Christmas Day

I must begin by expressing gratitude for Pam and Dave for letting us live in their house for these many months.  Our favorite time of year to be in their house is at Christmastime.  It is fun to have the banisters decorated, the mantles crowned with lights, and the fireplaces roaring.  Of course the house is not as special without grandma and grandpa, but we sure felt their spirit during the holidays.

Christmas this year was very simple.  We kept the stress over gifts to a minimum, but made sure there was plenty of good food around.  Haha!  The gift worth mentioning were the homemade stuffed bears that Aunt Jessica sent for the kids.  So thoughtful and creative.  Thankyou Aunt Jessica!  Joseph gave me tickets to see tap phenomenon, Savion Glover, perform.   The concert was just last weekend. Perfect for a preValentine's day date as well.  Good thinking Joseph!  Savion is from New Jersey, so his style was very east coast and brought back lots of memories.  Despite being labeled as all the greatest tap dancer of all time, he was a very gracious performer and even brought out the lowliest backstage hands to personally thank them during the show.

Christmas Eve

Can't believe how behind I am on recording life, but here we go...
Christmas Eve was a great event.  The children sure enjoyed dinner with Anna's kids (cousins).  Everyone was especially eager to participate in the nativity.  Emmy was Mary, Ruth was the angel, James was Joseph, and David was a wiseman.  It was probably the silliest nativity we've seen, but I'm glad that happiness abounded.  The highlight for me was the cello and harp music provided by Abigail and Magdeline.  There's no better way to feel the Christmas spirit than with music.

David's activities

Another new experience for us: basketball league.  David has been playing on teach UCLA in the Laguna Hills Basketball League.  We are down to two more games and it seems like he has improved his game quite a bit.  We are still coaxing him to try shooting during games (he is nervous about letting the team down), but he makes a great defense player and will frequently snatch the ball after a rebound.

David also decided to learn the Trombone this year.  Seems like divine intervention helped this new hobby come along, because we weren't wanting to foot the expense of an instrument rental this year.  When his teacher got word of the hang up, she went right to work finding him one to loan.  Now he's quite hooked.  I am glad to see David take up his own interests and find joy in them!

Owl Ruth

Ruth broke the Larsen mold with her Christmas play last December.  To our surprise, she came home from school one day and showed us her 20 page play, with 5 lines on each page, exclaiming, "Guess what mom?!  I am the Owl!"  Phew!  It was a lot of work getting ready for this, but we did it.  The performance was great!  I was sure proud of her!  Also pictured are Ruth's two buddies, Annushka and Lauren as well as her sweet teacher Mrs. Hann.

Grandma and Grandpa M!

The bonus of James' baptism is that mom and dad spent an extra few days with us.  Normally my dad would stay only a few nights, but this time he was able to work from California.  It was great to have a longer amount of time with him  We managed to fit in a few excursions to San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente Beach, and La Brea Tar Pits in LA.  I hope the great weather will entice them to come again!!  (hint hint)

James gets baptized

I am missing some photos for this, so this post will have to be updated later.  James was baptized December 3 with his best buddy Maxwell Porter.  They have been friends since birth, so it was fun to see them both share a baptism day.  The baptism was a memorable service with such a great feeling of love and happiness.  Both grandparents and a few cousins were able to attend which made it all more special.  We are proud of James for his everyday effort in living up to his covenants.  He now has his own scriptures and is reading on his own every night, which is really exciting for him.  We love you James!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a pretty fun week.  The Barnhursts stayed at grandma's house for one whole week and it was nothing but cousin heaven.  Because the ages and genders of these cousins match up so well, it was nonstop happiness all week long.  One day, the boys all decided to spend the entire day outside, so we packed up lunches and sent them on their way.  When the girls got word of what was happening, they insisted on doing the same thing.  Funny thing is... the girls outlasted the boys... they were very proud of themselves.  I was in charge of the turkey... turned out acceptable but not great.  Still was a memorable feast!  The day after Thanksgiving, Joseph took all the kids out for track and field day.  They were timed on short distance and long distance, long jump, flexibility, etc.  It was pretty fun to see the competitive nature of the kids come out.  Ironically, I think Ruth may be my most competitive.