CHRISTMAS SEASON BEGINS WITH THE NUTCRACKER BALLET

Dear Family,

Cheryl has her daughters in the Ballet West ballet school.  Each year they perform the Nutcracker Ballet with professional  ballet dancers and some of the students qualify for the performances.  Cheryl's kids seem to make it in there each year and this year she had four who made all the performances.  There was Annabelle, Mary Clare, Loren and Olivia.  Olivia was the buffoon that comes out under the skirt.

Cheryl purchased tickets for many members of our family to a Friday night performance.  First of course we met at Sigfried's next to the Capital Theater for a Wurst and Kraut.  John and Kaley came up from Florida for a visit and joined us at the performance. Doug and his wife came with Douglas who brought a date.  Mike and Rayann came with several of their daughters,  Emily and John came  with a few of their daughters.  i did not count them all but there was quite a group who occupied the front section of the left isle.  Paul of course was there with Johnny; Paul has seen this about 40 times. Gemina was in town and joined us in the performance,

Here is a picture of most of us sitting in front.  Little Johnny had the best seat in the house and loved the ballet.

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.  The music and dancing were perfect.  (It seems like some of the men's tights are getting tighter each year) but pother than that it was great.  These dancers are in top physical condition and the performance is graceful and also athletic.  I enjoy it very much each year especially because four grandaughters are in the cast.

Here is Annabelle in her costume.

Here is Mary Clare who was one of the party girls.  She was on stage for a long time   and I must admit, she was the only dancer I watched during the opening scenes.

Here is Lauren as one of the soldiers and then there was Olivia as one of the buffoons that come out from under the giant dress.  She is really a little ham always emoting and like the others, has great stage presence.  Notice how she points her toe!

At the end, I think Cheryl finds all the driving and practices were worth it.  It was so much fun to see them in a professional performance.

This always ushers in the Christmas season for us and our seats were our Xmas present from Cheryl and Paul and much appreciated.

Well Mom is getting out  million Christmas gifts all wrapped and mailing them to each family.  We will start on the card soon and that has been a huge project.  We have a final picture of the entire family from our summer reunion with the four teenagers who were not there, photshopped into the pictre for completeness sake.

Paul and Alison  are coming for Paul's company Xmas gathering.  Scott is here now and Scott and Suz and all their kids are coming for Xmas and will stay in the downstairs apartment until they buy a house here in Salt Lake.

I should not forget that we celebrated John's birthday while at Sigfrieds  Mom bought him an entire vey rich German chocolate cake.  Here are John and Kaley and expensive chocolate cake.  It was very good and worth it.

We love you all,  Dad and Mom

MOM'S THANKSGIVING PLAY

Dear Family,

I need to write separately about Mom's Thanksgiving play.  Here she is directing the play with David as one of the Pilgrims.

She researched the story of the Pilgrim's in several trips to the library.  She then wrote a play with five scenes, depicting the difficulties the Pilgrims had in England, the crossing on first the Mayflower and Speedwell, the sinking of the Speedwell. the signing of the Mayflower contract aboard the Mayflower, the conflict between Indians and settlers, Squato comes to the rescue of the struggling Pilgrims.  He taught them how to grow corn burying a fish in each hill. He introduced them to Chief Massasoit and the next year they had the Thanksgiving feast.  They invited the Indians who when they arrived, saw that there was not enough food so they went out and bagged a few deer.  I have always wanted to serve venison also at Thanksgiving but could not this year.

There were lines to read.  All donned Mom's costumes, stood on the steps of he sunken living room and read their parts

Here are Mark, Mary Anton, Kate and David suffering on the waters in the Mayflower.

Here are Rayann, Rachel, Camille, Michael; Joesph, Mike and Emma with the Indian headdress

Cathy, Pete and the kids made pretty good looking Pilgrims.  A great time was had by all and this was on fun activity that Mom wrote and organized.  I should also give credit to Mary who reminded all the families to come on time and do their parts and acted as a producer.

Mary and Mark took David, Kate and Anton to Temple Square to see the lights. I wonder what tales Anton has to tell when he gets back to Germany about this really weird family that has so much joy and fun together.

We love you all and wish the best for the coming Xmas season.

Dad

THANKSGIVING 2012

Dear Family,

We had the best Thanksgiving get to gather!  Here is a photo of the adult table with the addition of the married couple Johnny and Jena.  We had all sorts of visitors: Mary and Mark and their two kids plus the dog, Gunner der Jaeger and their German exchange student Anton came from Michigan. Mike and Rayanne and family came up from Mapleton as did Emily and John and complete family.  Cathy and Pete and kids came all the way from Bountiful.  Cheryl, Paul and their kids came as well early on.

e started cooking early and one or two days before to be ready for the feast.  I brined a turkey and then got up in the middle of the night and put it into the smoker so it would be ready.  Made the oyseter dressing the day before and Mom got up early to stuff and roast the turkey.

Becca had stayed with us a couple of days with her family and she was a baking machine.  Here is Opa, Becca and Cathy about to bake a delicious apple pie that the girls made.  All preparations were done in time so we all sat down to eat at 12:30 PM sharp.  Mary had organized and set the tables and made sure everyone had a place setting.



Here are the teenagers in the sunken living room all set up for dining

.And the teeny boppers

And here are the little guys all who did well at the table and had a great feed.

I smoked a turkey, Mom roasted a big turkey with oyster dressing.  (pretty good this year!) Everyone brought sides and rolls, pies, sauces, salads and gravy and it was a grand event.  It was completely organized and went off smoothly and was very good.

We are so grateful for our blessings continuously but at this time of the year we express extra thanks for the blessings of family and friends, health and strength and the blessings of the Gospel in our lives.  It was a wonderful time.  We appreciate all who have helped and wish all the best.

Love, Mom and Dad

NATALIE GETS A MISSION CALL

With the change in the ages of proselyting missionaries, there has been an enormous increase in the applications to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The Church has been deluged with applications and 40% of the early ones were from the gals.

Natalie was the first one to put in her papers and the processing was quick!  Check out this Y tube of her receiving her mission call .  It is such drama that the entire family was present and she opened the envelope to read the call and the destination.

Local lore says that if the postage  on the envelope is large then it is a foreign mission and hers had a lot of postage.  There was a pool of where everyone thought she would go but no one guessed it.  There was a little pressure for me to find out in advance but I did not do it.

So she is going to the Lisbon, Portugal mission and we are all excited for her. Emily will have two missionaries out..Josh is almost finished with his mission and then Natalie starts as well.  Good going everyone!!!!

Well Madeline H.  just submitted her papers as well as she turns 19 soon.  We are excited for our grandchildren to have this opportunity to serve mission. Others are finishing a segment of college and may also go.  It is wonderful to have this experience as it serves as a foundation for life.

I have not written for a while as I was back in the hospital with a leg infection.. The worst thing was that i missed the deer hunt in Texas with Rob but he was able to schedule it for next year.  Also missed the trip to Virginia with the Manwarrings.

Things are popping around here.  John and Kaley come up this week from Florida for a weekend visit.

Also Scott and Suz are looking to a move from Arizona as Scott has taken a job with a company here in Salt Lake.  He starts thursday and they will occupy[y the basement apartment.    There will be a lot of Mexican cooking!  It will be a treat to have more family here with the grandkids.

We love you all,

Mom and Dad

GRANDPARENT'S DAY AT TOM'S FOOTBALL

Dear Family,  So much going on in the family today.  Bry and his kids drove to the BYU -  Notre Damm football game.

It was Grandparents Day for Doug's son,Tom's football team, the Bengals.  Tom is eight years and has started full contact football and is carrying on a tradition of Wirthlins playing football that was started by my father who played first string college football for the University of Utah in the 1920's.  He had a great red woolen sweater with a large "U" on it that he wore often even when deer hunting.  Elder Wirthlin was the next one to play collegiate football and we have had scores of high school football players since.

Grandparents were invited to Tom's game and given a pass with the picture of the grandson and his stats.  It also entitled us to a free Hamburger and cold pop and brownie at the end.  Here is the football player with Oma and Opa.

Here is Tom in his full regalia and pads.  I was not certain what position he played but on defense, he was in the middle facing the center on the front line.  I thought he looked pretty fierce.

I like seeing the family name on the back of sporting shirts.

Here is Dad, Dr. Doug, serving as a line marker guy and our little bantam weight Lineman, Tom.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon and great to spend it with Tom and Doug.

Alles Gute,  Mom and Dad

BIRTHDAYS AND FALL FUN

Dear Family,

Well it is really fall now with the leaves turning, the garden finished, conference is over for six months and it is a beautiful time of the year.

We have 112 birthdays in the family and two of Cheryl's kids have just had theirs.  Lauren turned 11 and had a big party with friends, Moms complete with autumn decorations and goodies.

Johnny turned 5 and here he is with Madeline  and his UofU football having a special luncheon at Paul's office.  They seem to have several days of birthday celebrations.  Johnny has spent time in our home over his short years and knows every nook and cranny.  He knows where every treat is hidden and discovered Oma's toy and birthday gift stash that was up high and hidden.  He found a castle with knights set and laid claim to it a few months ago.  Mom forgot about it but was reminded that she had promised him this on his birthday and he was tickled to get it.  He is a little character.  He had a party, then a special Family Home Evening where we all told good things about Johnny, then another cake and today the special luncheon.  He went to a movie with Paul and Opa as well and It was all great fun.  Our lives are full of these family events.

We have had our little garden harvest.  This is a shot of the grapes, now two years old.  We should have a bigger crop next year.  Mom picked a lot of grapes at our friends, the Keslers,  and she made many quarts of great grape juice.

We closed Bear Lake this last week with Mike, Rayanne and several of their kids.  It was cold but nothing had frozen.  All the vehicles had dead batteries except for one 4 wheeler.  This was all fixed, the boat cleaned, the Induna rock climber cleaned and started and all put away.  Rayanne did the meals and it was delicious.  Food tastes better at Bear Lake! We got everything stowed, the pipes drained and Mom set off and insect bomb before we left.  Of course Mike, Michael and I did some serous plinking with .22's and little Michael is quite a good shot.  He stalks deer in his neighbors yard in Mapelton and nailed them with his air soft pellet gun.  Mike went to Walton Feed and loaded up on storage supplies and picked up a ton of pellets for their wood burning stove and after all the closing preparations were complete, and we did not forget too much, we drove home.  It is definitely Fall

Love, Dad

ST. GEORGE MARATHON

Dear Family,

There was a marathon in St. George and our family was represented.  Rebecca and Paul were training for a long time, Cheryl and Paul also, Doug and Douglas worked  training into their busy schedule and Mary trained in Michigan.  They all came together and stayed at Becca's in St. George.  Suz came up from Phoenix and made cookies.  They all tanked up on carbs of carbs the day before and ran on Saturday.

They all did well, three qualified for the Boston Marathon, Becca, Mary and Cheryl.  Becca had best time but the others finished very well indeed.

They were moving a little stiff the next day so here is a session at Cheryl's in her Pilates work out gym.  Cheryl could be a Pilates instructor so she did a work out with Doug, Mary and there is Cheryl in the back.  They were able to straighten out the kinks.  Mary got to stay with us one extra day and listened to conference.  So much fun...while they were running, we had our post Priesthood Meeting barbecue with John Hickey and his boys, Mike and his boys and two of Doug's boys came to the meeting and the barbecue.  That was a great night and I was able to find New York Sirloin at a good price.  We reviewed each talk during the dinner.  The boys were sharp.

It was a great weekend with a great conference as well

Love, Dad