Winter 2008-09

Winter means Christmas, the most Helen anticipated day of the year. Here we see Helen with her Christmas "Haul". Being an only child certainly means a lot of advantages in the "present" department.


Pictures alone don't do the whole scene justice, so here is a little video of Christmas morning





Helen is a real extrovert and needs outlets for putting on a show. So she likes to sing in the school choir. Since this involves Helen volunteering to do something musical, Bonnie is more than happy to take her to school even earlier in the day for choir practice.

Due to both her "look at me" nature, and choir attendance record, she got the solo part as Rudolph the Reindeer in the school choir's Christmas production. Here she is before the show



And here is a little clip of her performing with the choir. Notice that she has a distinctive elf hat, which has black instead of white trim. She figured out that she would stand out better that way.





Helen is also a big fan of extreme sports and speed. Bonnie took her and some friends roller bladeing at an indoor rink here in town. It was a very exciting place, and resulted in some long term memories. That is because Helen broke her arm.

Turns out that she broke it over the same weekend in the year that she broke her leg on three years ago. That weekend was also two weeks before the superbowl. And it was the last time the Steelers went to the superbowl. So, even though she picked a yellow cast, we don't think Helen will ever be a real Steeler's fan (especially given Bonnie's personal loyalties).



Now on to more successful activities. We have been working on training Shadow. He is very good. He sits, lays down, and even stays on command. He even obeys while we are eating. Here we see Helen putting Shadow through his paces while showing off her arm cast.



As you know, winter out here means snow. Here is picture out the back porch after the big snowstorm in December. Its pretty, but driving around in it is no real fun. But then it is only bad for about a day.



David continues to stay on with the Army. He is now working for a Medical Command that relocated from Seagoville TX to Fort Douglas. Fort Douglas is pretty, but the buildings are over a hundred years old. At least they bought new furniture. But David's office still looks pretty messy when he gets busy. Here's a picture.



All in all, things are going well. Everyone is in good health (Helen's cast notwithstanding) and we are enjoying family life together! All the best to family and friends!