Happy Christmas

While Mom, Dad and Katya open presents (we only got 2 a piece!!!) we thoguht we'd spread the christmas spirit by posting the answers for all of you gamers out there for the the Christmas Carol acronym game, and give our parents the present of a nice break this Christmas, what with the baptism today and all the people coming over for dinner, we'll b=probably be put into our crates, or shuffled into the back yard, boo hoo, but Merry Christmas to all, even those that we bite!

Christmas Carols Key

1. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
2. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
3. Jingle Bells
4. I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas
5. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer
6. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
7. Do You Hear What I Hear?
8. Away In a Manger
9. Frosty the Snowman
10. O Come All Ye Faithful
11. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
12. O Little Town of Bethlehem
13. Joy to the World
14. Silent Night
15. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
16. We Three Kings of Orient Are
17. The Little Drummer Boy
18. Blue Christmas
19. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
20. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
21. Winter Wonderland
22. Up on the Housetop
23. Deck the Halls
24. Silver Bells
25. I’ll Be Home for Christmas
26. Feliz Navidad
27. While Shepherds Kept Their Watch By Night
28. Once in Royal David’s City
29. Angels From the Realms of Glory
30. Here Comes Santa Claus

Katya is already living up to our great expectations.

Apparently I thought Santa was very nice last year. This year...very scary! last year, I cuddled in his arms. This year, I cuddled in Daddy's arms. This is as close as I'd get to Mr. Claus.

If you can't read my tag, it says, "BIG SISTER". I am shocked! I have done everything I could think of to prevent this from happening. What am I going to do? I may not be the center of everyone's attention anymore. What am I saying? Of course, I will be. After all, I will still be the cutest and smartest little girl in the world. I'll just have to show this new kiddo the ropes. Maybe it won't be so bad. Mom and Dad seem happy anyway. At least Dexter will have someone new to lick.

A Fun Christmas Game

Here's a game for everyone to try. We will post the answers on Christmas Day. Good luck! BTW, Scott won the game at a work meeting and won ten dollars! Sorry, we're so broke that we can't give out any money. But, you can read our wonderful blog as a prize, just for trying!

Christmas Carols

EXAMPLE: H T H A S: Hark the Herald Angels Sing
1. S C I C T T
2. I S M K S C
3. J B
4. I D O A W C
5. R T R N R
6. C R O A O F
7. D Y H W I H
8. A I A M
9. F T S
10. O C A Y F
11. I C U A M C
12. O L T O B
13. J T T W
14. S N
15. G G R O B A R
16. W T K O O A
17. T L D B
18. B C
19. W W Y A M C
20. I W A H F C
21. W W
22. U O T H
23. D T H
24. S B
25. I B H F C
26. F N
27. W S W T F B N
28. O I R D C
29. A F T R O G
30. H C S C

Bon Anniversaire, Grand-Pere! Yesterday was Dad’s birthday. We won’t say how old he is, but we are glad to have enjoyed him for so long as a wonderful Father, Father - in - law and Papa. We love you! Hope your birthday was great.

Whew! It's a blustery day up here.

JOYEAUX NOEL! We've had such great weekend. On Friday, we drove up to D.C. to visit the temple festivities with friends from our ward. Of course, we forgot to take our camera, so we'll have to get you a picture of that later when we get a copy from our friends' camera. There was a liver nativity, lights in all the trees, so many Christmas trees inside with different themes and with ornaments and dolls from each continient or region of the world, 80+ nativities from aroudn the world, and free concerts each night. We saw a handbell choir, which was very neat. The temple looked beautiful, all lit up and glowing through the foggy night. We were able to stay in a hotel nearby, thanks to lots of prayer about finances and then receiving Christmas money from mil and fil. We attended a wonderful seesion on Saturday morning with 25 other members from our ward. It was so neat to be there with so many we knew. Katya had lots of fun swimming and playing at the hotel while we were gone. There were babysitters provided so we could actually go to the temple together for once. We also got to see our good friends, Nile and Renell on Saturday morning. On Sunday, we had two Christmas music programs at church. Our ward program was sunday morning. It went sooooo well, also thanks to much prayer and hard work. And I am officially released from my calling! I can now concentrate on teaching the 12 and 13 year - olds! Rachel and Jessica, help me! Poor Scott had a meeting after church, so he didn't get to come home at all. I picked him up and we went straight to the stake center for the stake Christmas program, where we both sang in the choir. Scott is a dear to be so supportive of things I want to do. Then we went to the neighbors' house (the ones whose house looks like it's straight out of Better Homes and Gardens). This picture is taken at 9:30 last night after that long day. Can you believe Katya is still so pleasant. What a wonderful child. How did we get so lucky? I know our parents are wondering, too.Our testimonies of prayer have been strengthened so much these last couple of weeks. Don't forget to pray. It makes a world of difference. Let Our Father know anything you're worried about or glad about our need help with. I promise, you will see results. Have a very merry Christmas!

Turning Japanese

While I don't have my brother's vigor for international politics, I do try to notice trends through out the world. This one for instance. This car above is the new Volkswagen Jetta. "But Scott" you say "that looks like a low end Toyota vehicle, or perhaps an American vehicle trying to sport some Asian flavor". "Indeed" I would respond; such is the state of affairs in the world. The days of imperialistic reign are done away with, we have it in our minds that to be ruled by a monarch, dictator or some other supreme leader is a terrible crime on humanity. Freedoms are exchanged for hierarchy favors and the like. I say "not so". The benefits of living in a like commune are traditions, an unadulterated culture, a great respect for those that have come before you, and in most cases a set of beliefs that are followed throughout a society. While in Italy, if you spoke to anyone over 50 yeas old, they would tell you how much better Italy was when under Fascist reign. Children had respect for their elders, everyone went to church, and everyone loved being in the army. Now a days, their political party changes on almost a yearly basis, ,and people have little respect for their government, military, and cultural traditions are corroding away daily. Japan is another fine example. Though many traditions and basis for beliefs are very similar as they were a thousand years ago, they are also eroding away to the onset of a self indulgent - centered frame of mind. To sum it up, the world is becoming, albeit somewhat slower in areas, like the grand old U.S. of A. Freedom is wonderful, but also terribly damaging when taken for granted. We demand it for ourselves, but feel that others should live how we think they ought to. I hope that you will excuse these rash generalizations, I was looking for a good way of displaying the new Jetta without looking like I am obsessed with cars, a selfish, materialistic disease that I can't seem to shake completely, much like my Father's head cold, or Taylor's unvarying state of health. In all honesty though, I do feel that the world is headed down one path together, a great conglomerate that will have an end result of the eventual dividing of good and evil, but that's another story.

Apologies about the order here

I posted the pictures in the order that they occured, so they are backwards on our Blog here, so if you would be so kind as to commence with the last posting for 12/2/04 and then read upwards everything will make a lot more sense.

Saturday night we returned back to the Mildenhall's and attended church with them on Sunday morning, Monday was getting settled and enjoying lunch with Mom and Dad Mildenhall at Dad's work. Tuesday... we drove home. The car preformed wonderfully despite the extra 50 lbs of Austrailian Shepard. Katya was very happy and Rebekah was fully rested, but returning to the daily grind is as enjoyable as watching escape from LA starring Kurt Russell as "Snake" (if you haven't seen it yet.. don't) We got home safely though and the cats are doing fine, the house is in order and we had more junk mail than a family of 3 should ever have. Thank you to all who were present this Thanksgiving, it was truly a great one. I hope all of you who were not there had an enjoyable day as well. Happy Christmas

Friday morning we departed the city nad headed for the mountains of north Georgia where Rebekah's parents have a mountain home. We all met for another amazing Thanksgiving dinner and more socializing. IT was so peaceful and relaxing. Taking walks in the woods regaurls of the weather.

Here is a picturer of the Mildenhall grandkids, Katya had done enough sitting and was ready to go play again. We all ate so well and enjoyed being together the whole day, we were so glad to be there.

Here is Elder Mildenhall at a conference with Elder Nelson in Africa. He was missed this holiday, but we are happy for him and now that he is happy. Man looks like endless sunburn there, but you never can tell with Taylor

Wednesday morning we headed over to the temple to meet with my siblings and my parents to do some work there, then headed home for some chewing of the fat. We were all there except for Taylor, who is on his mission to Zimbabwe

Katya is cotent with the new addition as well

Oh, we got a new dog too. The amazing Beth, among other things, hosts animal adoptions and keeps the animals at her farm so that they can run around and have fun. Mind you, we had no intention in getting a dog any time too soon, but our family fell in love with Tobey. Full name: Toblerone (Tiny Eye) Allowicious Mildenhall, or Tobey for short. He is an Australian Shepard and is only a little over a year old. Dexter loves having someone to play with, and casey doesn't mind the extra warmth on these cold nights. Tobey has been a great addition to the family.

Poor casey dog, she is 16 now which means that in dog years she is 112 years old. She had surgery (preformed by Beth) to have a lipoma the size of pork chop taken out. She recovererd wondrfully and is more or less back to normal, thanks to Beth's expertice.

So we arrived at Rebekah's parents Monday night, and then on tuesday morning took the dogs to Rebekah's sister Beth's vet clinic and had the dogs looked at. After that we headed over to Beth's farm to hang out with our nieces Rachel and Jessica. Katya had a great time with all of those puppies and horses and cats evrywhere.

Our wonderful Thanksgiving: Sorry about the delay of updates, but we were at our parents for the last 9 days! It was great! We started out with the 9 hour drive, Rebekah had worked the night before, and hadn't had any sleep, while Katya was not her usual jovial self, I feel that the expression on my face dutifully expresses the enjoyment the drive was. We made good time though, our station wagon performed beautifully, and it was a nice drive in reality.

Here is another gem: http://www.mildenhallmuseum.co.uk/ located in the heart of Suffolk, England, lies the litttle village known as Mildenhall. There is a smalll treasure (claimed by the crown already) consisting of roman silver, the Mildenhall manor is also discussed, none of which belong to the Mildenhalls at all, but are none the less interesting.The history of the small market town of Mildenhall can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times although nothing remains of the original settlement except for a large cemetery just outside the limits of the present town. The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded that the town was well established with a church, a mill and a total of sixty-four families, not to mention a flock of a thousand sheep. The whole of the manor of Mildenhall belonged to the abbey of Bury St Edmunds and the abbot had total control over the area, including the right to hang criminals in the market-place. On a less macabre note, a weekly market on Fridays has been held regularly since 1412

The happy couple. In celebration of Briant and Katie's anniversary, I thought that I would post this gem from their wedding two years ago, has it been so long already? Sunrise, sunset. Happy anniversary you two

Love this chilly (or chili) weather! If you look hard, you can see Dexter's ear muffs. We have had an exciting couple of weeks here in Virginia. Rebekah has been released from her calling as the ward music commitee chair person/choir director, but will still be directing the Christmas program. Scott went to the DC temple on Veteran's day with the youth for proxy baptisms, he had a great time and the bishop took time to talk about the importance of our veterans. It was a hoot. Scott also finished up classses for the semester, and is finished until January (he got an A in 'rithmatic) Katya conitinues to grow and learn new things, she loves to talk, if only we knew what she was saying. Rebekah did a music seminar for the youth this last tuesday, teaching them the basics for conducting and reading time signatures. She did a great job, they all think that she is as cool as ice now. For those of you who don't know already the church's website has an amazing resource for learning more about music, check it out at http://www.lds.org/cm/welcome .

Memories from Italy

This time of year always reminds me of my time in Italy and those sweet Pandoro loafs. The thrill of getting your first one of the year, pulling it out of the box in its bag, pouring the included powdered sugar and then shaking the bag vigorously until the whole loaf is covered. Being shaped as a star, and it's golden inards, remind me only of the devine. Maybe it's a curse as in Italy they average for about $4.00 US Dollars, where as here they average here for at least $20.00. La vita e ancora bella.

Pandoro, Golden bread indeed.

And just to rub it in a little bit more...this is where we'll be living next year. We're pretty excited.

And the beautiful view around Waynesboro where Scott grew up. Scott took two of the participants he works with to Lake Sherando where his family used to go when he was young. It's along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Shenandoah National Forest.

And here's Casey and Dexter on the trip. Now I know Dex was an ugly pup, but isn't he handsome now?

Scott went camping on Friday night. Here's casey and him preparing for the trip.

Rebekah went to the optometrist for the first time on Wednesday. These are her new Navy- issue glasses. She is actually far-sighted, but the dr said the prescription is so mild now, not to worry about glasses yet. She's supposed to return in 18 months. So look for some glasses in her future. Scott got a good laugh at her first experience having her eyes dilated.

Nile - The babies' man. Katya loves Nile. She even wants to be around Nile more than her mom. And this is Katya's future husband, Athen Wagley. Anything's better than Mildenhall, right? We saw nile and Renell and Athen on our way back from Scott's Dr's appt on Thursday. They are great friends of ours from Athens and recently moved to Richmond. We had some yummy cajun stew. (Nile's from LA - that's Louisiana). I had to throw in something about food for the Mildenhall ladies. Scott's appt went great, by the way. He doesn't even have to go to physical therapy!

Just to make it a little more obvious how Scott picked the title of our blog. Aren't my parents cute! We're all cracking up because of Dad's hand full of thumbs trying to get the new shoulder boards on.

And she's now a sucker addict. I thought she might be permanently stuck to her ladybug costume by the green sticky mess.

She really loved the antennae.

This is Katya getting ready to go Trick - or - Treating. And she's a lady bug, just to dispell all the arguments about whether she is a mushroom or polka - dotted alien. She had great fun Friday night at the hospital and Saturday night at the Trunk - or - treat. And she's been carrying her stuffed animals around all the time. This is Ben the bear - one of her favorites! Sorry I'm not as entertaining a writer as any of the Mildenhalls. Maybe some of the creative genes will rub off on me while we're together for Thanksgiving.

This is where we will be living next year, well, just east of the national forest. The park is located in the north western most point of Washington, but the climate is fairly mild due to the rain fall. We are very excited to say the least. Katya hopes to see her first whale and sea otter while there. I know what you are thinking, those poor dears, but we will find some way to manage, not to fear. BTW Scott's back is doing very well, he is about at 80% or so, running is still a strange thing for him and his activities are limited, but he has his 3 month check up on Nov 4th, then he will start his physical therapy. Rebekah is still enjoying her job, both as nurse and mother. She is putting together the Christmas program for church, and it is coming along very nicely. Katya, we have a determined, is a monk-fish (part fish, part monkey, all crazy) as she will dive for any water she sees, will climb up anything, and has a particular liking for bananas. We are happy, all is well.

Happy Halloween!
This is our maiden blog, we are so proud in a humble way. For those of you who don't yet, we will be moving to the Puget sound area of Washington state (near Seattle) next September. Scott is thrilled as we will be so close to at least 4 major national parks with huge mountains even in the eyes of thinly oxygenated westerners, not just the humid eyes of the southeast. Rebekah is pleased with the location as well. The naval hospital there holds promising experiences as a nurse, according to Rebekah's Aunt and Uncle who lived there some three years ago. Katya is thrilled at the chance of seeing her first whale and sea otter close up. Our thoughts are with the Pridays more than usual.

July 2004 Reunion
A patriarch in a time where so much is wrong with families and hope was thought to belong only to dreamers and the naive. A light to all who knew him and example to all who saw him. A smile full of love and a twinkle in his eye. A witty anecdote ready when needed most, or a treat for a scratched knee to heal the tears. He spoke with authority and assurity of truth, uttered no falsehoods nor contemptions. Offerred advice only when asked for, or when in great need, listened to all with a patient ear. Played music as a prayer and celebration, sang wih all his vigor. Worked with all his might all day and all night with an attitude that inspires. An amazing son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather: Grandpa Priday