Christmas 2008

We got back last night from our trip to Lafayette and Frankfort, and had a great time with family there. Singing together at Christmas is always one of my favorite things, and I got to join around the piano at Wesley Manor to sing with Pat, Amy, George, and Stan. Mom and Marleta were on the piano. Pretty amazing to see how many kids were there. Had Marleta & Larry there + there kids and Grandma Simpson.

The trip home was much easier than the trip there-- not much traffic, which was good.

The house is still in a Christmas mess of toys, puzzles, and food. Dan woke up this morning and declared "It's still Christmas!"

Courtney was going to go to her first Young Men/Young Women dance at church, but she did not feel well so she stayed home and worked on her talk that she's giving in church today. I'm giving the Primary lesson today on "We can be kind to animals". I've got the animal memory game copied out of the manual, so I'm well on my way to being ready. Will enjoy our last week of 11:30 church until we start our 9:00am church time in the new year.

I was up late last night with Teresa and the boys putting together a Monsters Inc. puzzle, which was much harder than it looked when we started. We've also been playing Spore, which is a very fun, but long and somewhat violent PC video game. I've gotten used to staying up late and waking up late during break. Will need to get back to my early morning routine sooner or later.

Here's a picture of the kids and Dad at Pizza Hut in Lafayette, and a picture at Wesley Manor in Frankfort.

Allison baptism

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Having the missionaries over tonight for Christmas eve, along with Travis, a new member of our ward. Got some more snow, and Teresa and I spent a bit of the morning shoveling the driveway.

Sunday was Allie's baptism, which included Rachel Butler, another 8-year old girl. She looked very sweet in her white dress. The dress came out of the water a bit during the baptism, so I had to do it a second time. I held her near the bottom of the font for a second to make sure that she was completely submerged. She later said that she did not mind because she is very good at holding her breath.

I'll always remember what a cold evening it was for her baptism. The kids were freezing going just the short distance from the van to go into the church building. It was below zero, and even colder than that if you count the wind chill. I don't really believe in counting the wind chill, though, because wind is so highly variable from one spot to another (are you in an open field, next to a wall, or near a group of trees?) I think it's all just a scheme by the media to make the weather sound more exciting.

Anyways, the baptism was very nice, and it included the song "I Feel My Savior's Love", sung by Courtney and Allie with Megan and Rachel Butler.

I worked home yesterday because nobody was in the office and the snow was so bad. I'm off now until January 2-- yay! It's been a busy time at work.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Party with Santa

Had a 14th birthday party yesterday, and celebrated by watching Madagascar 2, which the kids enjoyed.  They are big fans of the first movie.  The evening consisted of a Christmas program at church, including a chance to visit Santa!

Allie and Dan Pictures Taken Today