The Story Behind the Penguin

In the early 1990's we bought our first home computer. Boy have things changed since then. I sent an online greeting card to our brother and sister-in-law, Gary & Karen Wall. It was cutesy with penguins. A few weeks later I opened a package and inside was "the penguin" being returned to me. It has lived in our refrigerator since arriving, right next to the jam and pickles. Since then we try to out do each other with penguin gifts and surprises. These days it seems you can find penguin stuff everywhere. It wasn't always so easy.

Some of the best ones I can recall is the penguin toothpick dispenser we got for them, the penguin silver bowl from them, the penguin towels they received and the "you've just been penguined" display we found on our lawn in 2008 at Christmas time. It has been fun and I hope we continue until we are too old to shop for the next best penguin thing.

Clay thought it was a good idea to have the penguin accompany him to Afghanistan. So, in the year ahead when you see penguin photos on this blog you'll know the story behind the penguin.

I'll end this post with the photo below. Posted just for Gary & Karen. I snapped this photo when we had our video chat with Clay when he was en route to Afghanistan.

Clayton & the penguin - half way around the world.