Mom thought Mike needed an apron so he would not get his shirt dirty! I am sure he was thrilled.
Mike probably realizing that everyone is taking pictures and then he realizes that they will be posted on facebook!
Amie made her first cheesecake… it was awesome!
Amie cutting her first piece!
mmmm.. it was so good!
More desserts!
Amie my niece, seemed like yesterday when she was a baby… she is turning 16 in June.
Clayton came over to my sister’s to enjoy some Easter dinner.
Emily my cousin and my worst nightmare (inside joke). She is going to Ohio State for Biomedical Engineering.
Emily’s new tattoo!
Sarah my niece, she loves it when I take her picture.
These are some pictures from Christmas eve from my sister’s house.
Outside shot of my sister’s house
Another house in the neighborhood.
Pics of the bar
The theater room
New Years this year was fun. Here are the pictures from the night… enjoy!
Meet Claudia… she is Clayton’s cousin and she is from Germany. She was in town for a family wedding. Jen loved her because she brought her favorite kind of wine.
Brooke is going to love me for this!
Bill and his lady friend (aka Edith). Her name is Mary. Clayton made her fit right in to the group by farting on her… the best thing was is she called him out on the fact that he farted on her… classic!
Not really sure what is going on here…
Jen boozin it up
Random
Clayton trying to play guitar and sing. Songs that were visited this night… the doobie song, nudie bar, and a brand new song that Clayton made up that night. That is all I will say about that.
J Biz… the freshest gangsta around.
I always bring fireworks on New Years. This year I brought 4 artillery shells but no tube. The tube is essential to being able to light these dudes off. So since we did not have one… we did what every American would do in a dire situation and crafted one. **I don’t recommend doing this, it is not the safest thing to do, but it worked rather well… kinda**
Before
Getting ready to light the first shell… and getting ready to run like hell to safety.
The aftermath… we were able to light off 3 out of the tube. It only went about 15 feet in the air. The last shell I just blew up on the ground.I think we successfully lighted 15 bottle rockets at once… a feat accomplished by only the best.
Meet Josh Emerson. This is not from New Years, this was my partner in blowing up stuff. He also supplied the pictures for this blog post.
Christmas Day is crazy for us. We only get a 3 hour break during the day but even though it was busy it was awesome. I managed to take some pics of course. Enjoy!
Amie and Emily, they are cousins and they both just obtained some boyfriends. Not sure how I feel about that….. haha just kidding.
That is Chrissie my sister on the left, Amie my niece in the middle and my mom. Amie was not expecting that smooch!
Sarah my niece being smashed.
Christmas village
Emily, Amie and Sarah
Emily, Amie, and Sarah being goofy… they are so good at it!
The traditional thumbs up!
I did put that there… and of course I got that wonderful look for taking this picture.
Debbie makes the best the cookies in the world… no really she does!
Amie and one of her wonderful looks… I have so many of these to blackmail her with… its great!
Amie and me… she loves her Uncle so much!
Emily and me
Whew… that was the last picture… I wanted to post more but I restrained myself from doing so. I will be posting the links to the full Christmas albums when they are uploaded. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and was able to spend it with some people you love.
I went to my sister’s house tonight for dinner and I am staying the night. It was nice to be here spending time with family. Dinner was awesome and I helped with the Santa Clause duties.
I am sitting in a most wonderfully comfortable theater chair writing this blog post. Enjoy the pics!
This was my job as Santa… I was happy to help!
My sister’s tree… it is huge… 12 feet to be exact.
The 2nd Christmas tree…
Used my fisheye lens on this picture.
I went a little crazy taking pictures tonight!
I wish there could have been fire going but it isn’t working right.
I love the way my sister decorates her Christmas trees.
but wait there is one more… this is basically the same as one of the pics above but this was after Santa visited.
Sarah got a Wii… I am jealous… I should sneak up there and hide it somewhere… just kidding Sarah I would never do that….??? 
Today I was Santa at the daycare. Its funny how kids love Santa… but at the same time they are completely terrified. A number of kids immediately started crying and would not get anywhere near me.
This girl was one of those kids… she loved Santa from a good distance but would start crying when I moved towards her. She eventually warmed up to me and gave me a hug at the end of my rounds.
Santa and Mrs. Clause! Well ok she is not Mrs. Clause but that is Miss Lori the Cook.
Tracy… she is going to love me for posting this.
Santa’s little helper
this kid was so cute!
Santa checking up on Abby
If you want to look at the rest of the pictures from today… YLA Santa Visit <— click here
The word going around town is that you have a holiday movie ritual… is this true?
Yes this is true! I am not sure what day I will be able to do it this year but it begins with Home Alone, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, a revisit to some of the classics, and The Polar Express.
Are you going to be baking/cooking this Christmas season?
Yes! I plan on making 3 or 4 different types of cookies starting this weekend. I have been studying up at Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated. There are some free recipes on Americas Test Kitchen but Cooks Illustrated requires a membership.
Here is what I plan on baking this weekend:
I also plan on making this beer cheese/pretzel recipe.
Are you planning on going back to school?
Yes! I start school on January 20 at Cincinnati Christian University. I went there right out of high school and I have 3 years under my belt. I am going back to finish that out. I wasn’t planning on going back there but they part of the consortium with different colleges around the area. They just started offering their Information Technologies program. I only have 8 classes left at CCU and the rest will be at Cincinnati State. I am excited and nervous at the same time!
Are you a Mac or PC guy?
Its funny you ask that…I just bought a Macbook Pro <— click here to read the blog post about the day it arrived! I love my Mac. I will never be without a PC because of the field I am in but I am not forced to boot up my PC everyday and wait 10 minutes for it to be ready… and that is on a quad-core. Crazy I know!
Well that is all for now… go eat some cookies, drink some awesome tea, and watch a Christmas movie. Have fun!
Meet Ryan, he is an avid blogger, pastor, cook, photographer husband, father and friend. I met Ryan when Motion (our church) had come to end. The Motion group was deciding where to go and we met with him and the staff from the vineyard and we decided that is where we were going to plug in.
I got up with Ryan this week to do a little Q & A. I won’t make you wait any longer…here it is.
Me: What are you doing to make a difference this holiday season?
Ryan: Well, for one thing, we are trying not to be wrapped up in the
consumer tornado that tells us we have to buy a ton of stuff for
Christmas. We are purchasing more “consumable” gifts for people and
also using our money to meet some basic needs people have. My wife and
I are in life groups and each of our respective groups have been doing
projects to let people know they are loved by God. My wife’s group
adopted a family and raised money to buy them Christmas gifts when we
knew they couldn’t do so on their own…they also made homemade
ornaments to give out to random people. Our men’s group made up some
massive batches of Cinnamon rolls and we’ve been giving them away to
unsuspecting people to let them know we were thinking of them.
Any little thing we are able to do is a worthwhile venture and the
holidays are simply a helpful time to be generous. Allison and I ate
at Steak and Shake yesterday and left a $25 tip for a $15 dollar meal.
We wrote a note to our waitress that read, “Merry Christmas! Know that
God loves you and that you are His princess.”
Me: What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
Ryan: As far as a favorite Christmas tradition goes, I really love what we
do at our church. We’ll be handing out hundreds of dozens of Krispy
Kreme donuts after our Christmas Eve service. We’ll go to bars and all
kinds of places that are open for business on Christmas Eve and give
away a tasty treat. It’s fun and it helps us not be so inward during
the mad rush of everything.
Me: From reading your blog, I see you like to cook what is your favorite recipe and dessert?
Ryan: My favorite recipe would have to be rocking out a whole beef
tenderloin. There is simply nothing like a high-quality steak with
some Gorgonzola melted on top, sauteed mushrooms and roasted potatoes.
My favorite desert would probably be a good cookie, still warm from
the oven.
Me: You seem to be will respected among the blogging community. How did you get to this point?
Ryan: I’m not exactly sure why people stick around to read my blog, but I do
know that I work hard to make it a good blog. One of the top mistakes
that people make when creating a blog is that they assume people will
read it. You’ve got to do things to make people read it. I got people
reading my blog by reading other blogs and commenting on them. When
someone had a question that no one else was answering, I took the time
to answer it. I also had to get over the fact that I wasn’t someone
else. I kept trying to make my blog into all the things that I liked
about other people’s blogs and finally it began working for me when I
was just able to be myself. I got several big pushes for people to
read my blog by putting myself out there. I’ve been known to write
blog posts for other blogs and email them to the author asking if they
might be willing to post it as a guest post…and many times they did
just that. What’s the worst that can happen?
Me: What is one thing you are looking forward to do the most this Christmas?
Ryan: I can’t wait to get all the fat cash and loot this Christmas. Nah, not
really…I’m just excited to spend some down time with my family and
slow down for a few days. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks!
If you want to find out more about Ryan head on over to thisisreverb.com to read his blog.
