Christmas 2007

We have many traditions at our house at Christmas time. This year we were joined by Janet's parents, Helen and Ray Baker from Detroit, Michigan and Celeste Baker, Janet's niece, from Sault St. Marie, Upper Peninsula, Michigan and Janet's sister, Karen, from Salt Lake. This picture was taken in front of our tree in the family room. Left to right: Helen, Celeste, Karen, Janet and Ray.

Here is a good-looking girl on Christmas Eve. We are glad to have Rachelle home from BYU for Christmas.

We went out caroling with some of our neighbors before we had Christmas Eve dinner. We had approximately 40 people sitting on straw bales on a flat bed trailer. A truck pulled this around the streets. We would stop at selected neighbor's houses and ring their bell, give them a present and then sing them a song. It was fun, but cold. Here is Rachelle, Janet and Lauren on the flat bed.

Here we have Grandma Helen, Celeste and Lauren by the table before eating on Christmas Eve.

It is our tradition at our house on Christmas Eve to let the girls open one present. It is usually pajamas. Since Jessica is in Chicago and Andrea is in Salt Lake, we only had two daughters here for Christmas. Here we have Lauren, cousin Celeste, and Rachelle modeling their new pajamas. How can they get their legs like that? (Notice the cast on Lauren's left arm. She broke her wrist while ice skating in Provo on December 7 - she hasn't had a good month! -- see below).

Lauren "totaled" her beloved white Mazda Protege on December 13. She pulled out in front of a truck which she "didn't see" at a dangerous intersection and was "T-boned" on the driver's side rear wheel. That big bumper missed her by 4 feet and caved the side of the car in. She could have been seriously injured or even killed- but luckily she was not even injured. Today, Christmas, she was surprised by a replacement car- yes, another white Mazda Protege. We are so thankful that she was spared injury in the accident and we hope that she pays better attention on the road.

Latest Pictures

Senior Ball was November 10. Lauren is the Senior Class Secretary, so she was helping to organize the event. This is Lauren's date. His name is Jacob Durham and he seemed like a great kid. You can see how they are color coordinated so a lot of thought went into this date. I don't think Lauren wanted me to take this picture.

The day after Thanksgiving is for decorating. I took this picture while decorating our large three windows in our front room. I was standing on a ladder leaning against the wall. I was up about 10 feet and I decided to take a pic of the loft with Janet by the railing. We can see the dining room below where we had our Thanksgiving dinner.

Below is Janet's latest creation - Santa tree. This will stand in our foyer.

After we decorated, we went on a hike the next day- Saturday. We went on a hike up the Red Cliffs Nature Trail. It is so beautiful with narrow canyons and pools of water. We even had to cling to a rope and swing around a large rock which was above a pool of water. Fortunately, there were footsteps dug into the rock for more sure footing. Above the pools, we got a nice picture of Scooter and Jessica. It's great except for the "BYU" sweatshirt.

Here we have Rachelle and Jessica up a tree.

Jessica is pretty excited to be back home in Southern Utah breathing that clean air!

Here is a picture of Scooter resting in a hole in the rock. He looks pretty content.