Jay's mom and brother visited this past weekend and helped us bring in the New Year!
We spent a lot of time playing games: Dominos, Uno, Scrabble, Battle Scrabble, and more Dominos. We did leave the house a bit though... we hit the seafood buffet at Ameristar and the lunch buffet at Diamond Jacks casinos, did a quick tour of the battlefield (since we'd all been there before, some of us MANY times), and went to church. Jay cooked many good meals: fried catfish, tuna steaks, BBQ chicken, and we ate way more than we needed to... we're starting to fit in here in Mississippi! Yikes!
In a belated Christmas celebration, we opened presents, made a fire in the stove, and ate lots of chocolate. Jay got me a great jacket, Jean loved the bottle tree Jay made her (I helped a little) and her new TempurPedic pillow, Jamie got some clothes and a cool take-out menu organizer (folks who live in big cities eat out a lot), and Jay was actually surprised by his pressure washer (he often guesses his gifts correctly before opening them), though I think he liked the Lindsay Clan cufflinks I got him more.
On New Years Eve we built a huge campfire, set off a bunch of fireworks, drank some champagne (and some wine), and ate more chocolate. It was a good start to a great 2008!
Here are a few more photos from along the Mississippi River:
Jude gets her first snow experience!
We did a little star gazing while BBQing dinner the first night (thanks David and Taryn!)
Jude is all snuggled in next to Jeremiah
Setting off the mentos-soda geysers
Inside the Illinois Memorial at the Vicksburg National Military Park
To spice up the tour, we decided to do a virtual multi-cache GeoCache.
Family photo at the overview of the Yazoo/Mississippi Rivers
