Welcome, Owen Andrew Haynes

Dave and Meg welcomed Owen Andrew Haynes into their family at 2:43 a.m. today. Owen weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and is 20 inches long. Baby Haynes, we have been waiting for you for a long time - welcome into our hearts; we have loved you for 9 months already!

Christmas Celebrations

Christmas is all about the Holy Family, and we were very blessed to celebrate this wondrous holiday with the Henning family on Christmas Eve and the Haynes family on Christmas Day - actually the second Christmas gathering with the Haynes family as the first celebration occurred in October :). The festivities were full of good cheer, great food, and lots of laughter while playing games and opening gifts. Our Christmas pictures are included in our Photo Album. For all of you who are reading this post in my blog - I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and best wishes to you for an abundance of blessings in the New Year.

Back on Land

We're back home from our cruise, and we had a blast. Once again, we enjoyed our ship experience, especially in the dining room. :) We did become fixtures at the gym this time in the hope of keeping some of the weight gain at bay. The theme of our shore excursions through Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarte was "Beer and Nachos" - and they were good in every port!!! Check out the Photo Album in our blog to see our cruise pictures. Becky was a winner at bingo, and Jim and Diane were winners at the art auction. We were also lucky to see a pod of dolphins jumping out of the water on one of our sea days. Holland America held an event called "On Deck for the Cure" in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and we were proud participants. The Christmas season is in full swing, and we are back on board with the Christmas festivities - and waiting for the arrival of Baby Haynes in New York!!!

'Tis the Season . . . to be cruising!

Well, Thanksgiving came and went (so did all the leftovers!). I love that we have a special day to spend with our loved ones and family, to give thanks for all our blessings, and this year we have so many to be thankful for - faith in a God who loves us, a good marriage, employment, health, family, a home, food on the table, good friends, healthy granddaughters, and another grandbaby due next month! So here we are already in December . . . Christmas is 23 days away. Our house has been decorated for Christmas since October. The outside Christmas lights went up Thanksgiving weekend. I have been boosting the local economy shopping for Christmas gifts, and the packages are already wrapped under the tree. Christmas cards are waiting for the U.S. Postal Service to deliver our holiday stamps, and I am baking Christmas cookies with my mom and niece Lisa on Thursday. So . . . we are packing our bags and bidding adieu to all the holiday hustle and bustle for a week while we cruise with our buddies, Becky and Russ, to the Mexican Riviera!!! 'Tis the Season!!!