McMullin Family Picture

Kristen took this picture of the clan at Christmas. She is really great with Photoshop. Most of the pictures she took. Then she jumped in and I jumped out to take a few with her in them. Then she pasted herself in! I'm so impressed. Be sure to click on the picture to make it large enough to see!

Which Candidate to Support?

Last night on Fox News, Shepard Smith did a story on a website VAjoe.com . It is a Candidate Calculator that has you click where you stand on 24 different issues, and if you rank it as high/med/low importance. Given your responses, they calculate which candidate most holds the views you do. Shepard said that about 83% of the time, the calculator came up with a different candidate that the person said they supported. Guess who mine came up with? Romney with a 91% match!

On that note, here's a cute video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-W6SUM__ZU) that shows the personal side of Mitt...not that I'm trying to influence anyone!

Food Warnings!

The week before Christmas, Claire suffered with "the runs". The first episode followed a snack of pretzels. The rest of the week, after each new episode, she claimed it was those pretzels that were still making her sick.

This morning, Rylie ate a small bowl of craisins. She came to me and said she ate them all. In the next breath, she told me her leg hurt. So, I asked her if the craisins made her leg hurt. She said yes.

So, protect yourselves, your families, the world against the harmful effects of pretzels and craisins!

This has been a public service announcement from Solsken's Spot.

Rock Candy

Tyler is a Webelos in Cub Scouting. He is working on his Scientist pin. One of the projects was to make rock candy. He and Brian had fun making the super-saturated solution and learning lots of chemistry along the way. Here was the final result!

Happy New Year

Christmas Eve

We were so happy that my mom was able to come visit us for Christmas. She was supposed to arrive on Saturday before Christmas, but was delayed several times and we finally had to rescue her from the Chicago airport on Sunday. Our first task was to *winterize* her! Isn't she cute!




On Christmas eve, Grandma Z and Tyler tracked Santa via NORAD and even called into the "NORAD Track Santa" hotline to find out just when Santa would arrive in our area.

Later we made gingerbread houses. Even though it isn't a contest, Brian always *wins*! In fact, his is usually the only one that remains standing! Watching Brian painstakingly create his houses, I think, "If only his patients could see this!" Knowing that he takes more care in surgery than in gingerbread house construction, his patients are in good hands! You don't even want to see how the other houses turned out!

The last activity of the night was the annual Christmas show, the reading of the Christmas story from the Bible, singing carols, and costumes. Our neices and nephews in College Station, TX were also part of the action as we did the show via web cam! As the kids go to bed, we hope the last thought in their minds will be the true reason for Christmas, the birth of our Saviour. Well, nice try, I guess!

The kids head to bed in anticipation of Santa! Little do they know of the surprise that awaits them the next day! Tyler has oft complained that he is the only person in the family without a rolling suitcase. We got one for him and inside it was a boarding pass for a flight to Texas that left on Christmas day. We tore into our presents, then packed up to go to the airport. We said goodbye to Grandma Z at one terminal and flew out of another ourselves!