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Bill Gile sent this picture taken last summer of himself, Bertha and Joyce...our older cousins.  He also provided a picture of Laura and his granddaughters on the Pictures Page.	The table crew is Trish Stevens, Kevin, Joe, Allison, Sarah, Michelle, Bonny, Grandma Sweetie, and Amelia.  There was a card game on one end and nibblers on the other.	The highlight of the evening was Santa David's big sack of light saver swords.  Here are Wyatt, Tommy (in back), Waylon and Haden who is sporting his I-am-going-to-be-a-Big-Brother shirt!

• Forty-eight of us filled and overflowed to the shop and the barn Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma Sweeties.  We had stair sliding, torch cutting, hay climbing, talking, card playing, teasing, and over abundant eating for the whole afternoon and evening.  The big news was that Matt and Jessica are expecting a new little one next August making Haden a big brother.  She has promised that she'll float this year.  Adam had his truck in the shop learning why it costs so much to replace the ball joints.  When the people noise level got too high folks would drift to the shop to hear the hammering and banging as they drove out the factory rivets.  Sarah brought us breakfast bars and chocolates.  Uncle David passed out the most delicious boxed chocolates and delighted all the kids with his Santa sock of light savers.  The older kids used them to turn the hay barn into a spooky space age ghost place and the mini engineer Haden had his apart as soon as it quit working.  Ruth brought old pictures and Bonny shared her new ones that she has taken and edited.  Trish & Andy Stevens (Brady, Amelia and McKenna) were home from South Carolina and will be heading to Colorado in February.

• Set aside January 24 as Grandpa and Grandma Sweetie are celebrating their 60th anniversary by inviting the kids, grandkids and great grandkids to lunch.  They need a head count so let them know if you can travel in January.

• It's never boring around the Thompsons.  New Year's Eve Matt calls Adam to come and get him...in Wichita...stalled beside the road.  Adam borrows his father-in-law's car dolly, and gets the car and Matt home at 5:00 AM New Years Day....just 536 miles in one day.  After visiting with the relatives, Adam's father-in-law, he decides to tackle the fuel system and goes to Joplin to get the part.  They refused to sell it because he doesn't have his wallet or ID; even though he calls his wife and gives credit card number, expiration date and code.  So he drives back home and back to the parts store with his wallet.  Nonetheless by 5 PM the fuel system is repaired and he's driving the car. 

• Kathy and the twins spent deer camp time in Arkansas with the Thompsons.  Terry got one and another guy got his as of Sunday night.  It was brutally cold on Saturday.  Wayne reported rousing in the deer stand with sleet hitting his face.  When he flipped the hood of his coat up, he glimpsed the white tails of 3 does headed out of range.  Advice:  If you wake in the deer stand, look for deer before adjusting your clothes.

• Deb has been forewarned of more cuts in the California Public School system.  We do have it rough here, but still not as bad as California does.

• Deb and Steve are continuing their work with New Horizons Christian Church.  Here is their link.  Steve wants to encourage us all to visit the web site, make comments on the blog as this helps increase internet traffic which in turn helps the site usage and hence its prominence for being brought up by internet search engines.