We had a wonderful Christmas starting off with Christmas Eve. The Rudels' and Strongs' enjoyed a Christmas dinner followed by a white elephant gift exchange. We had a talent show which ended up with the two youngest girls singing and dancing around the Christmas tree. We then opened up our traditional PJ's from Nana and Papa. The Curtis family showed up after their big party with the Curtis family. Someone handed Dresden his gift thinking it was the PJ box. Darn! The surprise was over! It was his gift for Christmas day. Collin was devastated thinking that Dresden got the DS game he wanted. I bought them the same thing but Collin didn't know that. But soon Dresden and Collin put two and two together finding out that I was giving them both the same thing. So Christmas day Papa John and I decided to play a trick on Collin......see Natalie's blog, Jay videoed our little trick. Christmas day Grandpa Bill and Grandma Ellen went with us to visit all the kids and to see what Santa had dropped off for them. Saturday night our Cali family came into town. Savannah, Cole and Creed opened up their presents from us. They had the same PJ's as their cousins. We really enjoyed visiting with them. Sunday we had family pictures at the church (courtesy of our great son-in-law Larry), then we had another family dinner in our home then the cousin's exchanged their gifts. It was so good to have all of our family together, yes, it was crazy but a wonderful night.
Tayler, Logan, Sydney, Dresden and Collin
Christmas Eve- Sydney Hugging Grandpa Bill
Carlee reading the "Night Before Christmas" 
Collin & Dresden playing chess, Logan watching
Family Picture - we were all mixed up but it worked
1 Natalie, Shannon, she's holding Creed (Mike & Nikki's), Soupie
2 Grandma Ellen, Savannah(Mike & Nikki's), Logan(Shannon & Larry's), Grandpa Bill
3 Carlee & Tayler(both Brandt's & Soupie's)
4 Sydney, Collin (both Natalie & Jays), Dresden (Shannon & Larry's), Cole (Mike & Nikki's)
5 Jay, Donna, Brandt, Mike Nikki, John and Larry
Grandkids goofing off
Sunday Night - Celebrating December & January Birthdays
Monday Night - Our Christmas Present to the Adults- a night out without the little ones
Donna, John, Natalie, Jay Shannon, Larry, Michael, Nicole, Brandt, Carlee and Soupie
My sisters, in St George sing with the Southern Utah Heritage Choir, they invited me to go with them on their China tour. What fun! We even got to room together. The trip started out in Shanghai, then on to Xi'an and we finished in Beijing.
The first day we arrived in the afternoon. We visited the 
At our hotel in Shanghai, this will be the only Panda we will see.
While the choir practiced during the day, the non-singers got to visit the Shanghai Museum, go to lunch and visit the French Concession(popular hangout with lots of eating places and shops, more European looking).
Just one of the many beautiful pieces in the museum, furniture, Calligraphy, art pieces, porcelain, Jade and other fine stones from centuries ago.
The non-singers visited the Jade 
On our way to the airport to fly to Xi'an, we spotted a traveler having difficulties. Bikes like this with heavy loads were very common. Traffic flowed most anywhere it wanted. 
A short walk inside the ancient city, beautiful gardens, bell tower etc.
We cooked our own dinner, then used the remains of the water for our soup.
This used to be the spiritual center of the ancient Chinese Empire
Watching the waiter cutting up the duck, they had a special way to eat the duck. There was a small dish with dipping sauce (similar to soy sauce) and small cut up onions. You take a very thin wrap, dip the duck into the sauce put it and the onions onto the wrap then you fold it up and eat it. Very yummy!
We walked for miles, but well worth it. This is the palace (a city within) from which the entire Chinese empire was ruled for centuries. 
While the choir practiced at the Forbidden City Concert Hall the non-singers got to go on a ride to a small village where we were invited to go inside one of the homes.
Very humbling experience, Jean and Gloria climbed a good distance. We wouldn't let Jean climb too high because of her health and Gloria didn't think it wise to go too far as she had already fainted at the second concert and the fourth concert she felt a little weak (we think because of dehydration). So I ventured off by myself, I tried to reach the very top only to miss the last gate as I had to turn around to get to the bus on time. I didn't want to be left behind!
I was half way to the top when this picture was taken......pretty awesome! The stairs were tricky, they were never the same size, sometimes very small, sometimes very large!
The tour guide let us drive by the Olympic site before we did our last shopping at the 
We skipped dinner to go to this performance. It was the story of 
WE MADE IT HOME !
WE ARRIVED HOME 5 HOURS BEFORE THE TIME WE LEFT KOREA.......GO FIGURE!