Christmas Summary

 

I think this picture says it all about our Christmas. You just want to add a caption that says, "It was a great party, dude".

Christmas in Wenatchee

We had a snowy and fun family Christmas. Championship bingo, Leavenworth, skiing, sharing of gifts, being together, pogo sticks, sewing lessons (Cher got a new machine), family dinners, Mom's new purple snuggie, and lots of laughter made it another memorable time for the Anderton Clan.

Jon Styling

Jon was with us for the Anderton Christmas Party and KT's graduation. As I organized the pictures, I noticed that he was in rare form. My favorite is the "crashing the picture" shot (second from the top). It is like, "these look like nice people, I think I will just slide into their picture".

Utah, Idaho & Beyond

We made a dash for Utah (December 9-19) to celebrate Christmas with Mike & Amy (she is homebound with her pregnancy), attend the Anderton Christmas party, and go to KT's graduation from BYU-I. Yes, she did it and we are so proud of her. Doesn't she look smart in her graduation outfit?








And the other big news in her life is Kyle Christensen, her beau. After the graduation, he came home with us to spend a few days before Christmas.

Morocco

Our adventure ended with a week-long tour of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco. We were not quite sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a fitting end to a great trip. It was much more relaxing being alone and we had more control of where we went and how much time we spent out and about each day.

1)  Mike poking around for squid and octopi in Casablanca - Atlantic Ocean, 2-3) KR being a tourist in Rabat at the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, 4) wandering the streets of the Oudayas Kasbah in Rabat, 5-6) between Rabat and Meknes is a fantastic Roman site - Volubilis, the southernmost outpost of the Roman Empire and still very, very cool, 7-8) walking the streets of Fez, 9) a first-century tannery in the 21st-century city of Fez, 10) chicken and spices to order in the Fez Medina, 11) a yummy Moroccan dinner, 12) fancy elevator in Marrakech, 13-14) snakes and medicinal herbs in the Marrakech bazaar.

Egypt

What an exotic place! We entered Egypt on the Red Seat at Taba and then flew to Aswan to take our cruise down the Nile to Luxor. They use smaller ships on the Nile - they are shaped like an old Mississippi steamboat without the paddle wheels. Ours had around 120 people on it and was very nice.

1) Taba, 2-4)  as we went downstream, we visited various temples and tombs, as most of the best ones are close to the banks of the Nile, 5) the Colossi of Memnon, near the Valley of the Kings, 6) the shopping prices in Egypt were the most reasonable of the whole trip, 7) there actually are Whirling Dervishes - they are not just something we call our grandchildren, 8) and we got to see Cleopatra, 9) KR at the Karnak Temple, Luxor, 10) the spread on the Nile ship - you can see they starved us, 11) Cairo, the City of Minarets, 12) KR at the Alabaster Mosque, Cairo Citadel, 13) Pharoah Ramses the Ornery, 14-18) naturally we had to do all the tourist poses at the Pyramids - I told KR that to kiss at the Pyramids is good luck (I made that up), 19) our hotel lobby in Cairo - a very beautiful place, and 20) no, these are not Yoda disciples - the girls had to put these on to conceal their bare arms, etc. when we entered a mosque in Coptic Cairo.