Holiday Greetings 2011

Holiday Greetings 2011

Here is a picture of Tracy and me with all of our grandchildren (Bella,Juliette, Cole, Annabelle, Liam) on Christmas Eve. It was one of our best blessings of the year to be together with most of our family at Christmastime.

While on our last flight back to Germany earlier this week, I studied some of the most recent conference addresses and noted that in President Packer's message to the youth, he encouraged them to follow gospel principles and enjoy the blessings of protection and witness of truth that the Holy Ghost brings. He encouraged them to look forward to getting married, having a family, seeing children, grandchildren and maybe even great-grandchildren! We are right in the middle of many of these wonderful blessings and truly looking forward to another great year. Wishing you all the best and a wonderful New Year too!

Love, The Allreds

If you would like to learn more of our latest family news, you can check out more on this blog. The girls also have family blogs if you are interested.

Here are the links:

www.notesshewrote.blogspot.com
www.maggab.blogspot.com (Marie and family)
www.sandldays.blogspot.com (Lauren and family)
www.jakemma.blogspot.com (Emily and family)

Our Happy New Year

One might get discouraged when told of the many travel hours entailed in our recent trip to the states for Christmas . . . but that's not how I'm feeling right now! Our first flight from Frankfurt to Dallas was 11 hours, and then 3-1/2 more on the next flight to Sacramento. The next day we drove about 10 hours from Sacramento to Seattle. We were so glad to finally arrive at our destination: Marie and Will's house in Port Orchard. In total, that was a 50 hour trek from our house to theirs!

After a blissful eight days in Seattle, we then continued our travels from Seattle back to Sacramento (via Boise and Salt Lake City this time). In total we logged an amazing 4,122 miles in our rental car -- and Tracy (a.k.a. Super-Driver-Man) did most of the driving. I was especially in awe when he drove all night from Salt Lake to the Sacramento airport. My hero, for sure. Our total travel time from Salt Lake to our home in Germany: 33 hours!

But here is the really good news: I'm feeling completely optimistic about this wonderful new year ahead of us. As I thought about our travels and how we passed through 7 states and along the way saw many of the church's temples -- Columbia River (Richland), Boise, Twin Falls, Rexburg, Brigham City, Bountiful, Salt Lake City, Draper, Jordan River, Oquirrh Mountain, Mount Timpanogos, Provo and Reno -- my outlook on life is cheerful and bright. We spent New Year's Eve in the car, but we passed the Reno Temple right about midnight, honked our horn a few times, and heard Auld Lang Syne and Good Life (by One Republic) on the radio. Those are totally good signs.

I think it's going to be a Good Life and a Good Year in 2012. I can just feel it!

This is NOT a picture of our rental car, but isn't it cute? When I saw this little VW Christmas bus in Twin Falls, I just had to get a picture!

Temple Square in Salt Lake City

The Happy Travelers

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner!

On the Tuesday after Christmas we started our five day road trip from Seattle to Boise, Twin Falls, Blackfoot, Rexburg, Salt Lake City, and then back to Sacramento. This was our chance to see extended family members and friends. We found that the best way to get everyone together was to designate a place where we could all meet for breakfast (IHOP), lunch (Thai Cuisine) or dinner (Village Inn). We are so thankful that our travels went smoothly and that we could see so many of our loved ones in those few days after Christmas.

Here are a few pictures from our breakfast, lunch and dinner dates:

Talia, Bruce, Jewel, Grandma Minnie, Lisa, Kris, Lissie, Tracy, Christian, Bryant

Christian, Charisse, Lissie, Bryant

Annabelle and Bryant

Trent, Tara, Taylor, Fiona, Kim, Tricia

Lissie and Uncle Michael

Grandma Kay and Grandpa Gordon

A Family Christmas

Our Christmas was spent in Seattle this year. Will's parents graciously allowed us the use of their vacation home out at Mason Lake. It was like a dream come true for us -- to be all together at Christmastime in such a lovely setting. We only wish that Matthew had joined us. Here is sampling of pictures to remember this special time . . .

A view of the lake

Our newest generation of sweethearts -- in their homemade Christmas jammies

Bella, Juliette, Cole, Annabelle, Liam

Christmas morning surprises

Aunt Marie with the one-year-olds, Cole and Annabelle

Will with his latest version of Monopoly - Heidelberg edition

Steve and Jake (and Annabelle) posing in their matching T-shirts

Some Christmas bliss for Christian!

Bryant told me that he only got one article of clothing for Christmas this year (notice the little hat up in the left corner?). He had asked Santa and every other willing gift giver to help him in his latest quest to build his own computer. I think he was happy -- he's the one who took this picture!

And lastly, our highly fashionable daughters -- out frolicking in the forest just before Christmas.

What fun it was for all of us -- truly a Christmas never to be forgotten!

Lovely Noelle

Besides being with all of my children (sans Matthew) this year for Christmas, my very favorite gift was a surprise Christmas Eve song which had been written and set to music by my wonderfully creative children. As we were winding down our Christmas Eve celebration (a sharing of songs and stories), the kids informed us that they had one last thing just for Tracy and me: They had composed a Christmas song called "Lovely Noelle."

As they sang it to us, I marveled at how delightful they all are -- to give us an original Christmas song. Apparently, Marie had written the lyrics, and when they were finally all together just before Christmas, Christian set the song to music (his guitar accompaniment). Everyone sang together with a special solo section for Lissie. And Bryant told me he had the easiest part: He played the ukelele (as a percussion instrument). It truly was lovely -- just like each one of them. I don't have a video or even a picture of them all singing the song together, but I've compiled some pictures of each of them below to remember this beautiful time together. My only wish is that Matthew had been with us too.

Marie

Matthew's Christmas note to us: "I really wish I was there with everyone. Maybe we can all live in a closer proximity in the future. Love you, Matthew."

Lauren

Emily

Christian

Lissie

Lissie and Bryant

And here are the song lyrics:

Lovely Noelle

Bless this Noelle
That brings us together
Lovely Noelle
I'll love you forever

See all the lights
The village is sleeping
This time of year
The whole world is shining

Chorus
Oh peaceful, peaceful
Beautiful, Beautiful
Christmas morn
Humbly, humbly
Perfectly, perfectly
He is born
Christ we adore

It's Christmas Eve
The air fills with music
See the pine tree
Everything is magic

(Chorus)

Bridge
Our Savior, Our Redeemer
Son of God
Our Savior, Our Redeemer
Son of God

Bless this Noelle
That brings us together
Lovely Noelle
I'll love you forever.

A Look into the Christmas Past

We have a Christmas Eve tradition of sharing songs and stories. While we were all together this year in Seattle, I pulled out a 20-year-old note from Grandpa Gordon in which he shared a Christmas poem (and sent a copy to each of our children at the time -- Marie, Matthew, Lauren and Emily). It was 1991 when Grandpa sent the note, but the poem he shared was written while Tracy was in college at Cal State - Long Beach, some time before his mission. I'm guessing he was about 19-years-old when he wrote this:

Why Celebrate?

by Tracy Anderson Allred

Now let's not forget
at this Christmas season,
That we celebrate
for a special reason.

Our motive is not
that relations will gather,
nor's the semester's end
a contributing factor

It also is not
the gifts we perceive,
And certainly not those
that we always receive.

But rather our cause
for such great joy,
Should stem from the fact
"The birth of a boy."

This boy lived His life
from birth till death,
Simply to give man
the gift of eternal breath

Yes, our celebration's cause
should stem from the fact,
That He was born
to do this noble act.


I wanted to save this here on my blog since I finally (this year) gave the original copies to MMLE. Thanks for taking a small peek with me into our Christmas celebrations - past and present.

Jazz, Ballroom, Contemporary

Nope, this post is not all about dance.

The jazz portion is actually about my "jazz band boys" and their holiday recital. Christian plays the electric guitar and Bryant is on keyboard. Their good friend, Matthew, plays the trumpet. We didn't actually get front row seats or anything, so I won't torture you with a poor quality video (just the pictures!) Try to imagine their amazing improvisation/music skills. Here they are, all jazzed up, after the performance:

If you follow Notesshewrote you might have noticed Lissie's post about all of her December performances, but you might not know that her brothers participated with her -- several ballroom numbers and a contemporary piece in which Christian subbed as the tango hottie! Sorry, once again, no videos. But here is an after-the-recital picture. Yes, Christian is missing. I think he had already stripped down to his T-shirt and was busy visiting with friends back from college for the Christmas break. (A well in advance "sorry" to his posterity!)

Bryant, Mallory Lacy, Lissie, Matthew Steffen, Myles Lacy