Christmas Tree hunting and Lucy sings

Lucy is part of the Worland Youth Choir that consists of 4th and 5th graders.  They practice twice a week after school and they had their first concert this week.  They sounded really good.

Lucy is on the front row second from left

Since Lauren and Matt were here we decided to get our Christmas tree today.  The snow wasn't nearly as deep as it was last year and it wasn't quite so cold, though our toes were freezing by the end!  We chopped two trees down, plus two tiny ones that Lucy and Peter chose to put in their room.  (And by tiny I mean TINY!)

In the van on the way up!

Matt, Peter, and Lauren in the pink coat

Lauren (pink coat),Lucy, Emma's back, and Brian

Lauren, Matt, Emma, and Lucy

Peter and his tree!

Lucy making her way back to the van

We had a great time and our trees are fresh and pretty!  (No, I didn't get a picture of the trees, I will post more later!)

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning was crisp and cold and snowy!  Everyone slept in, which was the first blessing of the day!

Our good friends, the Durrant's, had their daughter Ellie's baptism this morning.  I was lucky enough to play the piano for her oldest daughter to sing and it was beautiful and sweet.  Peter and Ellie are good friends and like to hang out with each other.  Naomi, Ellie's mom, snapped a few pictures:

Our dinner turned out really nice and yummy!  Lauren and Matt made the pumpkin pies and we had all the traditional stuff minus the green bean casserole.  I've never done the entire dinner by myself so that was a first.  Here are a few pictures:

Lauren, Matt, Peter, Eric

Peter, Eric, Lucy, Andy, Emma

We missed Audrey and Palmer today!  After dinner it was on to pie and a movie and then the wonderful post Thanksgiving dinner nap!  A very satisfying day!

Harp Playing

Here in Worland the Museum has many social events.  I've been asked to play the harp at some of them.  Last Friday night the musician they had scheduled, a fiddler, canceled on them because of bad weather (she was driving up from Lander).  So the museum director, Sherryl, texted me at 4:30 and asked if I could be there ready to play at 5:30.  I said yes.  It was the annual "Quick Draw Auction".  Artists from Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming come and they have one hour to complete a work of art and then it's auctioned off.  It was a HUGE event with all the tables sold out.  They offered a complete Italian meal, which was quite good, and had an open bar. They said the more the patrons drink the higher they bid!  I played for 2+ hours and they paid me $500!  Wow, apparently I need to up my price!  There was a photographer there and he managed to snap a couple of pictures of me.  I don't think they are the greatest, but then I guess you always think/hope you look better than you actually do!

Snow, it came at last and is here to stay!

Winter is finally rearing it's head up here.  Last year we were already at negative degrees, so I'm not sad it's taking it's time arriving.  Here is a few pictures of what I woke up to:

Snow on the pumpkin!

It's plenty cold and should hit below zero just in time for Thanksgiving!  Gobble gobble brrrrrr.

Villa Altagracia -- Palmer's new area

Palmer has been transferred to the Los Alcarrizos zone to the city of Villa Alragracia.  It is about 40 minutes north of his first area.  It;s population is 169,655 and it's currently 88 degrees with 62% humidity.  Here is where it sits in the country:





Here are some pictures from Google Images, since I don't think I will be getting a lot from Palmer!

Orem Library Blog Post: Chicken Spaghetti

OPL Just Browsing Blog

My sweet Emma!

Happy Halloween, a day late

We had a calm uneventful Halloween yesterday.  Our ward had a big trunk or treat with all three wards at the church on Friday night, which was great!  The weather was warmish and the kids were done quickly.  I took a picture of Eric and Peter.  Lucy was a vampire.

Green Arrow

Ho Ho Ho Santa Claus

Andy didn't dress up and Emma taped smarties to her pants and called them "smarty pants".  Last night we had a few people trick or treat our house, but we turned the lights off and it was pretty quiet.  Eric went to the haunted house with his friend Tanner and Lucy went with the neighbor kids and did some trick or treating.  That was it for us this Halloween!

This is a side note.  My sister gave us a giant jar of jelly bellies.  All the good kinds get picked out and eaten and we had some left over that no one would eat.  So Andy decided to make a work of art out of them: