Christmas is over for this year. The after Christmas slump hit me Christmas afternoon. After all the excitement and anticipation wore off that had been building up for this day, it's no wonder all the air let out of me. Felt really tired and it didn't help that my stomach felt sore and icky. Instead of staying up and playing games, the Muckheads and I went to bed early. They did get some sledding in, though.

Kip and Todd worked on the little hill under the deck. The hill that was made from all the snow that got shoveled off the deck. They got cardboard out and matted down the snow. This picture is of them preparing the runway. Then Christmas Eve before Kip went to sleep, he poured buckets of water on it so it would be nice and slick. I wrote last entry about not having any sleds anymore. Todd and Amy got out the day before Christmas and bought a couple. So, they were ready to roll come Christmas day. Here's a shot of Todd going down the hill, feet up in the air. I didn't want to maneuver through the ice and snow so I took the pictures from up above on the deck. Kip went down head first twice and dumped his face in the snow twice. Amy was going down, too, but I didn't get a shot of her. I tried to get Bill down there but he wasn't having any part in. What with arthritis and general cluminess, I didn't even entertain the idea. I had to be content with snapping pictures.

On Christmas Eve, we had unexpected visitors. Totally unexpected visitors. My oldest son, Grant, and his wife, Carrie, stopped by. Totally took us by surprise. They live in Tennessee. They had gone up to Columbus to visit with her parents the day before and were on their way home when they decided to swing around and make a quick visit to us. We greeted them with many hugs and kisses. There were huge grins on everyone's face. We offered them a place to stay for the night but they wanted to be home for Christmas. So, after an hour or more of visiting and talking and getting some cookies down their throats (and picture taking), they were off into the night. The roads were still pretty bad but with they 4-wheel truck they weren't going to have any problem. We'd barely have the room but I would love for one year to have all my sons and daughter together for Christmas morning. That would be such a hoot.

I'm pretty proud of the touchups that I did on this pictue. Grant had major red eye so I redid the eyes with Paint Shop Pro's red eye removal. Carrie's hair had major red highlights from the flash. So, I darkened the RGB. Plus, I cropped Carrie out of one picture and overlaid her on a picture I had taken of Grant alone. Oh, what wonders you can do with a graphics program.