Wonderful Christmas

Another wonderful Christmas although we really missed our absent family members: Jon, Cathy, Phil, Debby, Leigh, and Ando... we love yall! Love the pics!

Chautauqua Christmas 2009

A wonderful, yet different year at Chautauqua for the holidays.....The lack of the entire Swanson crew and the spread of the "Swan flu" made for quite an interesting gathering! Nonetheless, we had an amazing visit and a memorable holiday! We missed those that weren't able to come and look forward to the next time we're all together again. Here are just a few highlight pictures from our visit!

Jensen & Uncle Scotty

Christmas Eve dinner- Jensen & Uncle Keith

Great Gram & Jensen

Debby's baby shower at Chautauqua...We miss you Deb!

Great Gram giving Jensen a bottle

Jensen all ready to go sledding:)

Elle loving Christmas at the Swanson's!

Jensen teaching Aunt Kiersten where her face is!

"Happy New Year!"

New Years Day- Jensen cheered on PSU to another victory!

Go Penn State!

Endearing thoughts from Ando

I had an old Chinese monk appear in my dream last night. He reached high and grabbed a twig from a bamboo grove. Then he pointed to a cloud over Mount Kunlun. He smiled and told me to plant the twig directly beneath the cloud a few inches beneath the earth, and there would soon grow the most beautiful flower. This flower, he said would return at sunrise every day.
I was perplexed. "How would bamboo grow a flower?"
he replied, "young grasshopper knows that all things magical come in twos. When two come together a transformation takes place, and what becomes is birthed through great mystery."
I thought to myself, "ahh, great Scott, he will find rain where he places his twig atop the mountain. And there two will come together in the most beautiful matrimony. And the great mystery will unfold like the petals of a flower. A flower that neither Scott or Victoria ever knew before."
blessings to you both!!!
Ando

Let us give thanks

What a great way to keep all these memories alive! Next year we can read the blog to see what we did this year! I just love each of you and I want to thank Gram for making this all possible every year! Love to you!

Crazy memory: Joe's sledding incident! Joe, you should write about this since you have the first hand account!!

Lovely memory: Elle meeting the entire family for the first time. We are so blessed to bring Elle into such a beautiful group of people. God's blessings are BIG and I see them in the eyes of my family members.

Funny memory: Leigh reenacting his wedding dancing for his adoring fans (my mom and me)!

Love to you all!!!

I thought the only way to really start this off is a short little tribute to the grandmother who started it all. I've got a few ideas to throw out there to everyone regarding this bloggage. Let's see if we can all keep it going. I will be sending a short informational email to everyone filling them in on what they can do to make this happen on their end. Thanks again for another wonderful holiday season. Cheers.

JD

2008 Was Great!

SWEET IDEA JOSH