Happy New Year!

After spending several days in central Oklahoma, we made the four hour drive to that northwest end of the state known as the panhandle. That's where Denisa and Mark were raised and graduated from high school. It's also where the Engelmans were gathering on New Year's weekend at Cap-o-Ranch. The horses got some extra affection, as some of our great nieces and nephews enjoyed making the trip up the driveway to pet them.

We have a dozen great nieces and nephews that are between the ages of 3 and 10. That's a perfect group of children to sing the "Twelve Days of Christmas," so that's exactly what they did.

We also have four nieces and nephews in their teens, but this younger group of twelve children began a family baby boom ten years ago. This picture was taken a decade ago when three of our nephews had new baby daughters born within three months of each other. Mark's Mother is standing in the middle of all that cute-ness, beaming at her new great granddaughters.

They recreated that picture during this holiday, holding their ten-year-old daughters with Great Grandma in the middle again.

This family has lots of talented musicians, and we enjoyed hours of family singing and dancing. We don't have enough sense to go to bed as long as there is good music happening.

After staying up until 1:30 a.m. singing the night before, we weren't sure if we were going to make it until midnight on New Year's Eve. But we were thoroughly entertained by our older great-nieces and nephews, giving us pointers on proper form on Wii games.

They made it look so easy! But we found out that we weren't nearly as coordinated when we tried to land a chicken on various platforms in the middle of the ocean. Denisa needs to work on her chicken-flapping techniques before next New Year's Eve.

Even old wanderers can make it until midnight, and we are happy to spend time with so many of the people we love over this holiday. We'll be back on the road soon, but it was good to be home for the holidays. Happy New Year, and we wish a blessed 2017 to everyone!