Merry Christmas to All and To All a GOOD Night12.24.11

Hi all.  Merry Christmas from the Brelands…..Lillis, Charles, Wynne and Bear.

It’s been a big year for us.  We had a lot of fun times and great trips, and we got to expand our family when we got our puppy in July and then when our little angel was born in November.  She has been an immense blessing thus far and has really made it very easy for us.

So here is this year’s installment of our video Christmas Card…..which i believe is a tradition in it’s 7th year or so.

Christmas Card 2011 from charles breland on Vimeo.

If anyone wants to see a much better put together Christmas Video, we’re watching http://www.northpointonline.tv/ live right now, and they’ll be replaying it all day tomorrow at 9, 11, 2, 6 and 10PM ET.  No iPad band this year….but I highly recommend.

We’re so excited for the coming year and all the family “firsts”.  We wish you all peace and love

Oh, and below a few pics from the year that was…..trips to Belize, Cumberland Island, Breckenridge, Scandanavia and around Atlanta.  We couldn’t be more blessed and we can’t wait for 2012.

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christmas and skiing/boarding in park city12.26.10

we headed out to park city for christmas. lil’s sister melissa was great with child (verily) and way past being able to fly, so her whole family headed out to park city to be with her and jonathon for christmas. lil and i got to do 3 good days of skiing/boarding and then christmas with the family. somehow lillis and her sisters/mom ended up somehow spending about 65% of the time we were not skiing cooking. they cooked (or attempted to cook) any number of unique creations. speaking of unique, hangar one makes a pear flavored vodka. i bought a bottle out there and tried it. highly recommended.
anyway, we did our skiing in park city and at the canyons. it snowed about 4 feet in the 2 days before we got there. the first day was a little bit cold and there was some wet snow falling (which made it tough sledding – so to speak) but the next two days were fabulous.
lil and i stop for a quick picture at the canyons
“lil and her mom have a fun, quirky tradition,” said charles. i’m concerned that it seems unlikely they’ll grow out of it.

when the sun came out, it was completely gorgeous out there. here’s the view from the top of the terrain park.
lillis thinks my helmet makes her head look large. i think so, too. it’s very “great gazoo”-esque.
here i am with most of lil’s family at park city. everyone skied all morning, and then everyone but me went and road the roller coaster in the afternoon. i opted for more boarding (i only get a few days each year).
here’s the view from our cabin (quite) early on christmas morning. on the right is a GIANT tree that someone had outfitted with christmas lights.
i have no idea how to spell this dog’s name. it’s pronounced “nolla” like “holla.” anyway, nala, was checking out the nativity scene while melissa worked on making some waffles in the kitchen.
that’s me. and my wife. and some mountains.
same mountains, same wife, lil’s dad, and her sister, and nola.
beautiful country out there.
here lil and her sister lacey perform a lillis family tradition of resting ones hands on someone elses abdomen. good times
it was a good trip. no broken bones, or travel hassles. plenty of good snow and good food…and santa was able to find lillis and sneak some icebreakers clothing into her stocking.
below is the video from our trip. we didn’t get a whole lot b/c lil was only skiing with me for a 1/2 day most of the time and we really didn’t do much hitting the terrain park or anything. next year, i insist on more “big air” opportunities.

anyway, the rest of the pics are here, and see below (if you’re on facebook, you’d have to view this post in it’s source or at charlesbreland.com) for the video.

2010_12_25 Skiing in Park City from charles breland on Vimeo.

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christmas card12.22.10

merry christmas, all. it’s been a really great year for us this year, and once again we’re just so thankful for all the opportunities, the friendships and the memories we’ve had this year. i’m posting a few pics here from the year, but down below is the video christmas card. Enjoy!

from our backpacking trip on benton mckaye with matt and david.

from topkapi palace in front of the bosphorous
from our rooftop in front of the blue mosque
in front of a gorgeous sunset at the lighthouse on san juan island
all right…..on to the christmas card. this could be our best one yet. granted, that’s not saying a ton, but lillis’ acting classes are finally paying some real dividends. if you want to invest 3 minutes and 37 seconds on the brelands, click play. oh, and we sprung for full HD this year, so lillis looks even better in full screen mode. : )

2010 Christmas Card from charles breland on Vimeo.

for anyone who happens to be watching this on a mobile phone that can’t access vimeo, you can hit up youtube by clicking this link.

we’re so thankful for all we’ve gotten to do, and for a year of growing closer in our marriage and with friends, and we hope that this post finds you all well. God bless!

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