favorite Christmas songs.

Once in Royal David's City
What Child is This (Third Day's version)
White Christmas (Bing Crosby)

A favorite album is Third Day's Christmas Offerings.

Great Evening

Tonight we had a date night. We dropped off the kids and headed to dinner. We ate at a local Japanese restaurant. I was a little worried because the last time we were there they would fling rice clumps at you (you were suppose to catch them in your mouth). I had forgotten my bib at home! What to do...what to do? Well, we did not have any food flipped for us to catch in our mouths. Whew! What a relief!


After dinner we decided to head to downtown Knoxville to walk around. We parked on Gay Street and headed to Mast General Store. I love that place! We were looking around for gift ideas when I found something that was totally awesome. It was a deluxe lap harp (plucked psaltery). It looks like a lap sized hammer dulcimer. There were music sheets that you slide under the strings. It has the notes for a song that coordinate with the strings. Here is a link that I found online (link). After looking around a little longer ( in the camping section for Joe) we went towards Market Square. On our way we stopped at a quaint little placed called Coffee and Chocolate on Union Ave. We shared a turtle cheesecake and had hot chocolate and coffee.


To wrap up our evening out we stumbled upon a horse drawn carriage waiting by Market Square (on the Union Ave side). It was so much fun! Even with the chilly weather I have to say that this was a wonderful idea! For about 30 minutes or so we traveled around through downtown looking at the Christmas decorations and the wonderful architectural details of some of the historical structures. As we walked back towards where we had parked we stopped to see everyone having fun ice skating in the Market Square rink.
Tomorrow I have been told that we will wake up early to go to a turkey shoot (yes, this will be the third in a row for Joe!). We will see how this goes. Maybe it will be fun!

Our Christmas Tree

Our sad little tree seems only half dressed. I guess that is because it was only half decorated. As we were trying to decorate the tree today we learned that Otter would not respect the tree and the ornaments. Oh well! Last year we did not even put any ornaments on the tree, so I guess this is an improvement! ;) Of course the kids had tried to decorate the tree with stuffed animals first.

Fulmer's Last Game

Here are a few pictures from the
UT/ Kentucky game last Saturday.

Fulmer's last run through the Power T

Celebration after a touchdown

Fulmer as he was carried off
the field at Neyland Stadium

After Thanksgiving Hike

On Black Friday we went hiking in Greenbrier. We were on a mission to see the big poplar tree. The last time Joe and I tried this hike we did not make it all the way before we had to turn around. This time we made it. It was a huge tree, too! Here are a couple of pictures. The first is from the trunk of the tree. I laid down on the ground to get that shot. The second is the guys trying to see how many it took to go around, fingertip to fingertip. It was five of them.