Here it is!!!

Here is the long awaited performance of Kennan at the Christmas play as he portrays Dancer.

Enjoy.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

This is a typical Christmas Eve and Christmas day at the Thompson household. Here is the home all decorated nice and fancy. Yes there is an actual fire in the fire place.

Also, here is the tree that I told you about in an earlier blog. Isn't it gorgeous? We used icicles for the very first time. Ellen wanted to try it. After finding icicles all over the house, it might also be the last time.

Every Christmas Eve, we as a family, go sledding someplace in the Cokeville area. We chose The Siphon because there really wasn't a lot of snow and they plowed our lane to the dirt. The Siphon is just behind our house. Kandyce and her friend had gone up earlier in the week and it was pretty good. The goal is to see how far you can go. This is the hill.

Here are some of the contestants.

Here we are heading up the hill. As you can see, there isn't a lot of snow.

McKenzie just finishing her bumpy ride.

This blurry person is me. I am going so fast the camera just barely caught me in the act. Almost the speed of light.

With this speed, I was able to finish numero uno. I am holding the number one sign, if you can't tell. Geez!

Here is what goes on at the top. I'm just getting ready to push Kandyce off of the top of the hill. She just doesn't know what I will do. Such an innocent look on her face before she goes crashing down the hill at speeds that only radar can detect.

As you can see from the next two pictures, you just fly off of the hill into a dark hole. That is what makes it fun. You know there is something at the bottom, but you don't quite know what. McKenzie is the first one and Ellen is in the second one.

This is a night shot so you can see us walking up the hill and see how far you can go. It was one rocking good time. If you stay in the trails, no worries, if you go outside, watch out for the sagebrush.

After we sled, we go home to have some hot soup and hot chocolate. Then the kids get to open up the presents from each other. Of course we have to have the pajamas for Christmas.

Once the pajamas are put on, then a rousing game of twister is next. Notice the intensity in Kandyce's eyes as she is putting on the hurt. After the games, then I read the story of the "Connivers" and the Christmas story out of the Bible. 

After all of the stories, then it is off to bed. The next morning was a grand ole Christmas. After opening all of the presents, we as a family then eat crepes for breakfast. This year I went and brought grandma for the day and she stayed for the Christmas dinner. The family got an Xbox and Guitar Hero. Yes that is grandma rocking out to my amazement.

And that is what a typical Christmas is like here at our family. We were able to call and talk to Brady, then Shari called and Breanne called later in the day. We try to remember the real reason for Christmas and what our Savior has done for us. Until next time.

Just Before Christmas

Trying to catch up on some things with the family.

Grandma's house is already to have things fixed up. We have everything connected. She called Rocky Mountain Power to tell them that things are ready and they said that they will be ready ........................................................................................................................after the holidays. They are so busy right now they don't have time, so Grandma won't be able to move in until after Christmas and New Year's. She is pretty upset about it all. I would be too. We were hoping for before Christmas, but what can you do? Once the power is turned on, then the people will come in and tie things up. So that is the news with the house.

Last Sunday, our family and Briant Teichert's family went over to the rest home to sing Christmas songs. We had dinner first, then practiced a little, then made the trip. It was a lot of fun. It was like a mini Tabernacle Choir there singing. McKenzie had a beautiful Jon Schmidt Christmas song on the piano ready, but they didn't have a piano ready for us. So we sang everything a cappella, a copalla, a copala, ah heck without the piano.

The elementary Christmas play was on Monday and Kennan was the star. He really did a great job singing. People just couldn't believe it. I'll try to get a clip ready so you can watch him sing, but he did a fantastic job. This was his reindeer outfit. He forgot his antlers.

Today was the high school party. We did white elephant gifts, watched a movie, and then had Sully Claus give out the presents. Santa couldn't make it because he was over at the elementary and Panther Claus is at a national mascot convention in the Bahamas. So Sullivan Teichert dressed up. Here is a picture of McKenzie getting her present.

Kandyce and her friend came up to watch the play and go sledding. Yes we do have a little bit of snow. Kandyce will be here for the rest of the holidays. It is always fun to have her home with us.

By now you all know that Shari had the boys. They are soooooooo cute. They look like me, all hairy. Ellen will be heading to Georgia on the 6th of January. She is really excited to see the babies. Now maybe we'll get tons of pictures.

Brady is doing just great. He has a new Russian speaking companion from California. They are both zone leaders. He has only 6 months left on his mission. I don't know if I told this but the other day in Spanish II, Coach Linford was watching a Cael Sanderson wrestling video because he had about 5 minutes of class left. He noticed McKenzie getting really somber. He asked her if everything is okay, she said yes, then he asked her if she missed Brady. She started to cry a little and said yes. I thought that was kind of neat that watching a wrestling video made her think of Brady.

Breanne came up a couple of weeks ago to help Ellen do her digital scrapbooking. Breanne has such a talent. She stayed overnight and went to the ward Christmas party. I'm hoping that Greg and her will come up over the holidays to visit.

The sports teams had two games cancelled because of bad weather. They were both with Dubois. They played the North Gem gems (inside joke) at North Gem and the girls JV team was the only one that came away with a victory. The wrestlers are doing awesome. They took 8th at the Evanston tournament, and took 5th at the Star Valley duals and took second as a team at the North Summit tournament. They are such studs. FYI, I was able to get enough sponsor money to buy some new equipment that we are going to test for our sports schedule. I will also be doing all of the home games via the internet, so please check the sports schedule at http://www.cokeville.com/ and watch Channel 39 on the internet. I'm excited about it. But the equipment won't get here until after Christmas, I hope.

One last thing, somebody told me that you can have your blogs printed out in a book form. If so, please let me know how you can do that. What a way to keep a diary and have fun doing it. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Update on Grandma's House

Okay, here is an update of the things (with pictures) that have been going on at Grandma's house. I'm afraid that she won't be able to get in by Christmas. The people came to fix the inside of the house, but they said they can't do anything until ALL utilities are connected to the house. The contract never said anything about that, so we have been working really hard to get things ready. Then we find out that Rocky Mountain Power works on their schedule and nobody else's. The water is ready to connect, the power is ready to connect on Monday as well as the sewer line. Once all that is connected then Rocky Mountain will come in and turn on the power (on the day which they would like to do it) which will then allow us to call the workers to come in and fix the inside of the house. So here are some pictures. Here is the front of the house waiting to be put into position.

This is the back of the house being put into position. It was amazing how close they could get the house to the foundation so they could put a railing under the house to move it into position.

The next day they came and jacked up the back of the house and put it on a railing. Then they used winches to pull the house across the foundation to put it into place. This picture shows the house almost to it's proper position.

Now you can see the two houses close to each other. The left is the back of the house, I'm facing south. The right side shows the house is on the tracks and they are just removing garbage so they can link the two houses together.

I'm looking through the back window showing the front of the house as it is coming together.

This picture shows how the house is supported under it. There are a lot of these little triangle things that hold the house up. Some are on the cement and others are on cement blocks in different parts under the house.

Before they could connect the two halves, they had to raise the roofs. They are hinged roofs and they used a jack system to crank up the roof.

Once the roof was raised, then the worker would nail the boards together to hold it. Each one of the boards were nailed together on both halves. This took up most of the day.

This next shot shows the two halves together. The next day, the workers came and finished sealing the outside of the house together.

This is the front of grandma's house. It is definitely a lot bigger than her old house. The lower right you can see her driveway. It is further back on the lot and goes right next to the old garden. She told the workers they could drive through her raspberry bushes, they did and there is no more raspberry bushes. The workers were also very clean. They made sure they didn't leave even a tiny piece of garbage. That is all I have for now. I need to take a few showing the trenches they had to dig to put the water line in, the sewer, and the power. Also Ellen will need to go inside to take some pictures to show you a little of what it looks like. By the way, Carole, her bathroom is tan with brown counter tops.

We had our annual gingerbread decorating competition again. This time is was between Kandcye and her friend Clay against mom and Kennan. It was a very competitive competition.

This is a close up of Kandyce's and Clay's house. They were more frugal with the candy, but mom and Kennan stole most of the candy to make a candy walkway.

Here are the winners. I was the judge and I just couldn't pick who would win, so I cheated and called it a tie. Mom and Kennan.

Clay Bolton and Kandyce. Just a friend from school who wanted to see what Cokeville was all about.

Kennan is finishing playing junior high basketball. He plays both on the 7th grade team and the 8th grade team. He plays one quarter of 7th and the rest on the 8th. Here he is stealing the ball against Farson. They beat Farson both times they played, their only wins of the season.

Of course Coach Toomer and I are the officials of the games and no there was no special treatment. I am a very fair and impartial official. Besides, I get paid a lot of money to do it.