We Hope You All Had A Nice Chistmas

We had a nice white Christmas in Nevada. The snow fell pretty much every day since last week and so everything was nice and white.

We spent Christmas up in Idaho with Gail's family and we all had a nice time. We left Wednesday morning and other than a little snow between Elko and Wells, had cloudy skies and dry pavement the whole trip. Once we arrived in Boise, we stopped to have dinner at Gail's favorite place, Olive Garden. We then traveled to Gail's Grandmother's for a family gathering. By the time we left, the snow was falling and by Christmas morning there were a few inches on the ground. Christmas morning was fun watching the boys get excited. As a family we went to see a 3D movie and then went back to Gail's parents for a gathering of her brother and sisters.

The day after was the shopping mad rush and each of us got what we were looking for. Nikolas got a Star Wars helmet, Matthew more Legos, Andy some gloves and Gail some nice flannel sheets. We had a great time shopping.

We stayed at Gail's parents until Sunday morning and then it was time to head home. Despite bad forecast, we had a safe trip home. Matthew stayed in Idaho to spend time with his Grandparents. Nikolas is glad to have the whole house to himself.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we all wish you a happy New Year.

Holiday Greetings To All

Winter has finally found us in Nevada. It began to snow last Tuesday and continued to Friday. I need to clarify to those who live in an area where it really snows. What this essentially means is that it will snow for an hour or two, then stop, then start and then stop, so on and so on. Saturday the sun did come out and when all was said and done we had maybe 3-4 inches. Before you all say that is nothing, let me further explain. While Nevada is enlightened in many ways, the concept of plowing has not made its way westward. It is one thing Andy does miss about NH. So what happens is everyone drives through the snow, compacting and melting it, to then have it freeze and be covered by more snow. In addition to the snow the night temp. has hovered around 0 to 10 most of the week. Gail has had a few choice words about this phenomenon. Hopefully, the picture is now becoming a bit more clear. Friday night we had a bit of a scare, but no one was hurt and there was no damage to the blessed Volvo.

The boys are "finally on vacation." This last week of school went fairly well. The boys had the standard Christmas (yes, it is actually called that here) party, with the mandatory junk food. Each is doing well and very excited about Christmas. Matthew attends a respite program on Saturday's and this weekend the place had a family party which we all enjoyed. Matthew made a beautify ginger house and snow flake decoration. Nikolas is just excited for a new snow board so he can tear it up on the slopes, at least that is what he tells us.

Last Sunday in church the local high school select choir came to sing a few songs and it was neat to hear them sing about the birth of the Savior. That evening we went to hear the local hand bell choir do its Christmas concert, which we all enjoyed. The concert ended with a candle light rendition of silent night. The hand bell choir also did a number accompanied by some instruments from Africa, which was really neat.

The one down side about this week was that Gail came down with a leg infection on Sunday evening, so she was out of commission for the good part of Monday and Tuesday. Andy's schedule was such that he was able to help out with the boys Monday and by Tuesday, Gail was well enough to at least get the boy's to school. Her doctor tried a new form of treatment and it seems to be working quite well. Thanks to Gail the Christmas shopping is done and soon our annual letter should go out.

Andy was very busy this week. He had a few bench trials, several detention hearings, about 8 juvenile intake hearings and a juvenile extradition hearing. Friday he was in an all day preliminary hearing and bail revocation hearing. Needless to say he was quite tired by Friday evening. Thankfully, the next two weeks should be a bit lighter and we are all looking forward to having 5 days to spend together over Christmas.

That about sums up the news from Northeast Nevada. We hope all are well and have a Merry Christmas. Please take time this week to reflect upon the many blessings we enjoy and the source of those things. We as a family are extremely grateful to all our friends and family and wish you all the very best. Merry Christmas

We finally got a taste of winter here in Northeast Nevada. Saturday morning we woke to a dusting of snow and the temps only in the 30's. We cannot complain as we saw on the news how many of our friends and family in New Hampshire had quite an experience with the ice storm. Thankfully, we do not get ice storms here. We hope everyone is safe back in NH.

Our week was nice. The boys are getting quite anxious for Christmas to get here. The Christmas list is getting longer and the high tech gadgets wanted gets more expensive, oops I should have said extensive. It is exciting to see the boys anticipating this Christmas. Elko had its snowflake festival Saturday evening. There are performances and exhibits in the downtown area, followed by an evening parade. We all went to the parade downtown which was neat.
All of the floats were lit up with lights and holiday themes. Elko really enjoys having a parade, there must be at least 7-8 a year. Santa also made an appearance at the end driving around in a city firetruck.

We were excited to have our nephew/cousin Gareth with us for a few days this week. He came on Thursday and left on Sunday. It was nice for the boys to have time to play with him and we enjoy having him here. We look forward to being able to see him again.

Gail continues to be busy with both Pampered Chef and her cleaning business. She really enjoys the new job she has, she works less and earns more and it gives her plenty of time to do the other things she wants to do. Andy has been quite busy this week. He was actually here for the whole week, but was at work early and stayed late each day. He tried a few cases, did some preliminary hearings and had quite a few juvenile matters. We are all looking forward to the holidays and the opportunity to spend time together.

That about sums up our week. We hope all is well and your are enjoying the Christmas season.

Sorry about the lateness of this week's post. We experienced some technical difficulties (our Internet was down) so it has taken a few extra days to get things posted. Our week was pretty good. All of us are healthy and doing well. We still have not had any snow and until this last weekend we were still in the 50's each day.

The boys have continued to do quite well in school. December 4-7 was the annual Christmas Creche Festival in Elko. It is a multi-denominational event and was quite nice. Below is a video of the boys singing with our Ward's Primary Choir, which performed as part of the festival. Gail also participated in the Messiah sing-a long. The festival consisted of a huge collection of creche's, Madonna paintings and murals and a special exhibit of Greg Olsen paintings. The was a live nativity and performances over the 4 days. It is a very nice event.

Andy had a very busy week. He was gone quite a bit this last week. He was at a conference in Reno from Wednesday to Friday. Along the way he stopped in Lovelock, NV to see a unique courthouse that is in the round. He got a decent picture of it. He came back with glowing reports of Reno and now the family is going to have to find a long weekend to go check it out. While there he also visited Carson City, the capital, which is a neat place with many old Victorian homes.

We hope each of you are enjoying the Christmas season and are doing well. Until next week we send our best to each of you.