It was wonderful to be all together as a family for Philip's "farewell." He gave a terrific talk in church, speaking on the Atonement of Christ and the positive influence of righteous parents/family, and leaders and teachers. It's kind of sad that I moved away from home when he was just 10 and I missed being there for him growing up. He's become quite the young man. Our old bishop, Doug Maughan commented to me that the Brown boys all start out kind of rough and sometimes a little irreverant (ain't that the truth), but they grow up well and become wonderful young men. I mean, we all know we could use some more growing up, but I do think my brothers are turning out quite nicely, despite any minor deficiencies.
A lot of our extended family came to the house after church for lunch, and I took the opportunity to snap some photos of Ellie with her great-grandparents, since both sides were there.
Granny Great (my Grandma Sunny)
Brown Great-Grandparents
With Uncle Phil (soon to be Elder Brown in the Colorado Denver South Mission)
We also got together with all of my Konold relatives on the 30th to celebrate a multitude of birthdays (I won't even try to list them because I'll inevitably forget someone), and took pictures of all of the great-grandkids with Granny Great (aka Grandma Sunny to the older generation). I think this is the best one I got-Alex is smiling instead of screaming and everyone else looks relatively content.
We spent New Year's Eve in a time-honored fashion, watching a little Twilight Zone (It's a cook book, for how to cook man!), celebrating with an over commercialized NYC ball drop (all I remember is flashing signs for Toshiba behind the ball), and then going to bed after Ellie's late night feeding at 10 pm. Yea, we're hard core.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Jonathan and Philip schooled Ben, Kim, and I in RISK (big surprise), but I did beat them all at Monopoly (only to have that title quickly wisked away the next game). Daniel and Megan introduced us to Settlers (well, Jonathan and Kim too). Most of all, we had fun together. It's good to do that every once in a while. I love my family, every bit of it. I'm so thankful to be sealed to them for time and all eternity. How grateful I am for this aspect of our Heavenly Father's great plan of happiness and salvation for His children!
Ellie getting her belly blown by Grandpa Brown. Seriously, can you resist that smile!? I venture to say no.
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