Sunday, December 20, 2009

Christmas is Upon Us!

We had such a great time in Seattle with Jonah and Aja. I forgot to show you the motor home.  Pretty great actually except that Jonah’s head brushes the ceiling (his head is actually touching the ceiling) as he walks through! From the looks of dad’s hair, it seems that there is static electricity in the ceiling too! 

 

2009-12-07 Ja and Christmas  9946

We were delighted to get a chance to visit with Aubrey at Seattle University where she gave us a quick tour of campus between finals.  What a great place and what a terrific girl!

photo

We also had the pleasure of meeting lots of wonderful people at our YPO event there.  There were about 110 in attendance.

2009-12-08 Ja and Christmas  9954

Here is the day chair and his wife who are from Utah. He runs a huge second hand book business.  Whenever you see used books for sale on Amazon or B&N, he’s pretty much behind it!

2009-12-08 Ja and Christmas  9956

Next it was home to our ward Christmas party which was especially delightful this year with a truly “live nativity” with a real live baby camel, a darling donkey who listened to the music attentively for a whole hour and three little goats.  The kids had a splendid time and it was the Three Wise Men (the bishopric) handed out gifts at the end. No Santa for the first time in years and it was splendid!

2009-12-11 Ja and Christmas  9960

(sorry, low light and bad camera but you get the idea)

 

 

2009-12-11 Ja and Christmas  9964

It was pretty spectacular!

Then it was on to the amazing Christmas program at the Conference Center with Natalie Cole and the Gillette’s granddaughter who started and ended the program with her beautiful voice. We went with Charity although she sat with her roommate during the show.

Temple Square was spectacular as always:

2009-12-12 Ja and Christmas  9971

2009-12-12 Ja and Christmas  9972

Then it was on to Logan for a visit with Sheri and Jan Benson, Grandma and Kevan and a quick trip to Bear Lake to check on everything there.  Sadly I had arranged for all our visiting teaching to be done that next morning and I totally forgot about it!  It took me a while to recover from that big phoopa. Luckily my trusty partner Heidi Shipp did it for me.  Oooops!

Bear Lake looks pretty different in the winter huh? 

2009-12-16 Ja and Christmas  9980

2009-12-16 Ja and Christmas  9982

We saw two golden eagles about a mile apart from each other, both just sitting by the side of the road like they were waiting for a ride!  We followed one for about a mile and finally got a picture of him on a telephone pole. He’s a LOT bigger than her looks here!

2009-12-16 Ja and Christmas  9988

Those in addition to several large hawks and a herd of antelope made our journey home pretty exciting (although I was still worrying about the visiting teaching).

On Thursday night we had the most delightful dinner at our house, compliments of Charity and her roommates Dani and Sara, plus Sara’s brother Michael and yes…NELSON!  We love the guy! He is just full of light and a great young man! Dani made a scrumptous Thai dinner complete with coconut milk soup and a Thai curry over sticky rice. She had taken a Thai cooking class when she was there last year and it really paid off! 

2009-12-17 Ja and Christmas  9989

We’re LOVING reading all your blogs.  Five days and counting!  Are we ever really ready?  It just happens, ready or not…but lots of great things have already happened this year to make it a wonderful year. We’re looking forward to being with the Looslis on Tuesday night and welcoming Christmas in there Friday morning. Merry Christmas and love to you and all especially those adorable grandchildren!

No comments: