Grace's school held a Ball for the kids. I guess it was for 4th to 6th graders. She had a Christmas party before the day before the ball. The girls talked Kelly into letting them all spend the night. At the Ball they all brought finger foods and played games and even danced a little bit.

Strega Nona

Lauryn Longmore's school class put on a play from the book Strega Nona. Lauryn was picked to play Strega Nona. She did a great job her mom tells me. She sure is cute!

The rest of the pictures

Phippen Family Christmas Party

As well as the cousin gift exchange each family provides a Christmas song or story. Nancy read us a delightful poem she had composed. Bob and Levi pounded out The Little Drummer Boy on their thighs. Roger played us a few carols on his guitar and GiGi and PaPa, (my mom and dad) did the jitter bug. The highlight of the program, although Roger's carol's had my Mom in tears, was the Van Brocklin family's reenactment of the Nativity Story. Nica played Mary, Britti was the angel, Dani and Stacy were the Wisemen, Levi (honorary Van Brocklin) was Joseph, Lynn was the narrator and Ryan, while video taping, was the shepherd. (He borrowed GiGi's cane)

Our annual family Christmas Party was held on December 13th at my house. The snow was coming down so heavily that we had to cancel our walk through the Salt Lake Temple to see the lights. We had a great time. One of our traditions aside from Chili and Hot Chocolate and various goodies is our cousin gift exchange. All cousins and 2nd cousins sit in a circle. I read a story titled the Right, Left family. Every time I say the word Right the pass their present to the right and every time I say left they pass it to the left. Any time I say the word Christmas they pass it across. It gets pretty wild but we have tons of fun.

My son, Brian, works for a temporary work agency called Labor Ready as a flagger. He was recently honored as worker of the quarter. We were invited to be there as he was surprised with this honor. It is the first time I've seen him almost speechless. They gave him that coat he is holding up. The reflected strip on the coat does it's job well. Congratulations Brian.

Deer

We had a visitor in our backyard this weekend.

BARGAIN WAREHOUSE

Bargain Warehouse is finally open. Here is flyer Nancy created for us that shows the details.

INDOOR SOCCER ROCKS

Dani is a great indoor soccer player. Here is the latest standings in her league. Her team is Wasatch. Then on the list of top players you will notice Daniela's name about half way down. Well done Dani! The team only has one more game left. If Dani can score in it then she will have scored in every one of her games.