Christmas Recitals and Parades!

Libby's Winter Dance Recital was this week.

She is on the front at the far right. 

She danced beautifully!

Peter and Libby also marched with the Middle School Band in the Christmas Parade!  Peter played the saxaphone and Libby played the flute.  They stayed pretty warm because they were marching, all except for their fingers!

We happened to run into our friend Marci, who went with us on Trek, and we had fun standing by her and her daughter Isabel during the parade.  Mary was on a date with Nicholas, so it was just Bruce and I.  That was weird.  Not the part about it being just Bruce and I.  The weird part was that this was a "family" occasion, and it was just the two of us.  Again. weird!

The highlight of the parade, besides the band, was a big wagon pulled by two big black Shire horses.  Man, that was something else!  It reminded us of Willard and Ethyl who had Shires, also.  Beautiful horses!

Mary looked gorgeous on her date with Nicholas.

They went to Nicholas' Winter Formal.  (He doesn't go to our high school, which is a good thing - ha ha).  She had a fun time!

I taught a class on the 12 Oils of Ancient Scripture last night!  There were 13 people there and it was a really enjoyable evening.  I set out crackers and cheese, summer sausage, and Karen's Healthy Fudge.  Bruce made some delicious wassail from our own apple cider, and that was delicious!  We had some great insights come up through the discussion.  I am grateful to have these wonderful essential oils that give us so many benefits and blessings.

Jesse played for her juries on Friday and did well!  She felt good about her performance!  What a relief.  She has worked SO HARD to be able to play well for these juries (and that is an understatement).  She played a Chopin something or other (that's embarrassing - I really need to find out) and a Mozart Sonata.  Way to go Jesse!

We also started the 12 Days of Christmas for a local family.  We went tonight and Peter was our stealth man.  We parked the car away from the house, and Mary was watching through the binoculars and texting him about when to go up to the door, etc.  When it was time to go pick him up, we couldn't find the keys.  (How do you loose them in that short of a time?  I don't know, but it was Bruce driving, not me.)  We texted that to Peter and he wrote back.  "Ha ha.  Wow. "  Oh man, we had a good laugh over that.  We did find the keys, but not before the "get away" car's reputation was seriously damaged.

I hope you are enjoying this wonderful Christmas season!

Can It Be December Already?

I started out the day on Monday with two great balances and a training.  I love days like this, but this one was a bit overwhelming just coming off the 5 day vacation.  But it went well, and I was grateful for the experiences I had.  What I'm doing right now is so perfect for me that it is hard to imagine that anything could be better.  It fits my personality in these ways: 1) It allows me to meet new people and connect with them in a deep way, 2) I am always learning something new, 3) It is in the health field, which I have a natural affinity for, and 4) I get to be of service and help to people.  Can it get any better than that?

On Wednesday night we had our Ward Christmas Party (a ward is a congregation like a parish).  I played the piano for it, and Bruce, Libby and I sang a song with the Primary.  We had a delicious dinner and the Bishop put together some Mormon Messages that were wonderful.  There is one that is about a vineyard in California that grows grapes and dries them for raisins for the Welfare Program.

I already have a soft spot in my heart for my Latino hermanos y hermanas, so when I watched this video, I had tears streaming down my face.  I am grateful for their example and dedication.  At this same party I met the new Spanish Elders for our area!  These two Elders seemed awesome, so I was excited when they called me the next day and asked me to go and teach with them.  I did, on Thursday night, and it was wonderful to be a part of teaching an investigator in Spanish.  Josh and Joseph would be so proud of me!

Friday night we went to Mary's concert.  Her high school Madrigals choir got invited to sing with the local liberal arts college.  They sang with their Chorale and the Sinfonia string orchestra.  They sang a 12 movement piece by Vivaldi, along with their own songs.

What an incredible experience to sing at a college level and to be able to sing Vivaldi with an orchestral accompaniment!  We thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

Mary went on a date last night with Nicholas.  They went to see the lights in a neighboring town, and had a great time.

Yesterday, we got to have the same family that the Spanish Elders are teaching over to dinner and another lesson.  The Spirit was really strong, and I was so grateful to have Laura and Heriberto over.  We had Enchiladas for dinner, and then Laura brought over some flan, which was delicious.  This truly is a blessing to have the missionaries in our home.

Today after Church we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to watch the Christmas Devotional.  It was wonderful!  I truly felt the Spirit and felt a deep love for my Savior.  Driving home from their house, it was -3 F when we got here!  Yikes!  That's cold!

Despite the cold, Bruce and Peter braved it and brought in the Christmas Tree from the garage!  This is the first time in it's 13-year life that it got set up at 8:00 pm.  ha ha  (sorry about the poor quality pictures - Peter's iPod Touch was the only camera available).

I diffused Idaho Balsam Fir.  It not only smelled good, but it calms irritated feelings!

Mary got to put the top on the tree, "for the first time in history" as Bruce added in.  She was all over that!  We really have a beautiful tree.  Tomorrow we'll put on the lights and decorations.  Yeah!

To finish, I want to share a picture of our Savior Jesus Christ that my friend Shauna shared with me.  She said it was painted by a woman who had had a near-death experience and had come back from death and painted this picture shortly afterwards.  Spencer, whose near-death experiences are detailed in Visions of Glory, said at the Unblog Reunion, that the Savior has the bluest eyes you've ever seen.  I think this artist certainly captured that.

Jesus is the reason for the season!  May we all come closer to Him and His purposes during this Christmas Season!

In All Things Give Thanks

What a wonderful and eventful Thanksgiving week we had!

This week Mary performed "Rockin' Robin" with her Ballroom Dance Team.  She was assigned the "front and center" spot, and we were on the front row.  I'll have to add pictures of that later, as Peter has them on his iPod.

Wednesday we took off for Washington!  Grandpa reserved four nights of a hotel room - what a generous gift!  Peter and Libby had a blast swimming in the pool every day.

We spent a lovely day at Michelle and Gérard's house for Thanksgiving.  Bruce lost his fool mind and let Peter go on a motorcycle ride with cousin Philippe.  Apparently, it was Bruce that gave Philippe a ride on a motorcycle when Philippe was about Peter's age, so Philippe said he was just returning the favor.  

I asked Peter how fast they went and he said, "We went tops 35."  I said, "That is a flat out lie, because Philippe has never gone that speed in his life."  Peter started to laugh and  he said, "I didn't want to tell you..."  Yeah - that's what I thought!  Now Peter won't stop talking about motorcycles.  Uh-huh, just like I said - Bruce lost his fool mind when he let Peter do that!

Dinner was wonderful.  Michelle made a name tag for everyone's place at the table.  Everyone's had a pilgrim and an Indian, or some combination of the two.  Bruce and Philippe had turkeys.  ha ha  Michelle has some of her Mom's "tease" left in her.

Tristan, Nicole, Matthew (behind Nicole), Sarah, Oliver (Nicole's brother-in-law), Philippe, Manu (Michael's best man from Switzerland), Michael, Natalie and Peter.

Bruce, Stuart and Robin (Nicole's in-laws).  You can see the back of Deloris' head, and Dad's hand sitting next to her.

The next morning, Bruce and I and the children went off to tour Seattle and Poulsbo.  Our first stop was the Seattle Temple!

As always, the Temple feels like a refuge amidst the storm, even on the grounds.  It was wonderful to be there.  We have good memories of attending that Temple for the 6 1/2 years that we lived in Washington!

Then it was on to downtown Seattle.  We drove around the Seattle Center and the building where Bruce used to work.  So many memories!  Then we drove down to the ferry dock and got on the ferry!

 It's always fun to do something different, and riding a ferry is just that!  Peter loved seeing how it left the dock and then landed.  We drove onto Bainbridge Island and then on up to Poulsbo.  Velkomenn til Poulsbo!  Loved to see that sign again!

We parked the car in downtown and strolled down through the shops to the bakery!  Everyone picked out some treats, and then we went down to the marina to eat them.  We had to take a picture on these logs that the kids loved to play on when they were younger.

Then we walked down the boardwalk to the little park and played!

It's so beautiful in the Northwest!  But it was overcast and moist - a completely typical day - so it was a good demonstration of how it was 90% of the time.  I just need more sun than that!  Ha ha

Then we back to the shops and this is who we ran into walking along the street!  I love the "old time" look of this Santa Clause!

We spent a couple of hours in the Dancing Brush making painting ceramic mugs.

It was fun to do something creative like that.  At first Bruce said, "No, I'm not going to do one.  I'm not creative.  I can't think of what to put on it."  So the rest of us started, and he sat there with us.  After about ten minutes, he started to draw on the paper in front of him, and then he stood up and went and got a mug and said, "OK, I'll do one."  He ended up drawing this amazing scene of a llama pack trip with the mountains, the llamas, the packs and lead ropes, a river, etc.  It was really good!  We laughed about him not being "creative".  Duh!  Bruce has more access to his right brain than most people.  It's what makes him such a good programmer.  It was fun to see a little art come out in all of us!

We then went and drove by our old Caldart house.  It has a neighborhood totally built up around it with a real paved road with sidewalks going up to it!  So weird!  But the old house was still sitting there the same, only it had a red door instead of a green one.  The Veteran Street house had been painted a grey/black color instead of the old blue that it used to be.  It looked scary!

When Mary sent it to her friend, he replied with, "You mean you were born in an old shack in the woods?"  ha ha!  That's what it looks like, but really, it was a nice house and we loved it there!

We spent Friday evening helping to decorate the Maltby Community Club for the wedding.  Bruce did a lot of ladder work getting the ceiling decorations just right.  I drove back to the Michelle's house and found the missing box of vases, which was a big relief to everybody.

Saturday was Natalie and Michael's wedding!

Even Tinka had a dress and was in the wedding party!  We had a wonderful time - it was a beautiful wedding, and we couldn't ask for a better person for Natalie to marry than Michael.  He is a treasure!

Bruce was especially useful with his leatherman, opening everybody's Sparkling cider bottle!

Natalie's hair and dress were gorgeous!  We had a fun time dancing at the end.  Even Grandpa and Deloris joined in on YMCA, although Grandpa couldn't quite get the hands movements down to make the Y M C A.  But it was fun to see him up and dancing!  Natalie had a dozen red roses at every table, so in the clean-up, Mary went on a photo shoot and took dozens of pictures with roses.  Here is a beautiful one that she posted to Instagram.

 I like this one even better, though.

We missed Jesse the whole weekend, but she was down with Tori and our next-door neighbors and they had a great time together.  They went on a photo shoot too, and took this picture, which I love!

My goodness - could our daughters be any more beautiful!  They are beautiful inside and out, that is what is so lovely, and it shows in their countenances!

We had a safe trip home, with Bruce driving most of the way.  We are glad to be home, and grateful for so many blessings this Thanksgiving week!