Christmas Eve Nativity

Don't you love the ever present Christmas Nativity. You dressed up as a kid, and so now your children dress up as you take pictures and read Luke 2 from the Bible. Unfortunately our Christmas pageant usually has a little less of the O Holy and a little more of the O quick put a towel on your head, and I really don't care if it's a dog, it works kind of feel. In the end we sing Silent Night and everything comes together.

This year we performed our Christmas Eve Nativity with my sister Karen and her kids. It is fun to have all of the cousins together. Christmas is about celebrating the love of Christ and who better to do that with then family. What a wonderful evening.
Merry Christmas.

A Christmas Rose

A simple rose. It hardly seemed like enough. I went to the cemetery today to wish my son a Merry Christmas. I had imagined this year to be vastly different. As I sat last Christmas unable to eat more than apples and whole wheat bread, I thought of how much nicer this Christmas would be. But things don't always work out the way you plan them to. So here I am placing a single rose next to a simple monument. The words of my son's namesake printed on top. "Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with thee, withersoever thou goest." What a magnificent Christmas this must be for Joshua. To celebrate Christmas with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving Fun

This year was a Prior family Thanksgiving year. We have been alternating visits with my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas over the years and it has worked out rather well. This year, believe it or not, we were excited to get out of the heat and into the snow for a few days and we were not disappointed. In fact this has probably been one of the snowiest and coldest Thanksgivings we have had in awhile and my kids LOVED it.

With the wind chill it was getting down to -5 degrees. Way to cold for me.

Sara Sledding

We went sledding and played in the snow at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We ate LOTS of yummy food and pies. We saw the dinosaur exhibit at Thanksgiving Point and the art exhibit at BYU. Thanksgiving night and the day after Thanksgiving all the girls went shopping. I miss the wake up at 3am days. Staying up all night is a lot harder, but well worth it. I got some great deals on the kids Christmas presents and am happy to say that I am almost done.

I love the time we have with family. I love that my kids have the chance to get to know their Aunts and Uncles and cousins. I love that we have gift exchanges and play games and talk til 1 in the morning. I love that we can be crazy or relax. And mostly I love just being together. Happy Thanksgiving.

I have to admit, snow is really great to visit, but it was nice to come home and go running outside in a t-shirt again.

Catalina Jazz Festival

I have said this before, but Rebecca and her school jazz band always impresses me. You would really be surprised that she has only had a year and a half of piano lessons. She practices every day and has come a LOOOOOOOONG way. At the beginning of the year I was really nervous that she wouldn't want to stick with it, but here we are. She has asked for a keyboard for Christmas, (even though we already have a piano) and she is now planning to be a musician when she grows up.

Here are some pictures from her 1st ever jazz festival. They played two different song and received excellent reviews. Just a note, one third of the band members are 5th graders (like Rebecca). There are only 18 kids total, so what they can do is pretty impressive.

Ohh, and a funny side note. This was the first time Rebecca has ever played on a grand piano. I asked her what she thought and her comment to me was. "It's weird. I like Mark's keyboard better." Go figure, Right.