My Early Christmas Present

Here is a picture of my early Christmas present from Andrew & his parents.
As many of you know. . . Andrew’s mom, Jan, is pianist extraordinaire. She has taught piano lessons for many years, even while her children were growing up, and she continues to teach twice a week. She has inspired thousands of children with her musical ability as she was the elementary music instructor for the entire school district in Rexburg for years. She also taught at Ricks College (Now BYU-Idaho) the music for elementary teacher’s course. Then as she and my father in law, Kim, served their second mission they were called to serve in the Madagascar mission on the island of Maritus. They were called there so that Jan, with her higher degree in Music Education, could teach music at the Chopin Conservatory. So as you can see music was a very high priority in the Black household.
Therefore, Jan is determined to provide each individual family with the opportunity to the same musically rich environment that was provided in the Black home. She wants every one of the families to have a piano of their own. Andrew did the research and found the piano that would be a perfect, and Jan provided the money. So in short this is my Christmas present from my wonderful in laws, Jan and Kim, and my sneaky husband, Andrew.

Now I just have to learn how to play!

Christmas Cards

Hello All,

We are working on getting updated addresses to get Christmas cards in the mail. If you would like to be added to our mailing list please drop us an email with your address.

Thanks,
The Blacks
mrsbeckyblack@hotmail.com

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

Monday for family home evening we put up our Christmas Tree. This may not look like much of a Christmas Tree to the average person, but after all that this little tree went through we are just happy that it is standing in our living room decorated.

A Black family tradition is going to the hills to pick out a tree of your own. Well lets just say that this year the act of picking out the tree was a bit difficult. It seemed to take an extra long time to find a tree that was suitable for everyone.

After we finally selected our tree we had to deal with how to get our Christmas tree from Idaho to our home in Utah. We really should have taken a picture of our journey home, but we just didn't think about it. We looked a bit like the Grizwalds from Christmas Vacation. We tied the tree to the top of our car and drove all the way back to Salt Lake with it that way. What a sight!!! The kids were so concerned that the tree was going to fall off the top of the car. Kimball even fell asleep with his head looking out the back window to make sure the tree was still in place.

We were successful on Monday afternoon in getting the tree to stand up nice and straight in the tree stand. This was after Andrew showered the living room with branches and sawdust from sawing the tree trunk with his saw right in the house. But, hey the tree was standing up tall and straight we such little fuss I didn't complain. Andrew put on the lights while the kids and I ate McDonald's hamburgers for dinner. Then Kimball found the star for the top. We decided that we should get the star on before adding the decorations. Well I stood up on my trusty oak stool that Andrew's Dad made me so many years ago. (I couldn't reach anything without it.) As I was attempting to put the star on the top and plug it into the other cords so that it would glow I started to loose my balance. It all happened so fast that all I remember was that I tried to steady myself by grabbing the top of the tree. (I know that Christmas trees are not sturdy, but when you are falling logic just doesn't work.) Then I opened my eyes. There were Andrew, Kimball, and Hazel staring at me with huge eyes. Our once straight tree was laying on top of me on the floor. After I got up Hazel said, "Mom what happened?"

Well after my delicately choreographed tree ballet we were able to salvage the thing and get the whole tree decorated. I know that this will be a Christmas Tree to remember.