Happy holidays...

So we were posing for a family photo on Christmas at Kristen's parents house using the self-timer on the camera, and the beeping and flashing of the camera's countdown attracted a certain other member of the family. This is what we got:

Tis the season...

Sunny and relatively warm here in Colorado... no white Christmas for us, just a brown one with sunny warm temps.

Reade and I caught our third version of the Nutcraker ballet earlier this week.

Check out Westley's blog for some holiday photos.

Here's a photo from an early Christmas party today with Reade and her friends:

Let there be music

We've been making the concert rounds it seems:

Last night, Reade played wonderfully with the Northridge High School chamber string orchestra. They sounded great.

Monday night, Connor played with the University High School concert band. They sounded swell.

Sunday we heard Connor sing twice with the UCC church choir.

Last Wednesday Reade and Connor both played with the U Schools After School Arts Program jazz combo.

This coming Sunday Connor's going to play drums at the UU Church service and then on Wednesday night he's playing drums in the circle for the international dances of peace at the UU Church here in Greality.

And every night or two we get to hear Reade up in the practice room fiddling through her favorite tunes, and every Saturday night Connor practices for three hours with his rock/pop band.

And sometimes we get to hear Kristen play her cello. And sometimes, just sometimes, I pick up the guitar and strum a few chords.

Happy birthday

Today is Connor's birthday - hard for me to believe but our oldest child turned 15 today. Our mini-adventure included dinner out, and I think he's planning on having some friends over to go see King Kong when it comes out next week. Here's a picture of him hamming it up (as usual) a few weeks ago.

Duke Ellington's Nutcracker

We're just back from seeing a live performance of Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite at the local university, featuring the college's dance department and the Lab Jazz Band 1, and it was really cool and swell. It's events like this that makes me glad to live in a college town.