Christmas Photo Assortment

Christmas was full of quality time with family and friends. Our camera was usually at hand with Molly and I taking turns. These are the best of over 230 pictures taken. Some of them are kind of experiemental. For you photo buffs, I have a new Canon 50mm 1.8 f-stop lens that has a very short depth of field when it is cranked all the way open, which gives me about 3 inches of area that is in-focus but it is super-sharp if you get the focus right (that is why some of these seem out of focus just a little because the focus isn't always at the best spot - sorry we're still learning). The week started off with a trip to a near-by retirement center that had a fun train layout with a complete "Dicken's" villiage. Then on Tuesday, Molly went to the temple for the first time. On Thursday Jane and I went on a double-date with Seth and Alyson (Seth's girlfriend) to see some Christmas lights at a botanical garden close by. Christmas Eve was at our house with Allie's family, Jarom and his family, and us . Christmas morning we opened presents at home. Jarom's family started off upstairs with their little tree in the loft then we finished up downstairs with our tree in the family rooom. Then we went to Allies about 90 minutes away for late breakfast and early dinner. James had set up a big slot-car track, and it was warm enough to play outside a little. On Boxing Day Jane's Aunt Sheila and her husband Rudy and two granddaughters (Raven and Gabriel) came over for tacos and some fun down in the basement with our new XBox Kinect. Everyone got into the action, including Jane. We thought Sheila was going to either die of a stroke or fall and break her hip with all jumping, ducking and dodging she did in the virtual obstacle course. We've gone to the movies several times and have done lots of quality recreational reading. We've gone skiing twice so far and will go again on Thursday. It's been great having Seth home and we will miss him a lot when he returns to school on January 2nd.

Jane and Sheila Play with XBox Kinect from randy guthrie on Vimeo.

Thornbrue School Holiday Program

Last week we attended the Thornbrue kids' school holiday program. Tessa's class did a play about forest animals that love a special tree until people from town take it away and decorate it. Tessa played one of the birds (a cardinal). Marie's class did a tribute to Santa. I was able to film the parts the girls were in. Videos are below.

Tessa School Holiday Program Highlights from randy guthrie on Vimeo.

Marie School Holiday Program Highlights from randy guthrie on Vimeo.

Thornbrue Family Visit

Sunday November 20th Jane and I drove to Allie's house to attend her church's children's program. Marie and Tessa had piano parts where they played the melod and their piano teacher added the accompaniment while the rest of the kids sang. They were dressed in recital-quality dresses and did very well. Ben was with the kids that sang. I had Marie and Tessa play their songs for me. After church we had yummy food at Allie's house and Jane taught the girls to crochet.

Marie and Tessa Play the Piano from randy guthrie on Vimeo.

Family Resemblances

While Grandma Jane has been hanging out in Boston with the Hopkin Family, she keeps insisting that Johnny might have more of the "Guthrie/Peters" look than Janie or Mark. Finally after much begging Molly dug out some of our family pictures and selected those that could possibly, maybe a tiny bit look like Staci did when she was a baby. What do you think?