SUDDENLY IT'S 2009

Wow! Where did the rest of December go? Shopping I suppose. Well, before that we attended Larry's retirement party at BLM. That's right, he's ending his government career after 38 years of credited service. January 2, 2009 will be his last day. What will he do then? As I look around I suspect all his fancy cameras will play a big part in his second career. I'm guessing photography is his first love. He showed me his photo album the first night I met him in 1968 at our friends home in Baltimore. I was puzzled because it showed page after page of beautiful girls. After I got my mouth closed I finally picked one and said, "she's pretty!". Of course he had me at first glance. Arriving in Baltimore after working all Saturday at Hess's and driving 3 hours for the party, Sandy opened her door and I looked across the room. There he was. Upon returning home I begged the co-worker in the camera department to sell me a camera to take to Baltimore for lessons from Larry. After explaining my predicament to Larry, he took one look and said "Eileen, just point and click. You've bought yourself an instamatic!" Now, years later, I am getting better at this picture business but it's still point and click. We'll leave the real stuff to Larry. Visit his site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bauerpower/.

Here's our family Christmas photo for 2008. Eunice had a house guest from Pennsylvania and she is in front of Larry, Vivian Snyder. Mary Ellen, Larry's cousin from California joined us and she is on the left in the back. It was an outstanding Christmas at Howie and Jen's house. Jen served her famous sticky buns and egg casserole. With 13 people and 6 dogs we had quite a time. Gifts appeared and disappeared and were re-found. It was exhausting. Jen only had 3 hours sleep the night before. Vivian and I went to candlelight service at our church and got home late. Everyone needed a nap so we postponed Christmas dinner and cooked the next day! That was a first for us. Ahhh, the years are passing.

Luke visited us for a few nights during his holiday school break. He was the one who kept shaking me awake so we could greet the new year. The next day we went to a riparian park to shoot some pictures.

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