Misra Family Hebdomadal: Far, Far Away on Seattle's Plains

"Santa, can I prettyprettypretty please have my very own full size dump truck?"

Last night was the ward Christmas party. Marinda is on the Relief Society activities committee so she was deeply involved in decorating, cooking and setup. Amit was part of the Christmas program as one of the shepherds singing "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" in a men's quartet. Marinda's day was super-busy with getting the party ready to go. One of the more interesting parts of setup was getting costumes ready for everyone. A lot of people didn't have costumes at all, but Marinda saved the day by bringing her box of scarves and helping designing people's costumes. The party was a huge success. The room was decorated with tents and a stable on stage with silhouettes of Jerusalem on the wall. People had set up blankets on the gym floor and it was almost like a picnic. There was even a real Santa Claus! Though Luke wasn't too happy about meeting him.... The nativity program was fun to watch and Luke laughed like an-overtired-baby-way-up-past-his-bedtime (oh wait, that's what he was!) when he saw Amit come out with the other shepherds. Overall it was one of the best ward Christmas parties ever!

Our little family, "roughing it" on the floor for dinner

We even had a real stable! With REAL hay!

Look at those authentic looking shepherds!

We had such an amazing turn out!
And honestly it was so much fun sitting on the floor all close to all your friends and neighbors.

Cute Luke story: On Wednesday Marinda and Luke were at the Church helping to make the Jerusalem silhouettes, but it was during Luke's snack time. So Marinda got one of the little chairs from the Primary room and a piano bench and set up a little table for Luke. And he proceeded to sit there by himself eating his crackers for 20 MINUTES! All the other committee members kept commenting on how good he was, and honestly Marinda was more than a little amazed herself.

Today was the church Christmas music program. Both Marinda and Amit (and Luke sometimes too) sing in the ward choir. Their awesome choir director Cameron picked some great music and they had a blast performing for everyone. They also did a special musical number - a harp/piano duet of Pachelbel's Canon and The First Noel, arranged by Amit. They'd spent a lot of time practicing this week but not nearly enough, so they were both nervous about how it would go. They even got to church over an hour early to make sure it would go okay. "When I walked up there I literally felt like I had shoved my finger in an electrical socket!" Marinda said when interviewed afterwards. "I spent the first four lines (which I had down ok) focusing on slowing down my heart rate!" In the end, it didn't go perfectly, but their mistakes weren't too noticeable and (hopefully) didn't take away from the feel of the piece.

On the Luke talking front, there haven't been any new words - but there has been a new sound! He has taken to reading during his diaper changes (thank goodness! That boy has wiggles!) and has been favoring his train book. This is all cute and sweet, but the best part is that he says "CHOO CHOOOO" while reading it! It has gotten to the point where if we point out a train in another one of his books, he'll hop off our laps and go and find his official "train" book. Yay for Luke learning his first sound!

Now that we have the larger accomplishments out of the way (honestly, who can compete for the spotlight with Luke around?) we can officially announce that AMIT'S PAPER HAS BEEN ACCEPTED!!!! Yup, you heard it! That paper that Amit begun back in April of 2012 has finally made it through several drafts, months of waiting for comments back, two peer reviews and it officially is going to become part of the journal Astrobiology archive! *much rejoicing* It is always fun to get amazing updates like this that remind us all of the whole point and reason for why we're even here in Seattle in the first place.

Lastly this week, we would like to cover a story that actually happened at the first of this week (first shall be last, get it? Anyone?). Our fair friends Danny and Julene came over last Sunday with their little baby girl Kate to hangout and do a fun photo shoot. Danny has a nice camera and it was fun to do our annual Luke vs. Christmas lights magic show. Enjoy the pictures!