White Castle

I have been eating White Castle hamburgers for as long as I remember. Yes, they are different than Krystal's! It is all about the steamed buns, grilled onions and Dusseldorf mustard! I refuse to eat the frozen sliders from the grocery. They aren't near as good. My Uncle Doug came down last weekend for Elle's Bday and for the UK/UGA game. I begged him for weeks to "pick up a crave case, stuff them in an insulated bag and drive them down from Lexington, KY. Not only did he come through, he even brought 97 packets of Dusseldorf mustard! We have joked for years about breaking the Billips family record of 12 in one sitting set by my Uncle Charlie years ago. Last Thanksgiving I ate, gulp, 11 and decided not to push it. I had high hopes of breaking the record by eating half of the Crave Case. I didn't come close. I ate 2 luke warm ones before we left for Elle's party and 7 afterwards. Next time!

Just a few of the packets of mustard
Crave Case!

Creeker Holiday Hoedown

Special thanks to Spence and Barb for hosting the Creeker Holiday Hoedown on January 3rd. It was great to act like I was 16 again. Everything remains the same at Spence and Barb's house. That's what makes it so special. There it all was...pool, beer pong, junipers, orange couch, recliner with hidden nickel in it! I kind of regret bringing Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit with me. It prevented us from catching up on all the old stories. That is not to say that we didn't have fun rockin' out the show. There is video floating around of Anne singing "Like a Virgin" and Evan singing "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me." Both had amazing stage presence! Todd did great with "Band On The Run." Kim was quite a performer and really showed her vocal prowess when we broke out American Idol. I think I did okay with Nirvana and Oasis. Unfortunately, Evan did not provide an "encore" for everyone to end the night!

"Some Might Say..."

Kim and Laura

Todd Johnson And Wings

"I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back!"
Rebekah and Wendy
Ev gets his beer pong on.

Owen, Evan & Todd measure up the pool table.

Christmas 2008

It was a busy December. Elle couldn't wait for the Big Man to come to our house. There were many warnings of the naughty list and even a call or two by Santa and Mrs. Claus. December started with the State Farm Children's Christmas Party. This was Elle's chance to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. Perhaps she should have suggested a smoking cessation program and Crest White Strips for him!



Elle's Christmas program at MCA Pre-K featured her and her classmates in the Nativity. Elle was one of the horses. Not sure if the horses brought the frankincense or myrrh. After assembling on the alter, Elle and the rest of the Shining Stars class sang a variety of Christmas tunes.

Dad's Barbershop Chorus, Atlanta Vocal Project performed their Christmas show at Sandy Springs UMC. Jeff and Paul were able to make it up for the performance. This is one of my favorite pictures. Elle mimicking Granpa's singing face!

Elle and Paul horsed around during the intermission. They were singing that "move it, move it" song and doing their best to knock over the Christmas tree.

Elle and her prized possession - The Disney Monorail play set! If only Santa would have let us know that the track takes up half of the room!

Christmas contentment!

Play Your Guitar

At the top of Elle's Xmas list this year was a "real guitar." I guess she got sick of the old Wiggles guitar she used to play until the age of 2 or the Hannah Montana guitar she recently became disinterested in. These videos were entirely unrehearsed. Laura and I had no clue what she was going to sing about.

"Play Your Guitar With Jesus" is an ode to The Wiggles "Play Your Guitar With Murray." I like how it morphs into "Play Your Guitar with Megan (nephews' girlfriend), Hello Kitty and Anybody."

The song "Nightmares" is a true original. Elle definitely is going to excel in something artistic. Her creativity amazes me each day. I like how "Nightmares" ends in a calming final verse of "Silent Night"! Bravo...Brava!

Field Trip To Xmas Tree Farm

Elle's Pre-K class took a field trip to Happy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm today. It was about 39 degrees with a stiff breeze. Evidently the directions were wrong, therefore many kids arrived late...while we froze our butts off. Once all the kids were there, the teachers sent the kids running to find "the tree with candy canes on it." After a couple of class photos in front of the tree, each kid assisted the teacher with sawing the Leyland Cyprus (I thought these were used for hedge) tree down.

Don't Forget The Lyrics

No, I am not talking about Evan's doppelganger, Wayne Brady's show! I have never been one who can listen to a song and memorize the lyrics. Laura and Elle can do it after a listen or two. I have always blamed it on early Michael Stipe indecipherable lyrics. I have been known to sing a wrong lyric or two.

One of my favorites of all time is when Owen sang "Changes come around real soon make us swimming in bed" from John Cougar's "Jack and Diane." For whatever reason I once thought that Elvis' "Return To Sender" was "three times December."

Elle has been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately. I bought the Burl Ives "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" CD recently and she has learned almost every word to "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle" and "There's always Tomorrow" (will blog on that later). We were driving home from Sam's last night listening to B98.5 since they play Xmas 2-4-7 when "Silver Bells" came on. I could hear Elle singing in the back seat, so I turned down the radio just in time to hear her singing "Silver-ware....silver-ware"!

Giving Thanks

We didn't travel to Louisville, KY this year for Turkey Day. Instead we went to Bremen, GA and ate turkey with Laura's family. Last week, Elle had her Thanksgiving recital at MCA Pre-K. She and her classmates performed 3 tunes. Afterwards, we ate a small meal together.

We talked Elle's cousin, Kayleigh into wearing Elle's indian outfit from last year and pose for this pic. She was a good sport!

Happy Thanksgiving!