Twas The Night Before ...

 

 

The above shot was of the Christmas tree and all of the stuff just after Santa left and the elves were relaxing with a shot of crème limoncello ... but I must go back a week first.

We went down to Bryan to visit Bruce's parents at the St. Jo Manor to celebrate birthday and Christmas with them. Bruce's mom turned 96 on the 23rd and she was more charming, witty, and responsive than we had seen in a while. In fact, so much so that she came up to Dad's room from hers in the nursing area to be with us. We exchanged presents and talked about old family times as we had brought some old pictures to jar her memory ... sharp as ever. We then transitioned to Christmas and exchanged some more presents and chatted more. We then departed but apparently Mom was so up with it that she joined Dad in his dining room for the Manor's Christmas dinner ... absolutely wonderful for these close centenarians.

Then back to the scene above in Richardson which is part of Dallas. Below is Christmas morning after Ev gleefully discovered a whole bunch of bright paper under the tree and began to tear into it.

He actually enjoyed the unwrapping part best as he helped all of us unwrap each gift.

Then the big moment which he somehow had left for last and it was the easiest to get into ...

... and onto as he broke new speed records doing the circuit around through the kitchen and the family room ... lights ablaze!

And lastly the outcome of a corner at too high a speed ... won't be the last for this cute little guy!

No harm done and the spread eagle was more for our benefit. This was a wonderful event for our family both here and in Bryan and we hope that wherever you are your celebrations during this time of year are as rewarding and fun.

Have Gunns Will Travel
is Back!!

 

After three months being off line we have finally re-established the www.havegunnswilltravel.com website. We appreciate all of you who were resourceful and found us at www.bruceandjoanne.blogspot.com and continue to follow our life and travels.

 

 

It was a fun and educational experience for the blogger as I researched and battled registrars, domain name servers, hosting services, etc. The bottom line was that the original host service, 1&1.com, refused to release the name and yet kept it off the web. Finally were able, with the new host, JustHost.com, to regain control of the domain name and move it to their server.

 

 

The adventures of the Flying Scotsman and its three inhabitants can now continue!

Driving Around Texas

 

We will be moving out of our apartment in Dallas toward the end of January but are taking advantage of the extra living space to get the Flying Scotsman back up for another multi-national run this spring. As a consequence while the bus is at Camping World in Fort Worth for a month or so we are using the nice weather to hit some spots around us in the car.

 

The first was to the little town of Granbury which is a short distance southwest of Fort Worth. We had been there many years ago and were impressed with the quaint town square and so went over to see what the housing market might be like there for future reference.

 

 

The iconic county court house and square were all decked out for the holidays and the square was as filled with neat antique shops and restaurants as we had remembered. Because it was Sunday morning a brunch venue of some sort was required and facing the square was the neat little place called Christine's.

With about five or six tables in the back of a fun shop we ordered their champagne brunch ... up there at the very top of the culinary list! This was a Mediterranean omelet with fruit cup and grits. Everything was bright, fresh, and even the grits for us non grit lovers were good. The total was less than $30 including as many mimosas as you would like.

Keeping with the festive season here is the toast of the day from the Italian Grotto, Alla Salute! Cin Cin!

On another day as we were in College Station we always go walking in the Veterans Memorial Park. The walkway is a time capsule of all the nation's conflicts and they have just dedicated a new Vietnam piece of art.

The bronze bas-relief is really well done and the old helicopter pilot almost blends into the artwork!

Let it Snow!

 

Here are the cabins that we have hosted our kids and others at the Barrie, Ontario, KOA. While we are there they sure don't look like this.

This beautiful picture was taken a couple of weeks ago by the KOA staff but as I write this there is a pretty intense blizzard ongoing and a few more feet of the white stuff will be on the ground. Thankfully this particular park doesn't host winter guests ... although the scenery would be awesome and there are ski resorts just down the road.

Be there in the spring, eh!

Birthday Boy!

 

On November 3rd, our orange-topped grandson Ev turned an awesome 4 years old.

 

And here is the star of the party eagerly awaiting the word so that he could blow out the candles.



 

And a close-up of the cake before it was destroyed. The theme was centered around the popular Jake the Pirate character, hence a lot of gold doubloons and other pirate related stuff.

With a mouth full of crackers he really was getting into the pirate adventure ... ship and all.

Here's Brooks mom Judith and Leigh supervising the present opening after the guests had left.

And then the real supervision is from Brooks' dad as son is trying to figure out how to assemble the new air hockey set.

The little hockey set did finally get assembled and proved a lot of fun for everyone, especially Ev. Another great year for the grandson and for the parents and grandparents of a rapidly growing youngster.