Bragg Family South

I thought some of you may enjoy this 47-second snippet of video. Note that the file is somewhat large due to the high quality I left it in...as I play with this feature more, I will try to create more economical video snips. I hope this plays for y'all...

We got real lucky during the last 24 hours. Southern and central Arkansas was struck by an ice storm that put down enough ice to make driving treacherous, and cause scattered car accidents and even an occasional power outage. Our house was without power for about an hour and a half--I heard that a car had struck a power pole, possibly due to road conditions. As you can see from these pictures of our gas grill, satellite dish, and shrubbery, ice accumulated enough to start coating these objects. Fortunately, there was not enough freezing rain long enough to cause us the problems that Arkansas experienced in December of 2000. In that year, the state was struck by 2 large-scale, very damaging ice storms that felled many branches and small trees, downed power lines , and caused some residents weeks of struggle without power and other services. Hundreds of millions of board feet of timber were damaged or destroyed, including whole pine plantations wiped out. Ranchers also struggled,...

As virtually every other Packer fan world-wide, I am in one of the phases of recovery of the untimely end to the Packer's season. While I am thoroughly disappointed with the failure in Lambeau last Sunday, I have been trying to tell myself that this team, so full of young, inexperienced, and untested players, far outplayed their expectations. Favre had far more good moments than bad, set a whole bunch of records, and secured his place as one of the absolute best quarterbacks EVER! Still feels like a small consolation, but it must do for now... WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR! On a brighter note, I talked with my sister Laurie last night. I am scheduled to attend a meeting in Madison the second week of April. I'll fly in a couple days early, and we plan to drive up to Eau Claire and visit Lisa and her family (including her new baby, which should have arrived by late March). Because I'm in an official work status, I won't have much chance to visit those outside of Madison ...

We finished our Christmas/New Year's visit this year with a few hours at my sister Laurie (aka Lulu) and her husband Mark's home just outside of Madison, Wisconsin. We arrived just before noon, and were joined by brother John and his partner Jim, brother Bob and his girlfriend Lisa, and of course Lulu and Mark and their two dogs, Mingo and Lily. In the first picture, Mingo points at the "game" discovered in his carseat... and then Lily snoozed for a while... Lulu and Mark had prepared a tasty lunch of chili, sandwiches, and Lulu's bacon-laced pasta salad, amongst other treats. We had a nice visit--we played a little bit of the board game "Topple" and our kids played with the dogs and got into stuff. Eventually, though, we needed to head south, so Lulu snapped some last-minute pictures and we said our goodbyes... We were happy to not have to frantically drive home to catch a Packer playoff game, as they had a bye the weekend we returned. After a busy week...

It is now Friday morning, January 4, and I am sitting in Mom and Dad's kitchen looking out on a beautiful scene of snow-covered trees. It is in the 20s here, with bright blue skies. We've had a great visit here so far--definitely feels like winter! Our Rhinelander visit has been packed full of activities. As you saw in our last blog, we initially opened gifts with mom and dad. Friday night, we visited our good friends Brian and Michelle Bennett and their son David at their Rhinelander home. My sister Lisa, her husband Jon, and their kids (Susan, David, Michael, Emma, and in- utero baby girl) came for a visit on that Saturday. Kenny and Beth had a ball playing with their cousins--and a real treat--their first snowmobile rides ever! Jon Hurlburt brought his snowmobile over, and a small covered sled he can tow behind the snowmobile. Jon took them out for several laps, then since the kids were having so much fun, he let me pull them around our woods a few more times... Their v...