Northwest Pacific Ballet Nutcracker

Jacquelyn and I have never seen the Nutcracker Ballet so this year we decided to go.

So we went on a date to Seattle to The Nutcracker at McCaw Hall performed by the renowned Pacific Northwest Ballet.

 This is inside McCaw Hall which is near the Space Needle and Science Center in Seattle.

 Outside the doors they had a life size statue of a mouse and other interesting displays.

 So here are some shots of the ballet.  It was a lot of fun to see.  Jacquelyn said the orchestra especially played beautiful.

 A lot of the ballerinas were children.  Clara falls asleep on Christmas Eve and is bothered in her nightmares by giant mice.

 Her nutcracker comes to life to fight the king of the mice and to protect her and her brother.

 Her bother's toy soldiers also come to life to do battle with the invading mice.

 After the mice are dispatched they are visited by various desserts, like this sugar plum cake.

 And these candy canes.

 And other treats like these gum drops.

Finally they are visited by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her French polichinelles.

Jacquelyn and I had a wonderful time out together.

Merry Christmas

We actually had a white Christmas this year.   I was really excited because it doesn't happen a lot in Washington and the last two Christmas' we were in the Philippines and didn't see any snow the entire winter those years.

 You can see snow out the front window past our Christmas tree.

 Snow in the front.

 Snow in the back.

 Snow everywhere.

Caleb was home with us for Christmas.  He's our only one left after eight children, so we didn't have very many stockings to fill compared to earlier years.

 Mark and Angela sent us some Christmas goodies from Wolferman's in Tulsa.  We made Eggs Benedict on two different mornings and pancakes, banana bread, etc.  It was really good and very thoughtful.

 We have our family spread out so much we had several different family gatherings.  We already had one in Utah and saw Joshua, Nathanael, Tianna and family.  On Christmas eve we had a celebration with Malachi and Talitha and family.  The week after Christmas, Tianna and family flew in to visit.  Busy time.  It's so great to see everyone though.  Out of 8 children, 7 spouses, 2 grandparents, and 24 grandchildren - we got to visit with a lot of family - but we didn't see Jarom who is in Michigan or Doranda and her family who are way out in Japan or Isaac and his family who are way up in Minnesota.  We did skype and talk on the phone, but we missed them.

 Opening presents with Caleb, Malachi, Mallory, and Layne.

 Mallory and Malachi.

Andrew

 Talitha, David, Andrew, and Layne.

 Talitha and David.

 Tianna, James, Evan and James.

Talatha and Dallen.

Merry Christmas everyone.  This is the time to think of family and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  We are so thankful for everyone and for all the blessings we've been given.

Christmas Time in Utah

We had the opportunity to make a trip out to Utah to see some of the children and grandchildren.  We stayed with Nathanael and his family in South Jordan.  Joshua and his family drove down from Pocatello and stayed at Nathanael's home also.  And one day Tianna and Jim and their two youngest flew down and visited for the day.  Amery who is now living in Utah came by also.

 The first thing we did was take a tour of Temple Square.  We saw some of the Visitors Centers, toured the Conference Center, and went to the old Tabernacle.  This is a picture of Elliott, Hannah, Jacob and me in tabernacle where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir used to play from.

 We took a metro bus to tour a hotel that had decorated window displays inside and a large gingerbread house that was life size.

 We had a large crowd at Nathanael's house with all the grandchildren.  In this picture you can see Jonathan, Jacob, Christian, Agnes, Ethan, Asher and Hannah.

 Agnes got so drowsy she fell asleep in her chair.

 One of the days we went to watch Jacob play basketball at their Rec. Center.  He even scored a goal.

 At one of the malls they had some Harry Potter shops the kids liked looking in.

 Jonathan and I ready for church on Sunday.

The last thing we saw was a Christmas light display, the Tree of Life at Drapper, Utah.  We had a nice time.  It was too bad it couldn't last a little longer.

The Days Before Christmas

We had several activities we were involved in leading up to Christmas.  December is a fun time of the year. 

 We posed for a manger scene with Malachi and his family.  Andrew is a wise man, Mallory and Jacquelyn are angels, Spencer and I are shepherds, and Malachi and Layne are Joseph and Mary.

 One day we went out to a nativity display at the Tacoma Stake Center on Pearl Street.  They had hundreds of Nativity displays.  Andrew's favorite was this one with zoo animals.

 Mallory's favorite was the one with mermaids and mermen.

 Spencer liked the rubics cube nativity the best.  We saw a lot of nice displays and they had a small program.

 One day Jacquelyn and I went to the Victorian Christmas at the fair grounds.  Besides all the Victorian costumes we saw the city tree lighting ceremony for the Puyallup Christmas Tree.  It was bigger and more magnificent than it looks in this picture.  The lights were strung from the Extreme Scream ride and those are fireworks going off around it.

 They had reindeer there too.  Did you know Santa's reindeer had to be an all female team.  Male reindeer shed their antlers for the winter and the reindeer shown pulling Santa's sled always have lots of antlers.

 And one day we went to the Seattle temple.

 This is the life size nativity scene on the temple grounds.

 Afterwards we went to the Snow Flake Parade in downtown Bellevue.

 Besides the floats they had lots of dancing and singing and people interacting with the crowd.

 This is one of the floats.

We also went to Spencer's pre-school Christmas Program.  He didn't sing much, (he wasn't feeling well) but I think he enjoyed it anyway.

Also we've been doing the "Light the World" activity.  This is the second year our church has had this program - where everyone does something nice for someone else each day of December leading up to Christmas.  It does a lot of good for people and also gets us into the true spirit of Christmas.  Which is remembering the birth of Jesus and how he taught us to help and love one another.

Here's a link where you can check it out:    https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng

Knee surgery

Yesterday I had to get knee surgery at the Rainier Orthopedic Institute

The doctor said the surgery went well.  It was minor arthroscopic surgery and I was in and out in a couple of hours.  I had a torn meniscus, which doesn't heal on its own so they stick a scope in your knee and trim away the torn area and smooth the injury site.  Don't know when I did the tear, but I noticed it after being on my knees gardening one day and after a month it was not healing and was getting worse.

When Jacquelyn came to pick me up and I was coming out of anesthesia, she said I told her she looked like an angel.

Thanksgiving

The best part of Thanksgiving is getting to be with family.  I think that's because family is what most people are the most thankful for.

 On Thanksgiving day Talitha and David had us over for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  David cooked the turkey, which was so moist and good, and Talitha made all kinds of delicious dishes to go with it.  Jacquelyn brought a dessert.  Caleb was with us too.  There were only 5 of us there to celebrate but we still had a great evening together.  After dinner we played a game of Clue.

 Mallory had a piano recital we attended.  She is learning fast.  I think she was a little nervous but once she started playing she did great.

On Friday morning Malachi and Layne had us over for a Thanksgiving brunch.  Also Caleb.  Andrew, Mallory and Spencer were all there too.  Then on Sunday we had a second Thanksgiving dinner over at Malachi and Layne's house.  The food was delicious, especially potato side dish.  Two turkey dinners this year, it was great.  Soon we hope to see our other children and grandchildren too.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  We are so grateful for everyone and so proud of everyone.  We have been so blessed and we love you all.