A Christmas Celebration!!

Last night was our annual Relief Society Christmas Dinner. It was wonderful....lots of work, but well worth it. I wish I'd taken pictures, but I was too busy doing other things, so I didn't. So sorry. Yesterday we spent the afternoon decorating. Each round table had a white tablecloth and a gold lame topper. Then each table had a centerpiece....each different and unique. The ladies on the committee provided the table decor. I did two tables. One was done with a white felted tree sprinkled with mica flakes. I then tied small embellished bulbs on the branches. I had a gold snowflake tree topper and a gold bow ties at the top with streamers woven through the branches. The base was made from garland, red berries, more red and green ornaments embellished in gold and small poinsetta blossoms. The second table I did was a vintage pedestal bowl filled with vintage glass ornaments. I put a wire tree in the center of the bowl for height. The base was another garland with more vintage ornaments tucked here and there. The other tables had beautiful decorations on them. Around two walls of the cultural hall we'd set up 8 long tables and covered them with white cloths, then gold lame arranged down the center. There was more garland arranged to allow for individual nativities to be placed between the branches. Ladies from the ward had signed up to bring nativities to share. There were so many. All of the tables were filled. Some of them were arranged on mirrors, others on raised pedestals. It was lovely. It was fun to see what sorts of nativities others use each year. No two were alike. For dinner we had Swedish meatballs with gravy over rice, green beans, a roll and an Asian salad. Yum! For dessert we had a choice of either gingerbread or chocolate trifle. We had asked ten of our wards' fine, old High Priests (and Tyler Adams!) to come and help serve the meal. We got the salads dished out and they were wanting to do more to help. They shooed us out of the kitchen and they took over. They did everything!!! We were able to join the other ladies for dinner and we even got to enjoy the program. Those men filled water glasses, served the meal, portioned perfectly, and then proceeded to clean the kitchen while we enjoyed the program!! I will be forever grateful for their service. It was wonderful! The program consisted of a string duet, a vocal duet , a vocal solo, and three sweet stories. It was perfect!! Thanks to everyone who contributed in any way to make the evening memorable. I just wish I'd taken pictures...dumb me.

Thanksgiving and Fun at the Park!

Thanksgiving Day was a great day. We got to be a little lazy in the morning. Mark picked up our turkey from it's overnight stay in the pit. I had made the rolls the day before so that task was already done. So all I had to do before our afternoon lunch/dinner was make the sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy. Dan and Chris brought the stuffing and green jello salad. YUM!! We had a quiet, peaceful dinner with Dan, Chris, Matthew and Emma. After lunch we played some games. The first one was more of an activity. Each person's place card was a small decorated box. Inside were M&Ms. For each color of candy, the person had to answer a prompt. We wanted more than just what you are grateful for. It included things like...What are you looking forward to, What do you love about the person on your right, What lesson did you learn this year....etc. It was fun. We then played Carrom, stack the bottle and Mormon Mouthful. Chris was really good at that one!!!
About 6 pm, they wanted to go see the temple lights. So we packed up and followed them over. Note to self---that's the night to go see the temple lights. There weren't more than 50 people total there. It was wonderful! In fact, we were the only two cars in the south parking lot!!! No crowds, lots of beautiful lights and we all noticed things we hadn't noticed before, probably because of the crowds!! Then they went home and we went to Deb's. Ellen and her kids were in town for a wedding on Saturday, and we wanted to see them while they were here. Eliza and Jane were born two years ago on Thanksgiving day, and they sure have grown. They're darling little girls. It was good to see them all. Mark and I then headed home for some sleep before our Black Friday shopping.

Really, we only shopped at one store....Joanns'. We always give the grandkids a couple of pair of pajama pants for Christmas and the flannel was on sale on Friday. We got there at 5:30 am and were out by 7:30. Not too bad for the amount of people there. Then we picked up Eliza, Libby and Ellie. They came over and helped us decorate our house for Christmas. They were a HUGE help, too. We were done by about noon. We truly appreciate their willingness to help us. They did a great job. Everything looks beautiful!!


















Yesterday we all (mostly all) got together to 'celebrate' Thanksgiving since Brian's and Erin's families were with the in-laws this year. We met at a park out near Brian and Kamille's home. It's a nice park, and not often used. There was lots of room to run and play, two kids' playground areas, and lots of sidewalk to ride bikes and scooters. We started with lunch. Everyone brought their own. Then we set off to play. Some did the playground, some rode bikes and scooters and some played soccer and/or t-ball. The kids that played t-ball asked Mark to come play with them. They then told him his job was to retrieve the balls after they hit them off the Tee. They didn't want to have to run to chase it!! We all got a kick out of that one. I tried taking pictures of everyone, but as you can tell, the girls were more cooperative with picture-taking than the boys. I guess I shouldn't be surprised!!! After playing for a while, we broke out the marshmallow shooters and had fun with those. We sure made a mess, but we did clean it up before we left. Then we had a 'dessert' break. I originally thought I'd bring pies, but decided that would be too messy for the park and little kids. So we opted for brownies and cookies instead. After a couple of hours, everyone was beat, so we all headed our separate ways. It was a fun time, but we sure missed the other branch of the family.....I hope they can come next time.

Ellie's 5!!

Ellie had her fifth birthday on Monday, so last Friday she had her birthday sleepover with us. We started off with spending about an hour and a half at Target choosing her gift. She had some many fun things that we really wanted, but she had to choose. We walked all over the store while she shopped and decided. She finally chose a new baby doll with a high chair, bib, food to feed her, a baby doll bath set and an ironing board and iron. That last one sort of surprised me, but she had fun 'ironing' all of my dishtowels that night!! After Target we headed to Oreganos for dinner. She likes going there because they give kids a pizza pan and a ball of dough to play with while they wait for their food to be served. She enjoyed (with us) an appetizer of a spinach artichoke dip. She LOVED that!!! Then we had pepperoni and sausage pizza. I think she'd filled up on the dip, so she didn't eat a lot of pizza. She then ordered a peanut butter chocolate chip pizzooki. It came hot from the oven with three scoops of ice cream on top!! She was in heaven! We all shared it, and totally filled up. We came home and she played and played with her new dolls and supplies. She figured out that the ironing board, when not in use for ironing, could be used for her doll's changing table. Smart girl. All the way to and from dinner (in Scottsdale!) in the car she wanted to play an opposites game. We'd say a word and she had to say the opposite. We were amazed at the words and opposites she knew. And if she started to say a word and it wasn't quite the opposite, she would pause a minute until she came up with the word she really wanted. She learned a few new ones that night, but knew most all we could come up with.
On Saturday morning, she got up and had Pop Tarts and juice for breakfast. She then planned to go to a park to play. In the meantime, she learned that her sisters were going to get their hair trimmed. Sadly, the hair lady didn't have time to wait for her to come out there and still get a haircut. Ellie was crushed, even though her mom had planned on a trim for her this week. She wanted nothing to do with the park. She wanted to go home. We tried consoling her, but to no avail. Finally we came up with the idea to meet Brian and we'd pick up the three other older girls and take them to the park with us. She was happy now!! She missed her sisters and was happy to have them come along. We played at the park for about an hour and then we took them to meet their dad. Erin was at youth conference, so Brian had 'girl duty' that day.
It was a fun time with Ellie. She chose a package of Silly Bandz while we were at Hobby Lobby getting some supplies for a project I was working on. When she saw Hattie, she gave half of her bandz to Hattie. Then when Ellie went to school yesterday, her birthday, she took the rest of the bandz and shared them with her classmates. She came home with only one, but she said he felt good for sharing. What a sweetie!!! Ellie is very thoughtful of others and always tried to please you and do what's right. I remember so well the day she came home from the hospital....it was Thanksgiving day! I'm very thankful for Ellie and her sweet spirit.

Thanksgiving at the school

Last Thursday was the Thanksgiving lunch at Abby's and Dallin's school. They invited me to go have lunch with them. I started with lunch with Dallin. He's such a funny, funny boy. Gotta love him!!! Can you tell from the pictures that he has two loose front teeth?? He loved crossing his eyes and pushing his teeth out with his lip.

I feel so dumb. Why didn't I take any pictures of our lunch with Abby??? I'm so sorry, Abby. I'll have to come back and take pictures next time!!! Mark was able to join us when Abby's lunchtime came around. We had a fun time visiting and talking with her and her friends. I am grateful that they invited me/us and that we were able to spend that time with them. Such sweet kids!!!

Guess Where We've Been....

It's a Grand Canyon!! This past weekend, Mark and I took advantage of a promotion offered at the Canyon Plaza Resort. It was for military and public safety personnel. What a fun weekend we had!!

Honoring Our Veterans

Today was a special day. Brian had invited my dad to come to his school for an assembly to honor veterans of various wars in American history. So Mark and I took Dad and Dovetta to the school for the program. It started with a breakfast for the veterans and their families. Dallin's first grade class recited a poem about veterans and Dallin brought Grandpa Bert a card he'd made. Then the families of the veterans were seated outside by the amphitheater area. The veterans were then 'marched' in and sat on the 'stage' while the school band played 'It's a Grand Old Flag'. The students all waved their American flags. Then there were some songs performed by the chorus and the band. The third graders (Abby's grade) sang The Marine Hymn in honor of the birthday of the Marine Corp that's today. After that, each of the veterans there stood and introduced themselves, telling their relationship to the school, which branch of the military they were in, when and where they served. Dad was the only WWII veteran. One of the 8th grade teachers told the history of Veterans' Day and of the five branches of the military. It was a very impressive program. Then we went into the building where each class had decorated their door to honor the veterans. All of the students in the school lined the hallways to honor and thank the vets. We went to Brian's, Abby's, and Dallin's classrooms. By then Dad was tired and ready to go home. I'm glad we went and that they honored the veterans in such a nice way.