December 2017

Heber City Tree Lighting and More Trees!

We attended the first ever Tree Lighting Ceremony at Heber City Park on Wednesday November 29th. There was a pretty good sized crowd and the anticipation was high. However, our family probably didn't seem very grateful to the person who had organized it and gone to the trouble to string the lights. After the count-down nothing happened, so we all counted down again, 5-4-3-2-1... When the lights came on it was very anticlimactic. I said, "They shouldn't have used LED lights." Graham and Callie said, "We thought there would be more lights." Matt said, "I wonder why they chose a tree way all the way in the back of the park." So there you go, we think there is room for improvement.

We decided to get a real tree again for the living room. There is a tree lot in town with beautiful trees but they were $80. Couldn't do it. I remember seeing the short needled fir trees I like at Harmon's last year and wondered if they would have them again. Matt said it would be no trouble to drive the truck there so we drove down the canyon to see what we could find. The sunset looked promising. We found a perfect tree for half that price. Grayson said, "It looks just like last year's tree." So it does. However, last year I decorated in red and white, this year I decorated in metallics and light pastels. I found some bulbs at the local thrift store to add to my collection that I adore. I like to have fun with the upstairs tree by myself.

The kids helped decorate
the downstairs tree the Monday before for FHE. Graham was giddy and set up his train right away. Poe was also thrilled to have the tree back. Once the tree was up the kids started watching Christmas movies non-stop. We were in full Christmas mode. Ava worked on the train every day the week after Thanksgiving till she got herself sick and lost her voice. 

The first weekend in December is when we go to our local Gingerbread house/tree festival. Proceeds go to the local Children's Justice Center. Every year I think I am going to venture to Salt Lake's Festival of Trees but when I picture the crowds and crazy, I just can't do it! Our local production is impressive enough. We love our town!

There was a Cars Land made out of gingerbread that the Jailbirds decorated that was legit. I was glad to see someone bid $500 for it. I'd hate to depress the inmates more than they already are. 

Ward Christmas Dinner

We had to bust a move so that I could get to the church and help decorate for the Ward Christmas party. The YW were in charge of decorations and I was so happy that my Counselors and Advisers put lit trees all around the Cultural Hall. Yes, as you can see they were LED.

During the party different groups came up and sang songs. Callie wouldn't go up to sing with the Primary. She was more interested in her dessert plate. She does her own thing! I asked her if she was going to go up, but she shook her head disgustedly, "There is hardly any one up there." I finally spotted Graham hiding behind his friend Stevie. Ava and I did our part by going up and singing with the Young Women. Our family was scheduled to clean the church so we stayed after. I ended up helping in the kitchen as well. The YM President, who is new to our ward said, "You must be on the STP Team."  I asked what that meant and he said, "Same Ten People." Isn't that the truth!

I came home to prepare my lesson for my Laurel class and hit the sack. On Sunday in addition to church, I had my quarterly interview with the bishop and the First Presidency Devotional.

I mention all of this because as I look back on that week I realize it was a very churchy week! We had something every night of the week except for Friday night. When I was talking to my friend Dulce she said, "I don't think I would make a very good Mormon because I don't always read my scriptures or go to church." I thought, "I better not tell her about my week!" I thought of the phrase I AM A MORMON: I KNOW IT, I LIVE IT, I LOVE IT. 

My Laurels wrote 25 notes for the 25 days of Christmas to 25 older sisters in our ward. This is how we chose to #Lighttheworld. I thought that would be the main focus of the activity but it turned out be to this: How to address an envelope.

End of an Era

We were so looking forward to capping off our weekend by going to the Stake Center to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional the first Sunday of December but they quit broadcasting it! We were so bummed. We even drove to the other two Stake Centers in Heber to check.  We watched it at home for the first time....EVER. Even as a child we always went to the Stake Center. I said to Matt, "You don't seem very disappointed." He concurred, "I have been at the church all day." Yes it was nice to eat peppermint sugar cookies wearing our jammies at home I suppose. 

I had a dentist appointment that week and then I went to Smith's for some groceries. After I put the groceries in the van I shut the door to return my cart. For some reason the doors locked when I shut them and my purse, keys and phone were still in the car. I had no choice but to enjoy the sunshine and walk home. The air was still plenty cool though so I bundled up before hopping on my bike to ride back to Smith's with the spare key. I sure add to my collection of scatter-brained tales don't I? The next day my friend Crusan said, "I saw you out for a walk yesterday." I smacked her arm, "I needed a ride!" She laughed, "Oops."

The Young Men planned a trip to Temple Square in December. I prefer activities that last only 1-1 1/2 hours not 4 1/2, but we haven't gone downtown in years and I know some youth never go otherwise so we were willing to support the YM. They hadn't thought ahead about a treat so they told us to meet at Arctic Circle afterwards...on the west side. The place was so sketchy. Bums were loitering outside and we heard that a scuffle had happened between two of them inside the restaurant before the YW arrived. It took forever for our 40 shakes to be made. I think we were at Arctic Circle longer than Temple Square. There was a faint smell of urine so after the YW got our $85 worth of shakes we chose to eat them in the car on the way home. There was a man walking around the parking lot with a Spiderman mask completely covering his face as we drove away. One of my Young Women laughed, "Did you just l make sure your door was locked?" Guilty! Then I found myself driving under the freeway instead of on it, I said, "Am I even driving on the right side of the road? Is it really almost 10 o'clock? Where are the YM?" I told the girls in my car that this is what it feels like to come home after a bad date. No plan, sketchy part of town, and left to pay at the register. Oh well. At least they will probably remember it forever! Ava missed the adventure because she was still sick.

Doing Nothing is not a bad way to do something...

Matt had his work party at a Brazilian Restaurant in Lehi. The specialty drinks weren't near as good as Rodizio, but it was a nice to share a meal with his secretary Emily and his co-worker Gordy and their spouses and have our annual catch-up. We poked around Best Buy afterwards so long that we were still there when they closed. Oops.

I get up pretty early on Friday's so after my chores I was pretty pooped by 4:30 pm. Graham put together a cocoa bar. Graham and his hot chocolate! We went downstairs and put on Miracle on 34th St while I dozed. This is the best way to spend December;) When Matt came home he wanted to watch a Christmas movie as well so we got Papa Murphy's and watched Christmas with the Kranks. Ava was disappointed we watched it without her but she said, "Oh well, I usually watch it with Mal so it wouldn't be the same anyway." So true.

Grayson worked hard during December to re-build the Millennium Falcon that Giuseppe got for Christmas last year, which had been destroyed. This was no small feat!

Treats and Sweets

My secretary Crusan asked me if I had any sprinkles I could bring to the YW party so I texted a photo of what I had. My counselor wrote back, "Look at your clean house!" I then had to text another photo admitting that I had pulled a Stevens, and showed what my kitchen really looked like. They wrote back, "Oh, so you actually live there." Our Young Women party consisted of cookie decorating, a gift exchange, and lots of goofiness.

Me and the kids took treats to various neighbors throughout December. White chocolate popcorn in cute dollar-store containers became our go-to. We also made dipped chocolate chip cookies and cute pretzel reindeer.

We had so much fun putting together the 12 Days of Christmas for Mallerie. If I were to mail a heavy box like that it would be very expensive. Luckily, a family from her ward, the Vorwallers spent Thanksgiving at Red Ledges in Heber. Since I was in Elko, Matt got to meet them and send the box with them. I made a chocolate silk pie to send with them as a thank you. The gifts turned out to be the prettiest gifts I have ever wrapped.

What does a snow-globe, glass shelves, a trip to the example, drink flavor, golden rings, a 60-min massage, a calendar, a mouse pad, a yard stick, gloves, Scrabble, and a FitBit all have to do with each other? These were the 12 Days of Christmas gifts that Matt gave to me! I was surprised that he once again coordinated that for me.  So fun and thoughtful.

Traditions  

Weekends in December can be pretty great. One Saturday morning started out with homemade waffles covered in Nutella, strawberries, and whipped cream. We spent the day in Heber going on errands. Callie decided she wanted to give a gift to everyone in our family. Graham asked her, "What about Mallerie?" Callie exasperatedly replied, "Mom already sent her a BIG pile of gifts, she has enough!" I tried my hand at making cracker candy that afternoon. All I can say is that making candy is hard! I wasn't thrilled with my first batch so I made another, which turned out worse. I put the candy in treat bags for the YW. After errands Matt took me to dinner. We haven't tried Tarahumara since the new owners took over and we were happy that everything still tastes great. We took Ava and Callie to a play at WHS that evening. The play was not a musical but consisted of a lot of dialogue. Callie painted her nails during the show. Ava needed cough drops so after the play we went into the new Natural Grocer's in town. The hours posted on the door showed that they close at 8:36 pm. Ha! What odd hours. They have yummy smelling soaps that I stopped to smell. Callie asked, "Would you like one of those as a gift?" I said, "Sure." She said, "K-which smell do you like best?" I said, "The peppermint." She picked it up, "You know, you can still buy a present for someone when you are with them, you just don't tell them its for them." Harhar.

Matt and I went to the Messiah Sing-in on Sunday night. There were a lot of male solo's that started sounding the same. On the way home Dad imitated the singers. He got pretty close! I got a good laugh out of it. Picture someone balancing on one foot ready to fall over, "Whoa, whoooa, whoa, whoa, Whoooooooooaaaaaaa." That is how he sounded.

If there was something Christmassy going on around town, we took part in it! Festivities consisted of: Library craft night with Callie, GINGERBREAD houses, the Nutcracker at WHS, a Temple Trip, and of course lots of goodies, music and movies. 

Katrina and Giuseppe came for our pre-Christmas dinner downstairs. We watched Elf and I ended up staying up way too late chatting afterwards, which made it hard to get up bright and early the next  morning. However, my Monday motivation is that I can come home from aerobics and get a letter off to Mallerie. Ava wasn't getting any better sickness wise so Matt insisted I take her in to the Dr. Poor thing had a sinus infection, which cleared up right way with antibiotics.

I ran a station for Callie's class party the day the kids got out for Christmas break. I did a station where we experienced the Five Senses of Christmas. For "feel" I had a big jar of fake snow that they felt around in for either a pearl or a diamond. I had to use fake snow because outside we still only saw brown grass. The snow wasn't the only fake thing in the jar.

I took the two little ones around that night and we delivered our "Best Lights" awards. One house had their flagpole decorated like a Christmas tree so they got the "Best Flag Pole" award. Graham and Calliie said "But they are the ONLY house with a decorated flag pole." That is how it works folks.

Our House

Getting the house decked out is one of my favorite things about Christmas. There really wasn't anywhere in this house inside or out that didn't have some sign of Christmas. The only thing missing was SNOW, which didn't fall till the last possible minute. We improvised with vinyl snowflakes on the windows.

 

Dear Santa

With only four days to go till Christmas, we finally saw snow. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing so hard it didn't stick. The kids were real nervous we wouldn't have a white Christmas. Me and Matt took the littles to "The Great Christmas Adventure" on Main Street. It was a bit hokey and mainly geared towards really little kids but Graham and Callie were curious about it so we took them. The last stop was a visit to Santa. Callie said she would rather pass on that but there was no choice, if you wanted to leave you had to see Santa. She told him she wanted a robot kitty. Santa asked, "What, so it can do your chores for you?" Then he said something about, "No boyfriends!" Graham observed, "That Santa was a little awkward." 

I am always surprised when the kids get a letter BACK from Santa in the mail. I mean, who is going to all that trouble?

Horse Drawn Sleigh Ride!

Friday the 22nd was Christmas. Well not really, but it was Christmas for me because it was Daddy Fun Day! They saw two movies, went bowling, ate out twice, and even ran into Laurie at the mall. All but Sam had flown in from Hawaii. I think that is a tender mercy that they would be at the same place at the same time. When Matt texted, "Look who we ran into." I said, "No way!"

On Saturday the 23rd, we met them at Soldier Hollow for a horse drawn sleigh ride to see Santa again. Thankfully, we had real snow! The problem was that it was still blowing so waiting to get on the wagon was really uncomfortable. Five month-old Mahina who has never left the island looked like she wanted to punch somebody. Once we got on the wagon it was pleasant. I told the Wasson's that Soldier Hollow is where WHS hosts their cross-country meets. Our driver thought I was talking about cross country skiing and I didn't bother correcting him. Whatever.

TaySulZol Party December 23, 2018 Lehi Utah

We had to take another photo after more stragglers came in and others left.

We left straight from the sleigh ride to a party in Lehi with my dad's family: The Taylors, The Sullivans, and The Zollingers. There were about 77 people there, including ALL the Gouldings from Elko! The girls sang and danced to, I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. I wish I snapped a photo because it was just so good to see all six girls together. We stayed and helped clean up because after all, we are on the STP team remember?

On the way home Matt stopped to put more air in one of the van tires before heading up the canyon. The problem was that the valve popped off which released all of the air out of tire. The valve was irreparable so Matt got to teach the boys how to change a tire. It was cold, it was late and we were tired. But things could have been worse and I am happy to report that we all made the best of it.

Christmas Card Newsletter

Back in November I typed up a Mission newsletter for Mallerie. Matt took it to the Stake Center where he exchanged letters and came home with 150 newsletters from missionaries serving from Wasatch County. He bound the book and we sent it to Mal for Christmas. I thought it would be fun to include her newsletter in our Christmas card and then decided to type up a newsletter of my own! I realized this would be taking a step back by sending an old-fashioned newsletter. I thought it would be fun and was sort of curious what the reaction would be. 

Crickets. Hehe.

I love this photo of our family at the top of Ensign Peak on Memorial weekend. Mallerie requested I sent her a copy so she can show off her fam.

Katrina and Giuseppe's cute photo from their card.

Well, that brings us up to Christmas Eve! This post is the Eve post about Christmas Eve.