Christmas play

Pretty much my favorite thing we did this Christmas was our Christmas play.

The Cast (didn't get pictures of them all, unfortunately):

The Donkey: Grandpa (he complained he was typecast)

The sheep: Jesse (this was Zoë's only request--that Jesse Ba Ba be a sheep).

Pregnant Mary: Diana

Pregnant Mary's Husband / Innkeeper: Jon

Post-natal Mary: Me

Post-natal Mary's Husband: Josh

Wise (Wo)man: Grandma

Angel: Zoë

Baby Jesus: Nico (can you see the Christmas lights in his eyes?)

During the intermission/birth of Jesus (which happened off-stage), we sang Josh's favorite Christmas song, "The Friendly Beasts."

The audience consisted of my aunt Pam and Jon's parents (his mom was nice enough to narrate).

And it was just the perfect way to end Christmas day.

Tabernacle

When I saw the fire-eaten Provo tabernacle last month, I first thought of this:

A bombed out church we saw in Hannover the summer before last, its windows blown out, roof absent, its stone walls starkly testifying of suffering and sacrifice against the night sky.

And I had the smallest inkling of what it might feel like to have a piece of my history all but demolished--the unbridgeable difference, of course, being the cause: careless bad luck here, malicious design there.

The futility of this, Provo's one real treasure, burning was what made it hard to watch in some ways though. Investigation into a strange smell, giving a triggered smoke alarm the attention it deserved, an installed sprinkler system--each could have saved the building pioneer hands crafted and thousands have gathered in to sing, celebrate, and pray.

I'll never forget the last time I was in the tabernacle, watching my little girl mouth the words that the angel said. Now she loves to hear the story of those who built it.

It was strange to see such ferocious flames on such a cold day, stained glass melting and rolling into itself just feet away from a tree bent over with icicles refusing to melt.

I know it's just a building, but it will be missed.

Opal Mae

Opal Mae was born on 1/11/11 (I know! So cool!), looks like a girl version of Jon but with dark hair, and is doing great. Will post pictures when we're not all so tired . . .

Road trip!

I think Josh was a little shocked at my spontaneity when I decided to take a road trip with my mom and the kids to CA tomorrow after hearing that Diana is IN LABOR! We already have plane tickets for February 1st, but I can't wait three weeks to see this little one. So I'll be going twice . . .

Ah, babies. They're magical things.

Wish Diana (and us, but mostly Diana) luck!

House

While we've decided we're perfectly happy to stay in this house (in many ways, we'd rather have more money than space), we're posting it on KSL just to see what happens. The Orem house we wanted to buy sold, so we're not in a hurry, but if you happen to know anyone who might be interested in our house, pass this KSL ad on. There are more pictures and info posted there, and I'll post even more pictures in a while. (Oh, and the lot is 0.14 acres, not 14 acres, which is probably pretty obvious, but for some reason KSL posted that piece of information wrong and won't let me change it.)

And here's our living room with the new couches (though I guess they're not that new anymore).

Two months