The Rest of December

I feared I would never get the rest of the blogs written for the holidays so I decided to combine them into one semi-long post . . . mostly pictures.


These first three pictures are of the Christmas Choir Concert at the high school.  In this first one, Thomas is standing up on the far right.  He is leading the men's choir with Mr. VP, our choir director.

A close up of Thomas singing with Acapella . . . 

and singing with Premier Jazz.

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to make gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.  We buy tons of candy and usually eat more than we put on the houses.  Most of the kids eat theirs within two days of making them.

Marie has kind of adopted a widow in our ward, Jan.  We invited her over to join in this year.

The Tuesday before Christmas, Santa made a surprise visit to our home and brought each of the kids a nice, warm pair of slippers.

Allie arrived for Christmas Eve.  Oh, my!  I just want to kiss those cheeks right now!

Christmas Eve Dinner is almost ready.

Grandma setting out the appetizers. 

We ate too much . . . again.

Dinner is always followed by the nativity . . . 

a visit from Santa . . .

and singing Christmas carols around the piano while grandpa plays.

Here is my favorite Christmas gift . . . 

Thomas is learning to walk on his hands.

I got to take some fun pictures of the beautiful Mrs. Twin Falls (aka my daughter, Kimberly) for the upcoming Mrs. Idaho pageant.

And that raps up the year 2010!  Happy New Year to you all!

Christmas Band Concert

We have this little joke . . . Whenever Todd and I sit down at one of Thomas' Band concerts, we say, "I wonder what instrument Thomas will be playing today."  He started out playing the trumpet at the beginning of high school, then percussion, then the tuba, and now the oboe.

Christmas Picture 2010

It was kind of a last minute thing . . . And it was a little strange not having Kim in the picture this year.

Camera Speed

Todd was helping me check out how fast the camera can take continuous shots.

Sorry Todd.  I just couldn't resist posting these pictures.  Love you!

Playing with the Camera

I was trying to focus on a close up object so the lights would look all twinkly and out of focus in the background.  I think it is called Bokeh.

This is the same Christmas tree as the picture above but I stamped out a snowflake on black paper and placed it over my camera lens.  Cool, huh?  I don't quite know how it works, but all the Christmas tree lights are now shaped like snowflakes.

Ready for Church

We let Niko take a little initiative in getting ready for church.  He gets an "A" for effort.  And a giggle from mom.

School Project

Justin had a big portfolio project to do on Egypt.  Part of the project was to make some food eaten there.  He chose hummus and pita bread.  I love hummus!  Even our kids who don't usually like hummus, really liked the homemade stuff Justin made.   

The pita bread was fun too.  Interesting thing . . . when we baked the pita bread on parchment paper, it puffed right up and we were left with a wonderful pocket inside.  When we baked it straight on the metal cookie sheet, it cooked flat.  No puff and no pocket.

Jazz Band Night

We got to hear Thomas in the High School Jazz band last night.  They always put on a little concert for family and friends in the band room the day before District Band Festival.  I LOVE to listen to the Jazz band!