Christmas Lights

It has been another wonderful weekend and I'm reminded every day of how much I love Christmas time. Saturday I got up early and spent half the day finishing up the yard lights, meanwhile Lisa was inside putting up her Nativity collection. If she doesn't do a blog on her nativity collection then I'll show you those at a later date.

The weather this weekend was definitely winter like. It was cool and breezy all day long and it kept trying to rain. I actually really enjoyed it. The first storm of the season is supposed to hit San Diego next week. I think I'll fly out of town so I can avoid it. The only problem is that I'm heading to Washington DC again and it was very cold there last time I was there in December. I'd probably be better off staying here.

Saturday night was our Ward Christmas party. They went all out this year and had prime rib. Ohhhh I love prime rib. We cooked one of the roasts for the dinner. They bought them at Costco and they were over a hundred dollars each. Amazing. The roast came with instructions from a guy in the ward who is an expert. He sure goes to a lot of work to cook a roast but I can't argue with the results. It was wonderful. I think maybe we'll have to do one sometime when the kids are all here. It was a 12lb roast so it should feed the whole family. Of course, Santa showed up and Sarah had to ask for her pony like she does every year. I'm afraid she may be disappointed again.

Today was a mixed affair. It was Alex's year end football banquet.They've never had these things on Sundays before but this year they went and scheduled the banquet for today. Not only was it on a Sunday but it was at noon. Church for us starts at 12:30. We decided to go to the banquet since Alex is a senior and this is when they give out all the awards. Guess what they served? Prime Rib. How's that, two prime rib meals in a row.

Alex got two awards, the first award was based on character traits that the coach feels are important for a person to have. The regular season is ten weeks long so he has chosen ten character traits that they focus on one each week. They have a guest speaker come in each week and talk about one of the ten traits. Today they chose ten players who best represents the ten traits. One for each trait. Alex was chosen for "Sacrifice". Because of his shoulder injury in the summer and then his thumb in the first game I guess the coach figures Alex knew how to sacrifice for something he wants.

A friend of the coach used to film NFL games and he has had five camera's at each of the games and he is putting together a highlight film for us. One of the channels here in San Diego is going to show the film in January sometime. We have ordered one for us. I can't wait to see it. At the banquet they showed the highlights from the Valley Center game and it was wonderful. The other award Alex got was for his grades. They give each athlete an award who has a 3.0 gpa or higher.

This picture is of Alex with his trainer. Her name is Monica and Alex spent a lot of time in her office getting his shoulder wrapped. Once it was healed he was in her office getting his hand wrapped. After seeing what she looks like I think I understand why he didn't complain too much about his injuries.

We came home from the banquet and Lisa finally caved in. I've suggested for a couple of weeks now that we turn on the furnace. Lisa is a proud woman and refuses to acknowledge that it is cold. Tonight I walked in and as I was going for a blanket to keep from freezing Lisa said, "maybe we should turn on the furnace". For the first time this year we fired up the furnace. What a great invention.

Tonight is the Stake Christmas program. Lisa and I are singing in the choir. I don't think we're very prepared but it will be fun anyway.