Ben and Lise Came to Town
Ben and Lise, my brother- and sister-in-law, came up for Christmas last weekend. Aren’t they cute? We love it when they come. We luck out that they stay with us. It’s mainly because our house is halfway between John’s mom’s house and his dad’s house, but we pretend it is because they like us. Lise made candy, Ho-Hos and some coconut chocolate thing that rocked, and an incredible Streudel that we ate on for breakfast while they were here. 
She also helped our nieces not freak outwhen they saw Claire for the first time (“Smelling you is just how dogs give hugs.”)
Ben looks sly in this picture, but he was really just kind of tired. We’d party’d kinda late the night before. Come to think of it, though, he’s pretty sly, too.
This is our niece Alaina. If you ignore the red-eye I kind of like the picture. Alaina always knows where the food us and can put away some groceries (and no, she’s not related to me by blood). You can’t see it, but she’s focusing on an animal cracker outside of the picture frame.
(Update: I should clarify that Alaina does not belong to Lise and Ben, but to John’s other brother, Paul.)
Our visits with Ben and Lise are always too short, but they are looking to move back up here in 2007 so maybe we’ll get to hang out more then.
December 22, 2006 at 9:28 pm
You know, I never thought that Ben and John looked alot alike, but that picture seems to highlight the family resemblance. It sure would be great if they could be closer. I hope that it is something that can happen soon, but we would miss Ben’s comments originating from his unique minority perspective in Texas.
January 2, 2007 at 3:47 am
Troy, you made this easy so I could reply.
Thanks, Mom