The Night Before Christmas

Our Christmas Tree 2008 version

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring but dad missing his kids in Hawaii.

I know its not very poetic but I just wanted to let all of you in Hawaii that I wish we were all together at this Christmas season (preferably over there - because of the -25 weather here).  That means you Angie, Mike, Brylie, Tyken and Erika.  But it also includes Jacqui, Brent, Craig, Blair and Troy.

With Sharon and Darren back at home I'm glad that you all have each other for Christmas.  I calculate that there will be 12 of you for Christmas dinner tomorrow in Hawaii.   That will beat us and we will be going to the Kays with Grandma Anderson for dinner tomorrow.   There will only be 11 of us there.   Enjoy your time together.

I'm grateful that we were able to all be together for American Thanksgiving.

This has to be one of the best posed pictures we've ever taken as a family.  This is of course based on the Norman Rockwell painting below.   (that's Mike who only has hair showing)

  

And to tie it back to Christmas take a look at Tony Bennett's new Christmas Album cover.

(isn't that too funny?)

   

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

(These were taken in the Laie Temple Visitor's Center.)

Baby Its Cold Outside

I believe that if it hurts to go outside its too cold.  I took this picture of the thermometer outside our nook window.  It may not be obvious  because there is no "-" sign, but this show about -27 or -28 C or -18 F.  Add a little wind to this and the its a wind chill factor of -35 to -40.  Baby Its Cold Outside.

I've had to bundle up and go out and shovel the walk and driveway.   Can someone explain to me why we have a driveway that is 3 cars wide?  It can literally take over an hour to clear shovel the show off the driveway.   Fortunately we have an angel that lives in our neighborhood.   This angel has a snow blower and has come by and visited our driveway a couple times.   It takes him less than 5 minutes to do what takes me over an hour.

I wish I was in Hawaii again.   I've been meaning to post blogs about our trip.  Some of the girls a have posts about the trip.  Check out Angie, Alana, Erika and Nicole's (on Wilma's blog) blogs to see some of the things we did.

Alana says that I need to update my blog and add my perspective.  So I'll do a series of updates with some highlights of my trip (in random order).

Highlight - Music video from Hawaii.

I don't know how the girls did this but Judy and I went to bed and they hadn't started and when we woke up the next morning they had this fun video.

This made me laugh.  I've played around with doing some videos in the past and I kind of know what is involved.    I'm amazed at what they were able to accomplish in a short time.  Good work girls.  Now you can tell people about the time you went to Hawaii to film a music video.  This video is on Angie, Alana and Erika's blogs as well.

Christmas Music

  
I love Christmas music.   When we were in Hawaii there was a radio station that was playing only Christmas music.   It was great.   Finally last week one of the stations here went to straight Christmas music.  Some years there will be a new Christmas song or Album that will catch my attention.  

     

Its like when I heard Amy Grant's Home for Christmas Album for the first time.  I loved it and its still a favorite.


I think I've come across a new favorite.   Yesterday I was driving Jenelle to school and we heard this version of the 12 days of Christmas on the radio.   They said its their #1 request this Christmas.   This song became popular because 1 of the members of the group posted this 10 year old video of them on YouTube.


Enjoy!



They are called Straight No Chaser.   They reunited after 10 years to record a new Christmas Album this year.

 

I like their sound.  Listening to them brings back fond memories of my days as a Keith Wood Singer.  

(Click here for a link to an MP3 Recording featuring vocals by The Keith Wood Singers) 


I know the recording is not a Christmas song.  We had some great Christmas tune but I don't think they are recorded.  The Keith Wood Singers did record a CD but we should have done a Christmas CD - then we could sell it every year.   Straight No Chaser's first album was a Christmas Album.  THat was smart - Now no matter what else happens they will sell albums every holiday season - Just ask Johnny Mathis.


... and who knows...maybe a lost video of the Keith Wood Singers singing Christmas Carols will appear on YouTube and we will reunite to record a Christmas Album...Wake up Doug...You're dreaming...

Jamie the Jet Setter

      
On November 26 we headed to the airport early in the morning to catch our flight to Vancouver to catch our flight to Honolulu.

Here we are waiting in Vancouver for our flight to Hawaii.

   

On the plane ready for takeoff

   

on the flight to Hawaii

    

I also have pictures of the girls on the flight home but they aren't very flattering.  

(I didn't know they could open their mouths so wide while sleeping).

      

  So last Sunday we flew home.   Today is Thursday.  Early this morning I drove Jamie to the airport to catch a flight to Victoria.  She's off with the girls high school basketball teams for a tournament.   They will fly home on Sunday.   She's become quite the jetsetter.  

   

Checking in

   

There was a WestJet guy doing card tricks for the teams.

    

The Mormons

Jamie (right) and her friends Jessica (left) and Jessica (centre).  

(or is it Jessica (centre) and Jessica (left)?)

  

          

 We actually timed our trip so Jamie could be there for the basketball tryouts.   The tryouts ended the day before we left for Hawaii. Jamie made the Jr. Team.   She missed the first tournament because we were away.   Jamie's first game was on Tuesday night.  She only had 1 practice with the team so she was pretty nervous about things.   (She took a basketball to Hawaii intending to practice every morning.   That never happened.)  But she seemed to get over her nerves quickly and ended up scoring 19 points.   (I wonder what she would have done with some practice)

     

Unbelievable Coincidence

  
On Alana's trip home she reported that fitness guru, Tony Horton, was on her flight.  You can read about it here .



Here's her picture of Tony on her flight.

       
I couldn't believe it when I "saw" Tony Horton on our flight home.   What are the chances of that?   He was right in front of me.

I took some pictures but the lighting wasn't very good so the pictures aren't very clear.

Here's my pictures of Tony.

 

Ok.  So the real Tony wasn't "on" our flight.  But I did "see" him on our flight.  It was the infomercial for his workout on the individual TV screens we had on the plane.

     

   

Well - at least I thought it was funny.

     

    

I'm Back

      
We are back from our Hawaiian vacation and I am back from my break from blogging.   I have lots of excuses for not blogging.  I didn't have a computer... well we did have multiple laptops but the connection was slow.   Plus Angie  and Alana and even Nicole did some posts that covered lots of what we did so I didn't have to.  (Plus there were lots of other things I would rather do in Hawaii than blog - like hanging out with Tyken and Brylie on the beach).

So we left this . . .

And returned to this . . .

My first morning back I had to bundle up to go out and shovel the sidewalk, start the car to warm it up and clear off the 6 inches of snow that had accumulated and scrape the ice off the windows.  And then risk my life slipping and sliding while attempting to drive the girls to school on the icy roads.   On Tuesday I put the snow tires on the van.


At least its not that cold (by Canadian winter standards).  Its been around freezing.   But in the next week they are expecting the -20 to -30 temperatures.


So when Jamie and Jenelle asked me why we live here I had no good answer.

I loved Hawaii!