July


	Diary Entries Our Trip Home Lanny's House Wedding Shower Raymond's House David's House

Our Trip Home
Family Picture Our basic itinerary: Pittsburgh Lanny's Hometown Visit with the Raymond Family David's Hometown Pittsburgh	We were blessed to be able to spend 1 month is the states over the holidays. We were busy for every bit of it. David spent some time at Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh campus. He gave a presentation about his research and met with his research committee members. Lanny spent some time at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. It was time to day good bye to them since we've decided to spend another few years in Qatar. The rest of our trip you can read about and see below! Mack was into the Christmas Spirit!
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Lanny's House
My mom is always full of ideas. This year we had what she named "Couple's Choice" night. Each of the couples had to plan a menu, shop for the ingredients and prepare a meal for the rest of the group. Pretty good way of getting out of cooking...good thinkin' Mom! Before we could prepare our meals we had to prepare our aprons. Each with his/her own personality we designed and produced aprons to wear while cooking the meals. Caution: Men at Work, My Dad used only Duct Tape Scott and Danny work on their aprons On the Menu: Scott and Danny: Taco Soup, Fritos, Cheese David and Lanny: BBQ Briscuit, Potato Salad, Chips & Dip Dale and Brenda: Louisiana Gumbo, Rice Lee and Patty: Roast, Veggies with Lemon Butter Sauce, Green Bean Casserole Check out my Zebra/Candy Cane Apron	Did I mention that we decorated the tables too? Uncle Lee and Aunt Patty's Yummy Meal! The aprons and the meals were such a success it's going to be a new Hardman Family tradition. We won't necessarily be decorating new aprons each year but we will be free to make any additions that we want. My dad was able to bring in some festive ideas of his own. Being a band director at a local high school my dad has access to hand bells/chimes. We practiced and perfected (might be a matter of opinion) Silent Night and performed at a small family gathering. Practice Time Performance Time...white gloves are a nice touch!
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Danny's Wedding Shower
Preparing the fruit kabobs! Hostesses: Sherie and Lanny Danny, don't forget the good tip Linda gave about dishtowels	This was the only time that Danny will be home before her wedding in May so we decided to have a wedding shower for her. Sherie opened up her home to all of us and we had a nice time opening presents, telling Danny what to expect in marriage and eating the good snacks! High School Buds: (from L to R): Susan, Lanny, Jennifer, Heather, Tori, Sherie, Danny What a nice loot! Danny was very appreciative!
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Raymond's House
Bret, Johnna (Duke), Isaac and Anna Raymond live about 2 hours from Lanny's home. We were glad to receive an invitation (or did we invite ourselves?) to come and spend the night playing with our niece and nephew and catching up with their parents. Anna all bundled up for a walk	Check out Isaac's wheels! I regret not having pictures of the meal Johnna made for dinner. We had salmon in a lime, cilantro sauce, asparagus drizzled with olive oil perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper, cherry tomatoes and bread. My mouth is watering as I type this...it was so good!
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David's House
	It's always fun when the Duke family is together. This year we enjoyed Isaac and Anna, we went to see the trumpeter swans, we went to the Clinton Library, watched the entire first season of "Lost" and watched "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe." Oh and we ate lots and lots of good food!
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