It's time to get things started

Well another Christmas has come and gone. It was a great holiday. Filled with fun with friends and family. Here are a few photos of how we spent our time in Willmar.





Every year Anne and I get together with my Grandma for Lefse making.


My parents dog Kaylee loves attention...even if it mean being covered with bows.


The Annual Cousin's Christmas photo.

And last but not least Cam and I kept up our Christmas tradition of putting fun things in mom's nativity scene. For those of you who are not familiar with this tradition you will have to read my blog post from last Christmas. This year we did a little something different and put two things in the nativity. The first needs no explanation:



The second is an inside joke for members of my family. My Grandma has this wooden elephant that is a toothpick holder. (Random). So I asked her if I could take it for the nativity and she thought that sounded like fun. When mom saw it, she knew exactly where it had come from. I thought it fit in pretty nicely. As always mom didn't notice that either of these items were in the nativity until they had already been there for 3 days.

Somewhere in my youth or childhood

So there have been many times in the past two months that I meant to post something...but then something came up and I never got around to it. Last night however I experienced something that made me so gleeful that I have to post about it.

Months ago Mark received a gift from work for a project that he had put a lot of time and energy into. The gift allowed us to go on-line and purchase any number of things from local retailers. Mark however saw one thing and knew what he wanted to do. So he came home and told me that we were going to go to the Ordway to see "The Sound of Music" in December. I was of course excited, but it was still summer at this time and December seemed really far away. Last night however was our evening at the Ordway..and it was amazing!

We arrived at the Ordway last night and were very excited to find that our seats were fourth row center! When the actors came on stage we could see the sparkle in their eyes, and every raise of the eyebrow. It was so awesome! The performance was wonderful. I found myself sitting in my seat with a huge grin plastered on my face for most of the play.

At first I was kind of shocked by my reaction. Primarily because this wasn't my first trip to the Ordway or even my favorite musical (that title goes to Les Miserable -which I have seen at the Ordway twice now). No my reaction was stemming from something deeper. A connection that I have held with the "Sound of Music" since I was a child. I have seen the movie and have sang those songs for as long as I can remember. I know the words of every song, and the voice inflections that are used by the actors as they deliver their lines. I don't think a year has gone by where I haven't watched the movie at least once. As a child I used to go to my grandma's and we would listen to the soundtrack on her record player. She would tell me of the story of Maria Von Trapp and how Maria was scheduled to speak at one of her women's ministries events but she never got to come because she became ill and passed away soon after.

Yes, I think last night was spectacular. A night that reconnected me to some of my childhood memories, and to my love of music and theater.