Moran Family Fun

Way, way back in October our family auditioned for The Sound of Music. We did it kind of on a whim, just to have a fun activity for Family Home Evening. Emily and I ended up being cast; Emily as Gretl and me as a nun. I didn't realize back them how much time this production would take out of my life! During the end of October and all of November Emily and I had rehearsals four nights a week for at least 3 hours each night. It really shook up the routine in our household, but it's been a great experience, especially for Emily. During December we had three weekends of performances and we will have two more weekends in January taken up with the play. Emily had done a fabulous job as Gretl; she doesn't have too many speaking parts, but the ones she has she know perfectly and she in constantly singing the songs. I'm a little sad that I'm in the play as well because I can't watch her from the audience, only from the wings. She has made some great friends and has also...

Natalie is a sweet girl who loves to play and have fun. She makes friends with everyone and is always smiling. I worry sometimes that she's a bit spoiled as the youngest but part of her cuteness is her absolute assurance that she will get what she wants. Natalie loves chocolate and will do almost anything if she is promised some chocolate; it's a good thing that I'm not above bribery now and again. She had finally started talking and loves to be heard, but sometimes she is too loud. Natalie is still working on her volume control and so far has only mastered super loud and almost too soft to be heard. All day on her birthday she kept telling everyone, "I'm the birthday girl." What she was trying to say was "give me what I want." And for her birthday this year she wanted pizza and a doughnut cake. We were glad to have the Kennedy's here to celebrate her special day with us, it made for a really great party. She had a great time opening presents and...

We have been looking forward to December since May. That's when our friends the Kennedy's finalized their plans to come and visit us! Besides just being able to hang out and have fun with them we have been excited about taking an adults only trip with John and Larisa. After discussing several different destinations we settled on Gdansk, Poland. Larisa is an awesome trip planner and she found us a great deal on the flight as well as a really nice hotel and had some great ideas on things to see and do in Gdansk. We got there about dinner time and got our little, tiny rental car (Larisa said that the rental car company said no luggage would fit in the back) and found our way to our lovely hotel, Villa Angela. Before we left home I had looked up the hotel so I could leave a number for our sitters in case they needed to reach us. It was interesting/funny to read that the Villa Angela is "gay friendly" and we joked a lot about it, but there wasn't even on gay sighting d...

The day after Thanksgiving is our traditional putting up the Christmas decorations day. All of the boxes of Christmas ornaments, stockings, nativities, etc are in the attic. I love our attic, I think that it's really cool that the door opens and the ladder folds down so you can climb right up. Jared got the fun job of getting all the boxes out of the attic and downstairs. I really appreciate having him around, especially when there's a job like that to be done. I think we have about 5 or 6 big totes of Christmas things as well as the huge box with the Christmas tree. Yes, we have an artificial tree, it's just easier than buying a new one every year, but I do miss the smell of a real tree. The worst part of the yearly ritual is putting the tree together. It's not one of those little hinged trees (although we have one of those too). This thing is seven feet tall and has a different kind of color coded branch for each level of the tree. So first we have to sort out all the...

This year for Thanksgiving I had two turkeys to make; one for a squadron party and one for our family. I planned ahead and took them out of the freezer the Saturday before Thanksgiving but they still weren't quite thawed when I was ready to roast them. In the past I've just done a cold water thaw in the kitchen sink. At our house here we don't have a double sink and the one sink that we do have is maybe 10 inches deep, so the thawing wasn't happening there. I ended up putting the turkeys inside our cooler and the cooler in the bathtub so that I could thaw them out. It worked really well, so well that I might always do that, even when I have regular sized kitchen fixtures! Thanksgiving turned out great. I decided to make some things myself that I've always used mixes for before. So the gravy wasn't from a jar and the stuffing was bread that I cut up and then let sit for a few days so it would get crunchy before we seasoned and cooked it. We also made a French Sil...

Emily is awesome! I feel like before I write all about the celebrating I should say something about how blessed we are to have Emily in our family. She is a sweet, loving girl who strives to choose the right. Emily is creative and loves to write stories and draw pictures. She is always looking for something creative or crafty to do - I can count on Emily to make great decorations for any holiday! Emily is a lot of fun to be around, in our family I sometimes think of her as the cruise director, planning fun activities and trying to get everyone involved. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice (she's especially loud in the shower). Emily also is really good about setting goals and then following through and accomplishing what she set out to do. Right now she is working of reading the Book of Mormon; it was nice to see her at play rehearsal last night reading her scriptures when it wasn't her turn on stage. She was also a great missionary and talked with a group of people bac...

For Saint Martin's Day we participated in a little play put on by Samantha's school and a nighttime parade. Here's the story of St. Martin and some pictures of our St. Martin's day celebration. In a shadow of the city wall, as unheeded as a mound of dust, stands a poor, ragged beggar, shivering with cold, one feeble hand strecthed out for alms. The people pass him by, most of then ignoring him altogether, some with a glance of half-contemptuous pity, or even disgust. His pleading voice is so weak it fades away. He is utterly despised. Suddenly there is a ring of horses' hooves on the hard road, and a little band of the Emperor's soldiers canter down the street. They are talking merrily among themselves. Their swords, their big spurs, and the trappings of their steeds glisten in the sunshine. They are leaving for a distant city, and carelessy glance at the people who stand still to watch them ride by, admiring their youth and gallant bearing. As they pass by the ...