December 18, 2018

Christmas season is in full force and we’ve been filling our time celebrating the season!  (While simultaneously surviving on little to no sleep because our days are so jam packed with holiday festivities as well as the never ending holiday to-do list.  I didn’t even attempt Christmas cards this year and nearly canceled neighbor gifts.  But in the end I gave out homemade cookie dough.  Easiest neighbor gift ever.  Made and sealed up with cute tags in less than 4 hours.  Christmas season is in full force and we’ve been filling our time celebrating the season!  (While simultaneously surviving on little to no sleep because our days are so jam packed with holiday festivities as well as the never ending holiday to-do list.  I didn’t even attempt Christmas cards this year and nearly canceled neighbor gifts.  But in the end I gave out homemade cookie dough.  Easiest neighbor gift ever.  Made and sealed up with cute tags in less than 4 hours.

To kick off our December we drive out to Nampa to look at the lights the city puts out along the River there.  We went with my parents and Michael and Rachelle and their kids. The lights were really pretty!  Not quite as picturesque as our light tour at the botanical garden last year in an amazing gentle snowfall. That night might never be beat.  But a night with family in Nampa was nice.

We also got together with the Demars family to make ginger bread houses.  Heather is amazing and actually makes her own gingerbread and cuts out the houses.  I helped a bit…but not really.  We had enough houses for a pair of kids to decorate a house.  The kids were all really creative and had some great looking houses.  Then on Monday for family home evening we went and delivered the houses to families in the ward (Emmie and Elsie gave theirs house to their primary teacher) and went to see the lights and live nativity scene at the scentsy commons near our house.  I’m pretty sure the highlight of the night for most of the kids was petting a live camel.  He was seriously so calm and surprisingly cute!

John and I also attended his work party.  I’m not a huge fan of his office parties because they are usually horribly awkward for me so I won’t say much.  Other than the fact that John participated in the appetizer competition and brought pulled pork sliders with homemade coleslaw….and won!  Well done John!  For all of his time, effort, and money spent he got an ada county jacket.  Well worth it. Right?

December is also the time we get to “celebrate” our anniversary—-it’s a good thing we celebrated in October! This December 16th was typical of other December 16th’s….crazy!  It was actually on a Sunday this year.  And my Sunday’s are always crazy.  And it’s my moms birthday.  But we did go out to dinner the night before.  We were home by 7:00.  In our pajamas by 7:30.  And John was asleep with a migraine by 9:00 and I worked on primary stuff.  We sure do know how to party!

Still to come before the big day arrives is Ainsley’s orchestra concert, Owen’s band concert, the ward party (which the primary is in charge of decorating and Owen and Ainsley are part of the nativity. I’m sure they’ll be the best cow and king of all time!), gift wrapping, and treat making!  We have yet to make any of our favorite treats!  I can’t wait!  As busy as it’s been it’s all come together pretty smoothly so I can’t complain.

Except about my new appliances. I will complain about that briefly.  I’m currently on fridge number two.  Which also was made as poorly as the first one that came and was returned.  It’s kind of a pain to have to schedule delivery times and empty your fridge and put together a new one.  Granted they are being delivered but my front door has to be taken off each time!  I’m being picky…but I feel like if I’m spending over $1000, I have the right to be a little picky on the quality of my purchase.  So now I’m in the process of getting a third fridge.  Which I’ll insist on inspecting before it is brought into my house and before I empty my current fridge.  But the rest of the appliances are great!!!

Hopefully I have a lot of fun things to report on in the coming weeks.  Christmas is almost here!!!

Enjoy the pictures...in no particular order....

December 3, 2018

Well…my plane landed and I hit the ground running.  Literally.  Due to some miscommunication and a series of unfortunate events John and I left one of my bags on the curb at the airport.  At midnight.  And we didn’t realize this until we got home.  So John called the airport and I drove back had had to CO clam my bag.  Thankfully it wasn’t stolen!  It had all of my souvenirs in it!  I got home and to bed well after 1:00 that morning.  My phone work me up the next morning at 11:00.  I can’t remember the last time I slept that late.  It was good to be home and see the kids though.  After giving them their gifts we dove right in to thanksgiving prep.  Plus cleaning the house.  It was a little too dirty for my taste.  We cleaned, shopped, prepped food and baked pies.  Still with no dishwasher. Ugh.

Luckily my parents let us come to their house for the big day.  We were lazy, ate, played games, looked at the ads (my thanksgiving tradition, even though the only Black Friday shopping I did this year was to the Nike outlet at 10:30 in the morning to get Owen some shoes because his had full blown holes in them.  The store was packed.  We found some shoes and cake home and decorated for Christmas instead.  Oh, and I ordered $600 in boots at the Macy’s shoe sale.  I’m going to have a bunch of shoes to return as soon as I make up my mind.  Unfortunately decisiveness is not a gift I possess.

I digress, by that night our home was decorated, our appliances were delivered, and three of the four appliances were installed.  Phew!

The kids had the entire week off of school.  We did a few fun things to keep them entertained but it was a pretty uneventful week.  We played hockey at the church with the Demars and other friends.  We went to dinner and started Christmas shopping. John and the kids put Christmas lights on the house while I gathered the rest of the leaves and tidied up the yard in preparation of the quickly approaching winter. The kids played with friends a bit. Even Ains was social and actually hung out with friends during the week! I love that she has found a couple of friends that she actually wants to be with!  It really is such a blessing.

We didn’t see much of John Thanksgiving  week.  But we don’t see much of him most of the time it seems lately.  His time at work has been a little extreme lately.  Bring the head of his division has had a learning curve and a lot of extra work.  He usually leaves the house between 6 and 7 and gets home about 12 hours or more) later. And then there’s mutual, soccer, and other activities that stretch our evening time thin.  Hopefully with time the work load will decrease as he grows accustomed to his new responsibilities.

Speaking of John, he spoke in church last Sunday.  He did a fabulous job.  He spoke on standing in holy places.  His talk taught that when we are Christlike and serving others we can create holy places.  His talk was great.  I even had people ask me to get them a copy.  Well done John!

The last Sunday of November I gave my last sharif time.  Ever.  It’s kind of bitter sweet.  I’m excited about the new primary curriculum and two hour church, but I feel like I don’t have any real interaction with the kids any more.  I just keep things running and organized while other people get to teach and be with the kids.  Which I like. I’m going to miss that.

And speaking of church, Ains joined the choir.  Which I kind of pushed her to do because they were desperate for people.  And she’s playing the violin in the Christmas program.  She’s one talented girl!

I can’t really think of anything specific to write about Emmie or Owen.  I guess they’re just plugging along going about their lives as usual.  Owen, bless his heart, I feel is slowly entering his teen years.  I can tell this because he’s becoming more and more insistent that he knows everything and enjoys arguing  questioning everything John and I say to him.  It’s great.  We love it.  Owen also just signed up for his second year of ski team.  Boise received its first snowfall yesterday and our eyes have been on the mountain hoping they get some good snowfall for a good ski year! Owen also had another jazz band concert.  I must love him a lot because I really don’t like jazz music.  And I sat through 3 school performing jazz songs for that kid.  It was hard for me. But he did great!  He’s musically inclined and I know he’ll go far with music if he sticks with it.

The Christmas season is in full swing and life is just slightly more crazy than usual because of it. I love that Emmie still brings the magic and excitement of Christmas to our home.  She was so excited for Jingle, our elf, to come this year. She woke up every day the week before he came asking if he was here yet.  Thank heavens he finally came!  I was getting tired of seeing the disappointment on her face when I had to tell her repeatedly that he wasn’t here.  We have plans to watch Christmas movies, go see Christmas lights, and make holiday treats.  I’ll be relieved when the shopping is done so I can have a little note down time to enjoy the holiday.

We watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional last night. I loved the first talk so much.  Sharon L. Eubank  talked about how sometimes in life we just muddle through and things don’t go according to plan.  But she reminded us that that doesn’t matter and we are still loved. I think I will go back and listen to her talk often.  It was such a good reminder for me.

And now I guess I should get back to the crazy that is my life at the moment.  Kids and church and house and work Christmas. Awesome and exhausting all at the same time.