Leaving for the Holidays

Hello friends and family!  We are getting ready to leave tomorrow for Georgia to spend Christmas with the McKenzie family, and then will head to Orlando to watch MSU play Alabama in the Capital One Bowl (it will be televised on January 1 at 1pm Eastern Time--look for Colin on the sideline by the band!).  We wish all of you a Merry Christmas, safe holiday travels, and a Happy New Year!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!!

Colin and Mandie on our way to cut down our Christmas tree

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the McKenzie home!   Even though we will be spending the Christmas holidays with the McKenzie/Garcia family in Georgia, we still wanted to decorate our home for the holidays to enjoy before we travel!  The first decoration that we decided to put up was the Christmas tree.  While we own a cute little pre-lit fake tree that we usually put up, but this year we decided to have a true Michigan Christmas experience and venture out to a tree farm where you can cut your own tree.  Last weekend, we went to Peacock Road Tree Farm in Laingsburg, Michigan, and are now the proud owners of a beautiful Fraser Fir that we cut down ourselves.

Colin cutting down our Christmas tree at the tree farm

It looks beautiful decorated in our home!

Colin also put lights on the outside of the house so that we could be festive like our neighbors.

And then, this weekend, we got a foot of snow!! Everything is snow-covered and beautiful!
To see the full web-album of our Christmas photos, click here.

Our snow-covered backyard

Snow-covered tree in our backyard

Fall pictures on my camera!

I found extra pictures from the beautiful fall that we had here in Michigan on my camera when I was trying to upload Christmas pictures (oops!) and have uploaded them to our fall Facebook album.  You can access the album and view all of the photos by clicking here.  These pictures include MSU football games, Colin's concerts, pictures I took of the leaves changing on campus, and Spartan Spectacular, a concert that the Spartan Marching Band does every year indoors.  Happy viewing!

Budget Travel Magazine Giveaway!

My friend Sara is giving away a year-long subscription to Budget Travel Magazine, a great magazine for people who want to find new places to visit while staying in a budget!  To win, all you have to do it leave a comment on her "Crazy Cozads" blog.  You can enter the contest and find out more about the contest by clicking here.

CSN.com--a great place for one-stop holiday shopping!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love to read blogs about multiple topics and follow several.  For those of you unfamiliar with the world of blogging, stores will often offer to give freebies to blog readers if you sign up for email updates from their websites, share their information with your friends, etc.  I enter these contests all of the time hoping for free things and of course, never win.  Until recently. 

A fashion/style blog that I follow recently had a give-away for a free $75 gift certificate to CSN.com and I won!  I was unfamiliar with this store until the giveaway post, and wanted to share with our readers because it is really great.  It is comparable to a Bed, Bath & Beyond, but with more selection, especially for home products.  And right now they are offering free shipping and freebies on lots of housewares before Christmas.  If you are looking for a one-stop place to shop for family Christmas gifts, I would recommend visiting http://www.csnstores.com. 

And for what am I going to redeem my free gift certificate???  I am not sure yet, but this cute red tea kettle by Le Creuset: http://www.csnstores.com/Le-Creuset-Q3101-67-LEC1609.html

Job Extension

For those of you who do not know, my faculty library position here at MSU has been a temporary appointment dependent on funding (the economy here is not so great).  Last May, the administration extended my contract to the end of December, and we have been anxiously waiting to find out if they would be able to extend me through the Spring semester of 2011.  Yesterday, they approved my appointment through May, which is when Colin should be finished with his coursework and we would be looking to move on to wherever he finds a job.  What a blessing and relief!

Sad Journey

I never post on here, but thought that I would write this one in Mandie's stead.

On Saturday, November 13, 2010 Robert "Bob" Rhodes, Mandie's father, passed away. I do not have the words here to express the deep sorrow, pain, and grief that we all feel over his loss. His obituary may be found here:

http://obit.navarrefuneralhome.com/obitdisplay.html?id=856664&listing=Current

Mandie and I traveled to Baytown to be with her family on Sunday (11/14) and, after spending a week there, are returning back to Michigan. We'll head back to Baytown on Wednesday to spend the Thanksgiving holiday there.

If you did not know Bob, you truly missed out. He was a fantastic person, and someone that I am so very glad to have had the chance to spend some time with. I know that I will miss him.

Watch Colin Conduct the MSU Wind Symphony on Banddirector.com!!

Thursday, September 29, at 7:30pm Eastern Time, Colin will be conducting Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger with the MSU Wind Symphony.  The concert will be streamed live online for free at www.banddirector.com.  To access the concert online, go to www.banddirector.com and click on the tab that says "Live Broadcasts."  There will be a link to the MSU Wind Symphony Concert at the top of the list.  The link should open a few minutes before the concert so that you can make sure that your web browser is configured correctly to view the video feed.  This is a great opportunity to see Colin conduct from far away for all of our friends and family back home!! We hope that you all tune in to watch it!'
The Concert Program is as follows:

Nelson.............. Rocky Point Holiday
Wilt................... Nevermore
Grainger........... Lincolnshire Posy
Bassett............. Lullaby for Kirsten
Hindemith........ Symphony in B-flat
Fillmore............ Circus Bee

Collage Concert

Colin and Mandie after Collage Concert

Us celebrating at Pizza house after Collage Concert

Last week was super busy for Colin.  This year, he was again the production manager for the MSU College of Music Collage concert, which showcases different acts from all aspects of the school of music.  Performances were given by the Wind Symphony, Symphony Orchestra, Choral department, Jazz Band, a jazz vocal group, a Klesmer group, and various instrumental duets, ensembles, and solos.  It is a big concert to organize, and everyone thought that Colin did a wonderful job! A program of the concert can be found by clicking here.

Also, in the MSU football world, MSU beat Notre Dame two weeks ago in overtime with an amazing fake play!! If you missed the game, here is the play that won the game:



MSU plays Wisconsin on Saturday for their first Big 10 match-up of the season, so look for Colin on TV!

Short Update

Marching band season is here and in full swing!  Colin just finished Spartan Marching Band preseason, which started last week and ended last night.  After long days from early in the morning until ten or eleven o'clock in the evening, Colin is ready to start school on Wednesday and get into a normal schedule.  The first MSU football game is this coming Saturday, and marching band activities happen every weekend until Thanksgiving, except for Halloween weekend.  The schedule can be found here.  We are gearing up for a busy fall!!