Christmas 2011

 This Christmas fell on a Sunday, so everyone opened their stocking from Santa before church. Then we had a big brunch. It's the one day of the year that we have bacon, sausage, eggs, grapefruit, orange juice and pastries. For some of those foods it is their only appearance all year. (When asked one year what she liked best about Christmas, Andrea answered, "Bacon". Maybe that is why her brother-in-law Luke, who drew her name, mailed her pre-cooked bacon for her present.)

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After church we opened presents. We like to take out time and open them one by one so we can all participate as each person opens a gift.  We had a great time together.

Julia, Andrea, Erika and Tyler were with us this year.  We got to talk to Skype to Daniel, who is a missionary in the LAs Vegas Spanish speaking mission.  James and Kara called in and listened in and were able to talk with him and us also. It was fun to get to "see" him after 18 months.

Christmas Eve

For Christmas this year, Julia came home from her semester at BYU-Idaho. Erika and Tyler were here--they have been living with us, and Andrea.  Our centerpiece were gingerbread houses we made earlier.  After dinner we had the traditional Danish rice pudding.  The person getting the almond gets not a marzipan (almond paste) pig, but at our house an almond chocolate bar.  Andrea was slipped the almond this year--her first win.
Then we read the Christmas story, as is our tradition, and shared our favorite parts of the history of Jesus' birth.  Our world would not have been the same without Him!

Thanksgiving in Cincinnati

We traveled to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. The trip itself was memorable because we left at 7pm and hoped to travel through the night and reach our destination by 5am. However, our alternator went out and the car died just as we crossed into West Virginia about 12:30am. Our roadside assistance was not actually able to assist us for several hours. We eventually were able to get the car to a safer spot at a rest area and then a tow truck came, and a West Virginia policeman drove us 22 miles with the car to a dealer. We waited in the (cold) car at 5am until it opened at 7:30am. Then, thankfully, they fit us in, got a part and had us on our way at 10:30 am. So, we did reach our destination about 5:15 like I predicted--except it was PM, instead of AM. :)   Notwithstanding the inconvenience, we did feel that we were blessed in many of the particulars that could have been much worse.

Once there we had a nice visit with our family--Dave's parents, 3 of his siblings and their families. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.

The next day, Black Friday for shoppers, and Birthday for me was a nice day. Dave helped his parents with some items around their house. I went to the Mall with some of the shoppers. That night Dave had bought a cake and icecream for me--which was fun to celebrate with lots of family. I was excited to receive a new iPAd and accessories, and a Vera Bradley apron.

Saturday was Erika's 25th birthday.  We shopped together that day for some clothes for her.  Here she opened a tiny present--that holds hundreds of songs-- an ipod shuffle.

Sunday we attended church where Dave still knows a lot of people from when he was younger, and then we headed home--a much shorter, uneventful trip back.

Nationals

 Andrea participated with her high school marching band in the national competition at the stadium of the Naval Academy in Annapolis. It was a great day for it, and they put on an awesome performance, winning 12th place among bands from many states.  She is with the piccolo section above, and shots of her in the show below.  Congratulations on the opportunity to showcase your hard work!