Christmas - chapter1

The Christmas celebrations got underway this evening at mom and dad's house. Our tradition is to do Christmas eve with my folks, Christmas morning at home and Christmas-later morning with Melissa's family. It is great to have so much family close by.
We are really blessed.
We all had a great time tonight. We had a good meal and the girls had a blast. we all got great gifts but the family is the important thing.
Uncle George gave the girls one of his amazing horses. They kept taking turns riding it all night.
They were very worn out and they both fell asleep on the way home. It was an awesome evening.
ps - Thanks so much to all of you Nebraska folks for the nice comments. It is so great to see your families on your blogs. I wish we were closer but at least we can stay in touch this way. I hope you all have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

Dancing Princess

Mara had her first recital on Sunday. She performed at the Massari Auditorium here of campus. It was neat, but kind of scary to see her on that stage. I spent so many years working shows in that theater to see my daughter performing there made me realize that time is flying by a little to fast for comfort. My boss had the same thing happen to him as his daughter was running sound for the event.

My rapid aging aside, Mara did a great job. She was only in one number. She is the youngest and smallest in her class but she keeps up just fine. Myka wanted to be in the show also so Melissa dressed her up and had her downstairs in the dressing room. She thought she was pretty cool. Sorry - no pictures of Myka.

Mara is hoping to join more classes next year so she can be in more numbers.
On a side note, the show was 12 years and a day since the evening I proposed to Melissa on that very stage. No pictures of that either, although there is a video in storage somewhere.
The house is coming along. Like the rest of the country we have had too much freezing weather to get too much done. I am still hoping to have the electrical done by the fifth of January when I go back to work.
Mom go her decorations up despite the help of the girls and Wayne. we are looking forward to a nice family Christmas this year.
That is all for now, I hope everyone has a blessed holiday and remember that Christ is the "REASON FOR THE SEASON"!

Snow Days

We've had some real snow the past few weeks. The biggest came last night as a storm dumped about a foot of the white stuff.

The girls have been enjoying themselves. We had so much snow the last 12 hours that Melissa and I both had snow days off from work. I still did some work from home but it is nice to relax and play with the girls for a change.

Myka really enjoyed getting dressed up for the weather. She was ready to go out before the rest of us. Thankfully she was willing to wait for us.

Melissa, Corrie and Brittney had as much fun as the girls

Sadly, the weather, a web conference in Denver, a basketball tournament and a wedding have slowed the progress on the house. The stucco crew have got the wire on and if we can get a few good days they will put the base stucco on soon. We are close to having all of the inside walls done as well.