Dad's 80th Birthday Party

Last night we celebrated LCK's 80th birthday with a party at Ryan's Buffet in Decatur. 43 people were in attendance. All of our immediate family were there except for Mike's and my two children, and three of Mary and Joey's daughters. Rhoda created a little quiz with questions from events that happened in Dad's lifetime, and people were given the opportunity to share funny (or serious) memories from knowing Dad. He was very pleased with the occasion!
Lindsay and Whitney were unable to be at the party, so they came for a birthday breakfast earlier in the day.

A NEW DAY DAWNS

This morning at 8:45 Jerry nudged me and said "The early bird gets the worm." I responded "yes, but the late bird gets JD's." He whooped, said let's go. So we're off to our favorite restaurant for breakfast.

The sun is shining brightly and who knows what the rest of the day has in store for us.

Tonight we're going to a concert "A Tribute to Patsy Cline" at the Largo Cultural Center. Love that good old-time country/gospel music.

Redneck Retta - Warning Graphic Photos

I've been having Internet Explorer issues on my new work laptop and therefore have not been able to log into the blog and post. I got the IT Manager to install Firefox today, so I'm back at it.

I've started my new job at ATS in Lawrenceville, IL building seats and other car parts for the Toyota Highlander and Toyota Sequoia. Retta and the kids are in Alabama still, waiting of the house to sell and participating in home school and church commitments until it's time to move. I've been heading home every couple of weekends to see the family.

For those of you on Facebook, you may have seen Retta's status last night. It was: "Watch out, I'm deadly with a gun!!!! That's right, I SHOT AND KILLED that stinkin armadillo! Eric shot first (and missed) then it ran into it's hole. We dug and then flushed him out with the garden hose...3 shots and 3 hits! I ROCK!! Pictures soon to follow..."

Well, long story longer, over the past 2 months, I've noticed each time I've gotten home that there are more and more holes dug into the yard and I've blamed the neighbors dog for doing it. A couple weeks ago, Retta observed an Armadillo digging the holes in our back yard in the middle of the night when she took the dog out to use the facilities. She determined at that time that we needed to kill it and she's been on the look out ever since. Yesterday afternoon, as I was preparing to leave Alabama to head back to Illinois, I spotted the Armadillo in the back yard digging again. Chris went and got our 22 revolver, I took aim, and missed. The Armadillo ran under our pop-up camper and into a hole it had dug there. Bear, our neighbors dog, really wanted into the hole, but was obstructed by the camper.

We moved the camper and observed the hole was quite deep, at least 2 feet deep and 3 ~ 4 feet in length. We couldn't see the armadillo at all, but Bear was quite adamant that he was going to dig until he found it. We flooded the hole with a garden hose and out came the Armadillo, where Retta proceeded to fire 3 well placed 22 bullets into it's body. It kicked and squirmed, and died right there in the hole. Hopefully, that is the end of torn up yard, and I'll sure be more careful around my wife when she's got the pistol out.

Below are pictures of the adventure.



BTW, to make it even better, Retta was still dressed in her church clothes. Should have gotten a picture of her to show her off with her Pistol! EDK

FLEA MARKET

One of our favorite things in Florida is the Flea Market. We spent a couple hours there this afternoon. I wanted to get EVERYTHING, and Jerry wanted NOTHING! For example I really wanted a cute little fur jacket, books, shoes, a comforter set, sheets, watch, dominoes, bags (and bags and bags!), sweatshirt, jeweled t-shirt, a cute little halter-top swimsuit cover-up, and that's all I can think of right now. Now you get to guess: I came home with three items, and Jerry came home with two items (even though he really wanted nothing). Let's see if anybody can guess what we bought.

ENJOYING THE POOL

HMMMM . . . haven't seen any toddlers around this pool.

OH NO -- you don't suppose . . .

Aunt Ruth Gramm's 100th birthday

Here's a picture of our "other Aunt Ruth" who is celebrating her 100th birthday with a family-hosted party Open House today at Gridley. Aunt Ruth Gramm (Grandma Anna's brother Hank's widow) lived in the southwest corner of Gridley most of her life and now lives in the Eureka Home. She's very mentally alert and enjoyed seeing all her Gridley friends today. Her daughter Jane (Perry's age) from Peoria and her son Jack (Cleve's age) were present, as were many of her grandchildren and other relatives.
Here's a picture of her and Jack who now lives near Flagstaff, Arizona. Cake and punch were served and a huge turnout from Gridley and elsewhere came, which is a reflection of her widespread friendships and respect. Another picture is of Perry, Carol, and Preston at the reception table with the big "1-0-0 balloons". (Don't know the 2 behind Perrys!!)

Happy 2nd Birthday, EJK Family Blog!

Two years' worth for the EJKs on the internet! As of today, 1/23/10, this blog has had 35,293 "hits" and is currently running 48 hits per day. That is an average that fluctuates from week to week.

I have spent the better part of this afternoon looking back through the last year's worth of posts, and that has been a JOB - over 400 posts! The posts with the most comments were Aunt Mary Martin, posted by yours truly, with 14 comments, but the undisputed comment champion was New Topic, with a whopping 17 comments, posted by none other than NogBlog. Thanks to her, we know much more about EJK family entertaining blunders. Any of you who missed that post- click on the link and help Judy get even higher in her comment total.

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The ongoing stories were interesting to follow also - Cleve's pumpkin crop, Rhoda's chickens, Ada's lovely sewing projects, Kelsie's college trek to Florida, various people's vacations, and being able to keep up with the various surgeries and health needs of the extended family.

Now, for awards. This was really difficult, which is why there are a lot of ties. And the categories are a little different too. It was fun to look back and see all the nice, funny, and sweet posts throughout the year. However, I now have a huge list of posts that ought to be rewarded! If you were overlooked for something you thought ought to be considered - please accept my apologies up front. And now - drum roll please - the 2009 EJK Family Blog Awards!

Nicest Piece of Writing: All's Well that Ends Well, written by Matthew Endress and posted by Carol. (That was very good work by a young man of his age!)

Best Ongoing Family Pictures Poster: Casey, for blog posts scattered throughout. I feel like I have gotten a nice window into their lives this past year and have especially enjoyed that they've kept it up all year.

Most Unusual Poster: For the second year in a row, Nog Blog! Who else can make such interesting paragraphs about such diverse topics as getting permanents, voles in dryers, and many others!

Cutest Kid Pictures: A massive tie--and there were others that could have made the cut also, but you gotta stop somewhere.

Runners-up:
Sibling Love, posted by Staci.
Cleve & Kathleen Christmas, (particularly the shot of Cooper in the refrigerator,) posted by Cleve.
Lemonade Violin, video posted by Drake.
Four Months Old!, posted by Jen.
Perry & Carol's Happy Dozen, posted by Carol.

And the winner for cutest picture: Birthday Parties (actually, the winner is the middle picture of Joe celebrating his first birthday - very enthusiastically!), posted by Shelley.

Nicest Post:

Runner-up - 50th Wedding Anniversary, posted by Alice. (And a beautiful picture to go with it.)

And the winner is. . .drum roll again. . .a collection of posts from late September. They were all beautiful memories of Aunt Ruth and really serve as a collective memorial to her. They are:

Ruth Has Gone Home, posted by Mim.
MEMORIES, posted by Ada.
My Hero, posted by Nog Blog.
Our Memory of Aunt Ruth, posted by Angela.
Memories of Aunt Ruth, posted by Cathy.
and finally, Poem of Ruth, posted by Perry.

Many blog members also made nice comments on these posts that are also a part of the collective award.

THANK YOU everyone for your ongoing participation in this blog, which has been successful beyond any expectations! God bless you all in 2010! --Ann

I Lost My Best Friend...

I have officially started a diet. I didn’t tell anyone for awhile because if I failed I didn’t want anyone to ask how it was going. But now that I’m several weeks into it, I can say that it is going pretty well. My Mom says that dieting is 10% diet plan, and 90% mental. I completely agree. I’ve started and stopped various diet plans in the past 4 years, but I feel like this time I finally have the mental component. But even though I’m off to a good start, I feel a measure of sadness.

I feel like I’ve lost my best friend. Yes, Food has been a great friend to me over the years. It’s been there for major events in my life. It’s been there when I’ve been upset, stressed, happy, or bored. It even walked closely with me through five pregnancies and refused to leave me post-partum. It was someone I could always turn to. We had some great times together. I always felt happy and had a wonderful time when I was with my friend Food.

Over time though I started to realize what a fair-weathered friend it really was. Sure we’d have a great time when we were together but later it would turn around and stab me in the back (or the hips, or the thighs, or the butt). Food would tell me I wasn't that fat and encourage me to take another bite, but I found out it was saying that just to be nice. After we had been together I would lose that happy feeling and instead feel guilty and upset. It would never leave either - the more time we spent together, the more attached it became to me.

So I said good-bye to my best friend and it’s been hard. I’ve had to find new things to do and other people to call on when I normally would have called on Food. Oh we still visit occasionally, just not as frequently and in smaller doses. To be honest with you, I think our relationship is much healthier this way.

GOOD MORNING

Well, we surely aren't missing the ice, fog, and cold weather in Illinois. We keep up on things back home via the online Pantagraph. This week has been nice - warm days, cool nights. We eat out usually once a day - getting ready to go to JD's for a late breakfast soon. It rained all night and is still cloudy but it is supposed to clear up and be a great weekend.

We picked up a Beach News publication yesterday and found lots of things going on around the area geared to Senior Citizens - such as Chair Exercises (not quite that "senior" yet), ballroom dances (????), bingo - hmmm, music concerts, flea markets, wildlife refuge/park, boat rides, and some others I can't remember right now. So we may be taking in a few sights each week.

We've communicated with Vic/Jean and Marguerite and are planning a lunch with them but haven't set the date yet. We really like our condo here at Indian Shores - could be a repeater. I've gotten quite a few blocks sew together, went and got "sashing" fabric to begin putting them together. I think I have enough for three quilts - one full-sized and two smaller ones. They're going to be pretty wild and crazy looking. When they're finished I'll show a picture. Also plan to take some more pictures and post them soon.

On January second, Judy Witzig and I went to visit Ann Wagler in Eureka A.C. nursing home. Susan was there, and she and I have been almost lifetime friends. When I was in fourth-eighth grade, we lived in LaGrange Park, and went to the old Chicago church, where I became close friends with Susan. They lived in Western Springs, not far from LaGrange Park, and I would stay overnight with her sometimes. There are many funny stories to tell about those years. After they moved to Alabama, and I was still with Mom & Dad, we went to visit them several times. After that I didn't see Susan or Ann again until this last year. Ann was sleeping while we were there, but when I said goodbye to her, I told her who I am and she smiled. I don't think she knew it was me, but she recognized the name Klopfenstein, and thought I was mom. I wasn't able to go to her funeral because I have had a bad case of bronchial spasms since then and am still not over it. I choke and choke until I "you know what." It is very bad, but since I am retired I don't really mind any problems anymore. I have time and energy now to handle anything.

The ocean looks so beautiful. It reminds me of Long Beach, California, where we lived when Jamie was preschool-second grade, and Jodie was born there. I loved the ocean too, and before Jodie was born we lived in Belmont Shores, only 6 blocks from it, and would walk along the beachfront tourist shops, in the evening. Long Beach had oil well islands off shore that were beautiful with palm trees and colored lights. When Jodie was born, we bought a house not far from the ocean ( under the flight pattern of the Long Beach airport but that's another story). Seeing the ocean in your pictures brings back many memories of Long Beach. When I was working, I would drive along the ocean to get to work and back, and passed by the Queen Mary docked there. We would go to gospel concerts, in a large auditorium along Belmont Shores, with some couples from Alta Dena church, after they ate supper at our house. One night, Elvis Presley was there, but because of contracts he could not sing. He was friends with the Blackwood Brothers who were performing. He watched from the side of the stage, and came out and bowed but could not speak . It also reminds me of when Dad & Mom flew to Long Beach with all the other kids (Eric was a baby), and they stayed in a motel nearby and rented a large van. On Christmas Day, they all went to Belmont Shores, and it was about 85 degrees. Along the shore, they joined a large crowd watching a shark being opened to see if there were any human remains in its stomach. There wasn't, but ask any of them what kind of things came out of that shark, they will remember . While I was working during the day, Jamie went to a preschool along Belmont Shores. One day when I picked her up, she was in big trouble! She and a little boy ran away from the school and were found playing right along the water. When we asked her why she ran away, she said, "I was just trying to escape." Several times, we had visitors stay with us for their vacation. They always wanted to see the ocean, Disneyland, and the mountains. I hope, now that I am retired, I can write a book about my life, like Dad and Jerry did. In it will be a lot more details about living in Long Beach, near the beautiful ocean. Ada & Jerry, I am glad you are able to stay in Florida; I know you are enjoying it.

I've Lost My Job--Almost

We went for a six week checkup today and a post-op X-ray showed that everything looks great--thank you, Lord. Now Lynn can do anything he wants except cross his right knee beyond his midline and that is to be followed always. It's been a tough for him to not cross his legs as that is his favorite sitting position. He's been a great patient and we've had a good six weeks. One duty I will gladly relinquish is driving the car with him sitting in the passenger seat! No comments from our girls, please!

Yesterday, Keith and I went to Ann Wagler's funeral in Roanoke. Ed Sauder (Bonnie Wuthrich's husband) had the service. It was very nice and mostly arranged by Ann. It was good to see Susan and Joan and their families.

Just a little side bit of news. Today Ed and Bonnie are leaving for Africa to climb Mt.
Killimanjaro, 19340 ft. They have climbed several other mountains, including Mt. McKinley.
They are a unique couple.

Alice

SUNSET ON LIDO BEACH

We enjoyed watching the sunset this evening - then came to our "home" and fixed a frozen pizza.

Our favorite breakfast cafe at St. Armand's Circle.

We had hotdogs at the Lido Beach snack bar yesterday.

Gridley High School & School Programs

Mara (Top, third from left) performs in Christmas program.

View in Old High School were the ticket office and old class photos were - now leads to new addition.View of the "Senior Lounge"
Wade (straight up from left of piano) performs in Old High School gym (now JR. High gym)

Casey Knobloch family happenings

Santa visits the kids at home.

Only pictures we took on our trip to Florida, in the airport on the way home.
Wade and his cousin Cade "snipe" hunting.
Location of our house we will be building in the spring.

Kindle, etc.

Does anyone have a Kindle, Sony Reader or another type of e-reader? I'm thinking of getting one and am trying to get some input from people who would know more than I do.

Any recommendations such as which to get, when to get it (new stuff coming out or change in formatting soon), etc. I don't have to have to latest, greatest thing, but I also don't want to buy Beta when VHS is going to win out.

Thanks for any input and help anyone may have.

VACATION ACTIVITIES

A night out at the Roaring Twenties Pizza parlor. This man played music from the 20's plus a few others. It was fascinating to watch him manage about 5 keyboards plus many switches, buttons, pedals etc on this elaborate organ. Very entertaining - and good pizza also. The organ is on a platform that rises slowly when the show starts and lowers down out of sight at intermission and repeats for the second half. He plays mostly requests that the audience puts in a basket beside a "tip jar".

Good rainy day activity -- cutting and sewing squares of fabric together. Later, I may have some finished projects to show you. Behind the computer is the boxed game of "Cash Cab" that Janice and Jason arrived a couple days ago for Jerry's birthday. We're going to try it out tomorrow on his birthday. It's our favorite TV show.

Jerry doing his morning workout with 5-lb weights and leg lifts. He's doing well and walking with me when the weather's fit, but I'll have to admit that while I'm shopping, he finds a bench to sit and "people-watch".

The worst thing about posting is getting the pictures and wording placed properly. I think I might be improving at the process, but can't say for sure until I get this posted and see if it is doing what I think it will. The weather is better today, so we're heading to the beach right now!!

TWO-WEEK GETAWAY

Here are a few pictures of our two-week getaway. Saturday we will be moving to another place for four more weeks.



This our living room.














Our bedroom - there is a large dresser and a closet plus a small bathroom to the left.
















Our tiny kitchen - but who wants to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, right?













This shows the dining table which doubles as our work/play table.

Another Big Day Today

Well, after having such a nice time with Tim and Cathy last night, we had another big day today. Andrew's drama team, which leaves Wednesday for 4 1/2 months on the road going throughout the southeast, was at our church this morning for the morning service (their very first), and then came to our home for Sunday dinner afterward. The service was very nice and the message of their drama was very moving - people were touched. And three of Mike's sisters who live nearby, and some of their young children, also came both to church and to our home for dinner. So it was a very nice day. Here's a picture of Andrew and the team he will be traveling with. If you are interested in reading more about this, here is a link with more information. If you click on the picture of the drama team on that link, it will take you to a page with individual pictures and their itinerary.

Great Evening in Anderson, SC

Tim and Cathy, who are scheduled to be in the Atlanta, GA, AC church tomorrow morning, took a few hours out of their afternoon to drive to Anderson and have supper with us this evening. We had a wonderful reunion and a good time talking. I was so glad that Mike's schedule allowed him to be here - often over the years he has had to miss things because inevitably events and occasions have fallen on the weekends he has had to work. We were so glad they came and really appreciate them making the effort to do so!Cousins

This is how you take a picture of four people when no one else is in the house to snap it. (Mike had the longest arm to hold the camera.)

HAPPY SATURDAY

It's 9 am. I just got up, made a pot of coffee, and came straight to my computer -- beat Jerry to it today, yaaayyy! It's raining fairly hard outside right now, guess I won't get my morning walk.

Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time browsing the shops at St. Armand's Circle. Started with The Foxy Lady thinking maybe I could get something "classy". Ha, that didn't work with t-shirts costing over $100 and most items were $250 and above - and more importantly nothing in there looked like anything someone would wear in Gridley!! Actually, all the stores were either not my style or too touristy. But I enjoyed the browsing.

After that, we went to the other extreme and shopped at the Red Barn Flea Market. If you've been to a Florida flea market you know what I mean. We love to go there and look at the junk and watch the people. When we left there, we decided to take some local streets and find our way home - got "caught" in a very undesireable neighborhood and commented how sad it would be to grow-up and live in that environment. Then we noticed blinking lights ahead. Sure enough, there were about 6 police cars and a bunch of policemen surrounding young people with their hands on cars and some being handcuffed. I said to Jerry "I wonder what it is - drug bust or murder?" How difficult it must be for children to rise above that and become productive citizens. It made me very thankful for all my blessings - especially for family.

We finally stopped in at the Sarasota Visitor Center yesterday and picked up some brochures - mostly for restaurants with "normal" food since most of the ones around the Circle have menus we don't understand. I'll try to get some pictures taken one of these days.

Hope you're all enjoying the snow.

Who makes sour dough bread?

A while back, a friend of the Medlens brought her sour dough bread for a Medlen birthday dinner. It was very good and Lynn raved about it. The friend offered the recipe and Lynn gladly accepted. So at Christmas Joey brought a bowl of starter that the friend had sent for us. So three days ago I tried the recipe, which indicated one could wait a week or more to feed the starter. The dough didn't seem right (it really looked more like a batter--obviously needed more flour, but I followed the amounts as the recipe said). Finally, baked the bread yesterday afternoon and today I threw the baked bread out into the yard for the birds. Even the mocking birds refuse to eat it after a bite or two.
I do make an overnight sour dough bread that our family and friends like very much.
Here the starter is made the night before the baking. That I can handle, but I'm not built to regiment my life around baking bread! What say ye?

Question!

Judy:
Where ever did you find a website like--
www.waldo.net ?

This seemed to be an unusual site!
UL

A bit of nothing...

Been up since 2 am with a headache and been on the internet...I tried to type in Waldo.net but in the dark somehow it came out waldo.jaquith...and a web page actually came up...some political website. Isn't life in 2010 strange?

Now everybody scroll down to the great picture of Perry and Carol's grandkids. You don't want to miss it!

Perry & Carol's Happy Dozen

GOOD MORNING

We've arrived in the sunny, warm south -- hmmm change that to the cold, cloudy south! We found our cozy little hide-a-way on the first try. We amazed ourselves as it was 9:30 at night and we sometimes have a hard time reading street signs in the dark. We are about 2 blocks from the beach, .5 mile from St Armands Circle - the very classy downtown area of shopping and eateries. We've not done much exploring yet, but since the weather is not warm/sunny, we will be doing more sightseeing than usual. There's much to see and do in this area.

We have a one bedroom apartment with a nice-sized living/dining room and a tiny kitchen (no dishwasher or garbage disposal) so we're definitely using disposable everything as much as possible, (which we usually do on vacation anyway) and eating out.

Not a lot to report at this time. Hope the weather has warmed up somewhat at home.

LCK Family

I don't really have pictures of Christmas activities but here are some family photos from Christmas 2009.

Most important first:

Mark and variety of kids (L-R: Mark, Lindsey, a friend of Lindsey's, Lauren, MaryLee, and John Michael)


Three sisters:

Three other sisters (Jaimie, Lindsay, Whitney)

Lindsay, Mike, Andrew.

The entire family, unfortunately dusk was approaching rapidly so it is a bit dark.

Sadly one family member was ill and couldn't celebrate with us. Anyone want to guess who that was?

Mystery Solved

My porch snowman has officially been put to rest. We had the strangest event over the Christmas season. My clothes dryer seemed to be taking a long time to dry the clothes, so Dave checked the vent. Yep, there was a lot of lint in there...some green yarn strings and fuzz...now WHAT DID YOU WASH IN THE WASHER?? I kept insisting I had washed nothing that had that yarn in it. This went on for the whole month of December. He'd clean out the lint vent, find the same lint substance, and question me...YOU WASHED SOMETHING AND NOW THE VENT IS PLUGGED WITH THIS STUFF THAT KEEPS WORKING ITS WAY OUT!

Then a couple of weeks ago, he saw THE SAME LINT on the porch Santa IN THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE. The back of the snowman had the yarn and fuzz balls on him. STRANGE! Finally we figured out that the yarn was coming from the ball on the snowman's hat. When we started cleaning up the porch we saw that the blanket I had out there had been chewed by a mouse (or probably a vole, since that's what we fought last summer) and hence the fuzz mixed in with the green yarn.

Now how did a mouse/vole get the fuzz balls back out to the dryer vent on the other side of the house, apparently making a warm little nest of some sort for himself? Today the snowman and the teddy bear went to the curb with the garbage as Dave was not willing to bet that a mouse had not crawled up inside and made a home for himself there. I let it go...didn't have the energy or the nerve to inspect the two items closely for holes or mouse evidence. There was plenty of evidence of mouse droppings under the tree skirt and blanket. Gross. Hope I don't see one in the house again. (We had a dead vole in the basement last summer, and caught several outside.)

Oh, and I'm supposed to check the ice skates carefully before I bring them into the house....ummm, I think I'll let him stick his hands in there when he gets home tonight.

Evergreen Bell Choir

This is the bell choir that Mom participates in at Evergreen. The quality of the video is very poor, but Mom is in the back row. On her left is Jean Maurer, her best friend at Evergreen. They put on another concert the week of Christmas which was really very good as they had put a lot of practice in since this video was taken. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera that evening.

RDK Christmas at Gloria's

Dec. 22 Gloria hosted the RDK family at her house in Normal. The evening was a roaring success. Jamie and Joe were special guests from Texas, Dave and Jodie's from Indiana,along with some of Gloria's special friends. It was an open house from 3-7 pm, and the house was packed...lots of good food and visiting. Estimated 60 people attended. Some highlights of the evening were old VCR tapes of the RDK archives playing in the background for all to enjoy, a visit for the kids to the "little house" to see Gloria's 3 parrots and the little dog. There was also a money tree (as pictured) for Mom for her Christmas gift. I think everyone would agree that it was a great evening.

PRAYERS NEEDED

I am sorry to report a sad posting from facebook. I believe you will agree that this may be worse than some of us have had to deal with this year.

Charlene Krones Hozie Char did not have a good New Years Eve. She fell down our steps (this is Tricia speaking) and has broken both femers clear through above the knee and broke her ankle in three places. She will have surgery around 11am today and your prayers are needed.
41 minutes ago · Comment ·LikeUnlike

Charlene Krones Hozie
She will get a plate and screws in the worst thigh and hopefully just pins in the other breaks. She is at St Joseph hospital. Please pass on this information as needed as we will need as many prayers as possible today and in the coming weeks and months.

Char rarely posts on facebook, so I was surprised to see her pop up this morning - then this is what her daughter-in-law posted on her addount. What a new year for them!!

For you younger ones, Char is my first cousin - daughter of Aunt Florence, Mother's sister. She was Perry's age - interestingly there were four first cousins in their class who went through school together. In addition, Larry Stahl, our first cousin on the Klop side, was also in that class.

Happily, I report that we had a few friends over last night, had a great time, good food, played some games and just visited. Mess to clean up this morning. Happy New Year to all.