Happy Holidays

Photos of Ellie's 1st Christmas! Happy holidays to all.

An amazing 10 months

We can hardly believe how fast the last 10 months have flown by. Ellie is just incredible and tons of fun. She's started crawling, taking steps, has her first tooth, got her first major cold (bronchiolitis), met Santa, went swimming, celebrated her first Bradicca and she's done it all with a smile on her face.

Please enjoy this month's photos.

The First Tooth

Somehow I thought it would be more...exciting? no...eventful? maybe. Night before last I felt in Ellie's mouth - nope - the bump went down, no tooth. Last night, didn't think to check. Today at Grandma's the tooth popped out, you can barely see it, but you can feel the sharp little thing. No wailing, no crying, no excessive chewing or drooling. Just a single, little, sharp tooth. And one great big smile to go along with it.

Bradicca Blowout 2007

It's been a wonderful Bradicca season, thanks to all of you! I sincerely want to thank everybody for coming out to Bradicca '07 I can't thank you all enough for making this Bradicca the best ever! It was an amazing time, with much mirth and merriment to be had by all. View the additional pics from Jenny and Pat.

Some people didn't get to attend the Bradicca festivities this year, and some of you this was your very first Bradicca experience, so you may not have the low down on the first Bradicca.

Many, many years ago in the Old Country, there was a young man. By all accounts he was very happy and terribly good looking. Everybody liked him because he was very nice. He constantly tried to tell his friends how much he loved them, but there were so many people to talk to, that he would forget who he had told!

He would just walk up to his friends and say "I love you!" That usually worked, and most of his friends would be happy, but sometimes, he would accidently forget to tell someone how much he loved them, and they would be very sad.

Before long, Brad (that was his name), had SOOOOO MANY friends, that just telling his friends how much he loved them took all of his time. He didn't have enough time to do his work, or study for his classes. He certainly didn't have enough time to tell everybody how much they meant to him. He needed to find a solution!

He noticed that certain groups of his friends would take him out to a nice dinner and give him gifts, and ply him with the finest meats and liquors in the land. Nothing made Brad happier than to be plied with fine meats and liquors, especially Sangria, a delicious concoction of wine and fruit juices. Perhaps that was the solution!

Brad would gather all of his friends together into one place, at one specific time! He would make sure to hug everybody, and tell them that he loved them very much, and that their friendship makes life worth living. He wanted his friends to be friends to each other, and that in a perfect world everybody would love everybody else like he loved them!

Everybody loves everybody else, and drinks sangria with Brad! The idea was so simple, and elegant that Brad wanted to put that plan into motion immediately! Bradicca was born that very year.

He invited all of his friends (not everybody could make it, but that's ok, Brad didn't mind, people get busy), but those who did make it were fed Mexican food and swam in LITERS of excellent Sangria. He made sure to tell everybody how much he loved them. It was so successful in fact, that Brad decided that every year, during the week of his birth, he would do it again!

So that's the story of how Bradicca came about.

I love you all very much, your friendship is what makes my life worth living. I have Janet and Eleanor and a tremendous number of genuine friends who keep me sane and tremendously happy. Bradicca is my tool to make sure that there's at least one day that I have my friends together so that I can tell you all the same thing:

I love you. Thanks for being there for me.

Brad