A night at Harvelle's

We met Gordon, Tracy and her cousin April at Harvelle's blues bar in Santa Monica.  Keb Mo, a great blues singer and guitarist was jamming.  The place was rocking and we all had a great time.  Check out the video featuring Lady Gigi singing with Keb's band.  It will give you a pretty good idea of the electricity in the room.

Christmas celebrations 2008 part 2

The extended Carey family gets together every Christmas to exchange gifts but primarily to just see each other.  We had some missing this year but those that we're able to attend had a great time.  

Christmas celebrations 2008

Christmas celebrations 2008

We've enclosed some pictures from 2 of our Christmas celebrations.  The first was with Kristen and Sal at Sal's parent's home.  They have a huge family - lots of fun and great tamales.

The other pictures are from Christmas Eve with the Carey kids and Christina.  Lots of fun again - Family get togethers are the best. 

Holiday boat parade

Living in Southern California we've been lucky enough to be able to attend the holiday boat parades in San Diego, Newport Beach and now Dana Point  We have gone to the San Diego boat parade for a number of years but this year because we have just moved to Orange County we went to the boat parade at the Dana Point harbor.  We were actually on one of the boats in the parade this year.

Dana Point is much smaller than either San Diego or Newport and we were pleasantly surprised that it seemed very intimate and much more interactive than in the past at the larger harbors.

We had a great time.  Check out the video to see a couple of the boats really in the spirit. 

Dane has eyes for Sarah

Check out our grandson Dane making eyes at the Alaska Governor at a recent open house in Juneau.  

Kristen and Sal's Thanksgiving

Kristen and Sal spent Thanksgiving in Anthony, New Mexico with Sal's family.  The reason for the get together was to celebrate Sal's Uncle Manuel's 80th birthday.  Over 200 friends and family members attended and Sal and Kristen had a great time.  Kristen says that Sal's aunts showed her how to make roasted chile salsa.  That is great news because Kristen is going to have to make it the next time she comes over.  Enjoy these pictures that Kristen sent us from their trip.

Great News about Tina

We heard from Dan today that Tina had opened her eyes and was able to take commands from the doctor when he was at her side. Even though she didn't talk this is great news.  We want to thank everyone for their prayers and ask you all to continue to think and pray for Tina.  While this is a significant step she still has a long, long way to go.  

By the way if anyone would like to comment to any of these posts feel free to do so.  Dan, Tian and Blair all get these updated emails from our blogs. 

Aunt Tina

The last two weeks have been frightful for us.  On Monday, November 17th Heidi's sister Tina had bariatric surgery.  There were complications to the surgery and Tina was taken back to the hospital on Thursday, November 20th.  She was unresponsive and has had to endure 5 additional surgeries since.  She has not awaken yet and must have another surgery on Monday, December 1.  Heidi flew up to Seattle on Friday, November 18th and spent the week with Uncle Dan and our nieces Tian and Blair.  

Tina has made some progress but still isn't awake.  She will have a very long road to recovery.  Most of our family already knows about Tina's hospitalization.  We ask all of you to keep Tina, Dan, Tian, Blair and Alyssa (Blair's daughter) in your prayers.  We will keep all of you posted and let everyone know as soon as we get news.  

What's the Deal with the cute dog?

I think that I owe everyone an explanation about that really cute dog on the front of our blog.  Her name is Bella and Heidi gave her to me about 3 years ago.  She is a maltese mix, her father was a tea cup chihuahua.  This is one of the few times that we put a bow in her hair.  She really doesn't like it and tears them out every time we try to do it now.  

Heidi and I have 6 kids --- and Bella.  She is our new child and we are going to spoil her rotten.

She is not very social with other dogs or animals but really does like most humans (except the mail man - she can't stand him).  Once she gets to know you she'll cuddle up right behind your head on the sofa and attach herself to you.  She really does have a sixth sense about when she is needed.  If one of us is sick or feeling blue she spends most of her time right next to the one that needs her.  

Bella would come to visit my mother in law Lorraine during the last year of her life.  Bella would bounce up onto her bed and cuddle up with Lorraine and just stay with her the entire afternoon.  She just knew that Lorraine was the one in need and that we were ok without her for the visit.

Bella is the best and we thank God we have her.