The Bolton's Christmas Open House

December 5, 1999

Austin, TX

 

Here are the pictures from our festive Christmas party. This was our third party. It has become the tradition in our little circle that we throw the Christmas "bash." We had lots of old friends pop out of the woodwork to join us this year, and we are grateful to each of them for their presence. Thanks for being part of our holiday fun!

 

I hope you enjoy our accounting of the festivities.

 

 

Day 1 of lighting the tree

Day 2 of lighting the tree

A close-up of Jennifer's handiwork.

A really really close-up of the lights.

Day 4 of lighting the tree. (all 2550 lights are on!)

This is the first picture after the ornaments went on.

View 2 of the same.

View 3 of the same.

View 4 of the same.

The pretty angel we put atop the tree every year.

Jennifer shows off her handiwork at making a Christmas wreath for our resident cow fanatic, Daun!

A picture of the table of munchy food that Jennifer and company prepared for the festivities.

Someone took this close-up of some of the ornaments on the tree.

A Picture of the Persingers - Jennifer, Alyxa, and Kenn.

Our friend, Lisa Shirah-Hiers, and her beautiful daughter!

 

Our good friend, Mark Sundquist, came into town and managed to get to our party. These next few pictures he set himself up for. J

Mark (BB) consuming beer.

Mark showing off his beer mug.

Two-fisted drinking, by Mark.

 

The biggest "task" of the afternoon was the "White Elephant" gift exchange. We told everyone to bring something that they no longer wanted or needed for this exchange. As always, we were very surprised by the VARIETY of gifts people chose to bring. Some were very large, and some were quite small, but everyone went home with something "unique." We even got the younger kids in on it this year! These shots are in alphabetical order, not numeric, but oh well - deal! J

AJ just LOVED getting the St. Martin's in the Field Guide to Writing!

AJ says, he will even USE said guide!

Mommy, I want to be a movie star!

Gee, Mark, are you just a LITTLE excited to get a roll of film?

Cam presents his present.

Cam and his glorious holiday scrubber!

Daun gets a soft little snowman!

Alaina,you are quite a princes with that tiara on!

Jay goes into fits of ectasy over his 1200 baud telebit modem! (care of Daun)

Jennifer gets a Jawa (until Mark (BB) took it away!)

Jennifer with her exchange - a potpourri burner, that Alyxa wants.

Jen is going to teach us the Macarena now.

Just what Josh always wanted, an out-of-date phone book.

The guys (Jay, Kenn, Michael, AJ, Mark Fister) gather around the Linux mascot!

Lisa gets tulip glasses as a gift?

Mark gets 3 cassette tape cases (and he says he is going to use them!)

Michael gets a AAA Tour Book of Indiana and a 5.25 inch disk holder. (how useful!)

Stephen Touchet gets a "What Am I?" game that Alyxa immediately goes after!

 

After the White Elephant gift exchange, people started to thin out. The party animals stayed behind, as well as Mark Fister and his kiddos - Alaina, Victoria, and Josh. They thought our digital camera was WAY cool, and we ended up getting a lot of "mug shots" of the three of them goofing off. Just for you guys, here they are!

All three kids, mugging the camera.

All three kids, in a different position.

Alaina got tired as the evening progressed.

Josh wants to be center stage.

The girls show off "Girl power."

Victoria and Alaina show off how cute they are.

A third shot of the girls.

 

There are only a few pictures left, and we weren't sure where to put them, so here they are, in no particular order!

Mark gets hold of Alaina's tiara and tries it on for size.

A picture of Daun's tree.

A second picture of Daun's tree.