Christmas Success

Just a quick note to tell you what a great Christmas we had. Our plans
were forced to change at the last minute thanks to a massive Christmas
Eve snowstorm and a poor little boy who threw up a dozen times during
that day, so we couldn't go to the cabin for a rustic Christmas
morning. We were bummed, but we made up for it with plenty of good
family time.

It's been great spending quality time with family on both sides, and
the food's been tremendous. Thank goodness for a couple of good
basketball games to work off all the holiday eats.

We were all excited about the gifts we gave and received, and we're so
grateful for everyone's generosity. The kids were spoiled as usual,
and it was fun for Santa to see that he/she nailed the presents.

Dave and Meredith had their baby at about 10:45 on Christmas Eve night
(only a week overdue). Mere and baby Bea (Beatrice) are doing great.
We really miss Nate and Jenny and their boys who are still back in
Philly thanks to Nate's stinky job.

BYU pulled out another miraculous win in their bowl game, and a Texas
win tomorrow would be icing on the cake.

And we're thankful for the Savior at this Christmas time, and for
family both near and far.

OK, I guess that wasn't really just a quick note...

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and family members! This is our Christmas card picture this year, so if you haven't received it, I'm sure it's, uh, in the mail... We're grateful for all of you!

And, we're on the road again starting early tomorrow morning. It's nice to have it almost here, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone. Over the next couple of weeks it's likely that blog entries will be sporadic at best, but if there's fun stuff to update you on, I'll give it a try. We'll take plenty of pictures and post them sometime around Easter, so don't worry about missing anything.

Let the fun begin ................

Holidays

Man, we need a holiday from preparing for the holidays, and we still have a lot of preparing left to do before we can actually enjoy our holidays.

There are 38 hours until we pull out of the carport with our nose pointed east. If we factor in about 6 hours of sleep tonight and tomorrow, that leaves only 26 hours. I'm pretty sure that's not enough hours to accomplish everything we still have on our lists. Joy and Good Tidings...

But then, I remember we have bowl games starting this weekend, and everything seems ok. Add to that the fact that we are officially done with all, and I mean all, our Christmas shopping - so if anyone has any last minute requests, keep them to yourself.

Interesting school winter concerts the last couple of nights. Firstly, Kennan did a GREAT job singing her solo! She was really awesome, and we've gotten so many comments that it was great to see her shine. That was on Monday night where the choir sang and the band tried to play. Tuesday night they had another one, which was all the grades singing their "winter" songs. Of the roughly 15 songs we heard, I recognized exactly 1 of them. This whole "don't offend anyone who might not be Christian by not singing any Christmas songs at all" routine is really old and tired. It doesn't help either that there's a music teacher who wants to spread her wings and invite the kids along on her little artistic adventure. Needless to say, this was not your typical winter concert, let alone Christmas concert.

Anyway, we're stoked for our trip, let's just hope we make it before falling apart completely.

Things we're looking forward to for the holidays...

• The Las Vegas Bowl - not going, just watching
  
• Grandma L's Christmas day feast (turkey, stuffing, potatoes, crepes, etc., etc., etc.)
  
• Grandma R's Christmas Eve dinner (not sure of the menu, but who cares...)
  
• Christmas Eve gift exchange (Spencer & Molly ... aaah yeaaah!)
• hiking in to the cabin in the snow by moonlight late Christmas Eve
• hoping Santa finds us at the cabin ;-)
• Christmas morning at the cabin
• giving Angela her present!
• seeing the kids get their presents!
  
• basketball with dad, brothers, friends
• skiing
• other bowl games
  
• a movie or two
• visiting family at their houses
• cousin play time for the kids
• hanging out at Christine & Cameron's
• seeing our partially built Provo spec house
  
• Preston's baby blessing and the sweet after-party at the Leishman's
  
• extended family Christmas party at Great Grandpa R's
• Dan coming to stay with us a for a few days after New Years (wish H & P could come)
• a little time off work
  
• the drive out there - yes, we're even sort of excited for that
  
• NOT the drive home

I've gotta run to get the shuttle bus up to SF for a holiday Bay cruise party - one of the many festivities for work...

Peace

Ch- Ch- Ch- Chaaanges...

Sometimes life throws you curve balls, sometimes it's change-ups, and sometimes it's high and tight chin music. I would categorize these recent developments as a slow-moving knuckle curve: you're not sure if it's curving or dancing - just that it's moving - but if you time it just right, you can hit it a mile because it's going so slow, but you're not really sure how the defense is placed, and ...

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago our bishop announced to the ward that he and his wife have been called as mission president to Albania starting next July. This was exciting news for them and we were all very happy for their upcoming experience. But what it also means, is that my bishopric calling may be short lived. Even if we all get released, it's been a very rewarding experience and I'm grateful for it. That said, I really hope to not get released because I've been enjoying the calling and my responsibilities. Needless to say, that will represent a big change in my life, and maybe our lives.

Also, we spoke last night with Bishop and his wife, and it looks like we're going to rent their house while they're gone. It's an exciting step for us, and will raise our rent a lot, but they've also been generous in helping us find a level of payment that works for both of us. It's a MUCH nicer/bigger/better house than we're currently living in, although we really like our current house and situation we've been in. So that will represent big changes for all of us - and all good! We've really been blessed.

As for everything else in our lives, it changes at a more normal rate. We're all growing and learning...

Birthday and stuff

Ang and the kids all celebrated another birthday yesterday - yeah it was mine, but it's much more fun to think of them a year older than they were last December 10th than it is to think of how old I am now. They were great - they really know how to make an old guy feel loved.

We started off the day with our traditional birthday donuts for breakfast, and the festivities continued when Ang and Brig joined me at work for lunch. Kennan and Morgan had asked me what I was going to do during the day on my birthday, and of course I told them I was going to work. They said, "but it's your birthday!" If only that counted as a holiday... I was surprised that people I work with knew it was my birthday because I hadn't told anyone - it was good for getting off a little earlier than usual and heading home to begin the evening activities. Ang made an awesome birthday dinner of beef & broccoli, pot stickers, rice, fruit, Martinelli's, and my favorite gingerbread cake with whipped cream. It was outstanding! Gifts followed, and as much as I liked the generous clothes, books, and treats, it was the girls' homemade cards that were the highlight. I had been asking for the "world's best birthday cards" as what I wanted for my birthday, and they really worked extra hard on them. I loved them!

I also appreciated the emails, calls, and cards from family. If nothing else, a birthday is at least an excuse to talk with my brothers and sisters and parents. We didn't feel the need to make it long because we'll see everyone next weekend.

We're looking forward to our trip, but holy cow is it sneaking up on us. We have so much to do before that time - not sure how we'll get it all taken care of.

We have loved the Christmas cards and pictures that have started pouring in. We put them all up on our front room glass door and windows (and leave them up til Easter or so) and really enjoy looking at them. So if you weren't planning on sending us a card, think again!

Thanks again for the b-day wishes, and we'll catch up more later.

YouTube video

Here's a really good YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi4fzvQ6I-o

Before working in Silicon Valley, not a lot of this would have made sense to me. Now, it's hilarious. Hopefully my company can continue to perform well enough to justify the high stock price, thus rebuffing the "bubble" label.

Happy Birthday Dan and the usual "we're so busy" stuff

Happy Birthday Dan! We hope yesterday was a great day for you and that you got all kinds of cool stuff.

We got a beautiful Christmas tree over the weekend and it's amazing how putting it up with some nice white lights and fake red berries can bring the holiday mood into our house. It's only a matter of time until Brig entertains himself with the decorations, but as long as he doesn't pull the tree down, it's all good. We've also had some early success in getting Christmas shopping done, and I do believe we're well on the way to being done - that's surely a new record! Problem is, now we have to wait...I asked Angela late last night (thinking in her 3/4 asleep state she would agree) if I could give her her present early this year - no go.

This is going to be a very full week for us. We've got all kinds of play rehearsals in preparation for Kennan's big performance on Thursday night and Saturday night. We can't wait to see her - she's the Mad Hatter in a play called "Read the Book" by her drama teacher. I actually drew the graphic for the play, and I think it turned out pretty well - the t-shirt looks pretty good. Here it is without the words that were added later...

We also have my work party on Friday night, our ward party (in addition to the play) on Saturday night, a Saturday night birthday date after the ward party (next Monday...cash is fine), and varying levels of stress caused by homework, piano, and friend drama.

Hard to believe we're less than 3 weeks away from our trip to Utah. We're excited to see everyone out there, including some of our non-Utah friends who will also be there visiting at the same time.

Sad news this week that Poochy, the furriest of the LeBras clan, has passed away. We will miss seeing her around the house this Christmas. She was the only dog that our kids actually liked, which is definitely saying something. She'll be missed.

Recent Pics

Ang & Brig

Brig & Morg cleaning the bottom of the kitchen bench

Brig got a fire hat from the LAFD at the Festival of Lights and he wears it 24/7

We like to shave together

Busted trying to find the marshmallows

I have no idea what's going on here...

Still learning, but sometimes successful

Brig loves books, and he'll take them from anyone who will read

The girls with their friends at Festival of Lights