But in between all the stress, we’ve enjoyed some holiday fun.  We went to Celebration of Christmas by the BYU combined choirs & Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning of December.  It’s always wonderful and is a great start to the season.  They had some really beautiful arrangements that just made me sigh.

I sang in the Alpine community Christmas concert last Sunday night, conducted by Marvin Payne, and got to sing with a bunch of my friends.  We had some lovely music choices and it really made me feel in the spirit of the season.

Tonight I’m sitting in the LDS Conference Center waiting for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert to start because we were lucky enough to get tickets. We walked around looking at lights on Temple Square after eating at Crown Burger, so it’s already been a fun evening.

Tomorrow we are at the Alpine Christmas show to see Todd McCabe & April Moriarty & friends, so that will be fun, too.

Monday is the Christmas book club lunch when I get to see my pals.  Can’t wait!

So it’s been fun with more to come.  Mark came home from BYU on Wednesday, Brian comes home on Tuesday, and let the party begin!

On Sept 9th, Mark and a friend organized a benefit concert for Engineers Without Borders at the popular live music venue, Sammy’s, in Provo.  There were four groups that performed,  including the debut of Mark’s band, Mark & the Callers.  The concert went well and was well-attended.  Mark’s band played four numbers and he played guitar on two, ukulele on one, and piano on the other.  Scott and I attended and were the oldest people there. It was very fun and Scott kept saying, “Wow, Mark really has a band.  He’s wanted to do this for so long!”

Update (10/20/11): Just noticed that Mark appears in the header graphic of the Young Ambassador’s Blog.  He’s the one right underneath the ‘o’ in ‘Young’.

Yesterday for lunch we did BBQ in Lockhart while we were visiting in the country. These are famous joints in the bbq world so we took pictures. (I think Outdoor Cooking Magic will have a future post-;) )  We had fun but even with just a little taste at each place, it was a lot of carnivorous eating! We went to Black’s, Smitty’s, & Chisholm Trail.

We visited friends of Mark’s, saw cool buildings downtown, did laundry, and ate at Duke’s, where the missionaries used to eat after district meetings.

We ate in Round Rock at Rudy’s, the Worst BBQ in Texas. It’s a local landmark chain that couldn’t be missed & was wonderful.  And yes, I’m eating my dinner on a piece of butcher paper.

We toured the Capitol bldg in Austin & when we walked into the House gallery Scott said, “Here you are in your element!” So I’m sharing a pix of me on the House floor along with some other shots.

The Riverwalk is beautiful and we walked a while then rode the boats which was fun & relaxing.

Mark buying yummy food after shopping & before we walked to the Alamo.