We want to wish you all a Happy New Year. We pray 2011 will be a great year for each of you. May God bless you as this new year comes upon us. 

Tonight we voyage to Forks, Washington to the Cullen Family and the Black Family and the Swans to continue the story of Edward and Bella. Laura got this movie for Christmas and we are going to enjoy the vampire war of 2010. This is where the love triangle of Bella, Edward and Jacob comes to a head. It's going to be fun. 

Laura is off work today and we are both vacationing. We slept in as much as we could. We ate breakfast and have spent time watching the news. Before settling down for breakfast we rocked out to Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We have to spend time getting ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We won't run ourselves in the process though. I hope everyone has a great day.

There are many traditions of the holidays. In our family we watch movies. Here are a few of the Christmas Movies we have watched so far this holiday season.

The Holiday – Kate Winslet

Last Holiday – Queen Latifah

Elf – Will Ferrell

November Christmas – John Corbitt

TNT's A Christmas Carol – Patrick Stewart

Christmas Vacation – Chevy Chase

Movies we have yet to see but are family favorites

Fallen Angel – Gary Sinse

White Christmas – Crosby/Kaye

The Nativity Story – Kesha Castle Hughes

A Christmas Story - Peter Billingsley

The Polar Express - Tom Hanks

We got a lot done this weekend before Christmas. Wrapping gifts, making mocha to hand out to friends at church, watching Christmas programs on video and TV. This has been a good time here in the Burgess household. God bless this time together. 

This is the recipe for the mocha mix we gave out in church. Its a yummy and warming beverage.
 
6 cups powdered milk
5 cups Nesquik (basically, an entire regular-size package)
2 cups instant coffee
2 cups powdered creamer
2 cups granulated sugar
 
Mix well, spoon into jars, and add a tag or label that says "4 tbsp. per 8 oz. hot water."

Tonight is our date night and we are going to dinner at Sweet Peppers Deli and to a movie at the Majestic 12 theatre downtown. Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the 3rd movie to be made of the Chronicles series. This should be a great move with a solid story. We are members of the CS Lewis Society here in Chattanooga and this movie has been talked up for months. It will be exciting to see it finaly on the big screen.

Today we decorated the Christmas tree. Its  20 days til Christmas and we are getting into the swing of things. Here is our tree being decorated and our casual observer looking on. Now it feels like the holiday's in our home.

Today we are celebrating Christmas with Laura's family. This is always a good time of family, fellowship and love. There will be a nice spread of food and it will be a good day to chill out with great people. 

Laura has had some problems with Windows XP for a while...more specifically accessing the internet. Tony suggested she give Ubuntu a try as a way to do her stuff online and in other parts of her computing life. Well so for so good. Ubuntu is a free, open source operating system that is run by millions around the world. It does a great job of giving you the tools and software needed to do many tasks such as word processing to managing photos and music. Tony has used it for over a year now and has a good experience. This is indeed a adventure for her.