Merry Christmas everyone! This past week was amazing and we had a lot of fun. There are a lot of pictures this week, so I will not write too much for the post. But to cover some highlights:
Elise took the kids snow skiing this past week. Kas and Netter loved it, Zo was hesitant and instead decided she would rather just play in the snow bank on the side of the slopes. Which was fine, the kids did not go past anything major, and mainly stayed on the return run just by the bunny slopes. The tow rope was busted for most of the day, but they still were able to go through some of the bottom runs and learn. Zo, said she will do it next year.
Elise made tamales this week, and had a family from the Ward over. They made tons of tamales and had fun doing it. It seemed like it was fun and the kids seemed to laugh about the kids that came over. Elise said it was fun and it seemed like a ton of fun too.
Elise’s friend from Slovenia came over this past week too. Her name is Maja (pronounced My-ya). We had her over for dinner and Elise and her talked a long time. She has never seen the Lord of the Rings movies, and since the Hobbit came out, the DirecTV channels have been playing the LoTR movies and she was amazed that so many people liked it. She is a great person too, and I liked having her over.
And of course, it is Christmas. For Christmas, I am very much a Humbug. I do not like what this has turned in to. So for Christmas, we do not do a lot of the hustle and bustle of buying trinkets and crap. We figure we can do that any time of the year. So for Christmas, we do a home made gift for everyone in the family. So the kids were finishing those up, and it really makes a huge difference when they open their presents. They know that the present is personal and heartfelt. This is not to take away the traditions of anyone else, or the exchanging of store bought gifts. I really do not want to demean anyone else’s traditions. I just relate this as it makes this time of year much more bearable for me, to see the kids eyes all surprised about their gifts. Of course, Santa brings the “big store bought” gifts for the kids, and they like those. I can just see how different they are when they watch each other open the gifts they spent hours (and sometimes days) doing for each other.
Anyway, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.
Outside the office, the snow piles higher and higher
The office was so plain, we needed a change of scenery, so we lowered the screen in the main room.
Elise keeps telling me to eat healthier, so here it is, I am eating Orange Slices.
Elise took the kids up skiing this past week, and Netter loved it!
Netter slowly going down the hill as she learns to ski, and is feeling the slight incline
Kas just going for it, can you not just picture him screaming “I Want my 2 Dollars!”
Zo was not as enthused about skiing so she decided to play in the snow instead
The kids going down the small bunny hill/return path and having more fun
Let’s check back on Zo, and it seems, she is, uh, well, she is enjoying the snow, I think
After the slopes, it was time to get warm by the fireplace and drink hot cocoa
The present bags for the people at the office, was not much, but wanted to let them know I appreciate them
Elise’s friend from Slovenia, Maja, came to visit us, and we had fin talking with her
Elise and one of the other families from the Ward were making tamales for the Holiday meal
Putting in the meat and the sauce for the tamales, and they did a lot of tamales
After some long time working on the tamales, they were done, and they were delicious
Christmas Eve it started snowing heavily, and it made it so the kids had their first White Christmas
Look at how big those snow flakes are! It was really heavy and really wet and made shoveling so much fun for Kas
Here is what the street looked like after a few hours of the snow coming down
Kas and I posing for a picture being all old timey about it too, Kas was tired.
Just so you can see, this is about what came down just in the morning alone, we got more snow in the afternoon
Elise loves ribbon candy and the Holiday Spirit was here, and I was forbidden to exorcise it
Kas’s talent was to play the Cello for us, and he is getting real good at it too
Ok, so Kas can play the cello, eh? Let’s see if I can do it too. Well, it sounded like a cat getting run over by a dump truck
Zo’s talent was to play the parts of songs she is learning on the guitar
I helped her quickly learn Mary Had a Little Lamb. As you can see, some odd mist is covering my Jabbe the Hutt-ness
So now I had to go and do my talent, but I needed a volunteer as my talent was . .
Tickles! I just could not resist tickling the Netter and Zo for my talent
Netter sang a few lovely songs, so beautiful and so wonderful
Netter opening her gift from Kas, it was a new book and a bookmark, and she loved it, fell asleep reading it
Zo looking in the bag for her present from Netter, it was glow in the dark bouncy balls
Elise and Kas showing off their presents, a new book and for Kas, a woopie cushion and a slinky
Christmas Eve and we are done with this round of present opening . . .
Well, we let them open one more, this is a little telescope they can use for the moon and looking at wildlife on the mountains
The table was set with care, for the next morning’s breakfast we would share
The Christmas Tree Lights shine so bright, while the kids pretended to sleep through the night
The Jolly Old Fat Man in Red came tonight, while we dreamt our dreams so bright
But once awake and with full steam, Zo lept out of bed and darted upstairs at full speed
Netter soon followed behind Zo with wide eyes, Santa had come and left her a prize
Zo was so happy seeing the hamster in the cage, she could not contain her hoo-rays
With gifts in their hands and a smile on their face, they know that the Hird home is the best place
Kas got a new scarf and was so excited about this . . .
While opening other presents he had to just put it on and wear it right away
Netter made Kas some devil sticks for her present to Kas
Kas made a Dr Who shirt for Zo, and when she opened it she loved it
Zo made Netter a plush little doggy, when Netter opened this she was so surprised
Another home made gift to Kas was a small figure of Sherlock
After the festivities of the morning, Elise and I went on a little drive
Going down the mountain we got a good view of the valley covered in snow
We went to downtown Provo and took some pictures of the town silent on Christmas Day
The building is being converted to a new temple in Downtown Provo
I love some of the buildings in downtown Provo, they are very old and have a nice look to them
The building that the Little Italy place is located
More images of downtown Provo
We also drove around American Fork (Fark), and Elise could not resist this picture, you can barely see the mountains in the background
OK, this past week was really uneventful, except for the storms that came in to Utah. So this weeks pictures are full of storm pictures. But next week looks more promising. Sorry I am not writing more, kind of a lot on the plate right now.
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