More Christmas pics from aledo

looking good, guys. i noticed the puzzle in the background, and that got me thinking that about that special tradition. what is the deal with our family and puzzles at Christmas? who started this? and why are the dallas glenn's not really a part of this? we always get there and the puzzle is there on the table with the border usually almost done. who is responsible for buying the puzzle every year? these questions need answers.





Here is david and uncle Bodie relaxing after what i am sure was a busy day at Mema and Grandad's. The back yard seems different to me. new landscaping?










what are they eating? pigs in a blanket? interesting picture. youve got almost all the cousins (i am assuming that is matthew with the santa hat?) watching Lindy eat.




-elias

Christmas Details

Here are a couple of pictures of us in highly contested games of "washers". Plenty of trash talking, not a lot of skill. Lots of fun anyway. Grandad was repeatedly called for footfaults. He is always looking for an edge. By the way, that sweater Matthew is wearing was purchased with Elias in Shanghai (Elias has a matching one).
-woody

smoothies

we made our inagural smoothies with our new blender last night. it was pretty awesome. Orion, Michael and I all bought lots of fruit on our way home, so now we have about 30 pounds of fruit sitting at home waiting to be blended up. We need to find a way to make ice, because our fridge doesn't do a very good job of it.
- elias

The Family Blog

This is a spectacular idea. I hope everyone will take a few minutes and learn how to participate. It will be a great way to keep up with what is going on with everyone. We had a good visit with everyone in Aledo. 17 people last night. Seemed a bit like a refuge camp with people sleeping everywhere. Introduced Dave W to spinner. The whole experience may have been a bit of culture shock for him. We had a nice fire in the chimenea (?) and today the weather was perfect. Several of us ate breakfast out on the deck. I will try to post a few pics tomorrow.

- woody

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This is Shen Rong and I with our Christmas presents. We both got coats! we had a pretty good christmas. three friends stayed over and we made french toast and bacon for breakfast BEFORE opening presents. i got our apartment a blender. we are pretty excited about that. i miss all of yall and am sure you guys are having a great time. hope you guys liked the presents we sent. mema (and all the parents), i finally can somewhat appreciate what all you guys go through every year trying to get everything ready for us kids. planning the dinner and getting all the presents ready was a lot of work. but it was worth it. it was nice to spend time with some good friends. i hope everyone is doing great and i look forward to seeing everyone soon.

That's deep

"A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all." - Friedrich Nietzsche

i like this quote (Google's quote of the day) and didn't know where else to put it so i wouldn't forget it.

this is us matching at a christmas party. i was surprised how many people commented on it. i hardly noticed.

"the album cover"

this picture has to go up here. it was the best picture we took when matthew was here. and we all look like we are having a good time. i like to imagine all the chinese people looking at us and wondering what is wrong with us as we snap a photo of ourselves trying on clothes in the middle of the store, and with one of the workers telling us not to take pictures in the store. when orion my roommate saw this picture, he called it "the album cover".

M's second trip to SH

matthew's second trip to shanghai is over, at least for me. he is catching a train back to beijing in about three hours.

It was a good trip, though very tiring. i counted eight taxi rides for me on saturday. i think i realized this trip that i try to do too much when someone comes to visit me in shanghai. i want to do too much. i know mom and dad remember the days they had here. but i just get wiped out trying to do too many things and we don't take time to enjoy the things we do. so next time someone comes to visit, we are going to take it easy.

Matthew, let's here your thoughts on Shanghai here.

E

E and SR

this was us on one of our nights out. SR's dress was made at the fabric market. my shirt was from japan from a friend. not sure why i am not smiling. this was the first time we were wearing our new clothes. from what we were wearing, obviously sometime in the summer.

E

the fam, circa 2003?

a meeting place

i have wanted to do this for awhile
create a place online where we can all talk to each other without having to send out emails to everyone
if this works out, i hope this will help us to keep in touch and learn about how everyone is doing
as we all become increasingly dispersed, spreading what it means to be a Glenn or Fincher or Means or Adams or Green it becomes increasingly important to maintain those ties that are the strongest. i believe family is the most important thing we have; i guess being away from my family has taught me that. but hey, we can still be family even if we don't see each other every month
so i invite all of our "kinfolk" to let us know how they are doing, what you have been thinking about lately and to share your pictures with everyone
i for one have lots to share and would love to hear how everyone is doing
anyway, i am keeping my fingers crossed that this works over here in China...