Winter Carnival...

Here is a photo of an ice dragon at night, and what seemed to be a popular (and tasty) food of the Carnival, hot mini-donuts. The Carnival was fun, and not as crowded with people as we thought it would be. In the past, they built giant ice palaces (towers over 150 feet tall) made of more than 100,000 blocks of ice - that would draw a crowd. They might build one for next year, the 125th anniversary.

Winter Festival...

Ack and Anne went up to St. Paul, MN to the Winter Carnival. On the way we stopped to see some art work from a residency at Augusta High School (the beaver is the mascot). Then we went to visit Dennis (the residency artist) and Linda O'Donnell who took us on a beautiful & cold horse sled ride through their woodlot. By 8, we got to the hotel in St. Paul where we got to meet the Vulcans. We couldn't decide the best photo, so here are three - choose the best!

Skiing....

Its been good weather for skiing. Anne went on a ski weekend with a group of friends. Weather is warming up this weekend, making it a gray day. -Ack

We skied various places including the Raven Trail in the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest. This shelter is "Turtle," one piece of art left over from a 2007 installation of about 20 pieces by local and international artists.  It was a beautiful trail. -Anne

Happy Birthday Reed

Ack is in DC giving a presentation to the teachers who won the Presidential Awards for Exclellence in Mathematics and Science Teachging. He and Margaret did a workshop on some of the on-line materials CIMSS has developed.  Reed was in town and so is Alana. We celebrated Reed's 19th birthday at a nice DC french resturant Distrot Du Coin.

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's eve at a party at the curling club. Dinner and a continuous flow of champagne all night long. We slept in the morning of the 01/01/10. We spent much of the day relaxing and running errands, but also a bit of skiing in the Cherokee Marsh.

Party's over...

Well, the holidays are coming to an end. The girls (and Al) head back to their homes away from our home. Here Anne, Alana and Erin make a toast to a fun week. The good news is, the antlers go back in storage soon...

Movies & Games

When our family gathers with lots of free time, two favorite things to do are 1) watching and then discussing movies and 2) playing lots of games.  This time, the movies included the requisite masterpiece "Lord of the Rings" (all six DVDs of the extended version - some viewed more than once), requisite seasonal gems "It's a Wonderful Life," "Elf," and "A Christmas Story," and some new releases: "Avatar" (a blue version of "Ferngully") and "Sherlock Holmes" (a high action reworking of the great detective). 

Here are E & A in the 3D glasses they brought home from "Avatar."  LaLa is starting to play with my and Ack's old SLR 35mm cameras.  These photos were taken with the Pentax, my first major camera.

As for games, we started the week off with a game we've had for decades, The Beaver Game. It's a political indoctrination against the Army Corps of Engineers in the guise of a board game (I purchased it for us back in my most political days).  It's actually an amazing game where you take on the challenges of life as a beaver.  It's tough - all five of us died way before our time!  The other bright spot of a game is one that Erin and Al gave me as a gift for Christmas, The Settlers of Catan.  Fun, but frustrating when you're not doing well.