Once Upon a December

 This December has been chock full of fun. The kids go to bed late every other night because we have so many fun things to do.

The week that mom and dad were here, the week after Camille's baptism, was so fun. Sammy and Brian wanted to do all the usual Christmas family things while mom and dad were here. So we: 

• Went to dinner at Chubby's and then bought things at the Giving Machines. Dinner was absolutely delish. I got a BBQ veggie burger with fries. It was so good. And we always love the Giving Machines. The kids like to look at all the things available up buy for people. I let each of the kids pick one thing to buy (with the exception of Sawyer, who's too little to understand and pick for himself). It was just a great outing with family. 
• Had a girls date, with just the adult women of the family. Sammy, Melanie, Mom and I went to this cute little cupcake cafe in Lindon. We got cupcakes and chatted, tried different ones and rated them. They were good... but definitely not the best cupcakes I've ever had. Afterwards, we went to Seagull Books to get things for Drew's stocking that Sammy was putting together to take to him on Christmas Eve. I also got the rest of my Christmas shopping done there. 🤣😉
• (I) took Jack to his Christmas song concert. He sang, it was adorable, and then I took him home. I also went to luminaria that night with the youth, and it was wonderful and beautiful. 
• Did Christmas dinner at Sammy and Brian's house one night. We did soups and breads and treats, and it was lovely. Sammy had us write letters to Drew to include with his stocking, letters for him to open at certain times on his mission. It was hard at first, to think of things to write him. But I enjoyed it in the end. We also spent some time singing Christmas songs and carols around the piano, which is one of my favorite traditions of Christmas. It was the perfect family Christmas dinner. 
• Went to a friend Christmas party at Adam and Liz McMurtrey's house. It was the Saturday after school let out, and we'd already had quite a busy week. Mom and Dad left that day, so all of our family activities were ended. We had a fun dinner at the McMurtrey's house with Bowman's family and another friend of theirs. And we played games together. 

The Sunday before Christmas, there was a special stake meeting in the evening where they announced changes to the ward boundaries in our stake. We'd known about it for a week and were anxious about the whole thing waiting to know what was going to happen. Well. We found out. They basically tore out ward into 3 pieces and added them to other rewards. They dissolved the 4th ward and combined them with biggest part of the old 3rd ward to become a new 3rd ward. And our family, and most of the rest of Newland Loop, got put into the 2nd ward. It's interesting, because our new ward consists of one street. Well, not even a whole street... just most of a street. And all of the little offshoots, cul-de-sacs, and loops going off of it.  It's the tiniest ward I've ever seen, geographically speaking 

We haven't been to our new ward yet, because for Christmas day, we had a combined 1st, 2nd, and 3rd wards sacrament meeting. The sacrament and then mostly music. So we'll see how we like our ward this coming Sunday. What's fortunate is that we got to take a lot of our friends with us to this new ward. I'm glad of that. 

The week before Christmas, when we were all on break from school (hooray!), was pretty low key. I was sick with a little cold for most of the week, which both Jack and Sawyer have been struggling with for most of the month (Jack missed quite a lot of school before break). It wasn't too severe of a cold, mostly just a sore throat and a bit of coughing. It was the worst at night, when I would get coughing fits that lasted quite a long time. One night I woke up coughing and had a hard time getting back to sleep. I got up and got sucked into my book and read for hours before trying to get a few hours of sleep. It was a rough couple of days after that. 

We didn't have many plans. We spent the week playing, watching TV, reading books and shopping online for Christmas. Daniel had Friday off, so we took the kids to do a little shopping for Christmas (the boys had to buy their gifts for the girls), and then we went up to Tibble Fork Reservoir to go sledding. Last year when we went sledding with the kids, they barely lasted 20 minutes, all except for Brooke, who loved it. They complained about the cold and didn't think sledding was all that fun. This time, they all loved it! They all had good snow stuff, so the cold didn't bug any of us very much. Actually, we only sled for about 20 minutes before we all crossed the lake to the other side to play in all the fluffy snow on the other side. We climbed the snowy hill and slid down it, threw snow at each other and had a great time. We didn't leave until the sun had gone down. 

For Christmas Eve, Brian and Scott's families came over for breakfast and to watch Scrooge together. Then in the afternoon, we went to Gramma and Grampa Holbrook's house for food and games. Mom had hip surgery the day before, so she kind of stayed out of things for the most play. Jennie and Sarah planned some fun group games and had prizes for everyone. It was so fun. 

Getting kids to sleep that night was worse than usual. Even for a Christmas Eve. Daniel and I finished wrapping presents and setting everything up and watching movies, and didn't get to bed until well after midnight.

Christmas day was wonderful. The kids woke us up at 630, which was much too early. Apparently, Brooke set an alarm to wake up early. We told them to wait until 7, but neither of us could really fall back asleep anyway. The kids had a blast going through their stockings, but we waited until Sawyer was awake before doing the presents under the tree. We made breakfast while waiting: pumpkin cinnamon rolls that I had put together the night before, bacon and fruit. It was delish. 

I didn't have much opportunity to shop for Christmas, aside from that first Saturday I went. I got pretty much everything then, but I had plans to go out again to supplement what I'd already gotten. I never got around to it, and honestly, didn't really want to shop anymore. It's not my thing. So I just called it good enough. And it really was. The kids had plenty to open and got a lot of good things they wanted. 

I got Daniel a couple new articles of clothing, but his main present was the deck we had built in our yard. We had guys working on it earlier this month for about a week and a half, and it looks really amazing! We can't wait to use it later next year. 

And for myself, I bought my own Christmas presents, and Daniel wrapped them and put them under the tree. 🤣 Christmas gets boring when you get old. 

Church was combined with the other pilgrims landing wards. Mostly the sacrament and Christmas music. Pretty shortly after church, we went to Michael and Michelle's house to hang out and have dinner. It was lovely to be with them. Jennie, Sarah and Summer came a little later, too.

Big John's party on the 26th was fun. We went for about an hour and a half. Tuesday, I took the kids rock climbing with Adam McMurtrey and his kids, and then the kids played with friends in the afternoon. Wednesday, Daniel and I went on a date with his work team. We went to PF Changs for dinner and then to an escape room afterwards. It was fun! Thursday we had our friends (Freis and Christensens) over for a movie day and playing in the morning, and the Frei girls stayed for the rest of the day playing. Then in the evening, we went to the Tanners for a game night with the whole family, which was so fun. Yesterday, we just hung around the house for the day, and then I escaped to go to a birthday party for Tenille Roylance. Dinner and dessert and conversation. It was fun.

Today, Emily came over to watch the kids while Daniel, Camille, Bowman and Stephanie went skiing at Snowbird with a few other people. I hadn't been skiing for more than 20 years, or snowboarding in like 12 years, so didn't know how it would go, haha. It actually went fine! Camille and I were kind of same level. It was a very snowy and wet and cold day, so we got tired and wet and cold pretty quickly, after we'd been skiing for about 3 hours, and we were both pretty done at that point. We took a break to eat and rest, we read our book that we've been reading together (Clarice the Brave), and then Camille and I went back out to build a snowman together while Daniel went skiing with everyone else. They had closed the canyon road, so we weren't even able to leave until almost 4pm. And traffic getting down the mountain was pretty crazy too. But it was a fun day! And a great way to end the year. Daniel and I stayed up after the kids went to bed and watched videos about Italy, trying to plan for our trip next year. I admit, I'm fading, and it's still a ways from midnight. I just want to go to bed, but Daniel would think that's lame. 😕 

Friend Memories

 My friends and I have been watching Crash Landing on You together for the past few weeks. It's been so fun getting together every week. 

A picture from this year that I love. I think we were on a girls night of some kind... temple? Women's conference? Can't remember. 

Sometimes, DeAnna gets all sentimental and sappy in her texts to us. We love it. ❤️ 

And this one: possibly mine and DeAnna's first communication after we moved here 

DeAnna often sends us quotes that she likes. This one is in response to our being sad about ward boundary changes:

It's a pretty good one. I love my friends. They are such amazing women, and I'm lucky to know them and to be inspired by them. ❤️

Sunday thoughts

 12/18/22

• It is time now to focus on my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is everyone's Savior; but He is also my personal Savior. I can have a relationship with Him. 
• Where is Christ in my Christmas? He is lovingly and patiently waiting for me to let Him into my life. 
• We can always make it better -- applied to ourselves; God always saying to us, "we can make it better"
• We learn a lot more in the temple, if we have a desire to learn and grow, we need to go to the temple more often; look for the light of the temple In my life
• When we think about God making us holy, we need to realize that He won't make us perfect (at least not at this point). But he will make us more like Him and Jesus Christ. How is God helping me to become more holy? The natural man is more concerned with the here and now -- "what do I want to do right now?" It's the challenge of life to put off the natural man and balance what we want with what God wants us to do -- becoming holy. What about my own natural man do I need to put off? How can I take up the things of God more? 

Camille's Baptism

We had quite an exciting weekend. And we had a pretty full house. Emily stayed with us for a couple of nights, Friday to Sunday, and my parents drove up for Camille's baptism and Gramma Maureen's funeral. 

Camille's baptism was wonderful. I definitely teared up when she was going down into the water. It was such a special day. We were combined in our baptism program with the Gardners, in our ward. We love them, so it was a pleasure to work with them in setting up a program. Our two families each chose half of the parts of the program: song, talks, prayers, etc. It worked out really well, and it was wonderful. Here are some things I remember about it. (Unfortunately, I took almost no pictures... too busy experiencing the whole thing):

• Aunt Sarah gave the talk about baptism. She gave this comparison -- a bright shiny castle on the hill (like in a princess movie) is like the celestial kingdom, the kingdom of God. The path to the castle is like the gospel and covenant path, and there's a gate to enter the path. That gate is baptism. Heavenly Father's whole goal and desireis for us to return to Him with our families. Baptism is the first step to getting there. 
• Brooke and I served as witnesses, which was so special. I loved being able to see it front and center. 
• Kaden Gardner gave the talk on receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said that the Holy Ghost can tell you things that you need to do, even things that you wouldn't even think to do. He told a story from his mission. He and his companions were cleaning out the apartment, and he found a really old and dirty pair of Sunday shoes, likely ones that a past missionary left behind. His first thought was to throw the shoes out, but the Spirit whispered to him to keep the shoes and clean them up a bit. He followed this prompting. A few days later, he was teaching a young man in a poor area, and they invited him to come to church with them. This young man looked down at the missionaries' shoes and lamented that he didn't have nice shoes like those to go to church in. Elder Gardner asked him what size shoe he wore, and it was the same size as the extra pair of shoes he had cleaned up. They gave the young man the shoes to wear to church. This story teaches me that God knows us personally; He knows our situations and desires, and He cares about those things. Even the small desire to wear nice shoes to church, He cares about. And we need to be able and willing to follow promptings from the Spirit so that we can help God with His work. 
• Brother Frei gave closing remarks. He told the kids that they have so much support, on both sides of the veil. Our family that has passed on before us are watching over us and helping us and supporting us. He told a story about being in the temple and wearing his Grampa's white tie and feeling close to his Grampa and feeling like his Grampa was proud of him. 
• We sang Camille's favorite primary song for closing: Faith. It was the perfect way to end Camille's special day. 
• We had everyone come back to our house for brunch and to visit afterwards. I love having people in our house, enjoying themselves. We had both sets of grandparents, Brian's family, David's family, Sarah and Emily. Also Aunt Liz and Uncle Bob were in town and came as well, which we loved. 

We all drove up to Logan after the luncheon for Gramma Maureen's funeral. It was a bit of a drive, but we talked and sang Christmas carols and watched Christmas movies. The funeral was very nice, and I'm glad that I went. I loved Maureen, she was so sweet to all of her step-grandchildren. And I saw quite a lot of the Miles family, who I haven't seen in many years. 

After the dedication of the grave, we went to a flute ensemble concert that Jennie was playing in. They played an assortment of Christmas songs and medleys, and it was so fun. Daniel commented to me that going to things like that really makes it feel like Christmas. And he was right. It was so fun! And nice to see Jennie in her element. 

We ran a quick errand to get flavored milk for Sammy and Brian, and then we went out to dinner (amidst a very vehement outcry from the children, who wanted very much to go home... they were tired of being away from home and in the car so much. It was almost humorous how much they whined. But, in true parental fashion, Daniel and I did not care nor did we give in to the bullying). We went to a cute little diner called Angie's ("where the locals eat"). The food was so good. At least, what I got was amazing -- impossible burger with this Buffalo feta cheese sauce on it and carmelized red onions on it. 🤤🤤 It was so good, I may need to try and recreate it. The kids perked up when we sat down and ordered. They actually enjoyed themselves when we got there. And they all had a great time eating their food and messing around. 😂 We got the kids tiny ice cream cones after dinner that they loved. 

All in all, even though the kids complained quite a lot about what we were doing, it was a great day, and I really enjoyed the time we spent as a family.

Today at church, we found out that the ward boundaries in our stake are changing next Sunday. 😭😭 There's a special stake meeting next Sunday to let us know the changes, and everyone is all 😱😱😱. Sad about it. And nervous. And anxious. I have my guesses about what will happen. I have 2 guesses: that they'll take our side of Newland Loop and put it into 2 different wards; or, they'll take the 4 pilgrims landing wards and combine them into 3 wards. We'll see what happens. 

Mom and dad stayed for dinner and we just did charcuterie boards, because my imagination was lacking. And because I had promised the kids (back when I did the charcuterie boards for bunco) that we would do a charcuterie board dinner one night. It was actually pretty yummy. 

 It feels like many months since I've written, perhaps because so much has happened these past 2 months. So here goes a quick recap with many pictures. 

Halloween was fun. Mom and dad were here for much of the end of October and beginning of November. Mom is not doing well. She has foot surgery and is not recovering very well or quickly. She's very limited in what she can do and it frustrates her. 

We trick-or-treated with friends all over the neighborhood and had a great time. Our neighborhood is the best for trick-or-treating! It's just how trick-or-treating should be: people everywhere, kids in costumes running around, stopping to talk to friends you run into... so wonderful. 

October is so crazy with all the activities we do that when November comes, it's blessed reprieve and peace. We did our Thanksgiving tree, of course, and cleaned up the craziness of October life. 

I went away for a little over a week to Hawaii on my girls trip with mom and sisters. We had such a great time! It was wonderful! Daniel was home with the kids all week, and they had a surprise for me when I got back: Brooke's room was freshly painted, a pretty green on one wall, gray everywhere else. 

And right when I came back, we had a few days and then Thanksgiving, and then jumping right into Christmas season. Whew! What a crazy few months! November just flew by because of my trip. And I was also behind on Christmas preparations, which I rectified yesterday, after our fun ward Christmas breakfast. 

We're doing school like normal this month until everyone is off for Christmas break. This last week was busy, with youth and me hosting bunco (I did a charcuterie board theme, which was fun). So we didn't start our next unit of history, but this week we will. 

Sawyer's current funny words: pockelet (pocket); camismis (Christmas)