Briam's Family Blog

This past Christmas, my favorite in-laws were able to come for a nice visit.  We were able to save some Christmas presents to open with them.  I put together some of the pictures from their visit.

You will notice some of the pictures have that smoothed out format.  An expert level of photographic skills I like to call 'smudgy lens' with just a slight taste of 'cheap camera'.  But the pictures did come out nicely.

We had a great time with them (as always).  We got a chance to do a lot of shopping, eating, and destruction of presents!  As always, click on the pictures or click HERE to see more pictures.

What What?  At some point when I say that I am still catching up with the Christmas pictures, someone is just going to shoot me.  ...but what can I do... we must have had dozens of cameras hidden around throughout the holiday... or something like that.  Well here is another collection of pictures from pre Christmas.  I think I am almost to Christmas day. 

The thing that jumped out at me about most of the pictures was the sheer amount of Red that was in them... Good thing there were no bulls around, we would all be running for our lives.  Ok, not really, specially since bulls are color blind, and they really just react to the motion of the cloth.  But I digress... Click HERE or on the picture to check out even more of the pre Christmas pictures.

I have memories ... of when I was young (not too long ago).  When my brothers and sisters and I would participate in the Church Christmas singing/plays.  Oh man, I remember how we stunk..  ok, well at least I think that I remember that I stunk at singing.  And looking back (so many years ago), I wonder if it was in my head, or if I really was that bad... but the parents and church seem to love it.  They would smile and cheer.... I guess Love is blind.  Well, isn't it a shame that we don't have any recorded proof of said events?  

Well, as you can tell, I am all torn up about that.  So in order to not let my kids miss out on this when they grow up, I did take a few vids, and a bunch of pictures.

They loved going to the little rehearsals, and practicing their songs.  These pics are from the actual performance date, and they are all decked out in their costumes.

It was all the kids below the Youth Group age, and they all played a part... of sorts.  Some were more hams than others, but isn't that always the case.

And of course, at the center of any Christmas time play, there is baby Jesus.  This year, the role of baby Jesus was played by Raggedy Anne.  (I had to google to find out what her name was). 

It was a great little play/singing production, and the kids did great.  No one crashed and fell... no one ran off screaming... no one was hurt.  A win in my book!!  And now I have it all documented, and video recorded for posterity.  I am sure the kids will appreciate it.

So many pictures still to go through... from before Christmas, all the way to New years.  Here is a picture of a lot of my family before Christmas.

A rare picture indeed.  Its so hard to get us all in one spot.  Click on this picture or HERE to see more pictures from this pre Christmas gathering.  If you look closely in this pic, you will notice that I dragged my sleeping Sophia in to the pic... no smile from sleeping beauty this night.

Before the holidays, the kids had their little Christmas parties at their school.  Paola got a chance to go and participate... (and make sweets...and take pictures).  They all seem to have a lot of fun.  Almost as much fun as I did.... sitting in my cold office.... almost all alone... clicking away at endless work tasks on the computer.... oh yeah... they are missing out.  

...oh well, although I am sure they did not have as much fun as me... (at work..) ... I guess I can still enjoy the pics of their little Xmas parties at their schools.     Click on the Pic or HERE to go see the rest of the pictures.

While we were looking at pictures, Paola came across some pictures from last year (2006) in Ecuador.  We had a wedding to go to, and look at us...

All fancy like... Paola looks STUNNING!!  ...as usual.   Truly a beautiful woman... She becomes more beautiful each year.... inside and out.  What did I ask for Christmas?  .... I asked God to bless me with another wonderful year, with my wonderful family.  

Oh yes... I almost forgot this one.  We did a bunch of pics that we thought might be good for sending out as Christmas Card pic... but in the end we did not use any of the ones we thought we would... but I did like this one...

We did end up sending out one like this that was a little more serious.... but I tend to like the sillier ones.   Happy Holidays Everyone!!

I finally got the time machine built... and we were able to travel back from when Christ was born.  We had a really nice trip, and  I took a lot of pictures.... but on a sad note.... I had no film in the camera.  So all we have are some pictures or a re-dramatization.

Ok, so maybe no time machine.  But we did have a nice time at our girls School/Church.  They had a nice Christmas day event, with tons of arts and crafts for the kids.

As you can tell, this is the "Make the gooiest, stickiest, Christmas craft that you can" contest... and I am pretty sure that Sophia came in first... and Megan in second...  (I'm still cleaning up their Christmas goo...)

Here is the kids, sneaking in to be part of history.  The Nativity had it all.... real baby... real animals... real animal smell...    We had a great time... and got a chance to share with the kids, the real reason for the season!    Click on the pics or HERE to see more pics from that day.