A Valentine Evening at the Winery

At the close of Valentine's Day, we spent the evening at the Acres of Land Winery, about twenty minutes from home. Driving through the Silver Creek valley and coming up the ridge to the winery provided such a lovely prelude to a wonderful six-course dinner. Over a little grilled bree with fruit we exchanged gifts and cards, smiled knowingly at each other, and enjoyed the celebration of our two years together. After all, it was on this day, two years ago that June returned my www.match.com wink, and things got started. Whoppee!

A St. Valentine's Eve Special

Last night we started Valentine's Day early, slipping up to Lexington to watch and hear WOODSONGS OLD-TIME RADIO HOUR at the beautifullly restored Kentucky Theatre. If you haven't heard about the WOODSONGS OLD-TIME RADIO HOUR, get ready to hear about some wonderful entertainment. (And if you come to visit, we'll make sure you get to go and hear the live tapings for world-wide distribution of radio and tv productions.) The big treat last night was Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, along with singer-songwriter Holly Brook. What a great start to Valentine's Day--on the evening before!

Just in case you don't the history of the day, find out! In the meantime, be sure to give your sweetie some special love today!

See the movie: Saint Ralph

On Sunday afternoon, June, Chelsea, and I watched Saint Ralph and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had read a review of it late last year and was lucky enough to find its DVD in Blockbuster. Give it a try, especially if you've got some teenagers with whom to watch it!

Stan Has His Cake and Eats It Too! Happy 50th Birthday!

It was a surprise party! (Well, Stan, truth to be told, Stan suspected something . . . ) Nonetheless, he acted shocked, amazed, and delighted. Chris and the kids partied up the house with lots of ballooons, "over-the-hill" posters, wonderful BBQ and brunswick stew from Fresh Air, and lots of gifts. Stan, as you might expect, was a terrific emcee, hosting his party and giving us lots of good fun, more than enough belly laughs, and great memories. As you can see, he couldn't wait to get to the cake! We're all wishing you many more birthdays, Stan!

Back from Hawaii !

We've been back from Hawaii for almost two weeks now, and catching up on mainland life has gotten us behind on staying in touch with everyone. Do we need to say it? Yes, our two weeks on those lovely Pacific Islands were wonderful. As soon as Andy can, he will set up a gallery of photographs and link them to Your Family Blog so that all of you can see them. In the meantime, imagine yourselves on a Maui beach at sunset, sipping your favorite drink, drinking in the falling sun!

Beautiful Snow This Morning

This Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful snow, piled inches high on all the trees, lawns, and flowers. I'm reminded of what the Singer says in Psalm 147: "He sends the snow like white wool." That's just what it looks like outside, everything covered with wooly snow, everything blanketed with the winter warmth of snow.

This morning June goes to a Red Hat Society get-together at 11:30 at the Live Wire Cafe, and later on Chelsea and I will watch the UK vs. Vanderbilt basketball game. Inasmuch as Krister was a student at Vanderbilt and Amy a student at UK--and both universities served them so well!--I don't really care who wins; it's, as they say, as win-win situation.

Commenting and Posting

If you'd like to enter a new thread or write a longer message than is appropriate for a comment box, you may do so by clicking the button at the top-center of the page titled, "Blog This!"You'll be given a sign-in page to enter your user name and password, and then a screen appears for writing your message. An orange button at the bottom of that screen titled "Publish Post," will display your message on the main screen of the blog. It's all pretty simple. When we get from Hawaill, I'll show you how to upload photographs. Hoping to see lots of stuff, Andy.

Pass the turkey!

Kirk really did a beautiful job preparing the turkey! Everything was delicious, prepared and presented with genuine sprezzatura!

What did you get?

"I got a dinasaur!" Hayden says while Jackson begins to open another gift. What did you get, Jackson?

One Happy Kid!

Jackson, what a guy! He's all boy, smiles--all topped and tosseled with blond hair. And, girls! -- can he hug!

Time to play "Open Gifts"!

Oh, boy! Oh, girl! Dinner's over, and it's time for desert and gift-giving. The whole family gets ready. Madalene brings over the big card that the kids have made with the words of "Silent Night, Holy Night" inside. Amy sets out the coffee while Hayden, MaryCarol, and Jackson look around wide-eyed. Lora wonders where Kirk is while Tim findles with his watch, and Lisa heads off for more cake. It's gonna be a great Christmas!

Kirk goes to work with Hayden's truck!

Oh, Hayden is having a little trouble getting his box with the bulldozer hopen. He brings it to Uncle Kirk, who gets right to work with his usual aplumb, tool in hand, delicately edging the box open, with typical grace under pressure. Or was he saying something nice to dad? Surely yes, after all, it was Christmas Eve!

Everybody so enjoyed getting together. Amy Carol, and Lisa--and lots of others!--pitched in to serve us such a lovely evening dinner. Amy and Kevin's house, with the table setting as a lovely centerpiece, was stunningly beautiful/

O, those marshmellow guns!

We saw them first in Barnesville; and when it came time to pick gifts for MaryCarol, Jackson, and Hayden, we heard that Carole's friend makes and paints those marshmellow guns. Well, we got three of them, but guess who got to blow a marshmellow ball first? Amy? Or was it Kirk? Well, at any rate, it was Amy who had to clean up the mess!

Christmastide 2005

We're so grateful for each year's Christmastide. June, Chelsea, and Andy visited our families in Nashville where MaryCarol, Madalane, and Chelsea sang "Silent Night, Holy Night" too everyone in Amy and Kevin's home just before we open our gifts for one another. And then all the gleeful opening of gifts got started!

Supplementing Update !

Hi, everyone! It's time for us to use this blog as a supplement to Update, the snail-mail newsletter June and I have been fairly faithfully sending out over the past year. While we'd be delighted to keep up the printing, addressing and stuffing envelopes, and licking of thirty stamps for each month's mailing, we'll be able to save almost $200/year if we start sending out our Updates via the net. With the rise in the cost of stamps (39 cents each now) and the cost of color print cartridges (nearly one for each Update) inching up too, we hope you let us substitute a little electricity for a whole lot of paper.

And all of this will give us a huge advantage over printed Updates too! As Carol and Hugh have already indicated, all us can post and comment back and forth whenever we wish--and that way we'll be able to chit and chat--and post pictures!--for one another. All of this means, of course, that you'll have to get to your computer and come to www.yourfamilyblog.blogspot.com on a regular (daily?) basis. You can do it!

To make sure that everyone who has Internet service is with us, I'll be sending our invitations today and tomorrow. Once you've gotten your invitation, simply follow the directions, come to www.yourfamilyblog.blogspot.com, and familiarize yourself with all the options. If you have any difficulty, send me an email andrew.harnack@eku.edu, and I'll be glad to send you any clarifications that will help.

Chelsea Harnack: World-Class Soccer Player!

This past fall Chelsea played mid-fielder and forward on the Model Middle School Girls' Soccer Team. Always giving her 115% best, she now plays indoor soccer to keep her fancy footwork fleetingly fast. Let's hear it for Chelsea!

Look at these kids--Hayden, Mary Carol, and Jackson-- smile! All three, along with their mom and dad, Amy and Kevin Kuhn, wish all of you a most happy and blessed Christmastide!

June's Family Reunion !

Can you find yourself in the photograph? Well, you can if you were at the Granny Greene Family Reunion! It was really a lot of fun seeing everyone, eating all that delicious food, listening to MC Todd sing that "blender song," hearing Molly delight us with "Pearly White City," and all the while gain a pound or two. To everyone who came, all the rest of us say "Thank you!"

Welcome to Your Family Blog

Well, here we are--our family! Gathering ourselves from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, Arizona, Florida, Texas, and all the hinterlands everywhere, we're creating a Weblog, that is, a "blog" in which we can reach out and touch one another. Here you'll find your moms and dads, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and lots of your cousins sending hellos, familiy news, photographs, recipies, congratulations, expressions of sorrow and sympathy, encouragements, get-well wishes, wedding details, more photographs, and announcements for everyone. And best of all, you'll find that blogging is easy, better and more fun than email. You can quickly upload photos like this one of June and Andy in England. So come and join Your Family Blog; it's fun!