The Parties Are Over

...but we sure had fun. We gave up the traditional marathon present-opening with 25 people in the tiny Christmas room, and had the families open their presents whenever they arrived Christmas day. It was much more relaxed and more room to maneuver.

Ethan liked his truck from Grandpa:

Colette shows off a new book:

The next party was at J.Lynn & Tana's for Grandma E's birthday:

We ate in the well-heated garage. The California Moungas were there, and most of the Gales. Jody took two and a half hours driving through horizontal snow to get from Provo to the Farm, and Damien hadn't made it back from Utah County due to an accident on the freeway. John and I made it home by driving behind a semi at 35 mph after the fog had blown away. I was thankful not to be driving from Houston to Utah and back this year, as we did for several Christmases in the past. Much better to drive 40 miles than 1400 (or however many it is).

A Happy Christmas Evening

We drove down to The Farm and arrived on a wet and foggy Christmas Eve. Another visitor touched down just outside the window:

J.Lynn and family came over to G&G's for a talent show:

Kelly, Milinda, and Kendrick did Scotland the Brave using nothing but humming and their nasal passages. It was very impressive and funny.

Kendrick and his brothers played the piano.


Chris played as well, and J.Lynn videoed it, so I'll get a copy when we go back on Wednesday for Grandma's birthday party.

We came home fairly early and built a fire and read the scripture story of Jesus' birth.

We finally got Grandma Gene's Christmas lights put up.

Our house on Christmas Eve:


Merry Christmas to all!

SLC and Temple Square

We went to SLC yesterday to hear the Timpview choir sing at the Joseph Smith Building and then in the Assembly Hall. John and Amy and I parked at Betsy's and walked downtown. That's the fun thing about B&B's house.

Notice the choir lining the balconies:

Chris was just left of Mr. Larsen:

Ethan liked the Christmas tree in the JSB:

We had dinner at an extremely crowded Crown Burger on North Temple. Nicolle, Colette, and Johnathan came too, but I forgot to take pictures. We walked back up the hill to warm up in Betsy's house. Alice warmed up Chris in his A Cappella tux:

Grandpa and Ethan play with Brett's Ferrari.

Amy and Betsy are silly. Less than two months until Ellie makes her advent!

Chris' Christmas Concert

We went with the grandparents to Chris' acappella concert this Thursday. It was fun to hear them--especially the Halleluia Chorus with all the choir alumni. I tried to upload it, but it must be too long for blogspot. After the concert we went to the Creamery for BYU ice cream. Yum. I was nostalgic for when we went to Ruby Begonia's for ice cream in the Woodlands after Dave's 5th grade Christmas band concert, and the girls' Nutcracker. How far back would that be? 20+ years. A lot of concerts and ice cream since then.

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we went to Rob and Nicolle's house and then down to Temple Square to see the lights. It was very cold, and our trip didn't last long.
On Christmas Day we waited for Rob and family to come after Rob was off work, and we waited for Brett, Betsy, and Ethan to come after spending the morning with Brett's family. We didn't open presents until after 3 pm. How things change when the youngest at home is 16 years old.

Ethan and Brett:
What a stack of loot!
We were so glad to have Dave and Devon here for Christmas:
Grandpa and Johnathan cuddle Babar from Grandma Gene:
Watchers Rob, Colette, Nicolle, and Nicolle's sister Michelle (on couch), Betsy as photographer:
Johnathan Elephant and Colette Pony. Nicolle invented the elephant mask.

An Action Figure You Can Believe In

Dave and Devon's Christmas present to us:

Merry Christmas, Sweeties

We've had a fun day with John P. and Janet, Grandma Gene, R&N and the babies, and Nicolle's sister Mackensie. Here are a few photos (light on text, heavy on pix lately--but those are my favorite blog entries anyway).

John was up first, of course, fixing breakfast and getting the ambience right with Christmas music and lighting. We open presents in the front room, a much quicker event than in previous years. Here are Janet, Sergene, and John P.:

and Chris of course:

Our naughty kitty Hero participated from her habitual place in the Christmas tree. Next year I'm leaving off the candy canes (because of Johnathan) and the glass bulbs (because of Hero). We'll have a totally non-breakable and inedible tree.

Chris got a 120 gb iPod, and began instantly loading it:

And we had a Christmas dinner, orchestrated by John and prepared by everyone but me. John cuts the ham in his cool Christmas vest, and we eat.

We talked to Dave on the phone and Amy on Skype. All the grownups went to Benjamin Button and the kids and I stayed home and played. Good times! Now Nicolle and I are going out to watch Twilight, since I really do need the vampire research.

Another Party on The Farm

So John stayed in SLC to pick up Janet and John P. from the airport, and Chris and I drove down to The Farm for the usual Christmas Eve thing. We were late (as usual all day) and missed the Christmas Pageant, as Aisake now calls it, but were there for a story from Grandma E,
a piano solo from Justin,and the eats. Now home to bed.

Tena's Party

A few pictures from the party at The Farm last night:
Brett gave Rob his Ninja outfit (but I think Nicolle appropriated it--maybe to wear when she's driving her cool new black car):
Grandpa John and Johnathan:

Grandma and Grandpa E:

Kelli, Damien, and Elias:

Colette and her incredibly cool Brattz Baby with unicorns:

News in Brief

Chris is off to California for a cross country competition, and won't be back until Sunday night. It's too bad that John and I are so busy we will hardly have time to see each other while he's gone. We look forward to Tena's party on the 19th, and we're trying to figure out which day will work for John's family's party. When should we have Mom's birthday party?

It's always amazing how much work partying requires (not that I'd trade it for not partying). There are our three writing groups, various student groups, my office partners, and the ward party to consider, to say nothing of friends we want to see.

Is everybody ready for Christmas (ha)?

I've been blogging instead of doing my case notes. So much more fun to be a fake psychologist than a real one. I bought Dreamweaver so I could manage my website by myself. I've watched the "user friendly" training video several times, and I still have no idea what they're talking about. Hopefully I can hire Rob to show me what to do.

Do you think having a blog/blogs is a good enough reason not to send cards with the usual Christmas newsletter? I'm such a show-off though, I actually like sending the newsletter. We want to keep the PO in business, afterall, during this economic downturn.