It's been a busy year for the Smiths this year, and I'll be posting here soon with the details for readers of our soon to-be-sent-out Christmas cards.
We never got 2010 cards out, and I just realized I never even did a 2010 card post, so here's a quick rundown of 2010, followed by 2011. You go go to the hyperlinks for pictures and m ore detail, and if you just want to run through the family posts, click the "family" tab on the weblog here.
2010
Let's see - the years started out great with the Cowboys beating the Eagles in back to back games in Cowboys Stadium to get their first playoff win since the Mesozoic era (they then got blown out by the Vikings, and the year never recovered) followed by the best snowfall in Marshall ever. The boys had a big spring in Scouts, with Dad and Lad campout and Pinewood Derby, then during the summer Jamie and I took the boys to Corpus Christi where we went on the carrier Lexington. In July Jamie and I went on a two week river cruise in Russia, including several days in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, then in October we were inducted into the Equesterian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. back at the office we renovated the old Hub Shoe Store in downtown Marshall into my new offices, including a play/study room for the boys. For details on the renovation, see the Hub tab on the weblog, here - it has all the posts going back to the beginning of the renovations in the fall of 2009. In December, Grayson was confirmed, including making his first confession and first communion from Bishop Corrada. We never did get cards out, and the post summarizing the year unfortunately never got taken off "draft" status, so here it is.
2011
2011 started with Jamie's swearing in for her fifth term as Harrison County Treasurer, and a trip to Dallas to do the NFL Experience while the Super Bowl was in town. Spring also means Dad and Lad - this year with my two remaining Cubs Collin and Parker as Grayson's now in Boy Scouts. But the highlight of spring was going skiing at Keystone for several days during spring break. For summer we started a new family tradition, taking our new boat out on the lake. We didn't get to do much on it (just a little fishing) but it'll get a lot more use this coming year, we're sure. Grayson had his sixth grade all-city dance, which Jamie played a major role in making a resounding success. During the summer Grayson attended the Jay Novacek football camp at Cowboys Stadium and had a great time. He also played fall football with the Lil Mavs in Pop Warner, and they won their division. We also went to homecoming at Baylor, and made the usual fall trips to watch our Cowboys play in Arlington, including three Ring of Honor inductees last month.
But the highlight of the year was our family's trip to Europ in July and August, where we spent seventeen days in Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Croatia, and Italy. We flew into Athens and spent a few days there, then boarded a cruise ship to see other sites in Turkey, followed by two days in Israel, seeing Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee, then two days in Egypt, seeing the Pyramids in Cairo as well as spending a day in Alexandria, then Ravenna, Italy and Dubrovnik, Croatia, ending with several days in Venice. Jamie's parents and my mother went with us and we had a wonderful time. I still have prepared a detailed post, but here are the best photos.