December Part 5: Ordinary December Days

December flew by. Again. Here's some photos of our ordinary December days (which sounds like an oxymoron because is there anything ever ordinary about December? We're still going to go with it because I'm not feeling creative to come up with something better.) 

Perhaps the biggest miracle in December is that we have proof that Gabe and Michael do love each other, and they somehow took these selfies together. 

Date nights in December always involve Christmas preparations. Dinner and shopping at the Outlets. Dinner and working on a project while we ate. It's always fun switching things up. 

I got asked to help out with our ward breakfast. I didn't do much, but Rachel got to play Mary in the live, constant Nativity. People were kind enough to bring her food. 

Gabe is now almost an expert on cleaning the church, and he jumped in to help clean up after the party. 

While Chelsea was visiting for the evening, Brian and I took her to see the Christmas Light show nearby. She loved it. I took Gabe once as well, but we never did end up going as a family. 

Michael made this mosaic in sculpture, and I love it so much. He made gladiators. 

Chelsea told me that if you put your feet in the hottest water you can stand and let them soak for a bit, it helps with headaches. Since headaches seem fairly constant, I decided to try out her remedy. 

We got our neighbor gifts ready nice and early. We put them together and delivered them on the first Sunday in December. We like to give everyone a couple of rolls of tape because everyone can always use tape, especially in December. 

Michael endured his last month of early morning seminary and the subsequent naps needed later in the day. 

Gracie does not have early morning seminary, but she did take advantage of morning, second morning, elevensies, noon, 1st afternoon, early evening, and late evening nap opportunities, and continued to dream of being able to turn on the tv to binge watch her soap operas. 

While my mom was in town for Elf Jr and the Tabernacle Choir Concert, we went to get Thai food. We also sang along to the music playing in the restaurant. 

Rachel and Gabe gave their own private recitals for my mom. 

A new apostle was called, Elder Gérald Caussé, which I totally called the first morning of General Conference, and they took a new quorum picture. It's crazy to me that Elder Holland was the only one that was up on the wall when I was in seminary. Every one else has been called since I went to college, and I can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone. 

My mom came to sacrament meeting with us before she headed home, and I grabbed a selfie with her and Rachel before she left. Here are the Raes:

Gabe and Gracie continue to be the best of frenemies. 

Gabe really wanted an ugly Christmas sweater for the Christmas spirit week at school, and I can never justify buying on because they're so expensive and they can only wear them for a year. So, I got him a nicer sweater that he wanted and got some Christmas pins and tinsel to DIY one for him (without destroying it). Here's what we came up with: 

We enjoyed beautiful sunrises and sunsets. 

Lea turned 50 and invited us to lunch and a fun Game Show Experience in Salt Lake where we got to participate in all these game show things like "Wheel of Fortune", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "The Price is Right" and others. 

There was a drawing one where we had to include as many details about Mickey Mouse as we could, and Rachel would be embarrassed that I didn't win this one, especially considering how much we go to Disney parks. I guess to be fair to me, I'm not a huge Mickey Mouse fan; I just like the parks. 

They had a "Fear Factor One" which Brian didn't want to even attempt. I figured that they couldn't do anything too terrible to us since none of us signed any waivers. I was only worried they might bring out a tarantula, which also seemed unlikely. Brian thought I was brave. I guessed it might be eating something gross like a bug, and since Michael had gotten me to eat a cricket before, I figured I could handle it. 

Eating bugs was exactly what they wanted us to do. 

The aftertaste was the worst part. They salted them for us, so as long as you didn't think too much about what you were eating, it wasn't bad. I did want a candy afterwards to get rid of the weird taste. 

Somehow, due to a clerical error and the fact that we didn't bet anything the last round due to the fact we don't trust our knowledge of plants, we pulled off the win. No one was more surprised than we were! But like I said, there was some errors in giving instructions the last round, so we really shouldn't have won. 

They "gave" us a big trophy (just to hold for a picture. They kept it afterwards). 

Here we are with the second and third teams. 

And here we are with Lea's whole group. It was such a blast! We love you so much, Lea!!

We also worked on Christmas Projects. Gabe had Michael and made him a king-size pillowcase (because Michael hasn't been liking the standard sized ones). 

He also made him a super soft minky throw pillow and some t-shirts. 

We hosted a dinner for the Saville December birthdays. 

We gave each person their own candle to blow out. Obviously they were good about only blowing out their assigned candle.

There was moments of bliss. 

Rachel, Gabe, and Brian started getting cluster allergy shots, which has been a bit miserable for them, so Brian treated them to CreamWorks, the fanciest shakes in town. 

I wanted to make something special for the ladies I serve with in the stake primary presidency, so I asked them for their favorite flowers, and then I watercolored, made them into patterns, and put them on a spiral journal. My goal was to start selling them. (And I'm almost there). 

Rachel made a sleep hug blanket for Gabe. Brian and I have seen them advertised on Instagram and decided to try to make one. I used Rachel as a pattern (literally traced her rough outline onto the fabric), and Rachel sewed it up using mostly my serger, but with a couple of hems on my sewing machine. 

We did a lot of reading. 

I got bored while waiting for Brian in the kids craft room and decided to take my mugshots. 

 Devri Saville, booked for excessive crafting and excessive use of tape. 

The most unordinary thing about December 2025 is how unseasonably warm it was. It didn't really snow, and we saw temperatures reach into the low 70s a couple of days in there. It was so strange. I still had snapdragons blooming, and our trees and bushes were trying to start budding because they were so confused. Here's hoping that January brings the snow; our desert needs it!