Films

Only seen 8 films since last I posted (from mid-air over Asia as I remember)! Thought I would share my quick observations - off to Breckenridge tomorrow for family fun in the snow (house sitters looking after house and large dog -in case any would be thieves out there reading this!)-so only little time.
Casino Royale - liked it - thought the new Bond much closer to the original conflicted assassin in Flemings books.
Departed -'Reservoir Dogs' level violence -Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson v good but didn't think the story was particularly compelling.
Babel-really liked the 'Chaos Theory' approach to the story line felt great deal of sympathy for the characters (especially the Arab and Japanese ones) -encouragingly for those men in midlife Brad Pit finally looks his age!
Eregon - very disappointing - especially if you have been won over (like me) by the teen age author of the best selling Fantasy books!
Nativity - surprised how much I liked it -even the journey to Bethlehem was good. The way Josephs character is constructed very good. Only one 'cheese factor' - in the stable with the 'Christmas scene' rather boringly constructed.
Holiday- very pleasant 'date movie' nicely acted with interesting sub-plot of Kate Winslet's character connecting with an old screen writer.
The Good Shepherd-Story of the formation of CIA. Very disturbing but compelling story of the emotionally truncated men at the heart of modern espionage.
The Pursuit of Happyness - outstanding story for all to see. The real life story of one mans commitment to family and dreams - really worth a watch!

Happy New Year! Mike

Christmas

I seemed to have lost the ability to post photos again really fed up hate it when it goes wrong!!!!!
willtry to fix it.
Thought I would share the joy of grown up kids with you . w
1 . we are all able to cook and ice ginger bread men without tears!!!
2. When given $5 each to spend round the new store in Anthem -one buys Peach snaps , one false eyelashers , one buys a smadwich .no prizes for whose belongs to who on this one !!
3, You actually get gifts from them that you want and like!!
4. You can lie in on Christmas morning and stay up late Christmas eve
5.You get them to help you cook christmas dinner
6, You can all agree on one film to see but go and see them all
And many more but you get the idea . we are all off to see The pursuit of happyness , looks good

One of the daughters has strep throat and has been in bed all day and the other one locked herself out last night !!! The joys!!!!
.

Breen’s CHRISTMAS letter 2006

I have included a picture this year of when it snowed in Anthem in March 2006. It’s the closest thing we get to a winter scene and it’s very unusual. Usually its 70’f
SAM
He has had a great year which has been really full. He started the year by breaking his arm AGAIN, this time in lacrosse so some of the season was out!!! He got into 2 new sports, swimming and soccer, so he is now amazingly fit!! He went to Souls survivor as Mikes P’s assistant and had a fab time and is returning this year as a speaker!!!He also passed his driving test so now after 22years of lifts I am needed no longer, hurrah!! He still has his gorgeous girlfriend Taylor and lots of friends both at school and at church.
LIBBY
Is in her 2nd year at Sheffield uni and seems to be doing well, she balances her life very well between being on the leadership team for student work at church, working, staying fit, singing, making loads of friends, being the taxi service for Nana and spending as much time as possible in the States whilst looking as glamorous as possible and buying as many bags and shoes as she can justify!!
BECCY
Finished uni with a 2:1 degree and promptly moved to Phoenix to work for us as our event and conference coordinator for the USA (not a bad first job) she gets to travel with Mike and see lots of America and meet lots of great people, which she of course loves!!
She bought a new car, moved into our house, moved out into an apartment and then into a house. She now does not want to move her stuff again! She is very happy and sings in the worship team at church and is making new friends.
SALLY
Has as ever welcomed hundreds of visitors into her house, visited the Grand Canyon again, decorated some more rooms in the house, and enjoyed taking more black and white photographs, driving her new car 14,000miles. She has also really loved using her ipod and traveling more with Mike. She has also tried to stay fit and active!!!
MIKE
Has traveled even more this year! He particularly loved Alaska and Singapore. He has spent many hours watching LOST and listening to his Ipod on in airports all over the world. There have been changes for Mike, as we have begun to set up our new business/ministry called 3DM. It is all going really well and next year looks full but exciting. He is enjoying mountain biking and goes frequently with Sam into the mountains near our house.
This year we have had some great Holidays in California and Colorado and the UK We have enjoyed making new friends and keeping up with some old ones!!! We have watched hundreds of films, read lots of interesting and challenging books, and have drunk literally gallons of coffee at star bucks !!!!
Have a great 2007 and Christmas this is sent with lots of love and prayers to you all

As you may have noticed i have not been blogging as much as usual. this is due to the fact i now have a house full of our Adult children . Its great having them back and we have been doing fun things
We went to the old bit of Phoenix and saw lots of lights and Glittering things and took a horse drawn carriage ride around the town . we had Charlie with us he was not sure about the horse or the ride but it was fun.
Last night we helped out at our Lights at joy 150,000 people drive through a display of millions of lights it is amazing and culturally very different but we use it as a point of reference all year for people in the community.
Libby was on radio yesterday talking about the European church culture or lack of it . She did really well and was very straight talking as you can imagine !!!!
Sam is chilling now school is out and getting his shopping done. he has decided we dont have enough board games in our house so going round Walmart he kept on putting games in the cart so we are now a well equiped household!!!!

Nearly Christmas

Libby arrives tomorrow, I always love meeting people at the airport. i love to see how bemused, tired , excited they all are. Libby will be very excited she loves, the sun , christmas and being with her family not to mention driving my bug and charlie the dog so all in all she will be very loud and not stop talking for at least 2 days.
Mike and Beccy are in San Diego doing a conference ,
I am in charge of present wrapping here!!! and christmas letter writing . I will post it on the next blogg

Jenny , beccy and Charlie up thunderbird Mountain

Visitors from the UK

We have Jenny Ecclesall visiting us from the UK this week. She is at the moment enjoying the delights of the Pioneer museum just down the road from us and had an exciting bike ride with mike off trail yesterday and they both got punctures so a little more exciting than planned. I ,too went cycling but on my very lovely shopping bike around Anthem- much more civilized.
Mike is off today at the International Conference of apostles in Dallas - sounds very posh but I am sure it isn't !!!
We also went to see a preview of the film Charlottes web last night, it is a lovely family movie .The previous evening we had seen the film The Queen which although is very well acted and insightful, in truth its boring . This weekend I think we will have to see a tense thriller to balance these two out!!!
Of course Thursday night here is Grey's anatomy- which I am really enjoying and so are lots of you from what I gather!!!

Our house with all the lights on

Christmas lights

Every year since first arriving in the USA in 1992 We have always had lots of Christmas lights , putting them up is always frustrating, fun, hilarious and sometimes dangerous. here are this years photos of the process and I will post the glorious lights when you can see them on in the dark tomorrow. ours are very tame and tasteful compared to many in the neighborhood !!!!

Charlie watching the Chrismas lights

More Christmas Lights

Mike and sam with the christmas lights