As always, we start with the youngest, but Jonah was not up to performing this year. So this time, we started out with Stephen and Harrison demonstrating some defensive moves (I think how to break someone's arm was among them). This picture is really blurry because our lovely camera has issues capturing movement, but you get the idea.
Next came Alyssa Lu's dance from High School Musical. She really went all out this year, performing to the entire song. At one point, there was a break in the music, and we all began to clap, but she assured us there was more and danced until the music stopped. Go Wildcats! Good job, Alyssa!
Rachel did an awesome job this year playing the saxophone. She really has a knack for it - she had just started playing it and made first chair over several kids that had been playing it all year. As my dad would say, that's the Gifford blood shining through. Way to go, Rach!
Now this was one of my biggest disappointments. Chandler can always be counted on to create quite a spectacle and entertain an audience. He was planning on dancing (high heels and all) to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" song (put a ring on it). I guess he chickened out, or else maybe Brent threatened him about wearing high heels. Whatever the reason, he didn't perform at all - he just sat in this chair, said "Hi", and then sat down. Such a disappointment. I expected more from you, Chan. You'll really have to make up for it next year...
After Chandler, Jake performed on his trumpet. The only thing that could have made it better is if he would have worn his band uniform while he did it! That would have been fun - maybe next year. 
And here is Kaitlyn getting all set up to play her violin. She and Jake have gotten really good over the years since they started playing. I can't believe they are both in high school - scary.
And here are all the kids (post-talent show), posing as always. Good job to everyone who participated... Jonah and Chandler, we hope for more from you next year.
Our blog would not be complete without a few pictures of these cuties. We had such a great time visiting Nikki and John in California. We haven't spent much time with them since we moved out to Indy, so it was nice to be able to relax, visit, and play with the kids. The ironic thing is I was really looking forward to some decent Mexican food and a trip to in-n-out, and while we did get both in California... I quickly found that this was the last I would see of Mexican food and burgers, at least for the next several months. (I did try 
It was great to finally meet baby James (Ha ha, Angie! Beat ya! You'll never get that little jibe anyway, because you never check my blog). He is such a little cutie and such a good baby. Mitchell is so cute with him - always trying to make him smile and laugh.
We also got to spend some time with the Anderson's while out in Cali. They took us to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, and we got to catch up on the last few years. Kendra, Dave, and Cody got to join us, as well. It was great to see everyone and learn how everyone was doing. Here are Ken, Cody, and Dave posing for the camera.
We woke up early the next morning and decided we were going to take in all we could that day before heading to Las Cruces, New Mexico. We had a mexican breakfast at Mi Tierra cafe and bakery. The huevos rancheroes were amazing!
After having breakfast we decided to get some items from the bakery for breakfast the next day... fresh strawberry churros and cinnamon and sugar covered tortillas. We then figured we were ready to take in the Mexican market, river walk, Alamo, and other spanish missions in the area.
After our breakfast we went to the Mexican market. There we found all sorts of fun things. We felt like we had crossed the border. There were pots, ceramics, candies, catholic novelties, and everything all straight from Mexico.
Next we strolled along the riverwalk on our way to the Alamo. It was still early and a lot of the shops were not open, but the whole area was decorated for Christmas and was amazing. The river in San Antonio made Indy's canal walk look like a joke. The weather had turned from a beautiful 78 degrees to a cold, windy 34. We were ready to get inside and were lucky the Alamo was just a few blocks away.
The Alamo, where Santa Ana and the Mexican army defeated the Texan colinists, was beautiful. It is right downtown with the city all around. We made sure we brushed up on our history before visiting. I thought that the Texans won at the battle of the Alamo; however, now I know they held off Santa Ana and his armies for two of the three battles. Once the third commenced, however, the Alamo quickly fell and the colonists surrendered. However, this defeat helped garner support for the following battle of San Jacinto where the Mexican army was driven from Texas permitting the annexation of the area into the states. Just in case you were wondering... After visiting the Alamo, we went to the San Antonio Missions National Park.
These are some pictures of two of the missions we were able to go through. The missions were the towns that the Spanish established to convert the Indians to Catholicism. The missions include huge land areas where the inhabitants lived and worked to support the community. There were aqueducts, farms, and the whole nine yards. The large buildings were the churches and are still working today for the most part. San Antonio was a great place; we felt like we left the US for a day and spent the afternoon in old Mexico. After leaving San Antonio, we rushed through Las Cruces, NM and then Palm Springs, CA. We are now in San Francisco, CA spending some time with the Aarons. We look forward to seeing everyone for Christmas and will see you soon. 
This was the view from our 21st floor window, looking toward the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.
Everyone was really worried that we were going to get into a big ice/snow storm in Louisianna, and fortunatly we did... This is Fullerton Street complete with live music, christmas trees, food, snacks, and a snow storm every hour on the hour. We even ran into...
The "BIG" man himself. After visiting Fullerton street, we spent some time wandering around the French Quarter. We were amazed by the beautiful buildings and the size of the area. For some reason I always thought it was just Bourbon street. It is, however, about thirteen or so complete city blocks. I think you could spend days roaming the streets, but we only had one, so we tried to take in the highlights.
One place we knew we had to try, thanks to Annie, was cafe du monde, the original french cafe in New Orleans. They serve cafe au lait, hot chocolate, fresh orange juice and beignets.
It was easy to spot cafe du monde thanks to the huge line outside (come on folks, this isn't disneyland). Fortunatly the line went quick, and we were in beignet paradise in only a few minutes.
At this point, if you are not familiar with a beignet, you may be asking why would anyone wait in line for a beign-who's-it or what's-it. Well, a beignet (pronounced "bin-yay") is a french donut. They take the beignet dough, which is similar to a sweet bread dough, and fry it. The beignet is then topped with more powdered sugar than necessary and served warm with cafe au lait, hot chocolate, or orange juice.
This is Mark enjoying his a little too much... look at that mound of sugar!
After our little piece of heaven, we toured through Jackson square, visited the french market, and enjoyed the warm, sunny weather. Overall, New Orleans was a great stop. We were sad to leave but looking forward to a change from France to Spain/Mexico in our next stop, San Antonio. 
Well, if you remember correctly, I have already told you about Mark and his state capitols. Here we go again... I have a suspicion the real reason we made a pit stop in Jackson was for this picture, so enjoy.
We first went to historic Beale street (home of the blues) and did some shopping and browsing through some of the old bars and music hot spots. This put us in a rockin' spirit, and we decided it was time to pay a visit to the king. 
This is Elvis's Graceland from the front gate. It was all decorated for Christmas, complete with a larger than life nativity in the front yard.
Part of the tradition is to sign the front wall and pay tribute to the king. This is a small area outside the front gate to the mansion. There are names covering every square inch of the walls around graceland.
