Missed one.

Mr. & Mrs. Santa Clause.

Christmas Day

Stacy and Michael hosted a wonderful Christmas day dinner with us and Margaret and Jim Murphy, Michael's parents.

Stacy and Kay play a duet of Christmas carols.
Bob with his hoodie and scarf gift from Stacy and Michael.

Jim and Margaret Murphy

The lovebirds, Stacy and Michael.

Christmas Eve at the McKay House

Traditionally, the Fuller family gathers on Christmas eve for a fun evening of dining, gifting and playing Santa Mayhem. This Christmas eve was way up there on the best of list. We gathered at Glynis & Jim's house, had a wonderful dinner, the younger grandkids opened gifts then the adults got vicious, well almost, over the portable DVD player and digital photo frames.

Jim with his prize

The older grandchildren, Justin, Trenton, April and her friend Monique.

Greg with his prize. Frying pans. Go Greg. Yes, he can cook.

Abigail in her Roxie Girl wig.

Gayle with her gift, at least for a while.

Glynis got a Ninga, OOOOOO baby.


The younger grandkids. Abigail, Peyton, Pierce and Austin.

Merry Christmas Card

Here is the photo we are using for our 2009 Christmas Card. It is one that Bob did in Susan Herron's class. Merry Christmas everybody.

Long time no blog

What good is a stale blog? Bob and I had a wonderful thanksgiving with the Fuller clan at Gayle's house. Lots to eat and then we wrapped presents for the stocking and sweatshirt projects at church. Our church prepares 400 stockings and lots and lots of sweatshirts for children with parents who are incarcerated in PG County.

Bob and I went to the Corcoran Gallery of Art to see John Singer Sargent's "Sargent and the See." It was a nice exhibit, but the one that really got to us was Edward Burtynsky's Oil exhibition of photographs documenting the production, distribution, uses and end of oil. It was powerful and evoked a lot of emotion in me. There were photographs of acres and acres of carcasses of planes, cars, engines, tires, oil barrels and tankers.


You can see for yourself at www.corcoran.org/burtynsky/index.php

Bob in Mississippi

Bob is in Missippi with other members of our congregation building a house for a Katrina victim. Here is a link to his blog. I am so proud of him. K
http://stmattewsumc-vim.blogspot.com/

Latest art discovery - Triads

Bob and I learned that less is more in our Susan Herron class on Saturday. Three colors forming a triangle make very nice paintings. Here are a couple of examples

Visiting with Colin, Steve, Torre and Christian

Saturday, we drove to Plymouth, NH, to visit our grandson Colin. This is a picture of Colin and his beautiful girlfriend, Hannah.












Kay, Colin and Hannah in front of his dorm.
After lunch we drove to Concord and had a nice visit with Stephen, Torre, Christian, Pheobie and Rocko.

Last Day (5) of Painting in Maine

Today was our last day of painting with Steve Fleming and his students. Location - Birch Point Beach State Park - was lovely. I painted on these rocks and Bob set up on the beach

Steve's Demo of the scene below.

After we finished painting, we went to the

Farnsworth Museum and Gallery. They have paintings by three generations of Wyeths, N.C,

Andrew, and Jamie. It is interesting how similarly Andrew Wyeth painted Maine trees and rocks.

Day 4 of Painting in Maine

View of the Harbor

Steve's demo while schooner departs port.

Bob painting the bay.

Day four, my camera battery died. So, here are todays shots. We painted at the Camden Yacht Club and of course we had lots of boats to watch entering and leaving the port.

Painting in Maine Day 2

Steve giving some feedback to Pat.














Steve's painting with radial composition, finished and in process.

Steve shows us different styles of compositon.

Steve critiques our paintings from today and yesterday.

Fort Point Lighthouse - Site of our Workshop 9/15/09

Today, we painted on the grounds of Fort Point Lighthouse. The clouds were a glorious addition to this beautiful location.

Painting in Maine- Day 1

Steve doing morning and afternoon demos.

Our scenic location for painting today.

Kays four and Bob's three exercises, still not finished.

Painting in Maine

These are two shots of the view from our balcony at the Ledges by the Bay in Rockport, Maine. We are here for a five day watercolor workshop with Steve Fleming. I had lobster in Wakefield, Mass, last night and hope to have many more this week.

Bob is Giving Back

Bob was part of a team that went to UMCOR Mission Central in Mechanicsburg PA yesterday. They took a truckload of old computers, monitors, & printers to be recycled, and School Kits for distribution to poor families with children. While there, they packed cleaning buckets, "Flood Buckets," to be available for the next flooded area.

I planned to go, but got called in to work.

Bob's Volunteer Experience at the National Archives

Friday was Bob's first day at the National Archives. He was one of many volunteers putting together information for the wives of the Civil War casualties. These documents included petitions for pensions as well as proof of the death of their spouses and the spouses war information. So many of these fellows died of diseases and wounds of battle. Of interest, only the Union forces were entitled to pensions as the Confederate soldiers were considered traitors...the secessionists. A law was passed in the mid twentieth century that reversed this. I don't think many were left to collect their pensions.

Aunt Catherine's 97th Birthday Celebration

August 2, 2009 in Damascus, VA

Bob and I met our friends, Linda and Bill Owens in Abingdon on Friday for a weekend of celebration of Aunt Catherine's 97th birthday and the Highlands Festival in Abingdon.

Dan and Amy, Mike and Tamara, grandsons Ben and Evan, and Joanne and Bob Horsht helped Aunt Catherine celebrate her big day with a feast and cake.
Here are Dan, Mike & Aunt Catherine.






Aunt Catherine with her cake



















Kay playing Happy Birthday to You on her flute.