A New Year

This photo of Tracy was taken at Chris and Marsha's home. We were celebrating someone's birthday, possibly Nick's.

Today we got together here to celebrate the new year and Tracy's birthday. I like this picture because I believe it shows Tracy's compassion, kindness and his intelligence and interest in the world about him.

He is our second child and first boy. He was a handsome little guy with lots of dark hair (as least in comparison to our other little ones who were born "bald eagles". according to their dad.)

Having birthdays close to Christmas may not have been what Tracy and Alyssa would have chosen. The holiday season becomes a little hectic and maybe they don't quite get their due attention. Can't help it. The days they were born were good days for our family anyway.

Tracy was born a few days past his due date. Many people told us they thought we should try for the first baby of the year. Art definitely wished for a tax deduction. Tracy obliged by being born on December 31st, early enough in the morning so that Art could still go to the performance of "Messiah" in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. We both belonged to the Oratorio Society of Utah. I loved singing so I kept going to rehearsals even though I had no intention of singing for the performance. I had to tell the women who kept track of the rolls several times, that no, I wasn't going to show up "great with child" on Sunday. Blessedly attitudes about pregnancy have changed a great deal since then. Now I don't think it would be as frowned upon to be pregnant and also sing in a choir. As it turned out, Art was in the Tabernacle singing and I was in the hospital with our new baby boy listening to the concert on KSL radio. The words "For unto us a child is born" had very special significance that year.

Each one of our children were exposed to music in-utero since rehearsals began in the fall and were held every week until Christmas time. I'm glad they (and we) had those experiences with Handel's Messiah.