Here is Terry playing a melody the first time he had his pipes put together. I must admit I complain a bit about the LOUD noise but I am really proud of him. I think it is cool that he is reaching a goal that he has always had. I think it will be a fun new hobby for him.

When you hear of someone droning on and on this is where the expression came from. The drones of the bag pipe make the constant wail behind the melody. Before you can play the bag pipes you have to learn to make the drones work so this is what Chris and I hear for 20 minutes each night.

Terry is calling it his "New Year's Miracle." He has been taking bag pipe lessons. Learning to play has been a life long goal and he was excited to finally find a teacher. He acquired a "chanter" ( a recorder sized pipe) to play and practice on for his lessons and started to search for his dream bag pipes. After quite extensive research, Terry found the perfect pipes of his dreams. Unfortunately, to buy them would be very expensive and would take at least 9 months to order. Feeling very discouraged, he started searching for used pipes to use until the dream pipes could be constructed. Every time he found any used pipes on the Internet they would be sold before he could call. On New Years Eve, he found his dream pipes and they were available and he has them. Hooray! Debbie and Chris aren't cheering quite as loud. The pipes sound great but they are LOUD!!!!!!

A sparkling Cider "Cheers" to 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Terry was given the assignment to go to the church youth New Years Eve activity. I grumbled a bit because I love New Years Eve parties with my good friends but I did enjoy the evening with the youth. They started with the introduction of the 2009 Mutual theme. "Be Ye examples of the believers..." from Timothy in the Bible. They all signed a banner pledging to: 1. Pray 2. read 5minutes of scriptures 3. smile daily. They played some games and danced. After the dance they enjoyed a bubbly grape juice toast to the New Year at our house and the boys stayed the night to play some more video games.

On Sunday Dec. 27, Parden gave his mission talk in Sacrament meeting in Plain City. He spoke about how the Book Of Mormon can be used in our lives and how it can be used in missionary work. He bore testimony with confidence and conviction. I felt quite proud of him and I know he will be a great missionary in Indiana.
After Payden spoke, Terry, Chris and I drove to Provo to take a tour of the MTC as guests of President and Sister Madsen who are in the MTC mission presidency. The Madsens are Jalen and Tyson Gibbons grandparents. They invited Chris to come with them and since Chris had to have a ride, Terry and I got to come too. We really enjoyed seeing the MTC. Terry went to one week of training in Salt Lake City before his mission to Kentucky so he didn't get to visit the MTC before his mission. We all were excited to get the tour. First we ate lunch in the MTC cafeteria. Chicken cordon blu and ice cream from the BYU creamery. mmmm ...Then we attended a Spanish speaking Sacrament meeting. Everything except for one talk was given in Spanish. It really is a miracle that missionaries learn the language so quickly and so well. After church, we visited the gymnasium/ devotional gathering center, saw where the laundry room is (it was locked for the day) and stood by the big MTC map. Jalen, Tyson and Chris spun, closed their eyes and pointed to the place they might be sent. Chris pointed to Canada. They all pointed to Morocco for a photo together. We enjoyed the tour and lunch. The Madsens were very nice to include us with their family! Chris told me he will feel more confident and less nervous to leave for his mission after the visit.

On Saturday, we drove on slick sort of scary roads to get to Utah for Payden's mission talk. The Saturday we arrived in time to enjoy the Littlefield Christmas party. We ate and played Christmas bingo and played dodge ball. Our doge ball is fun for all ages. If you get hit you have to sit down but you can get up and play again if you touch someone or catch the ball. The men and older boys usually win but even the young kids can play and do well. Zoe won one game this year.

Chris puts together Aidens bike video game

My favorite Christmas present was a call to Kyle in Germany. He described the apartment he lives in. It is on the second floor of a very old mansion. The owners of the house are not Mormons but they love and care for Kyle and his companion. The landlord couple made them a breakfast cake for Christmas morning. Kyle's apartment is across the street form the train station. He admitted to me that Eisenhutte is probably the ugliest city in Germany. He told us that Christmas Eve they spent 2 hours trying to teach in the rain and walked home SOAKED. After changing they attended a fun ward party where Santa brought something special to them. All of the kids had to do some preformance to get their treat from Santa and the Elders were no exception. Kyle tried to sing a song. Luckily the ward children joined them. On Christmas day ( he called us Christmas evening for him but early enough to wake us up Christmas morning) they spent time with some members. These members feed them quite often and they are vegetarians. On Christmas day they bought sausage to make the day special for the missionaries. They were playing "Ticket to Ride" before I called him. He also gets to eat often with the branch president's family. They feed them fish dinners. The branch president catches fish in Norway. We asked Kyle to speak German so he quoted the Joseph Smith story in German. I asked what he misses from US he told us that he misses having a garbage disposal!!?? and steak and beef. He asked about all of his friends and talked to everyone. Aiden told him Merry Christmas and many other things he really didn't understand. Ismael left his Christmas celebration and hurried over to say hello for about half a minute. Kyle sounded great! He is positive and happy and healthy and I loved talking to him!

The rest of the day we opened presents, ate good food, visited Halls and played games. We had a lovely Christmas day.

Becca hid a DVD that Chris wanted inside the kid's cartoon case to surprise him

Aiden helps Becca make our favorite Party Cheese ball.

Aiden and Chris watch how the Grinch Stole Christmas while they wait to open presents on Christmas Eve

Terry, Debbie, Chris, Rachel and John ready to protect their team from green or red lasers.

Rachel and Chris guarded by storm troopers

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Snow, snow, snow. It snowed so much I worried that Rachel and John would be stuck in Idaho Falls, that Becca, Jacob and Aiden would be stuck in Boise and that Chris, Terry and I would feel quite lonesome during Christmas. Luckily, they all found breaks in the storms to safely drive to Mountain Home and join our Christmas Celebration. Rachel and John arrived Christmas Eve so we all jumped into the van to go to Boise where we played a quick game of laser tag and joined Becca's family for a lovely turkey dinner. We like to open sibling gifts on Christmas Eve so that everyone has time to enjoy those gifts and they don't get overshadowed by Santa's gifts. Aiden really loved the NOISY musical microphone Rachel gave him.

Our drive back to Mountain Home Christmas Eve night was windy, snowy, dark and long! I hate snow driving!!

The big, lacy, flakes of snow Christmas morning would have been exciting except that I wanted Becca, Jacob and Aiden to come. I think all the writers of lovely Christmas songs that wish for or praise snow were written by Californians who don't have to live with it. Snow is cold, miserable and dangerous for driving. It ruins plans. Luckily, Becca's family surprised me and came before I had time to worry. Boise didn't get as much snow so the roads were only slick around Mountain Home. We felt pretty excited and excited to see them.