Bragg Family South Christmas/New Year's break

Wait...when did we get to 2014, let alone mid-January of 2014???  Now that things have slowed down a bit after the holidays, I see that I haven't done a blog post since the first day of December 2013.  In truth, it's not because we've quit doing things, it's just that I haven't been taking lots of pictures!  We had a good holiday season this year.  Above, Beth enjoyed decorating some Christmas cookies...Unlike last year's bad flu outbreak for Bragg Family South during the Christmas season, we seem to have <> gotten through this winter so far with only a few relatively minor illnesses.  Of course, Kenny and I managed to get sick on the trip up to Michigan, but that passed relatively quickly.  We got to open presents on Christmas morning and the Prudens in lower Michigan...Below, Kenny and Stephen try to figure out why they all got cans of cat food for Christmas gifts (hint:  it was a bit of a prank by us!):

Rich Pruden, below, loves visits from his grandchildren--primarily because he gets to play with their toys!:

And, as usual, Beth was a grandma's girl (for both grandmothers):

(Needless to say, Ann Pruden or Rose Bragg don't mind a bit!).  Below, Stephen and Beth enjoyed playing with their cousin Alexandria:

We had a fairly short visit in Michigan before heading up the day after Christmas to my parents' home in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  Northern Wisconsin has been fairly cold this year, and modestly snowy, meaning that at least some sledding with Uncle Bobby was to be had:

We managed a number of walks in my parents' woods; always a treat any season of the year, but it was especially pretty with the snow on the trees:

Much of our Wisconsin visit was affected by cold weather, though--more than one night fell below -20 degrees, and some days didn't get above zero at all!  Even my parents' cat Romeo didn't seem to mind getting bundled up:

Hope needed to get a "casual" yet formal picture for her new job as an extension 4-H agent with the University of Arkansas, so we took advantage of one of the warmer days (it was almost 10 degrees out!) and posed a few pictures:

We got to visit a lot of family and friends, but didn't see several of my siblings because we were going to see them at my brother John's wedding reception at the end of the trip.  The Friday after New Year's Day we went down to visit my brother Bob, and the next day we were geared up to see the rest of the family the next day...Unfortunately, a major winter storm was brewing and was forecast to pass right through our route home on Sunday.  Rather than facing hundreds of miles of icy, snowy, cold, and otherwise treacherous driving conditions, we decided to head towards Arkansas on Saturday, thereby avoiding the storm entirely.  Unfortunately, that meant we missed John and Jim's reception, and didn't get to see the rest of the family :(

Our drive back went smoothly, though, and we quickly settled back into our routines--the kids were back in school by that first Monday of January, and Hope and I were back in our respective offices.  So, now we're adjusting and jumping back into various home projects, including my latest--fixing our shifting front (carport) door:

I took the picture above of the framing around this door--pretty obvious that this was not really properly and solidly built, hence explaining why the shifting of the house has such an impact on the door...Tomorrow I will remove more of the door parts, reinforce the structure, and then rehang the door.  Hopefully, this will solve this problem once and for all!