Christmas

We (Elizabeth, Mandy, Brandon, Marilee, Richard, Jordan, Jen, Audrey, Savannah) watched Lauren perform at the Scera Theater for her singing group, the Headliners. She did a great job, much better than my cellphone could capture. Anyway, enjoy within the limits of hand-held technology. :-)

Here is some cell-phone-video of the concert.

-Richard

click to see slideshow->

Just to prove my previous statement...here is the flipped position on the next day!

Isn't this photo great? I was just testing out my new tripod, from Christmas, for my camera by taking pictures of my family. I came to the family room (good place to start, eh?) and found Danny and Braylen (Danny's friend) sitting on the couch in the same position along with Andrew. I quickly took the picture, although being quick wasn't necessary because they ended up staying there for quite awhile! And guess what I found the next day! They were on the same couch but flipped, meaning Braylen was on the right and Andrew was on the left! Hilarious!

Our very own Winter Princess--isn't she beautiful!

Dave and I took off to Manti for a romantic birthday treat for both of us. It was also a late anniversary treat too. The Manti House Inn was a lovely place and we enjoyed both dinner and breakfast there. As a special treat we took a carriage ride around the little town. How fun!! Thanks to Marilee and Holly for watching our lively little ones.

Our primary play. Joseph is ours, and a shepherd is ours who declared, after successfully doing his part, "I rock, huh, mom?"

(scroll down, right, Joe? well, I

Click on the image to hear the last verse of Silent Night and some Merry Christmases from us to you. Especially our great missionaries!

Here i am with the Frees in the nice warm arizona. aren't you jealous. what a christmas.

On Monday night we (the Rich Nelsons, the Ryan Nelsons, the John Frees, and the Dave Frees) all met at Rich and Mare's for a gift exchange. This is the second year we have done it. Gifts are limited to $5 and only exchanged among the cousins. It was a great time. Rebecca delivered her gift to Jake by jumping on his lap--it scared a smile right out of him! The evening ended with several good-natured wrestling matches including Uncle John, Ryan, Brett, Jake, Nate, McKay and Jordan. There are (or will be) several more pictures posted on thefrees.com if you are interested in seeing them.

If you haven't seen this movie yet you really must. It is very well done. It is essentially the story explaining why Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol". They do a wonderful job with the music (Kurt Bestor), the actors, acting, sets and all. But best of all is the feelings you have through out the movie. My favorite part is where he finally figures out that he needs to help others. He takes some food and money to a family living in the street and when they ask "why are you doing this" he comments something like "I need to". He then describes the feeling he had as he walked away from that family. How he felt more secure then if he were rich. It is a great Christmas movie and will become one we will show every year. The picture is linked to a website with info and a preview.

On Saturday we got all spruced up and headed to a local park to get our annual family picture taken. We had a friend from work take the shots. This picture is just a shot her friend took with the digital camera while the photographer was doing her thing with a traditional camera. It was cloudy, cold, and by the time we finished the wind was blowing like crazy but we got a few good shots which we'll be sending out once we get prints made. Thought you'd like a preview.

Our ward sponsored a "Breakfast with Santa" on Saturday morning. It was fun (pancakes etc.) but cold (ok, cold for us) by the time Santa arrived we were all shivering. Maddie decided she didn't like Santa much and I couldn't even get Jeremy close enough for a picture...

Just thought Dad would love this! Too fun.