December Fun

We have had a fast paced, fun filled month of December!  And it has flown by!  Christmas in 5 days???  If we could just slow time down this week, that would be perfect!

 All of the kids had their Christmas concerts for choir, orchestra and band.  Grant's was the only one we were able to attend in person, but the rest we watched from home in the comfort of our space heater and comfy pants.  And that was nice, too!  Plus, when they are broadcast on the internet, then our family far away can watch, which has been a blessing of Corona.

Avery's freshly hemmed choir dress, thanks to aunt Jen!  

See?  Watching Maren with space heaters and comfy blankets on a freezing winter's night!  Not a bad way to watch a concert!

And Ryan's Concert.

During the month of December, our Young Women's group has been doing a stocking service project.  We have been leaving notes and treats in the stockings of the other young women in the ward, as well as about 15 widows or home-bound women in the neighborhood.  45 people, in all!  It has been so fun to give and to receive on almost a daily basis.  And I know other women and girls have loved it as well.  I love to work with inspired Young Women Leaders!  (I am the advisor over Maren's age group and I love it!)

You can also see our service chain hanging behind Maren and Avery.  Each time we perform an act of service, no matter how small (and believe me, some are very small!), we hang a link on the chain.  Our goal is to get all around the room before Christmas, and I think we are going to make it!

Speaking of service, we were able to help our friend with his Eagle Project.  We socially distanced, but it was still so nice to be with friends!

Nicole and her family gave us this bird feeder and we have really had fun watching the birds eat while we eat!

We dog sat for a day for our friends and that was fun.  For us.  Less fun for Pepper.  She doesn't like to share attention.  Ha ha!

And now, here it is, the Sunday before Christmas and my favorite time of the year will soon be over!  Some other things we have done to try and feel the Christmas spirit are making cookies, delivering neighbor gifts, providing the 12 days of Christmas for a couple of families, an indexing challenge (if we index an hour a week, we earn a prize!).  Overall, it has been a lovely December spending time as a family and thinking more about our Savior.

And... we've also had to entertain ourselves a little bit.

Merry Christmas!

Finishing Up Fall, And Thanksgiving!

 This week was Thanksgiving!  And, we have a lot to be thankful for.  President Nelson invited everyone to do seven days of gratitude posts on social media and to pour out our hearts in gratitude in our prayers.  It was kind of amazing to see the difference in my Facebook feed, as the majority of my feed was full of things people are grateful for.  It was so refreshing!  I am also very grateful for my blessings.  My family has stayed healthy during this pandemic, we have a home and cars and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  God is good!

Thanksgiving was a small group this year, thanks to Covid.  My siblings and parents were all planning on getting together, but Utah's (and all over America) cases have gotten so high that nobody felt comfortable doing a group that large.  We all ended up doing dinner with just our own little families.  Maybe next year!  We did have Gramma Lana over, and that was fun.  And, we found ways to make it fun and meaningful with our kids, and everyone had good attitudes, which helped!  I let each child pick one food item to be in charge of, so that helped me with the meal prep and was fun for them to do.  And it was fun to cook in my new kitchen!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving is our traditional time to decorate for Christmas.  In years past, I have felt like we were one of the first to set up our lights and tree, but this year I knew of so many that had decorated early in November.  I think it has been such a weird year that everyone was just more ready for Christmas cheer!

We had some other fun things in November.  Grant ran for and was elected 6th grade president.

Maren and Avery had band and choir concerts.  They had limited attendance allowed, so they broadcast it as well, which was nice because it allowed the Grandparents to watch it from afar.

This is Maren on my parent's big tv.

We did a family game night with my siblings and parents and that was fun.  This time, we did a drawing game online.

Ryan finished up his soccer season until Spring.  He has enjoyed his team for the last couple of years. 

On the day after Thanksgiving, it was my birthday!  I slept in, Dustin brought me breakfast in bed, I did some online Christmas shopping in my jammies and then finally got ready for the day.  After lunch (Thanksgiving leftovers, of course) we headed up to Park City to do a little hiking and wandering and shopping at the outlets.  We got home in time to eat pizza and watch White Christmas and tie fleece blankets for a service project our Relief Society was doing.  It was a great birthday!

  

And, this is our Thankful Door.  There are 1,000 things on there that we are thankful for!