Friday, December 12, 2008

hinckley brag

last weekend, we went up to boston to hear my brother-in-law sing in Handel's Messiah. there is much to brag about on the hinckley side of the family right now, and since the only reason i am associated with any of these people is through marriage, i will now shamelessly and unapologetically brag.

we saw the performance on friday night. my brother-in-law was the solo tenor. i'm no music critic, but his voice seems richer and fuller everytime i hear him sing (and it was pretty dang awesome to begin with). this was the 155th consecutive performance of The Messiah by this society. the conductor was insanely energetic and a pure pleasure to watch. at times, it looked like he was bull-fighting with sections of the orchestra. there was a section of period instruments that played a "half-step" lower and gave a feel for how the piece would have sounded when it was written. somehow now our CD of handel's messiah doesn't seem quite up to snuff.

the next day, we were joined by my brilliant (i've already mentioned that she's at a top notch law school in vermont, right?) niece, chelsea, and her husband jake. all the women in my niece's family have more talent in their little finger than i do in my whole being. (don't believe me? just check out my sister-in-law's art or writing. susan also amazingly gave birth to frida about 80 years after the fact?)

the whole gang went to lunch at p.f. chang's. i only mention this because somehow the seating on our side of the table went: jake, pat, lily, evan, grace, me. after lunch, pat made some comment about how it's not fun to take our whole lot out to lunch. it was only then that i realized how i had sat next to the 9 year old for the whole time. it's easy to enjoy your lunch when hubby gets all the young'ns and disabled one and you get the more than capable 9 year old.

here's the hinckleys we were able to visit with (minus brian).


getting back to hinckley bragging, my nephew who lives in seattle made it on an all-regional football team and already has an offer to play football for air force. he was recently in the seattle times with other all-regional player. (he's christian rennie).
the biggest brag of all is getting to visit with this beauty pictured belowed. annie and brian's youngest, jane, is now 6 months old and is very sweet natured. it was fun to see her again.
oh, and if you look close at the above pic, you'll understand why i keep calling grace: "granny". she has lost the baby teeth on either side of her four middle top and bottom teeth.

ok, fine, i'll put one brag in from my side. here's my little nephew, ian, that i get to see in a couple weeks. he and jane are just four days apart.

7 comments:

Scrappycook said...

I love your sister in laws art!! I have been wanting to learn how to use felted wool, but after checking out the prices at our local thrift stores, I've decided it will have to wait until garage sale season! Gorgeous work!

Jake and Chelsea said...

you are way too nice!! it was awesome to see you guys! hopefully we can get together a few more times before we leave the amazing northeast!

Ash & Tim said...

The too of them even kind of look alike -although she probably has a little more hair. Look forward to seeing you all in a week.

Ash & Tim said...

too = two my bad :)

Jeanie Hinckley Rennie said...

That picture of Christian in the Seattle Times was made fun of by all his teammates, they wondered why the other guys got to look mean and Christian had to do the over the shoulder "model" pose. The fact of the matter, and this originally came from Ted, is that Christian couldn't look mean even if he tried. I wish I could've joined you all in Boston- sounds like it was a wonderful weekend.

susan m hinckley said...

Thanks for the nice bragging, April! I only wish we lived up to your many kindnesses. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for sharing a picture of your day with Chelsea and Jake -- it was a true pleasure for me to get a glimpse. I know seeing you was just the icing on a perfect day for them.

Lindsey said...

Wow...you really are a part of a super talented family. Your sister-in-law's art is so creative, and I've heard your brother-in-law sing before...fantastic. Fun!

quotables

"is that lily holding baby lily?" -lily's response when i showed her a picture of gracie holding her when lily was a baby.

"drama class is actually a lot of fun." -gracie (this is only humorous in that grace seemed surprised by how much she likes drama class. this from my child who we refer to as "a drama queen" when she is not around.)

"mom, you can go with my teacher and i'll stay home with japie and evan. daddy can go to work, and i'll be the mommy" -lily, in response to learning that she would be going to preschool next year instead of this year.

"mom, if you don't get rid of that smell soon, you're going to have to buy a new car." -gracie when it took me a couple of days to clean out my car after returning from a road trip.

"mommy, they have dress-ups for you!" -lily while walking by the prom dress section at macy's.

"i said the prayer "last"-erday." -lily's replacement word for "yesterday."