Christmas Rock

My favorite Christmas music is Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  I love their combination of classical and orchestral music with hard-driving rock, which when it all comes together is both awesome and beautiful.  I also really love going to concerts.  Meghan likes TSO quite a bit, but she's not really a fan of going to concerts, as they tend to be too loud for her.  I've seen TSO in the past, but I didn't get to go last year, so I decided this year I definitely wanted to go.  Both of my sisters like the band, so I decided to invite them in hopes we could make it a fun siblings outing.  It worked out with everyone's schedules, so tonight Julie, Joanna, and I had a siblings night of Chinese buffet followed by a trip to the Sprint Center to see some rockin' Christmas music.  We had a lot of fun and decided we definitely need to have siblings events more often.

We Wish You a Nicholl Christmas

Since it'd be nearly impossible to get all of us together on Christmas day or Christmas Eve, we tend to have the Christmas on my mom's side of the family a week or so before Christmas.  This has worked really well, as pretty much every year we have everyone, including Uncle Brent and my grandparents, in attendance.  This year was no different, and it was great to have everyone there to celebrate Christmas as a family.  Every year we take a photo identical to this one, except for adding in any new spouses or babies.  This year Clara joined the party.  Fortunately, she doesn't take up a lot of space, because as you can see, we're nearly out of it.

Meeting Aunt Josie and Aunt Julie

Earlier this week Joanna told me that she and Kirk wanted to stop by our house on their way to downtown KC.  We hadn't yet been able to tell people about Clara, so I didn't say anything at the time.  But by the time they got here, we were able to tell people, so they had a big surprise when they saw we had a little baby in our house.  I also invited Julie and Andrew over, and they were able to make it too.  So here are the two proud aunts with their new little niece.

Aloha to Hawaii

Today was our last day in Hawaii. We had a nice family meal at the Chinese restaurant on the property. It was really good (well the dessert was kind of not something we would want again, but everything else was excellent). Jim, Joanna, and Julie and Andrew leave tomorrow so they were able to store our luggage for us and help us out to the car. We got this picture in front of the hotel sign on our way out. We had a great time in Hawaii and I think we could have happily stayed much longer since it's pretty much paradise. But we are looking forward to our Actuate trip to Vegas this weekend.

Bella Vista

Today we moved down the road from our condo at Mauna Lani to the hotel at Waikoloa Beach. Jim, Julie, Andrew, and Joanna are also there so we met for dinner tonight. We went to the Italian restaurant at the resort. The food was good and name of the restaurant is accurate because it looks out on the water and it was very enjoyable.

Miller Time

Today we drove up to Clarinda, Iowa, and back for Jason's grandma's family reunion (her maiden name is Miller so this year's reunion was called "Miller Time"). It was really fun because Grandma Hall showed us her farm that she grew up in and where her school used to be and the country church and the cemetery. And then we went to the reunion at a really fun farm and Joshua and I got to meet everyone since I hadn't been before. Joshua got a little prize for being the youngest Miller in attendance. We couldn't stay as long as we wanted because of all the house craziness, but we were so thrilled to be able to go and had a great time.

The Whole Family

Although we are all here in Las Vegas, our arrival and departure schedules don't all overlap exactly, so we had our family meal today, when we knew everyone was going to be in town and available. We all traveled via the tram to the Treasure Island buffet for a great lunch. It was really nice to have everyone together in one place, as it doesn't happen very often due to everyone's schedules. Afterward, we got together for a family photo.

Getting Her Fix

Joanna is on Spring Break starting this weekend, so she was able to take advantage of her break from school by coming to our house to stay with us for a couple days. She had been going through some serious Joshua-withdrawal, so she was able to address that void in her life. Here she is with Joshua as he appears to be doing a dance move.