Our McIntosh family Christmas 2008

What a great and wonderful family Christmas we all enjoyed this year!!! Phil was home, and all the grandparents plus grammy Olga were with us. Uncle Jonathan, aunt Katherine, and Katherine's family, the Waliki's (Mark, Marietta and Liz) were all here with us. What a joyful and blessed time we all enjoyed together --- thanks be to God!!

We all got too much stuff. The boys played with their gifts right away, of course: guitar hero world tour for the wii and some bionicle stuff.

Jonathan was in charge of the 12 lb. standing rib roast that we had for Christmas dinner..... a massive success!

All of our people got along very well together

During Christmas dinner, we had the English "poppers" and donned the party hats

Fellowship was great amongst all in the house

Grandaddy got the bike he asked for

Drake and Papa discuss technical aspects of Drakes bionicle space vehicle

We also enjoyed a wonderful visit from our "daughter" Riley

It would not have been Christmas at all with out a visit from her... She lives in Minneapolis

Our annual hospital santa claus "ministry" was a wonderful succes this year

Maddie was our elf again, and we encouraged quite a few precious souls with gifts, prayers and polaroid photos.

While getting in to the spirit of advent, we enjoyed some Christmas karaoke with various friends -- including Sean and the Simpsons

Grammy even hung out with us for karaoke!!!

Shannon's 40th birthday party

This past Saturday night, we had about 50 friends and family members over to celebrate Shannon's 40th birthday. It was a lovely time.

This fancy white chocolate rasberry mousse cake from "Elite Treats" was entirely eaten!!! Shannon had the last piece before bed!!

The house was very beautifully decorated for birthday and Christmas


The massive food spread was attended and managed lovingly by our neighbor Mary, and our mothers, Karen and June.



We cooked over 100 of these stuffed jalapenos.... and there was amazingly little food left at the end of the night!!!

The house was pretty full -- especially when people gathered around the dance floor (dining room) to hear people give little speeches about Shannon

The kitchen was overflowing for the blowing out of candles and cutting of the cake

Our friends the Heinbecks, the Wemyss, and father Kulma

Shannon's parents in the foreground here on the dance floor. We didn't really have too much participation with dancing -- but the disco lights are still up for New Years!!!

The flash doesn't allow you to see the cool lighting effects that we set up above the dining room

This shot is real blurry, but i love the mood it captures with my parents -- and our good friends Hugh and Sandra Evans in the background

This is a grouping of some freinds from our old neighborhood: Judy Hansen, Jena and Philip Bissaillon, Debbie and Bill Wenter, and Letty and Carey Seay

Lynn and Lloyd Simpson are some of our best friends of all time

Phil with Rich Lallasher our next door neighbors (with his lovely wife Karen who took this shot)

The real stars of the show, our other next door neighbors, Mary and Gary Ash --- who prepared much of the food and "carried the night" for us all

Late fall and early winter 2008

Destin singing at a talent show fundraiser

Drake's fall art show piece with the detail just above

On December 10th, we had a suprise little blizzard at our house. this is one of two snow men that the boys built!

Drake was in a play at school: a Dr. Suess version of Romeo and Juliett

Destin took this shot of the "whitest, fullest" moon 3 nights ago

Shannon and Destin (mostly shannon) fixed the broken armrest in his truck

No real explanation here: but you can find Destin, Drake and Phil all on facebook

Thanksgiving dinner on Jonathan and Katherine's back deck in leander TX

Dylan, Sean and Destin -- they are still "Deadstraight" .... until they can agree on a better name for the band

they are a REAL (garage) band!

We decorated the house for Christmas before thanksgiving

Our friend Suanna that works at Martha's Kitchen with us on Wednessdays

Is it Fall already in 2008?

We have been having a LOT of FUN!!!! A little more about our paint ball adventures is written below a photo that you will see if you scroll down a bit. We all think that a shot to the face in a paint ball war is actually a pretty good deal... You don't feel any pain, and everybody knows right away that you are out of the game!!!!

Before hurricane Ike, we had 8 pine trees cut down from in front of our house. What a blessing that was!! But the guys that did the work had a scary time cutting 'em down!!!


We like to eat at a "Church's Chicken" here in Kingwood. Phil likes the gizzards with tabasco

Drake recently made this balloon suit for himself. We loved it a lot. but we have no explanation for it! Mimi and Papa were here when he did it, but why weren't they in the photos?

Destin is really involved in youth leadership at our church/parish. We are so very proud of him. Here he is with a few of his co-ministers preparing for a recent retreat.

On Oct. 31 I had to work a trip to Japan. I wore this funky rastafarian dreadlocks cap on my jobsite as a halloween joke. My capt. and good friend Ken liked it so much that he wanted to have it. I told him he could only have it if he sang karaoke with me in Narita. The actual song that we were singing at the momet of this photo was John Denver's "Country Roads" ..... you probably had to be there....

Just last week, I had the blessing of flying with my friend Ken on his final retirement flight! His whole family was with him. And he wore our cap for this photo. Do you think the rest 0f the crew noticed?

Destin and Sean joined the Kingwood Highschool choir in order to get some instruction on how to sing. (Their teacher, Mr. Watt is actually a cantor at our downtown cathedral!!) Shannon somehow got us (and quite a few of our closest friends and fam.) some FRONT ROW seats at their first concert this year.

The weather has been really great for paintball wars of late! Here are some recent shots from a trip to "twisted games of texas" with some of the boy's friends. Phil went as: paint target, van driver, sandwich maker and photographer. "But I did shoot a few people before my gun broke down!!"

Many a happy weekend evening was enjoyed of late at our neighbor's house (the Ash's). In this photo, Destin and Sean serenade us around their grand piano.

On a recent flight to Japan, we were talking on the radio with a UAL plane that was just below us on the same routing. The pilots took this photo of us and emailed it to us. ----very cool of them, don't you think?

We bought some mattresses for the beds in our house, and got some free tickets to a big rock-concert weekend here in Houston. Sammy Haggar and Twisted Sister were headliner's for the gig, but we actually got the biggest kick out of catching the local "upstart" bands that played on the peripheral stages during the afternoons.