Happy Chinese New Year

We received a surprise in the mail today - a Happy New Year card from the orphanage that Ginny had been at in China.  We thought that was a very nice thing for them to do, as we didn't expect any further contact after the first year.

Winter Waves at Surfside

As has become a Bridges family Winter tradition in the last several years, we headed off to the beach for a trip just after Christmas.  This year we traded our timeshare unit for one at Plantation Resort in Surfside Beach, SC, just south of Myrtle Beach.  We had a great week there.  Most notably, this was the first time Ginny (most likely) had ever seen the ocean with her own eyes.  In addition to walking on the beach a few times, we swam in the pool, saw the new Pirates Voyage Dinner Show, rode the Barefoot Princess riverboat on the Inter-coastal waterway that our friends Alan and Sara Roland manage, made tie-dye shirts, and ate lots of yummy food.  Here are some of the photo highlights:

Seeing Santa

The other night we took the kids to see Santa in downtown Mooresville during their Christmas festivities.  After a LONG wait to see him, we were able to take this short video.  Afterwards, Ginny was super-excited to try to  take a carriage ride, but they closed that part down early because the horses had gotten tired.  We didn't hear the end of that for the rest of the night!  "Horsey! Horsey!  Horsey" Horsey!"  Still, Santa has quickly became a rock-star to Ginny.  She gets excited at the mention of His name.

Nate is Eight.

It's hard to believe that Nate (Well, we never call him Nate) is eight.  Time flies.  He had a Pokemon themed birthday party at our church this year.  

Princess & Ninja

Here is a pic of our family at our church's Fall Festival.  Nathan went as a ninja this year, and Ginny went as Snow White on her first Halloween with us.

Uh, I have no idea who this is or how this picture got on my blog.  I'm sorry if this disturbs anyone....

The Olan Mills collection 2011

Our church is using Olan Mills for its picture directory this year (which I'm helping to oversee), and this gave us a good reason to have our first family picture since adding Ginny.  Here is the set of pics they took.  (And yes, we have permission to post these - I checked!)

Best of Nathan 2011

I was doing some organizing of pictures today, and after gathering some good ones of Nathan, I decided to experiment with a video collage feature in Picasa, and here's what I came up with...