We hope you all had a Merry Christmas. The Mierins family had a great Christmas mostly because we got to spend it together as a family. We decided to do a special Christmas this year in Reno. We left Thursday afternoon and arrived in Reno about 3 pm. We stayed at the Circus Circus hotel and were expecting a quiet time together. Were we wrong. The place was crowded and started to get such about an hour after we arrived.

Our first task was to find a Christmas Eve service, which we did at a local Lutheran church. it was a nice candlelight service and reminded us of the great tradition we had when living in New Hampshire. After a light dinner, we gathered together to read Luke 2 and then went to bed. Nikolas was a bit concerned that Santa would not be able to find us, we assured him it would not be a problem.

Sure enough Santa did find us and the boys were very excited come Christmas morning. We enjoyed opening presents throughout the day. We had a nice brunch and took the boys to play in the midway at Circus Circus. By the end of the day we were quite tired and all had a good night's rest.

The rest of the trip went well. We went to planetarium and Nevada History Museum and took a nice tour of Reno. We did the obligatory day after Christmas shopping which left Gail happy and had some great pizza and bar-B-Q before heading home. It was a great trip.

We are very excited for Christmas. The boys are done with school until January 4th and Andy has submitted his grades for the class he taught at the local college. He is looking forward to teaching next semester as well which does not begin until the end of January. Monday evening we went to hear the local high school choirs give its Christmas Concert. It was nice and helped to put us all into the holiday spirit.

We had a fairly good week. Andy was home for the whole week although he did go out to Wendover to meet with clients Friday morning. Gail on the other hand was not doing so well. She had another of her recurring leg infections that really got to her. She spent a good part of the week off her feet. Thankfully she is now doing better and with the aid of stronger antibiotics feeling better.

The boys enjoyed a sleepover at a friend's house Saturday evening. When Andy went to pick them up he was told by Nikolas that his friend's dad was a better Dad. Oh well. While the boys were out playing Gail and Andy went to the local Bar Association Christmas party. It was a good time.

We hope all is well with you and we wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Two words describe this week-cold and snow. We had some mighty cold weather settle in. Four mornings this week we woke up to temps of -10 or less. The days do warm up, but still the start of each day can be nippy. On top of the cold we had two snow storms that dropped a good amount of snow. Winter is definitely here.

The boys had a great week. Both had good reports from school and are anxiously looking forward to Christmas vacation. Andy will take some time off as well and is looking forward to being home after being gone quite a bit the last several weeks.

Gail did a Pampered Chef show in Wendover Saturday that went well. We all drove out Friday evening and spent the night with our friends. We had a good time. Gail is still receiving congratulations for her stellar performance at the Messiah sing-a-long. On top of all the other things she has going on she now has a voice student.

Andy continues to be busy. He finished his class this week and no waits to correct the final exams. The school asked him to come back next semester and he is having a great time. Not sure his students feel that way, but still. He also enjoyed being home this week, the first since the middle of October.

We hope all is well with you all.

We woke up to our first cold morning this Sunday. It was -2 this morning, but by the afternoon it warmed as it clouded up and by sunset we had snow. Such goes Nevada weather.

We are all doing quite well and so excited for this Christmas season. This last week was our community's annual creche festival which went great. Gail sang a solo in the Messiah sing-a-long and it is no exaggeration to say she was in a class by herself. It took almost 1/2 hour before everyone gave their congratulations. Elko has now discovered what Andy has known all along-his wife is talented. We were excited to have Gail's parents here to enjoy the performance.

The boys continue to do well and seem to be settling in better to school and their activities. Gail and Andy are doing the same with work. Andy was in Reno this week at a conference for Drug Courts and came home with some great information. We are glad that his travels are done for a while. The last six weeks Andy has been gone nearly every week.

We all hope each of you are doing well.