December 2023 Part 3: The Everyday Stuff

Here's all the things in December that were photo worthy without being its own blog post worth. 

Gracie the reindeer (she's a good sport most of the time). 

Rachel passed off her solo dance. This year, she's doing a musical theater dance to "Popular" from Wicked.  

And also had her Winter Showcase and day of service. 

Cold + Snow= a need for hot chocolate. 

We took the Parker kids to church and fed them dinner one weekend while Serene and Dustin went to New York. We forgot how much work 4 year olds are at church! We're so grateful to be past that stage, and we left church with a renewed awareness of all the young parents in our congregation! 

We set the table almost daily--family dinners are really important to us! 

We enjoyed having our Christmas lights on, including all the candy cane lights on our deck. 

We gave Michael one of his Christmas presents early. 

It was a season pass to Brighton Resort. We wanted him to be able to go up before Christmas. 

Our neighbors also had passes to Brighton, so we also worked it out that he could ride up with them sometimes.

We celebrated our December birthdays with dinner and cake. 

and Jackbox games. 

We marveled at how quickly time marches on and how fast our kids grow. I remember splurging for this giraffe back in 2010, wondering if it was going to be a good purchase. 

Our neighbors started giving us little gifts, and I laughed when I discovered this new thing of soap in the kids bathroom. I knew it came from a neighbor, but Gabe snatched it up before I even saw it! 

We got to attend the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square's Christmas Concert again, and my mom came down to go with us. As always, the concert was incredible. 

There was joy. 

There was sickness. Rachel and Gabe both got infections. Rachel and Gabe got strep throat (and Gabe got a double ear infection). Rachel got hit first, and was able to go to school for some of those Christmas parties and performances,

but poor Gabe was out clear until Christmas Break. He was so sad to miss his parties and Christmas things. 

I got a bad headache in there as well, but nothing like my poor kids. 

Rachel was feeling well enough to do her Christmas Demos, but her energy was still pretty low, though you can't tell from this picture. 

I had to take Gabe into the doctor a couple of times. Poor guy! 

Meanwhile, Brian and Michael loved hitting up the slopes, this time at Powder Mountain with Ben, Tyler, and Tucker. 

When we weren't prepping for Christmas, running Rachel to dance, or running the kids to school, Brian was thinking about snowboarding. He's become a bit obsessed, and I am still feeling quite stunned about the whole thing. I'm glad that he finally has something to love about winter. 

With health on them mend, we were ready for Christmas. 

December 2023 Part 2: Dates

Date nights are so important to Brian and I, especially and even in the busy, busy month of December. Here we are at dinner...Thai food maybe? 

Our dates in December usually involved dinner and Christmas shopping. I thought this giant plush at Kohls was really funny. 

Gabe was having a bit of a struggle, so I decided to take him out on a date. We went to Black Bear Diner. 

I treated him to Hot Chocolate because Gabe's love language is food, especially food with whipped cream (or whooped cream as he once called it). 

We had some time to kill, so I made up a scavenger hunt for us to do. I made the list in the parking lot, and then Gabe and I went hunting. 

Looks like Brian also took Gabe out for Thai Food. 

 Sometimes, you just need some one-on-one time with your mom or dad. 

December 2023 Part 1: Projects

Once December hit, we were off on a long marathon of to-dos and events. Let's start with the projects!

We (meaning mostly me and my lone committee member Bekah), decided to do a service project for our ward Christmas Party. We wanted to do a 100% catered dinner so that the ward members (and neighbors) could just show up, eat, and then help with service. I wanted there to be service activities that even the youngest kids could help with (because I know how hard it is to find service projects that my kids can participate in). 

I designed this flyer (thank you, Canva!), and we picked a couple of humanitarian kits from JustServe.org that we could collect items for and then have ward members put together. To make it easier, I made a wish list of items on Amazon, and invited my ward members to the link to pick out items that they could donate. Those items got delivered to my house, where I organized and inventoried them. We had LOTS of packages delivered to our house, and I was so grateful for the generosity of our ward members. 

I also got volunteers to cut fringe around the edge of our fleece blanket kits so that all people would have to do the night of was tie the pieces of fleece together. Another neighbor helped sew up the rest of the hospital gowns for our procedure dolls (thankfully my mom and Michael got the actual dolls ready at Thanksgiving.) Brian and I found videos to explain each of the service activities so that the kids especially could understand why we were doing what we were doing, and Brian got the videos prepped to play on the TVs at our meetinghouse. I also made large cards for the missionaries serving in our ward so that everyone could write them a note. 

Finally, the big day arrived, and we loaded our van with all the supplies for the service projects. 

While we were setting up tables, we had to laugh at this sign in the custodial closet: 

The tables were decorated with white tablecloths and pine boughs, as well as battery powered candles in votives. It looked really nice, and I forgot to take a picture. Whoops! 

Here's one of the rooms with a humanitarian kit. Basically, everyone got a bag and filled it with one item from each different pile. This room was for hygiene kits for local refugees. I loved watching the kids be excited to fill a bag. 

Here's our other room with the humanitarian kits, only these ones were going to help kids who don't have food at their homes. We'd fill a gallon bag of oatmeal, Easy Mac, Ramen, Beef sticks, fruit cups, and applesauce. We did a lot of these kits, and I especially loved watching the tiniest people excitedly filling up their bags. Kids love serving and helping! 

We had another room set up for tying blankets. These blankets were bound for the hospital for kids who need some kind of treatment. I was pretty overzealous when I bought the kits, and I wasn't sure that we'd get all 25 tied, but I was wrong. We had tables of youth sitting, tying, and laughing. We had families sitting there, tying, and talking. Neighbors sitting there, tying and getting better acquainted. When one blanket got finished, we popped another one on the table. 

I put my friend Annika in charge of the procedure doll room so she could protect my sewing supplies! Here, they stuffed the dolls, and those with skills sewed the stuffing opening back up. We had all ages in here, and they got the 25 ish dolls stuffed, sewn up, and dressed. 

At the end of the night, I had different ward members offer to deliver all the items we produced to the places throughout the Salt Lake and Utah valleys, so all I had to do was mail the missionary cards. I didn't have to clean up the tables or do any dishes because so many people pitched in and cleaned it all up. I got so many compliments about the night. My favorite was a brother who said that it was the best Christmas party he'd ever been to. Our newly created ward loved being able to get to know each other while serving other people. 

I felt strongly that this is what we needed to do for our Christmas party, and though it was hard to stick to my guns when others suggested a themed Whoville party or a Dickens Party (those did sound like so much fun!), I was so grateful that night to see the joy that comes when we serve others. It was a perfect gift to give the Savior. 

In addition to the giant project that was planning the Ward Christmas party, our kids also had mini projects for their sibling gifts, 

Brian and I had Christmas present projects, and Danny and Shayne even came over to use some tools for Christmas projects that they had.

I also finished out my two classes at UVU, ending with this Analytique drawing of a gazebo I designed. It took so much work, but I'm so proud of it. 

When I presented my design for my final, our professor had invited a couple of other professors in the architecture program to give feedback on our designs, and one of them took pictures of a few of the designs (including mine!), although after I presented my design they were silent for a long time before they gave me my feedback. I think it was a good thing, but it sure made me nervous! I'm happy to report that I scored high As in both of my classes.