Thanksgiving Day

We spent a nice holiday at home.  We had Tyler and Jaylen's family and Caz and Ashley's family for our Thanksgiving meal.  Ashley brought a turkey from Mission BBQ that we heated in the oven, and it was delicious.  We had Geraldine rolls, salad, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy.  We also enjoyed a homemade cherry pie and a French Silk Chocolate pie from Candace.  Ryan and Megan and kids watched Wicked Part 2 and Stranger Things.  We still need to finish watching season 4 before we start Stranger Things Season 5.  Kevin, Kay and Kaleb flew to California on Wednesday and spent Thanksgiving with Kay's mom.  We watched some football and played with the grandkids.  It was a nice day.

Wicked - For Good

We have anticipated the release of Part 2 for Wicked since we watched the first movie last year.  Yesterday we took the time to rewatch Part 1, and tonight the three of us went to watch the second part at the Pocatello AMC Theater.  We sat in the Big D theater that has a nice large screen and comfortable seats.  Wendy got there early and saved a good view from the middle of the theater.  Quite a few people eventually arrived, but it wasn't full.  We all enjoyed the movie very much.  The second part is definitely darker than the first, and the movie's character choices can be difficult to explain, but I think the writers did the best they could and the acting was done well.  Some people say the movie could have been told in one longer movie rather than in two parts which may be true, but I still think it will be one of those movies that we could watch again every year.

A Christmas Carol

Jeffrey has been working with the production of "A Christmas Carol" at the ISU Bistline Theater for the past several weeks.  Tonight was the final performance, and Wendy and I decided to attend.  It was very well done.  The man who played Scrooge did a wonderful job.  We really liked how they portrayed Jacob Marley's ghost.  Jeffrey had created a ghostly sound effect on the microphones the ghosts used.  They also had a good way of doing the Ghost of Christmas Future which stood tall on the stage with long arms that could stretch and wrap around Scrooge.  They were able to transform the stage in a quick way for the Fezziwig dance party and a lady actually played the fiddle.  The scene with Bob Cratchit crying over the loss of Tiny Tim was touching.  I love this story.

ISU Civic Concert

We started our Christmas holidays tonight when we went to the Stephen's Performing Arts Center to watch Jeffrey play with the ISU Civic Concert Band.  He chose to participate with the Civic Band this year instead of the Marching Band.  There were a good number of people in the Jensen Grand Concert Hall, but it wasn't full.  We had good seats in the front row of the upper section.  Jeffrey played the French Horn.  He had accidentally signed up to work the show before realizing he was also playing in the show, so he helped behind stage up until the concert started.  They performed "Sleigh Ride", "The Child and the Kings", "Auld Lang Syne", "Winter Dreams", and "In Dulce Jubilo".  It was a nice performance.  The ISU Symphonic Band performed after the Civic Band, and we stayed to watch them.  We liked the musical numbers from the Civic Band better.  The Center was all decked out in Christmas decorations and the Festival of Trees was all set up in the lobby area.  It's amazing to see the work put into decorating those trees.

Murphy's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, Wendy and I drove down to Utah.  During the day we had picked up our beef from Del Monte Meat and Wendy had separated the packages.  We packed a couple of coolers into a minivan along with our overnight bags.  We stopped at Ashley and Caz's home to deliver their meat and share a meal.  They made Philly Steak sandwiches.  Then we drove to Tyler and Jaylen's home and delivered the rest of the meat.  We stayed the night in their new guest bedroom in their recently finished basement.  All of the rooms turned out really well.  We relaxed on their new sofa and watched T.V. for a little bit with the surround sound speaker system that Tyler installed.  

We slept in Sunday morning for a little bit, and then played with the kids for a little while.  Jaylen and her sister decorated the upstairs and soon everyone was arriving for the birthday party.  Murphy had turned 2 years old on November 7th, but we were all able to be together to celebrate today.  We had pizza, pasta salad, and Jell-o salad for lunch, and cookies for dessert.  Murphy opened several gifts, and he really seemed to enjoy the remote controlled bus that he was given.  Wendy and I left shortly after lunch and drove to Ikea where we purchased a new dishwasher.  The weather had turned very wet and rain was pouring down.  We stopped at Caz and Ashley's again to pick up a desk that Wendy wanted, and then we drove home.  We set up the desk in Wendy's downstairs office.