Christmas in Portland, OR

December, 2006, Mom and Dad traveled across the continent to be with Michelle and Steve for the holiday season. Nancy came from Utah to stay with them to do her internship in recreational therapy with Portland Parks and Recreation after the New Year.

This year, we combined the Barker and Tang traditions to celebrate Christmas. The Barker's tradition is to have pizza for Christmas Eve. We had two huge pizzas for five people. It was quite a feast. For some reason, I didn't take any pictures. I could have hit myself now. On Christmas day, we woke up to a song which is a Barker tradition and then went downstairs to start the day. I don't remember the song now. Ask Steve, he will be able to tell you. We cooked and ate the usual Tang breakfast. Then we opened the stockings. There was no time for presents for we had to go to our Sunday services. I had the most wonderful time attending this ward. The sacrament meeting was a musical program describing the birth of our Savior. They have some talented members in the ward. Michelle and Steve were in the program. Sunday School was great. A lot of people participated in the discussion. I especially like the high priests in their quorum meeting. They must have 20 high priests in attendance. The discussion was so enriching. In our ward, we count ourselves lucky if there are 8 high priests in the quorum meeting.

After Church, we went home to open presents. The spirit of giving and receiving was in abundance. Here are some selected few pictures for your enjoyment.

We took our grand old time to open presents. Even though there was a lot of laughter and joy, Christmas without young children is very different. I hope everyone else agrees with us. Anyhow, while we were opening presents, the turkey was in the oven, while the ham was cooked over at Michelle and Steve's friends. The Whitely-Ross family came over for Christmas dinner. As soon as the presents were opened, we were busy setting up the dining room to welcome our guests. There was an incident that happened during dinner. I am not privy to mention here. If you want to know, ask Michelle and Steve directly yourself. The Whitely-Ross family brought the party hats over. It seemed it was a Christmas and New Year combined dinner. There is a picture of Steve cutting the Turkey for the first time, I believe. You have to decide whether he was doing a good job or not. Here comes a few pictures of the dinner.

This was a fun filled day. We were tired by the end of the day after the guests were gone. What a wonderful day and there were so many things to be thankful for.

Bangor Creche Exhibit

It’s the Bangor Maine Stake 7th annual Creche Exhibit held from Friday, Dec. 1, to Monday, Dec. 4, 2006. This is our gift to the community. If you weren’t there, you’ve missed something absolutely beautiful! It took 4 ½ days for 30 to 40 committed/creative members to put on a very professional display of about 450 creches loaned from LDS as well as other community members. The photos do not truly do justice to what the eyes can see, and definitely do not catch the peaceful and reverent atmosphere with wonderful Christmas music playing at all times, either from a CD, from a talented elder on the piano, or from various performers including a superb harp player who brought joy and peace to all who heard her sing and play. This is worth going to for a cost, let alone it’s all free! Dad played the role of one of the magi from the East (someone joked “wise guy” from the East) in a live nativity presentation. Over 2000 visitors came to view the exhibit, many are return “customers”.

A life size Creche in the center of the Exhibit

The Old Bangor street shops

Another street in the old Bangor street shops

These are some of the small creches in the shops

One of the shops in the main street in Bangor

Here comes the "wise guys" to the manger

Joy to the World, the Lord hath come .....

Fall, fall, what is falling?

Fall is the most wonderful season of the year. It is called autumn in most countries. We call it Fall in North America largely because of falling leaves from the deciduous trees. At this time of the year, especially in the northeastern part of the United States and Canada, the magnificent colors of the season are on display. Thousands of visitors from the world flock to Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont to enjoy the parade of colors mixed with the evergreen trees. We learned that leaves don't "fall" off, they are actually "pushed out" of the tree branches. A special enzyme is formed in early autumn that serves as a knife to dislodge the leaves to allow the tree to get ready for the upcoming snowfall. Bare branches collect less snow, thus they are saved from being broken off too easily. If you want to know some facts about why leaves fall from the trees, please point your mouse to this site. http://ncnatural.com/wildflwr/fall/science.html

These are a few pictures of the fall colors at the Kenduskaeg Stream

Mom and Dr. Sandip Wilson admiring the fall colors

This spider was making a web to capture her preys