ROBB GOT MARRIED IN THE MORNING

Robb bonds with beautiful Boston belle - Marybeth.

Big Cornwall Party!!

It was a huge Cornwall family gathering as you can tell from the picture below. It was very very fun. Several of the cousins we hadn't seen in awhile and it was very enjoyable to be together. There were 52 of us at Grandpas. We all fit in the living room. Oh we will miss that place if Grandpa ever moves, but we thoroughly enjoyed our association and Grandpa's sweet reflections.

Merry Christmas

Ready or not BOSTON here we come!!!!

(PS We took this picture before we saw the cute Cornwall's PJ pose. Great minds think a like.)

Santa brought a lot of fun gifts along with family members.

If you can't tell we got a baby stroller and car seat and a playpen with a bassinet and a tiny thing on the floor called a mini DV camcorder, so we can record all of Baby Anderson's first moves. Thanks to all her gave so generously.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas
When all through the nation
Boston Pajamas were worn
They were Mom's new creation.

Please bring them to Boston
We'll be quite a sight.
Merry Christmas to All
And to All a GOOD NIGHT!!!

Hark! The Cornwall Angels Sing

The Jon Cornwalls, The Dave Cornwalls, Great Grandpa Cornwall and (a mere on half of) the Kent Cornwalls joined together for the traditional Christmas eve get together. There was wonderful soup, corn bread and goodies galore. The highlight, as always, was the local talent Nativity reenactment.

Boston Bound Bed wear

We were very surprised and excited to open the traditional Christmas Eve present and find BOSTON BOUND bed wear!! We ran right upstairs and put it on so we could take cute family pictures!! We are so excited to be surrounded with family in cute matching attire!! What a great post that will make!! Thanks Mom for the cute pj's!!

Cutest Christmas Baby!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE

CHEERING WITH THE CHAMPS

Dad & Robb at the LV Bowl on Thursday (Robb's bachelor bash? Couldn't have been more fun!)

It's CHRISTmas

There is a special exhibition of the Savior in works of art at BYU. I wanted to share this link/video of some of the works with background music from the BYU School of Fine Arts. Most appropriate to the season (if we're not too busy celebrating the season to watch it): http://beholdingsalvation.byu.edu/presentation/presentation.php

Last Day of School and Seminary for This Year!!!

We ended seminary for the year with the Bishopric's Breakfast. Ryan Hokanson came as Santa (all on his own accord) and we had a great morning. I'll miss them but I think the two weeks away from my seminary students I'll be pretty preoccupied.

Get To Know SHARON, VERMONT - #5

In 1804, Solomon Mack purchased a 100-acre farm in the beautiful and fertile White River valley bordering the Royalton-Sharon Townships. Soon after, he rented his cabin and about 68 acres of the farm to his daughter, Lucy, her husband Joseph Smith Sr., and their four small children. The little family cultivated in the summer and Joseph Smith Sen. taught school in the winter. They labored and found themselves eventually quite comfortable in their 3 year stay in Sharon. On December 23, 1805, Lucy gave birth to a third son who was given the name of his father – Joseph Smith.

From Sharon the Smiths moved to Turnbridge, nearby, where they had another son, Samuel in 1808. They lived in this place a short time, then moved to Royalton, were Ephraim was born in 1810 and William in 1811. The Smiths would then move to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and finally to Norwich, before leaving Vermont for the state of New York after several crop failures.

All that remains of Joseph Smith's first home is the fireplace hearthstone and a stone from the front doorstep.

In memory of this great prophet, a granite monument was dedicated on the 100th anniversary of his birth in 1905. The shaft was sculpted from a single granite block quarried in Barre, Vermont, and is one of the largest polished shafts in the world. It weighs 40 tons and stands 38 1/2 feet tall, one foot for every year of the Prophet Joseph Smith's life.

Florida Christmas Elf

These two pictures were included in the last batch of pictures that Jeffrey sent home. I think the top one was taken against his will and maybe the second was a bit of a surprise - but it is nice to be thinking of that boy at this time of the year - we miss him.

Get to Know THE DROWSY CHAPERONE - #4

Mom is to get credit for this. Dad just gets the minor credit for figuring out how to post someone elses video.

New York and the WTC

It seems that we are heading to New York at the perfect time. We can help celebrate the beginning of the building of "The Freedom Tower." This is going to be built where the former World Trade Center was, and is expected to be one of the nations tallest buildings. They recently raised two steel beams as the beginning process of rebuilding the "spirit" of New York City. You can read the article if you are interested here.

Student of the Month

I got this in the mail today!!! Rachel has been selected as the Foreign Language Student of the month (Good Old George Gubbins - although she probably didn't need any preferential treatment). Have a fun day tomorrow Rach!!

Get to Know THE BOSTON TEA PARTY - #3

On a bright cold moonlit evening on December 16, 1773 a group of sixty colonists boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor. The ships contained a cargo of tea from The East India Company. Although the tea carried a tax that the colonists refused to pay, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson ordered that the ships should not return to England with their cargo but that the tea be unloaded.

Patriot Sam Adams immediately devised a plan whereby colonists, thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the three ships. They broke open all 342 chests of tea and threw them overboard. This episode became a precursor on the road to independence. It all started in Boston.

Happy Anniversay Baby!!

I was doing a little blog surfing after I posted about National Honor Society - mostly I wanted to see what date I started the blog - and I missed the anniversary - it was two days ago. (I guess I was a lot more organized for Christmas last year.) I know that this blogging was a good idea (mostly because dad tells me so all the time - he even said he might put "She Started Our Blog" on my tombstone - now that would be quite a legacy). In looking over the past year there have been plenty of great events - 544 of them were post worthy. I don't know if that is a record - but I hope that with all the exciting things pending we can out post in 2006. Thanks for all of your contributions - we are glad that Jason and Stefanie are such avid bloggers. Can there be a bigger fan than Robb? (and the soon to be added Marybeth). We are so thankful that Dallin has been such a swift convert and contributor - we love it (thanks Katie for picking such a winner husband). Just imagine what will happen when Jeff gets back - 544 may be a drop in the bucket. Rachel and Sarah have had so many events to blog about - we old folks at home are happy about that. The thing I love the most about blogging is the closeness I feel to all of you even though we are spread out all over and soon to be even further spread out. I love all of you so much and look forward to a bloggable 2007!!

It Was An Honor!!

Tonight Rachel was inducted into the National Honor Society. It was a lovely evening. The lighting ceremony is my favorite - complete with a few falling candles (no major fire though). We are surely proud of Rachel - she truly does exemplify Scholarship, Character, Service and Leadership. Congratulations Rachel!!!

Our LDS Kids!!!

Good Old Mr. Dols.

Our Good Friend Henry Gray - love that boy and his family.

Current honoree (Rachel) - Future honoree (Sarah)

Very Proud Parents!!

Rachel and Rachel - what a pair.

Get to Know PAUL REVERE - #2

Revere was a prosperous and prominent Boston silversmith craftsman and a patriot in the American Revolution, who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military. Revere later served as an officer in the American Revolutionary War. After the war, he was early to recognize the potential for large-scale manufacturing of metal goods and is considered by some historians to be the prototype of the American industrialists.
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Revere's role was not particularly noted during his life. In 1860, over forty years after his death, the ride became the subject of "Paul Revere's Ride", a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem has become one of the best known in American history

Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year

His ride inland from Charlestown to warn the militias at Lexington and Concord of the approach of British army troops from Boston was triggered by the two lanterns in the Old North Church, indicating that the British soldiers were crossing the Charles River.

Performing on Piano

Sorry, ya'll missed the winter piano recital. Sarah and Rachel did wonderfully. I have to confess I ending up cutting over 31/2 minutes from the performances to get a reasonably sized video. Sit back like you were really there, just enjoying the tinkling of ivory keys as they played on and on and on.

Get To Know DUXBURY - #1

English settlers/Pilgrims established their colony in Plymouth, just south of what is today Duxbury, MA in 1620. The land was parceled out up the coast in 1627 and settlers came to work their new farms just in the warmer months and returned to Plymouth during the winter. Before long they began to build homes on their land, and soon requested permission to be set off as a separate community with their own church. Duxbury, was incorporated in 1637.

Captain Myles Standish, the military leader of the Plymouth colony lived in Duxbury which was primarily a farming community throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. A large majority of able bodied men in Duxbury served the Revolutionary War.

The most remarkable period in Duxbury’s history, the shipbuilding era, began immediately after the Revolution. By the 1840s, Duxbury boasted about 20 shipyards and was the largest producer of sailing vessels on the South Shore. Few physical traces of this remarkable industry remaining today. The town is fortunate, however, in that an unusual number of federal period houses have survived. One can view the homes of Duxbury shipwrights, sailors, master mariners and merchants. Many of the homes are in a remarkable state of preservation.

By the 1870s, Duxbury’s rural character and unspoiled bay began to attract summer visitors as an idyllic summer resort. This pattern continued in Duxbury well into the 20th century and with the construction of Route 3 the town’s population exploded with the arrival of thousands of year-round residents

You Better Watch Out, You Better Not CRY

Paisley apparently is not a fan of Santa this year. We knew she would cry, but everybody needs at least one "screaming on Santa's lap" picture, right? She was very cute. This was her first time out in public with a pony tail. She is such a cutie!

Ding, Dong, Dingggg....DONG!

The annual Arcadia Stake Bell Choir concert was a lovely success. Rachel and Sarah were ringers extrodinaire. We are very proud of them. They also closed the program with their rousing piano/organ duet of Angels We Have Heard On High. Jason and Stef. came down for dinner and the concert (Paisely almost stole the show with her cuteness).

SATURDAY DOINGS

It's rainy outside
This Saturday morn,
So we're' cozy inside
Where it's safe, dry and warm.

Mom's busy making
Cocoa Christmas Cones
While she' talkin away
To her kids on the phone.

The last little inking,
Is what Dad's on about,
Of the '06 Christmas card
To get it mailed out.

Let it SNOW, Let it SNOW, Let it SNOW

Dallin walked out the door at 7:00 this morning to go to work and walked into a winter wonderland. ( I am sure this doesn't even compare to Robbie's morning.) This is the most snow I have seen in a really long time. It sure is Beautiful.

I'm dreaming of a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!