Wilson McDowell in the local paper

Merry Christmas to everyone.  We're busy up here in B.C. putting on the live Nativity.  It's been going on for 19 years and Louisa and I did it last year and are doing it again this year.  We've added a levitating angel (excuse me, the boy who is playing the angel prefers to be called a Heavenly Messenger - sounds more masculine), so that should be fun.  It takes place outside in a natural ampitheater (in one of the member's back yard) and usually gets anywhere from 800 to 1000 visitors.

As you can see, Wilson was available for the photo but only Nelya will be in the actual nativity.  Hope all is well.

Matt McDowell

Merry Christmas!

Here's our Christmas card. I realized I don't have many of you on my list, but want to wish you a very Merry Christmas. So here's what we sent: Either the snowman card designed by Eden or the one designed by Noah and an insert of our photo.

Inside the card it says:

Wishing you the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years from the Gallagher family.

So for those who will get it in the mail in a few days, sorry for the spoiler. For those who I missed, I hope you know we think of you all and have fond memories of our past reunions.

Oklahoma Ice Storm

Every few years, we have a really nasty ice storm here in Oklahoma. The latest one began Sunday, Dec. 9. See a tree in our back yard covered with ice (Sunday afternoon). The storm continued and the second picture is the same tree this afternoon, Monday. I hope we can save most of it. --James Fife

Florence and Otto

My mom corrected me: both these photos are from their senior year at BYU, taken to send out with their resumes.

Testing the post

Hey Sage,

I signed up to contribute but kinda got freaked out about the privacy of blogging and the whole idea in general but now I'm bored so I'll try a post.  Caught me at a weak moment.

My wife, Louisa, and I moved to British Columbia about 18 months ago.  We have two kids, Nelya (age 7) and Wilson (age 4).  We had been living in Los Angeles (2 miles from Venice Beach) for the past 10 years.  We live in a pretty fantastic area, lots of skiing, biking, lakes, etc.  Plus it's not too cold.  It's knows as "the Palm Springs of Canada."  I know... crazy.  Anyway, we love it here.  Louisa grew up here so her folks live a couple of miles away and we were able to build our dream house.  We both travel for work -  Louisa is a focus group moderator, and I'm a screenwriter (currently on strike) - so we get back to L.A. fairly often.

I'm currently working on my Masters in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia's non-resident program.  I've also got a new calling as a High Councilman and Stake Young Men's President.  

We have a dog (Friendly) and a cat (Chloe).  We got our first snowfall two days ago.  I'm not used to the snow so it's still very novel for me... and I can't wait to go skiing.

Draper Reunion 2005

We all had a great time at Katie's place in Wyoming back in 2005! It was complete with a pig roast and fireworks as well as knitting, oil painting, yoga and other fun classes! There were also fun competitions like which team could build a working robot from a bunch of old machines and who could dig the deepest hole with the Skidsteer digging machine (Thanks Katie)

SGT Nathan Fife, son of James & Irene Fife