THE Thanksgiving weekend picture: all of us (Sydney's boyfriend took the picture): Art, Travis, Greg, and Kevin; Sydney, Katie (top), Logan, Mary (top), and Jimmy (on slide); Shawn, Paula and Zane (top to bottom); Gina and Ellen (in swing); Jeff and Anne Marie; Charlton (kneeling) and Colleen (behind him); Leanne, Marie (Anne Marie's mother) and Toni. OK, who'd I miss?

Also from Thanksgiving, a handful of us braved some chilly winds to bike around White Rock Lake.
Art (Kansas), Jeff (Texas), Mary, Logan (somewhere underneath that hair), Jimmy and Zane.

One of the great things about getting the whole family together for the holidays (we usually get all of the Drummond families together for either Thanksgiving or Christmas most years) is the opportunity for the cousins to get together and play. From this year's Thanksgiving here in Dallas, here are all of that generation, the descendants of Jim and Muriel: Top, Gina (Dallas); Middle Jimmy (Alabama), Travis (Clear Lake Texas), Mary (Dallas), Katie (Alabama), Ellen (Dallas), and Zane (Alabama); bottom Sydney (La Porte Texas), Logan (La Porte), and Kevin (Clear Lake).

Anne Marie and Jeff prior to the Jackson Walker holiday party, a tropical themed affair:

The videos: I'm a bit of a loon about videotaping things. Anne Marie's to blame: she's the one that gave me the hard-disk-drive digital video camera. I made a video for Gina's freshman team (fall of 2007), a copy of which is below. Gina's number 10.



It was enough of a hit, and I had enough video of all of the girls, that I could make videos for all of them. You can see them all at my YouTube account here, but her is Gina's personal highlight reel from freshman year:

Club volleyball: While the Ursuline Freshman video was really in the fall of 2007, in the spring it was "club" volleyball. Gina played with a team called Texas Assault (she was No. 7 on this team), and had a lot of fun. It was a good group of parents, too, and inspired a trio of videos, one from the first tournament of the season, which they won:



One from a road tournament in Shreveport, Louisiana:



And one celebrating dads and daughters:

Ursuline Volleyball 2008: Of course, I continued videoing volleyball this fall, when Gina was playing JV ball for Ursuline (she's #10 again).

Devil's River: I almost never end up in front of the camera, and rarely do I ever post video of anything I'm actually involved in. But I went on a kayak trip with a group of guys in May on the Devil's River in south Texas (I'd tell you where it's near, but it's not near anything), and this is the whole of the video I shot. My camera died after the first day -- I was afraid it might've gotten wet, but it was just a bad power switch. But, you get the idea, at least of how rugged the terrain is, from this (the water part starts around 2:20):

Gina, Anne Marie and Mary see Mary Poppins on Broadway:

Here's Anne Marie, celebrating her latest birthday (uh, 29th?):

The girls take in the Fourth of July in New Jersey, just a few miles north of where it all began:

The girls on Fire Island, NY:

Here is Gina's official Ursuline Academy picture.

The father of one of Gina's Ursuline teammates is a pretty talented photographer, and he got this shot of Gina "getting horizontal."

Here's Ellen.

Here's Ellen in her school uniform, waiting her carpool to her first day of middle school at Oak Hill Academy:

Ellen's videos: Ellen doesn't make it in front of the camera as much as Gina and Mary, but she's got a few out there that she'll be embarrased by when she's older:



This one is the first fire we had in the new fireplace; it kinda gives you a look at the new backyard, pre-landscaping and pre-furniture. And with Mary and Ellen acting like nuts:

Here's Mary. Of course.

Here's Mary on Halloween, dressed as a French girl. She definitely loves wearing makeup. Would you give this girl candy? Sacre Bleu!

Mary on film: Gina's not the only sportswoman in the Drummond house who gets the video treatment. Mary's soccer team has a handful of videos, too (Mary's #17):













It's not only soccer for Mary, though:

This is Mary reading at Mass:


Mary's the one in purple:




And Mary is as comfortable behind the camera as she is in front of it. Here are a couple of short movies she made on Fire Island:

Here's Mary in her St. Patrick uniform, dressed for her first day of 2nd grade.

Ellen's school had an outing to see the Frisco Roughriders, a minor league baseball team just north of Dallas. Here's a picture of Mary and Jeff taking in the game:

After this much movie-making and photo-taking, you can't blame the girls for going a little "diva."

Well, that's it. Check back here to see if we add some stuff, or check in here for more of my videos. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!