We used this link on the return address to our Christmas cards this year to encourage people to stop by the weblog and see what we've been up to - sort of the online version of a Christmas newsletter.
First of all, the weblog. A weblog, for those of you not familiar with them, is sort of an online diary where you can post entries on things that are of interest to you. I keep this post on family and personal things (the title is from Jamie's term for what I like to do when she'd like me to be doing something useful), but I have another on federal court practice, one on my State Bar director activities, and a fourth on Grayson's Tiger Cub den, since I'm den leader. The way to navigate is easy - on the left are a list of my web logs, plus the most recent posts. On the right are tabs for the posts grouped by category - so click on "family" and you see all the entries for family activities. Click on "books" and you can be bored silly by the arcane history books I read. And so forth. On the right also are online photo albums - click on them and you can see photos organized by family, Tiger Cub den, the boys' birthday parties, our Amtrak trip, the house, our family reunion, and Bullet & Martha's visit this spring. I'll try to cover the basic activities in this post, but you can find out more by going through the actual posts.
2005
As I said, this has been a good year - our first full year in the new house. Highlights of the spring were Grayson's sixth birthday (hard to believe he's that old) http://mcsmith.blogs.com/photos/graysons_6th_birthday_par/index.html at which his big present was a new bed/desk for his room - http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/05/graysons_bed.html . We also had some portraits done of the boys around Easter - this one is my favorite - 
We also had a visit from my birth-mother Bullet and her mother Martha. They stayed for several days and we all had a great time. Went to soccer games, out of dinner, cooked at home, and met the crew at the office. Just had a really good visit. The pictures of Grayson and Bullet are really cute - waking her up (by screaming in her ear) each morning was his job, and he really enjoyed it, as you can tell. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/photos/bullet_marthas_visit/index.html . Grayson also graduated from kindergarten in May. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/05/graysons_gradua.html
Summer was interesting - we went to the Kleypas family reunion at Fort Parker in Mexia in June - http://mcsmith.blogs.com/photos/kleypas_family_reunion_20/index.html and had a great time seeing everyone. Father's Day we celebrated here in Marshall - Daddy came over and we spent the day together, including watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in the movie room. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/06/fathers_day_200.html Then, because we won a family trip on Amtrak last Christmas, we decided to spend the Fourth of July in San Antonio, and rode down there from Marshall, spent a couple of days (including taking the boys to see the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey circus) before coming back. Great, great trip. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/photos/amtrak_trip/index.html We actually could have taken the boys all the way to Los Angeles and back, courtesy of Amtrak, but one day each way was plenty. Not long after we got back, we had the twins' third birthday party at the house, highlighted by train rides. We've had our eye on having this train out for exactly this purposes since before the house was built - the layout of the drive was intended to accommodate train rides like this (seriously) with good turnaround points at each end (since I have not yet built the trestle bridge across the creek that I want to). http://mcsmith.blogs.com/photos/twins_3rd_birthday_party/index.html . At this point I have to mention that the beautiful cakes at the boys' birthday parties were by Jamie - she took a cake decorating class and made all three cakes. Another July highlight was Grayson's first model - 1/144 scale B-25. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/07/graysons_first_.html He also attended art camp for two weeks at the Marshall Visual Arts Center http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/08/grayson_at_art_.html and made a bunch of really neat stuff.
Lots of new things this fall. Grayson started first grade at Trinity Episcopal School, and started as a Tiger Cub in Cub Scouts. I volunteered to lead the den, so we've spent a lot of time going to Scout activities this fall. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/photos/pack_239_tiger_cub_den/index.html But the highlight, as you can tell, was definitely his "Mom & Me" overnight camping trip with Jamie at Camp Pirtle. Just use your imagination to tell how much fun she had spending the night in a tent with Grayson. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/10/grayson_jamie_a.html Other fun things this fall included taking the twins to the library to get library cards (with their pictures on them!) and taking Grayson to homecoming at my alma mater Texas A&M - Commerce. They had a book signing in the student center and he was a big hit with the other authors, roaming from table to table deciding which books he wanted and which he didn't. I forgot to take my camera, so I don't have a picture of us at our table, but someone at the school took one, and I'm on the lookout for it. October also saw Jamie's 20 year high school reunion - she did a lot of the planning, and (despite many headaches as a result of the hurricane's taking the big rental facilities off the market two weeks before the reunion) it came out great. Hurricane Rita was a bust here - we were on generator for most of a day and got wind and some rain, but nothing bad.
Jamie and I also got to spend four days in Napa Valley in California at a seminar (yeah, right) in October, and had a wonderful time touring wineries and eating some really good food. http://mcsmith.blogs.com/general/2005/11/napa_valley_tri.html The highlight of the fall was Thanksgiving, when we hosted everyone for Thanksgiving dinner at our house, and my sister Emily and her family stayed with us for four days. 
Four days with six small kids and two couples and an obscene amount of food is what this house was designed for, and I am happy to report that it came through with flying colors. We just had a great time, and look forward to doing it again for Christmas.
In December, we took the boys to see Disney On Ice, which they really seemed to like, and have been busy getting ready for Christmas.
Office
Has also been a busy year on the office front. Jamie is completing her eleventh year as Harrison County Treasurer, and filed this month for a fourth four year term. She doesn't have an opponent yet - we'll see what happens by the filing deadline.
I've had a busy year as well - I finished my years as president of the Harrison County Bar Association and the East Texas Trial Lawyers Association this year, and started my year as president of the Eastern District of Texas Bar Association (federal court). I co-chaired two State Bar seminars, and in April ran for State Bar director representing the 24 counties of bar district #1. I won, and had had a great time working on Bar things and attending Bar board meetings around the state - so far we've met in Dallas, Amarillo, the Woodlands, and several times in Austin. One highlight of the year was a cover story on our firm in Intellectual Property Law & Business in November - 
Download ip_law_article.pdf - the story subsequently ran in Texas Lawyer and the January 2006 issue of Corporate Counsel magazine. So it's been a pretty good year at the office - the types of cases we are handling are changing, but we're enjoying the work.
Anyway, that's it from the Smith clan for this year. Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and happy holiday season, and we look forward to hearing from everyone soon.
Michael, Jamie, Grayson, Collin & Parker.