December-"Oh Snow where are thou"

Since arriving in Elko we have been told to prepare for long cold winters, of course many people do not know what New Hampshire winters can be like. It has yet to get below freezing during the day and while the mountains have much snow we have none to show for yet. We also have been told that spring arrives in March. I think we will be able to endure.

As you can see Nikolas' disposition has improved greatly over the past week. He enjoys being Dad's assistant in the kitchen. This week Chez Mierins served Braised Chicken Breasts and Leeks and Sous Chef Nikolas did a great job.





Our past week was great. Last Sunday we attended a Creche Festival put on by our Stake. That evening a local hand bell choir performed and there was a community Messiah sing-a-long. We decided to venture out for all of the above. We made it through the hand bell choir, but by the time the Messiah sing-a-long began, Nikolas and Matthew decided a pencil fight was more appealing. Gail did stay for the singing, but the XY chromosomal portion of the family departed within 15 minutes. Gail said she had a good time.

Gail began her job this past week at the daycare center. When asked what she thinks her response is "I get to be home with the boys when they get out of school." I am not sure if it is the chorus of 25 preschoolers greeting her each morning or the fact she has to be up, out of bed and functional by 7am which has led to the positive disposition, but the consensus is the latter. We will keep you posted.

Matthew continues to make his adjustments to school and being in Nevada and for the most part he is doing well. He really enjoys his cub scout troop and is looking forward to the Raingutter Regatta.

Andy continues to enjoy his job and feeling like he is using his education to help those around him. Hopefully this week will be his first trial, which he is looking forward to. It is best for those of you reading to take a seat for a moment, but he attended the opening of Hillary Clinton's campaign office in Elko. Now for those of you who know him well enough, once you have gotten yourself up off the floor, he did so mostly because her office is below his and they were giving away pizza and soda. Terry McAuliffe attended and after touting all the great promises of Ms. Clinton he took questions. Andy was tempted to ask him what about Ms. Clinton's promise to the people of New York that she would not run for President. Fortunately or unfortunately the veggie pizza box came by and food overcame interesting discourse. (By the way Hilary orders from Domino's.)

Gail and Andy had a nice date night this week. Wednesday evening the young woman of our ward watched the kids from 6-8pm so the parents could go out. We enjoyed a nice dinner.

We enjoyed a brief concert today by the local honors choir from the high school which was very nice. What was interesting was hearing the choir singing about the birth of Jesus Christ as part of their Christmas repertoire. I am glad to be in a place which is neither afraid nor prevented from performing music which reflects the real reason we have Christmas.

Our Christmas tree went up this afternoon. It brought back memories of our first Christmas. This tree (unlike our first one) is not held up by thread and weights. On Friday evening some new made friends brought the tree over to us. I am not sure what type of tree it is but it was cut from local BLM land and the price was right. The branches are not very strong and we were sad to learn 95% of our ornaments were too heavy for the branches. None the less, we were able to get some of our ornaments up. We are going to try and figure out a way to get the remaining on. We are grateful to have a tree.



We hope you are all doing well and during this wonderful time of year there is joy and happiness in your lives. Until next week.