I was reading my sister Debbie's blog this afternoon and came across a journal entry sent to her by our brother-in-law Allen. It was from Reed and Kathy Fischer from San Diego.

I thought that it was just wonderful on many levels. First, seeing a Presidential candidate hard at work when no one was watching, but out there helping just because he is a good person. Second, I just love the faith and zeal of LDS missionaries . And lastly, it was a great story on how the Lord rewards our efforts as we try to help one another.

Go to my sister's blog to get the whole story. http://web.mac.com/debstapley

We discovered a fantastic game last night. It's called Quelf. The game begins like any other game as you try to move your game pieces around a board. As the game develops, you roll the die, then choose a card depending on where you landed on the game board. The questions, or actions, or poems, etc get kind of crazy and have a little bit of a "Curses" feel (so they say). You may be asked to answer a simple question, but you are more likely to be asked to video tape an opponent as he answers a question with an invisible video camera while doing a play by play, or standing in the form of an "X" until your next turn. You might be told to say, "I command you to be silent" any time someone laughs, or play leapfrog with an opponent. Last night Mark and I had to mumble the words to our favorite Christmas carol in a sad way as we stared at our game piece with out laughing. If we failed (which we didn't) we would have had to go back two spaces. But that wouldn't have been too bad because our friend Tyler would have had to pretend to be a bubbling, flushing toilet as we did it. As the game came to an end, it became totally random and hilarious. There were land mines blowing up, original poems being read, and rap songs (I think that's what he was going for) being sung all at the same time until the game finally ended when the "Biscuit Farmer" (that was our game piece) finally made it to the end.

We'd definitely recommend this game. It was so fun and great for families, parties or what ever. If you'd like to take a peak at the action, watch this short video clip.

Movie coming... In the mean time here are some photos.

Farwell 2007! This year we stumbled upon a new tradition--tree burning and crab feasting. To celebrate the end of another wonderful year, the family got together at Doheny State Beach. We brought king crab legs and lots of other yummy food to share. Before the sun went down we steamed our crabs over open flame and spread out everything else for a feast that couldn't be matched in any other setting.

And what about the tree burning??? Well, let's just say that Cathy and Allen don't need to track down the Boy Scouts or the Fire Department to haul their Christmas tree away this year--again!!

To watch the beach light up check out the video on my sister's website.

http://jakeandsarah.blogspot.com/

The girls went to bed on Christmas Eve after having written Santa two very compementary notes. Neither one reminded Santa of what she wanted, but only expressed to him their admiration and "belief" in him. Both were rewarded the next morning with exactly what they had hoped for. Good job Santa!

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Merry Christmas!!
We had a wonderful time visiting Grandma Sedgwick and the rest of the family over the Christmas break. Christmas Eve was a highlight. All 35 of us gathered at Grandma's house to put Higene kits and school bags together for people in need. It's easy to recognize just how very blessed we are when we assembled the very basic necessities for others.
Here is grandma with 16 of her 24 grandkids. Another was born 4 days later! In case you can't tell which one grandma is, she's the silver haired fox in the center. Though we did the humanitarian project rather than buying gifts for each other, grandma still had something spcial for everyone. Thanks grandma!!
After we had finished up at Grandma's house, we went down the hill to Debbie's where we enjoyed and awesome Mexican fesat of tamales, enchiladas, beans, rice, fresh fruit and yummy desserts. A "cousin's concert" followed dinner. We were entertained with everything from piano performance and singing to telling jokes and displaying art. GO COUSINS!!
Matthew's contribution was to be good and look adorable.