Jeremy

Jeremy is Beth's husband and Beth is Beth Bratt's niece by her sister Becki and husband Frank (confused yet?). Beth and Jeremy live in Portland, ME. Jeremy plays guitar and periodically plays with a "jug band" type of group in Portland - as well as taking lessons there. He very generously agreed to play a little for us. We enjoyed it so much we thought we would blog a little of his playing here. I only have his work email address so I won't post that here, but I will try and get his personal one if you would like to send him an email and comment on his playing (I think he told me that only positive comments would be welcome).

Christmas 2007

Well, today is December 26, 2007. Christmas is over for another year. This year we were able to travel to Alva, Florida, and spend Christmas with Beth's parents, Ken and Pat Cannaday, as well as Beth's sister Becki and her husband Frank from Cotonwood, AZ, and Beth's niece Beth and her husband Jeremy from Portland, ME.

We arrived here on Saturday morning before Christmas and the weather has been fantastic ever since. 70's and 80's, light breeze, very few clouds and mostly low humidity. What a way to spend Christmas. I know when you think of Christmas you think of snow and sleighs and such, but... well you be the judge.

Beth at the pool
Picking oranges off of the tree in the backyard. Also picked grapefruit off the tree next to it.

A couple of the neighbors offered to take us on a ride along the river on their pontoon boat. The river was nice and calm and the views were wonderful.

Beth with a fishing story?
Becki with a fishing story? Obviously HER fish was much bigger.

Hanging moss



The River

On the boat, Ken, Bethy, and Oscar-the-dog

Walking down and feeding the turtles bread at the little marina.



CHRISTMAS!!

Poinsettias at the entrance to the park


The tree on Christmas morningCHRISTMAS IMAGES:
Waiting for Santa to pass out some packages

"Santa" passing out the packages


Cute shot of the "two" of them
Opening gifts:


Some close-ups of everyone:

Bethy
Jeremy

Frank...sorry Frank
Patti
KenBethy and Beth (godmother and goddaughter)
We have had a really good time here in Florida. We leave on Friday to fly back to the cold and dreary northland - trading 70's for the 30's - not such a good trade. We hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and will have a joyous New Year. We pray that the coming year will bring peace and prosperity to all.

Aaron

Today we got some pictures of Aaron at the MTC. He seems to like his green tie as that is the only one in the pictures.


This one is of a bunch of his friends at the MTC. I believe his companion is the one on Aaron's left.

Here he is just before he entered the MTC on October 31, 2007.
Here he is with a friend, Elder Medrano who is going to the Eugene, Oregon Mission
Here he is with the famous "Dork Dot" that all new missionaries get to wear.
These are all of his room mates - again his companion, Elder Bahr is on his left.
This is what he called "Hasta Ver" where on Sunday they all go to the Temple grounds to sing and then the missionaries shipping out the following day get to bear their testimonies. This is Elder Poveda who is going to the Denver South Mission. Aaron said he is 22 yrs old, but Aaron is still the oldest.
These are four sisters in his zone. Hermanas: Thompson, Romero, Martinez and Sorenson. Hermana Martinez is going to his mission. (Hermana is Spanish for sister)

This is just before going into the MTC with his wonderful friend, Jared. Jared stayed with us and ran the Boston Marathon a couple of years ago.
In keeping with my idea to run some older photos of Christmases past, here are just a couple.

This is Emily in December 1985, she is opening her stocking gifts on our bed at our house in New Jersey.
Not sure of the day but this is Ethan in December 1980 at Christmas time. Here he is with two of his friends.

And another one of Ethan at the table. Not our house - not sure whose house it was!
Sorry there are not more at this time. I will continue to keep adding as I get things (or as I find things to post).

Love to all.

The Holiday Season

I have been a little slow to publish recently and I apologize. Lots of stuff going on. I am teaching a RAD class, and working, and doing some church work and time just seems to get away.

So here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving. Gina and Edward - my niece and nephew kindly invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them and we readily accepted. It was a wonderful and peaceful day (after playing in the church Turkeybowl where the "old guys" whipped the teenagers!) Gina and Eddie did quite the job of setting a wonderful Thanksgiving table, and it is always special to spend Thanksgiving with he family you love.


Here is my nephew Eddie and my neice Gina putting the final touches on dinner.
Here is Eddie just dying to get into the turkey and dressing.
Here is Derek (Gina's son) on the left, Beth, Dave (a friend of Gina's) across the table and Tyler (Eddie's son)
Here is everyone sitting down (except me taking the picture)
Here is everyone sitting down (except Beth taking the picture.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I thought I would post some older pictures of family members from Christmases past.


From left to right: My cousins Eric Nordley, & Malcolm Nordley, My sister Janice, me, and my brother Richard. Don't know where or what year but I am guessing about 1957-58 time frame.
This is me on the left, with Janice and Rick in a sleigh that we kept on the front lawn of the farm we had in Amherst, NH. I think it was in December, but no snow. Probably mid to late 1950's.
My grandmother and grandfather, Emma and Ernest Bratt (my dad's parents). No idea where or when.
My sister Janice with Santa.
Rick and Amy, I think in Hawaii right around the time they were married.
Hope you liked the pictures. I am going to try and find some more past Christmas pictures to post over the next couple of weeks. Merry Christmas to everyone.