Celebrating Christmas Eve

For the seventh consecutive year, we celebrated Christmas Eve with Rachel's family, alternating homes each year. Paul and Lana Dalton were our gracious hosts this year. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, had great musical entertainment and paused for a few minutes while Mark read about the birth of Christ from the gospels of Luke and Matthew.

Devlin sang "Silent Night" with all of us, and then sang an encore solo, "When Somebody Loves You," from Toy Story 2. Devlin loves to sing as he grows up in the footsteps of his talented parents.





Rachel favored us with "Birthday of a King."





David sang "O Holy Night," with such power and range that he gave us all goose bumps!





Mark read the Nativity story from Luke 2 and Matthew 2, reminding us once again of the miracle of the Savior's birth which we celebrate at this wonderful time of year.





More photos of the wonderful evening we shared are on Mark's Flickr Photostream.

Good night and God Bless!

Mongolian Merry Christmas

While Eric was in Mongolia, he had traditional Mongolian dels and hats made for each member of the family. Tonight, after an enjoyable family dinner, we surprised the family with these delightful, colorful outfits and went caroling through the neighborhood in full regalia. It was a bit nostalgic for Eric, but we had a grand time as we shared a little bit in the wonderful experience he had for the past two years in Mongolia.





Heidi's family received their dels a couple of weeks ago, while Eric, Claudia and Mark visited in Oregon. Don't Zach and Tyler make handsome little Mongolians?





At this wonderful time of year when we celebrate the anniversary of our Savior's birth, please know of our love for you. May you know that you are always welcome to our hearth and home, whether in spirit or in person. Merry Christmas!





You can see more Dixon family photos on Mark's Flickr photostream.

God bless you, and Good Night!

Music and Memories

The highlight of our last week was attending Holly's choir concert. She thrilled us all with her great solo part. It was scary for her, but she did a great job.



Claudia and Mark have been home from Oregon for over a week, but still have great memories of being with Heidi's family. We miss those little guys!



Eric was a great friend to Tyler and Zach. They hated so see him come home.



For more photos, visit Mark's Flickr page.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love those Grandkids!

Claudia and Eric flew to Portland last Tuesday to help Heidi and her new son. Mark joined them Friday night after his business trip to Texas and California. The highlight of Saturday was cutting a fresh tree from a nearby Christmas tree farm. Gotta love that fresh pine smell and the smiles on little boys' faces!



Little Gavin is wonderful! What a thrill to hold him and think of the miracle of birth! His big brothers are delighted to have a little brother.



And, of course, Granny is delighted! It is going to be hard for her to return to Arizona.



If you want to see more photos, please visit Mark's Flickr photostream.

Thanks for stopping by.

Zippin' along in Park City

Back in October, I spend a week in Park City, Utah, for company planning meetings. One sunny afternoon, we had some fun in a "team building" experience on the mountain. Here is evidence that not all is heads-down work while I am on the road.

Welcome to our World, Gavin Bartle!

Last Friday, Heidi gave birth to her third son, our sixth grandchild. What a miracle birth is! Mark likes to say that God has shared with us his greatest power - the power to create life. We are also grateful for the sealing power that binds us together.

Heidi sent the following photo last Saturday. What a cute little guy!

The Dixon Digest Rebirth

Welcome folks, to the new Dixon Digest, brought to life in the blogosphere! After long lapses between Dixon Digest issues, Mark decided that a new format was necessary to ease the process of preparing photos and publishing the DD. The new plan is this:

1. At least weekly, Mark will post a few photos to this blog (http://dixondigest.blogspot.com).

2. In addition to the photos shown in this blog, we invite you to visit Mark's Flickr photostream, where he will post several other photos of the family.

3. If you click on any photo in this blog, you will be taken to the Flickr page for that photo, where you can download any resolution you would like.

4. Mark will send a copy of the weekly blog post to the Dixon Digest email list. If you want to be added to the list, please send Mark an email.

5. An archive of the "old style" Dixon Digest is still available if your would like to look back over time.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

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So, here we go for the inaugural post ...

The big event in November was the return of Eric after a two year mission to Mongolia. We had a delightful time welcoming him at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport the day after Thanksgiving.





We celebrated Eric's 21st birthday a month late after we returned home from the airport.





In somewhat unrelated news, Holly got attacked by the mysterious rubber chicken that seems to turn up in all sorts of interesting places. After Mark brought the chicken home from a trade show, it just seemed to find its way into Claudia's makeup drawer, under Ryan's pillow, into the glovebox of the car, and into Eric's bed the night he got home. Wonder where it will show up next?





So ... please let us know what you think. We'll tweak things now and then, and hope to be more regular on informing you about the happenings in the Dixon household.