The Marcottes

Here are some photos of Nancy and Beth on their visit to Southern Cal.

Hey Beth, how come you didn’t get your picture taken with Mitch?

Here are the race photos…

Katie took off and came in 16th in her age group and 416 out of almost 3000 men and women.

Beth and I came in 10th in our age groups and 619 out of 3000 men and women.

Laura is Katies friend and she was a bit behind us, but very fun. I know she was still in the upper 3rd of the runners entered and her place was in the mid to low 900’s.

We are all going again next year, so for those interested start training.

xo~ Nancy

A little bit of a blast from the past. Here are the photos from Beth’s surprise visit to Nancy from last year.

Beth with the help of Steve, completely arranged and surprised me with a South African visit. Here are the highlights of her first week in Africa. We started with hiking in the beautiful Drakensberg Mountains, safari visits to the Kruger & Sabi Sabi where we saw all of the “Big 5″ & then ended with a relaxing stay at my buddy Patty’s, game farm……. Kudu Ranch.

Click here to view the pictures on Shutterfly.

That’s Bill Christison on the right and again as a young man in the middle. He was Grandma Clara’s father. That’s an earlier picture of his family on the left. Bill was the cute little boy. The photo was labeled the “Addie Christison Family.” I’m guessing Addie was the mom, but I don’t know for sure.

Grandpa Bill smoked a pipe, and I remember telling him that smoking was bad for him. He told me that a pipe wasn’t as bad as cigarettes. He was probably right. At any rate the smell was more pleasant, and he played Chinese checkers with me. I liked him. That’s pretty much all I can remember of Bill. I was very young when he died.

This is Grandma Clara’s mother, Gertrude. Gertrude may not seem like a hip name now, but back then…well, it probably was never a hip name. I never knew Trudy when she was younger. I only knew her when she was getting up there in years and had a little dog named “Buttons” and crocheted plastic rugs from bread wrappers.

She was a sweet lady who caused auto accidents and made many inedible meals. I suspect she could cook quite well at one point, but as she got older she began to forget recipes and to substitute ingredients when she was out of the correct item. For instance instant potatoes would be used instead of flour. This seldom worked in her favor.

Grandma Trudy also managed to steal a man’s Volkswagen Bug by slamming into the car and dragging it onto the highway with the bumpers interlocked. I love that story, and if I ever write a famous book, the story of Trudy and the stolen Bug will be in it somehow.

Does anyone else have any memories of Bill and Trudy?

Thanks to Steve for additional pictures of Bill and Trudy.

Updates: Beka as an elf.

Leon as an elf.

John as an elf.

Maddie as an elf.

Patti as an elf.

Bethipoo as an elf.

Katie got the ball rolling by sending out this: Katie as an elf

Inspired, my wife Patti created a version with Anya here: Anya as an elf.

Post your own Marcotte elf in the comments and I’ll add it here.