GREAT HOLIDAYS

Dear Family,

We had a wonderful holiday season .  We had the Christmas Eve Celebration with our traditional Nativity reenactment. Here is a picture of the nativity players.  Johnny was the camel and brought in all three wise men on his back. Doug, Emily, Mike and their families and Madeline B. all came.  I read fro the scriptures on my iPad.and also commented of gift giving.  Everyone did a good job,

We had a dinner of standing rib roast and all brought the side dishes and it was great.

Emily wanted to play the "White Elephant" game that we used to do.  We used wrap up outrageous gifts that were neatly wrapped and we took turns choosing a gift from a great pile in the center if the room.  This time Mom wrapped up things from the lost and found collection. Here everyone is laughing as Nate choose a high heel shoe.  The most coveted gift was a large jar of Maple Syrup from the Franklin Cider Mills that Doug brought,

It was a lot of fun.  On Christmas after church we drove around to visit the families.  All were in pajamas even after church! Here is Doug and their Nerf Gun Xmas.  They even had a Nerf bazooka gun I think would knock over bowling pins.  We went down to Mapleton and saw Emily and Mike and their families later in the afternoon. still all were in pajamas.  Everyone had a great Xmas.

Meanwhile in Michigan. Al's kids gathered around in fancy pajamas.  Thought they all looked so great.  Al is expecting their eight child at the end of the month and they do not know whether it is a boy or a girl.

We also had visits from former missionaries.  Here is Jake Gertson
who brought a very nice young lady by. I advised him, "Er sollte weiter machen!" She is a peach. He has a graduate degree in hospital administration and works in New York City. He was one of our great missionaries who served in the office and in Austria.

Shalayne Davis dropped by with her parents.  Shalayne was one of our great sister missionaries in Germany,  She has a Masters degree and is currently in Virginia in law school.  I was I'm;ressed that she absolutely loved studying law.  She had also taught at the MTC and worked in the Provo Temple when she was there.  We had such outstanding Missionaries.

Mary Cox came by with her father after a day of skiing.  We keep meeting Mary everywhere we go; we saw her in Berlin and in Boston.  She is getting her Phd in German economic history at Oxford university in England.  This year she is actually teaching a course at Oxford and that is super impressive.  We never tire of seeing our special missionaries.

Well this post is an accomplishment of sorts.  This is the first post on my new Mac pro laptop.  I have used a PC for over 30 years and finally made the break.  I gave a stake fireside in the Grantsville Stake on Sunday.  It was packed back into the cultural hall and I used the new Mac bool.  I could not believe how easy it was to hook up to the projector which it immediately recognized.  The power point program on the Mac showed me the current slide, the notes to the slide, the nest slide and how long  I had been talking.  Mom gave a talks well and it was a wonderful evening.

This brings us up to date and we love you all and wish you the best in the New Year.  May go to Florida if I feel better.

Love, Dad and Mom