Star Fleet

Saturday was a good day and we got lots done. First on the list was to go get our Christmas tree. A former missionary who used to serve in our ward came to visit so Lisa picked up Elder Lyman (now known as Zach) at the airport and then off we went to Home Depot to get a tree. We stopped first at "Chee Burger Chee Burger" (a very good hamburger and even better milkshake). We then got a tree and brought it home. I just about had Lisa talked into buying a fake tree this year but she finally decided to let the kids vote on it. Well that was pointless, they love the real trees but they aren't the ones who end up cleaning up the mess. Besides, you might pay more money for a fake tree the first year but after the second year you are saving money. Oh, well. Maybe after Sarah is gone to college I might get my way. I didn't like the fake tree's before but they've gotten pretty good now where you have to look hard before you can tell that it's fake. Once we got home I put the tree into a stand with some water and before it got dark I started putting up our house lights. We have the most beautiful nativity that is all in lights and I love it. I'd take a picture but I want to wait until I have all the lights up. That didn't quite happen on Saturday. Then came my favorite part of Christmas. I was able to launch my Star Fleet. In case you didn't know I'm a bit of a Trekkie. Years ago Lisa's Dad and Carol bought me a Star Trek Christmas tree ornament. I was thrilled and I loved it. It was a little Galileo shuttle and you plug it into a light socket and it lights up. This one had a button on it that you could push and it had Spocks voice saying, "Shuttle Craft to Enterprise, Shuttle Craft to Enterprise, Spock here, Happy Holidays, Live long and prosper". Pretty cool eh? Little did I know that this was to become a tradition. The next year I got another Star Trek ornament. This one was the Enterprise "D" from the movie First Contact. They kept coming every year. When I finally realized that I had a bit of a collection I checked on the internet to see which ones I was missing and it turned out that I only needed a few of them and I'd have the entire collection. I went on to ebay and picked most of them up quite cheaply (comparatively) but the very first ornament was the original enterprise and it was not cheap. I followed several bids until I finally (with Lisa's encouragement) got up the courage and bought one. I'm thrilled and it is what I look forward to every Christmas more than anything. I wonder what ornament is coming out this year. I could go online and check but that would ruin the surprise.

As I was launching my fleet of ships onto the tree Peter comes walking out of his room all dressed up in a tuxedo. I didn't think he had any concerts he was singing in so when we asked I guess the YSA (Young Single Adults) group was having an "Oscars" night and everyone was dressing the part. When Maren came by to pick him up it was just too much like a Prom night so I had to take their pictures. They were good sports. They don't know how lucky they were. They got off easy. Normally I take at least a hundred pictures.

There is no way I'm going to remember the order in which I got my ornaments so I will list them below in the order in which they came out which is pretty much the order in which I got them. Some of them talk to you when you push a button but most of them just sparkle and look real cool.

1991 Starship Enterprise








1992 Shuttle Craft Galileo - when you push a button you can hear spocks voice saying, "Shuttle Craft to Enterprise, Shuttle Craft to Enterprise, Spock here, Happy Holidays, Live long and prosper"


1993 U.S.S. Enterprise - from The Next Generation Series.





1994 Klingon Bird of Prey








1995 Romulan Warbird








1996 U.S.S. Voyager










1997 U.S.S. Defiant - from the Deep Space Nine series.





1998 U.S.S. Enterprise-E from the movie, "First Contact"



1999 U.S.S. Rio Grande - This ship is a runabout from Deep Space Nine, when you push a button on this ship you can hear Worf say, "I wish you a most honorable holiday, Qapla." Qapla would be Klingon for "success".

2000 Borg Cube - This one would be my favorite. When you push a button on this ship you can hear the voice of the Borg saying, "We are the Borg. Enjoy your holidays. Resistance is futile."


2001 Space Station Deep Space Nine - This can either hang from the tree or it has a stand that you can put it on. If you put it on the stand there are batteries that light up the station and if you push a button on the stand you can hear Captain Benjamin Sisko saying, "To the best crew a Captain ever had: No matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel... a part of us will always remain here, on Deep Space Nine."


2002 Delta Flyer - The Delta Flyer is a shuttle that the crew of Voyager built. It is one tough little ship.


2003 The Scorpion - This was a bit of a rip off because this ship had a small part in the movie "Star Trek Nemesis". It wasn't in any of the series. There were so many other ships they could have done. Oh well, I'm still hoping they come out with a Ferengi ship sometime.


2004 Vulcan Command Ship - One very cool ship.





2005 U.S.S. Enterprise-A, for some reason they decided to go back and do another of the original Enterprise ships. Only this time they made it battery powered which is a rip off. The ships that plug into light sockets are always lit up but this one you have to push a button and the lights come on for a couple of minutes and then go off again. I really hope they get their act together this year and make my Ferengi ship. Even the ship from the Enterprise series would be cool.


2006 The Transporter Chamber - Now this one was cool. When you push a button the lights flash making it look kind of like the guys are being transported out of the chamber. The sound effects of people being transported are pretty good too. I like this one. Do you remember back in April when my family let me go see a Star Trek exhibit? We were in a transporter chamber just like this one.

2007 Future Enterprise - This is another battery powered ornament. It is a future Enterprise that briefly appeared in one of the episodes of The Next Generation.

Just because I complain about the more recent ships don't think for a second that I'm not totally in love with my Star Ships. In addition to tree ornament ships Grandpa and Nana have also sent me a few cool ships that mount on stands.

This is a die cast model of the original Enterprise and you can see below it the shuttle Galileo. When you push the button on the base it plays the introduction from the original Star Trek series. "Space, the final frontier, these are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise. Its' five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."


This is a plastic version of the same ship but when you push this button you get the theme song from the original series. It sounds really cool when you play both together because then you get the words with the music in the back ground.

This is a die cast model of the latest series called "Enterprise". The latest series was actually situated hundreds of years before the original series but its funny how the ship looks so much more modern.


I'm quite excited about the New Star Trek Movie coming out in May. It is supposed to be a remake of the orginal series but with modern computer graphics. It should be good, I can't wait. Check out the trailer.