Christmas Eve at the Bryners, pt. 1, The Nativity

On Christmas Eve at the Bryners, we put on a nativity pageant in the living room. Alyssa prepared the script with narration from the scriptures and Christmas Hymns. Anna narrated and played the angel and the other kids played various parts in the pageant--Paul as Joseph, Alyssa as Mary, Austin as a Shepherd, Mark, Garrett and Pierce as wisemen, with James pushing the wheelchaired wiseman. The kids organized the costumes and the acting and everything. They did a great job.

Christmas Eve at the Bryners, pt. 2, The Recital

Following the Nativity, the kids put on a Christmas Eve recital for us. The four biggest kids all played Christmas music on the piano, and Garrett and Pierce performed "Once there was a Snowman." Excellent Performances. Good job, everyone.

Christmas Eve at the Bryners, pt. 3 The Pinata

An annual Christmas tradition at the Doig family is to break a pinata on Christmas Eve. Normally, Sheron, Rob's mother, makes the pinata, but this year, since we were travelling, I decided to make one for us to break at Bryners, and since we were limited on space while travelling, I made it after arriving there Saturday evening. My sister-in-law Haylee was also interested in making a pinata and so we made two of them together. Our pinata was surprisingly strong. This was largely due to the third layer of paper mache which was made of strong polyester fabric. Joe and Haylee and their family left on Tuesday so I didn't get to see their pinata finished. However, once mine was done, Alyssa and Anna decorated it in a Christmas theme.

We went to the Bryner grandparents' house for Christmas Eve dinner, and we decided to break the pinata at their house. Christian's mother, Cristy was rather nervous, I think, about us swinging bats around in her basement by the plasma TV, etc. but I am happy to report that no one was hurt and there was no damage done. Some of the Bryners thought maybe a wiffle bat would be the appropriate tool to break open the pinata. They soon learned, however, that not only did we need to use a real baseball bat, but that in order to make a dent, it was necessary to swing hard! After about 45 minutes and lots of turns for everyone, Alyssa gave it the death blow, and there was a wild grab for the loot.

Christmas Eve at the Bryners, pt. 4, The Pajamas

The pinata did include candy for the kids, but also inside was a pair of pajamas for each of the Doig and Bryner family members. For several years, Rob's mother Sheron has been making us matching pajamas for Christmas which have been inside the pinata. This year, she gave me her extra fabric and I made PJ bottoms for Liz's family. The shirts were in a variety of colours, but I think everyone liked the idea of wearing matching PJs to bed on Christmas Eve. I'm pretty sure that when we left Bryners mid afternoon on the 26th that Paul was still wearing his PJs. James was wearing his too, but he had taken them off to wear other clothes on Christmas day.

Visitng with the Joe Prete family and the Bryner family in Price, Utah

Is Garrett doing this puzzle, or just spreading the pieces around?

Olivia's first birthday cake

Liz playing a game with Garrett and Pierce. Luckily for Liz, Preston was just observing.

Sara Prete

Olivia Prete, first birthday

We spent a week in Price, Utah from December 20th-26th. Travel was difficult with bad roads in both directions (worse on the way back). However, thanks to Rob's driving, and the Lord's tender mercies, we arrived at Bryners and back home again without incident.

For the first three days of our stay, my brother Joe, his wife Haylee and their four girls were also there. We had a great time together. We celebrated Olivia's first birthday (seen above) and the adults played games including an LDS version of Taboo, called Not a Word, or something. I even enjoyed Joe's silliness..and attempted cheating. Alyssa, Anna and their employees put on another session of Happy Land for Babies, and in addition to extensive propaganda creation, administration, staff meetings and luncheons, elections of positions and employee awards, etc. they also actually did Happy Land with the little ones at least three mornings. I was especially excited to see the change in Preston over the course of Happy Land. One the first day, he told me, "I don't like to play Happy Land." By the second day, however, he participated in all the games and even the crafts. His favorite game was something called "here, fishy, fishy" which is apparently some variation of red light green light.

We played other games over the course of the week, including lots of Scattergories and a little Boggle. There was also some shopping, present wrapping, lots of cooking, eating, dishes and even a little laundry. No one got enough sleep and a few people got sick, but I don't know what else we could expect when 20 people are staying in one house preparing for the holidays.

Deep Freeze

Yesterday evening a storm came in and put an abrupt end to our mild, fall-like weather bringing in winter with a vengeance. All together we got about 6 inches of snow, winds from 40-80 km/hr and a temperature drop from about +5 C (41 F) to -25 C (-13 F)which, with the windchill feels like -38 C (-36 F) right now. Sounds like a good day to hunker down and read a book, or if you're like me and planning a trip to Utah for Christmas in 7 days, it is a good chance to get some things done in preparation for said trip. I have been waiting for below freezing temperatures to start building an ice rink in the backyard. Today, however, it is just too dang cold to go out, Maybe I'll start Monday. By then, at least the wind is supposed to have died down! Here's hoping my reader(s) are enjoying better winter weather. If you can outdo me, let me know!

11 down, 4 to go!

Last night, Rob wrote his final paper for the 11th course in his MBA program with the University of Phoenix Online. He wrote most of the paper after his staff party--which was fun, by the way--and before midnight. Luckily, it was a shorter paper this time. Today Rob started his 12th course. He can change his mind at any time, but his current plan is to take courses straight through until he finishes. Each course lasts 6 weeks, and with a 2 week university break for Christmas, his projected completion date in June 4th! It will be a big relief to be finished and possibly a bigger relief when the degree is all paid for. At $2000 USD/course, it is an expensive venture!

Full of Hot Air?

I have been following the crisis in Canadian politics so closely and with such concern that it has given me headaches, kept me from sleeping and made me grumpy. At last tonight, I got some comic relief. Today at 7 p.m. EST Prime Minister Harper addressed the nation and Stephane Dion was to follow. However, After PM Harper's remarks, the networks anchors were forced to fill time and wait because the Stephane Dion video was not in on time. When the video did finally make its way to the media--to0 late for national coverage--it was a low budget, high school production. Notice the book on the shelf in the top right hand corner. It's a little fuzzy in this image, but was quite clear in the actual video. Talk about subliminal messages!

The following description from a blogger was quoted on CTV.ca. "Stephane Dion was late for the show, looked kind of red faced, and seemed to be getting a couple of bucks for the bankrupt Liberal Party for the product placement of a book entitled, and I kid you not, "Hot Air," wrote the Alberta Ardvark blog Wednesday.

Rob and I had a good laugh!

A dark day in Canadian Politics

The term "Axis of Evil" first referred to the alliance of the Fascist powers in World War II, solidified with the signing of the Tripartite Pact (depicted above), and consisted of Germany, Italy and Japan. In 2002, George W. Bush, made reference to another "Axis of Evil" which by his definition was comprised of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Now the term "Axis of Evil" has a Canadian application. A tripartite pact was signed today between Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe in which the three agreed to a coalition government in which Stephane Dion would be Prime Minister, the NDP would have 6 cabinet ministers and the Bloc would not be part of the cabinet, but would support the government. Their plan is to defeat the Conservatives on the vote on the Fall Fiscal Update to be held next week, then ask the Governor General to let them form a government.

This shocking development is an affront to democracy, and a dark omen for Canada's future. Not only that, but Stephane Dion, possibly the most deluded of political leaders (even more than William Lyon Mackenzie King who took his advice from his dead mother) will make us the laughing stock of the Western World. It is no surprise that amid the signing of this pact, the TSX had its largest single day percentage drop in history. And no doubt, the best is yet to come. I can only imagine the outcry we are about to see in Western Canada!

Heaven help us if Canada is left in the hands of Socialists and Separatists in a time of economic crisis!