mike and ruth

We had another skype session with the kids in Ohio and here are a few photos from that session. It looks like they are going to have a fun Christmas, the cold weather is there too. We are not expected to have a white Christmas but it will be cold. Congratulations again to the family. We can’t wait to go and see them. It will be as soon as we can make arrangements to come! Get ready, we are very excited to see you!

Hello, I apologize for not adding anything for several weeks other than the tragic event of the buring of the Provo Tabernacle from last week. I will be working on this for the rest of the year (no pun intended) and hope to have my entries for the last few months up-to-date by January 1. Come back often and look for new entries in October and November, and other months.

We received some tragic news this morning that the historic Provo Tabernacle has been on fire since last night and firefighters have been trying to control the fire for several hours. Late last night a rehearsal for “Gloria” by Lex de Azavedo was being held to prepare for a performance tonight, so the equipment and instruments there in preparation for the concert were all destroyed with the interior of the building. Included was a Fazioli concert grand piano that was worth over $150,000. The BYU filming equipment there from the production truck (several digital video cameras and other equipment) was reported to have been a loss of over 2 million dollars. There was an antique harp and other instruments. The roof fell into the building at about 6am this morning. What a tragedy! The fire investigators believe the fire started somewhere in the roof but have not been able to investigate yet.

Henrik William Taylor was born on December 2, 2010 at 4:40 in the afternoon. Congratulations to the family! Robyn is doing well and the girls are so excited to have a little brother! We connected this week and got to see him via Skype for the first time. We are so thrilled for the family and look forward to going out to see them in a month or two! Congratulations everyone!

The annual Christmas Concerts by the Salt Lake Children’s Choir were held this year on December 2nd and 4th at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. The singing was wonderful as usual, and there were no catastrophes with sickness, dizziness or other issues to mar two wonderful performances. The crowd was a little less large than usual, possibly due to the extremely cold weather we experienced this weekend. The children were awesome. Be sure to check out their music when you can! The carols sung with the audience were thrilling as they always are, with stunning organ accompaniment. The choir sings the entire concert otherwise with harp accompaniment or a’cappella.