Chris Millard's World

Ramona decided to retire and move to Arizona. Who can blame her on a day like this? I am sad because I will miss her lots. After the years we worked together at the Office of Sponsored Projects, I learned to love and admire her as a good friend.

Ramona and Mike

Without Mike we wouldn't have had a party, so here's to the best boss on the planet!

Office of Sponsored Projects

Next to Ramona is Nancy who is taking Ramona's job at the Office of Sponsored Projects. She is moving from Accounting, where she will really be missed. But, this is a big gain for OSP!

Ramona and Anita

Anita came from Norm's office. Since it looked like snow, Norm went home. I just want to point out that Norm is the only person on campus with the authority to send everyone home in the event of bad weather. Not that he ever actually does this, but on his way out the door he mentioned that the snow was coming down hard! :)

Diana

The gorgeous Diana showed up in the fanciest boots I have ever seen. She is ready for the snow storm.

Ramona and Me

Here we are with the famous purple Christmas Tree (thanks to Spencer). WSU is the only place where you can have a purple Christmas tree and not say it is a little weird.

Ramona and Susan

Accounting

Ramona and Warren

Mike, Ramona, and Me

Ramona and Brad

Ramona and Christian

Ramona and Barry

Here are a couple of shots out the window of the President's Board Room where we had the party. Okay, I get why she is leaving. Still, we are going to miss her lots! Good luck, Ramona, and keep a bedroom open for us to come visit!

Train

Tree

Kids with the Train

Opening Gifts

Reed

Connor

Reed

Max

Grandma and Max

Ellie

Jillian

Sophie

Megan

Sophie Ellie Jill

Sophie, Ellie, and Jillian say thank you to Mike for the necklaces! :)

Reed and Kristin

Clara puts together a puzzle

Abby puts together a puzzle

Emily

Abby

Megan

Rachel

Clara

Michele and Mark

Max and Connor

Dennis and Shamane

I'm trying to think through all this. First of all, 6 weeks ago a Nigerian banker notifies the international community that his son has severed ties with the family and decided to be "radicalized." Then, 2 weeks ago, the distraught father notifies Nigerian authorities that he thinks his son might be about to become a terrorist. Fast forward to Christmas Day, the son buys a ticket to Detroit and pays cash, and doesn't check any bags. No one connected the dots. Hmmmmm.

Here's what really worries me. Do you recall several years ago a certifiable nut case stuffed explosives into his shoe and tried to blow up a plane? What was the result of that? Well, all of us now have to take off our shoes and go through security bare foot.

Now, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab decides to get on a plane with explosives sewed up in his underwear to try to blow up a plane. Do you see where I am going with this? How are we going to have to pass through security now? Huh?????

Just thinking.

Festivus is for everyone.

Mike had a Christmas Party that was spectacular! We had a cooking demonstation (and lots to eat) at the Artisan Grille in Ogden.

Chef Craig

Barry Gomberg

Party-goers

Dessert

Mike and Betty

Me and Chef Craig

Ok, it looks like I'm about to be sliced and diced!

Craig gives a demo on YouTube

This is citrus dressing. We learned how to make sauces. My favorite was tortellini with cream sauce.

Chef Craig and Mike

My Shoes

At the party everyone loved my Weber State University shoes. Spencer bought these shoes for me and everyone wants some. They are Nikes and note there is a wildcat with my name on each foot. Everywhere I go people love them!

Here is the Christmas Meeting of the Breakfast Club. Brad and Camille (mostly Camille) gave us aprons and Spencer is wearing his. Yes, he is actually wearing an apron. I am wearing my new purple scarf from Spencer. I gave the boys each a book on how to be snarky (as if they need help). If we look goofy, we are satisfied.

This afternoon I delivered some treats to my friends, with help from Sophie, Ellie, and Jillian.

Here is Mike with my little girl elves.

Then we went down the hall to the President's office to wish her a Merry Christmas.

Here are the little Millard Girls with President Millner, in front of the purple Christmas Tree (courtesy of Spencer, of course).

Now that we have 3 little boys, we decided that after many years on the shelf, it is time to get out the train set. This Christmas we will set up the train, but it will be lots of work.

Jeff and Grandpa are cutting plywood to use as a base.

We had to buy some new track, but we have 2 brand new engines and all these little houses from when Dennis and Jeff were little boys.

Grandpa laid out a track that would fit on the plywood base. Now they are going to have to build some scenery to go with it. I predict that the three little Millard boys will demolish it in an hour! We will see.

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and a spectacular new year in 2010!

Today we went to Farr's Ice Cream Shop to have an ice cream cone with our Precious Jillian

I opened the garage door this morning at 7:00 am and here was the view.

We had about 10 inches of snow yesterday and Grandpa spent about 4 hours digging us out last night.

I think it is safe to say that the mail carrier will not be stopping at our house today.

Here is the view from my car windshield as I headed out. Wonder where the snow plows were?

This morning we went to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program. We had 4 tickets so we took Kristin and Ellie this year.

Here is my Amazing Ellie with the Tabernacle Choir in the background. Did I forget to mention how absolutely Amazing my Ellie is? Everything about her is amazing.

We loved the music and dancing. The guest performer was Natalie Cole.

After the program we went to Brunch at Little America.

This is the best buffet on the planet. Notice the ice sculpture in the background. This is one of several.

My favorite is always the crepes.

Guess who we ran into at Little America? The guy with the tickets: Spencer! He has bread pudding with caramel sauce and he is about to get a big blob of ice cream on the top. We wouldn't even be here without Spencer.

Kristin's favorite was the crab legs. She got to eat all the crab legs her little heart desired.

Ellie by the Christmas Tree. Look at how those amazing eyes are lighting up the whole world.

Grandma and Grandpa

Last night we were invited to the Christmas Party at Dennis and Shamane's ward (they are on the activity committee).

Connor and Grandma

Our Connor is special because he is the first Millard Boy. The third Millard boy, Max, stayed home with his other Grandmother which was probably a good move because the little kids ran around the church screaming like hoodlums. There were about one million of them in that ward. We would have never been able to keep up with Max.

Connor and Grandpa

The program was a talent show, so Dennis played the bagpipes. He played Christmas music and Amazing Grace, which everyone loved. We always think this is so cool because so many of our ancestors came from Scotland.

Today was Grandparent's Day for Jillian at her school.

Grandma and Jillian

Jill

Here is Jillian eating her cheese sandwich. We also had chocolate milk and jello.

Here is Jillian in her classroom where she learns lots of fun things.

Click here: Thought you should know

Yes, it is winter in Utah! Here is a photo from the newspaper. Snow, ice, and 6 degrees! Yikes!

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Program has very limited tickets. So, each year when one of my best friends provides tickets for me, I am thrilled!

Notice that 1.2 million tickets were requested, and there were only 84,000 available. They distribute them through a computer lottery system. I am lucky indeed! I will be in the audience next Sunday.

This is me holding Michele who is about 12 months old. We are in Grandma and Grandpa Millard's back yard. Baby Michele liked to take off her clothes and run in the sprinkler. This was back in the days when no one had air conditioning and we had to cool off the best we could.

Baby Jeff

Michele and Dennis

I love this picture of Michele and Dennis because you can see how much Connor looks like Dennis at that age. And, when Rick and I see Connor walk and talk it is just like seeing Dennis at the same age.

This is Jeff's first haircut. It was done at Richard's barber shop in Pittsburgh, where Rick had his first haircut and where Grandpa Millard always had his hair cut. He was pretty little to have his hair cut, but it was so long that people thought he was a girl so I had to get it cut. Dennis had his first hair cut here too. By the way, Jeff screamed bloody murder the entire time.

Grandma and Grandpa Millard

Here are Grandma and Grandpa Millard. This was taken in about 1969.

This video clip is from 1974 when we lived in Cleveland, Ohio. It is taken in Jeff's bedroom. Notice the BYU shirt. Some things never change, although Dennis is now a Ute fan! Where did we go wrong?

We were expecting Baby Jeff, but in those days we could not know if it was a boy or a girl until the baby was born. So, the carpeting is yellow and there is yellow wallpaper on the walls.