Random December

Helping put up Christmas lights.

The kids have been working really hard to get me to buy them a dog. They covered my room with notes about puppies.

They changed my lockscreen and wallpaper on my phone and ipad to puppies. And they are cute. The puppies and the children, but I'm not getting a puppy.

Sydney went to a Christmas Formal dance with her good friend, Ben! They make a cute couple. (This was actually girl's choice at his charter school, but he defied the social norm asked her anyway.)

Here's one more picture of my beautiful red cake.

This Pickles comic made me laugh because when Sterling was gone in Washington D.C., I completely forgot to put out our garbage can on garbage day and it was already FULL. 

Sydney went to the Westlake Christmas dance with her friend, Gavin. (Boy's choice)

Um, yes. This is so true.

Sterling and I were given tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. We've never been before and it was AWESOME! We went for dinner first, at the Nauvoo Cafe, one of my favorites. And we happened to run into to Sydney and Gavin on their Christmas dance date. (See the photo above)

Sterling's Birthday! He turned 44!!! Woot Woot. 

He requested Build Your Own for dinner. And Pumpkin Squares for dessert. Well, that's a warm dessert. But I wasn't thinking about that when I put the candles in and lit them up. 

Talk about burning a candle from both ends. 

And then I had to scoop out the wax before we could eat it. Duh!

And then his favorite Christmas movie, "The Polar Express" for dinner. 

Neighbor, Heather, brought over a fun Christmas game for the kids. She wrapped a lot of toys with rolls upon rolls of plastic wrap. One child unwraps the plastic wrap, collecting toys as they fall out. The next child rolls the two dice until they get a double. Then it all moves to the left and the next child rolls the die while the previous roller unwraps. 

Its a super fun game. Heather had two left over balls from her classroom Christmas party and invited the cul-de-sac kids to my house (while her baby slept at her house) to play the game. I love our cul-de-sac so much.

Sterling and I weren't the only ones who got to see the temple square lights this year. Sydney went with Ben. (She's been seeing a lot of him lately.)

A few other things have been keeping us busy the last little while. Camille started learning to ride the unicycle this fall. She's pretty good now. You can see in the video, from the beginning and then after a little practicing, she's riding all over the place.

Parker and Ethan spent a lot of time bouncing ping pong balls. Its better than playing computer games or staring at a screen. 

Another day, friend Jackson came over and they did a little more.

Icy Hike to Battle Creek Falls

I took the family on a hike, itching to get out on my Friday hikes again. We went to Battle Creek Falls. With so little snow, I thought it wouldn't be that bad. But...

boy was it ICY!!!

I won't be doing that again in the snow and ice.

It was actually really pretty and would be a little better in snow than ice, but still... it was dangerous. 

Christmas 2017

We had a nice dinner and talent show at Grady and Bryn's on Christmas Eve eve. (too bad I didn't get any video of the talent show.) Those who did not participate in the talent show participated in the nativity. Grade instructed me to video the nativity. 

The next kids in line to go on missions are the narrators. That would be Jeremy (Grade) and Lauren (Court) .

Poor Rachel did not feel well the whole week leading up to Christmas. Fever, weak, tired. Poor thing. 

Christmas eve, we had our Bethlehem dinner and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas. We opened sibling gifts and then it was time to take down the service chain we'd been building all year. 

Sydney and Camille wrapped the chain of service around our Christmas tree as a gift for Jesus. And then they struck this awkward pose for the picture. :)

Christmas morning!

Candy Cane Corner

This December, I took these friends to Candy Cane Corner downtown SLC. 

From the Candy Cane Corner website:

Candy Cane Corner benefits families and individuals receiving services from the YWCA Utah, The Road Home, or Volunteers of America, Utah by giving them an opportunity to select gifts for the holidays. It also provides a heart warming volunteer opportunity through out December for anyone interested in lending a hand.

So CCC is basically set up like a mini-store stocked with donated items. Toys, clothing, household items, towels, blankets, diapers, coats, etc.

We helped keep things stocked and tidy. And then we also helped wrap presents. It was such a great experience.

Ashely, Sydney, Kyler, Lexi

How many teenagers does it take to wrap a gift?

The kids had a great time being together and working hard. I think it was a little humbling to see people come in, mostly refugees the night we were there, and see them try to piece together a Christmas for their family.

All them were smiling and happy and said they were already planning on doing it again next year.

Karin, Sydney, Lexi, Kyler, Stephanie(Kyler's mom), Ashley

My Hike: Spanish Fork (not the hotpots)

We were so excited to hike to the hot springs up Spanish Fork canyon. We hiked and hiked and hiked. We could smell the sulfuric odor of the springs but never saw them. Finally, at mile 4, we turned around. Back at the parking lot, we realized we took the wrong trail. (We actually realized that when we hit mile 4 and had to turn around). But in the parking lot we saw the trail we SHOULD have taken.

Speaking of the parking lot. As we were getting in the car, a biker (yes a bicyclist in the snow), approached us and asked how we got in because the gate at the bottom of the road (1 mile away) was locked.

And then we realized we were in trouble. How were we going to get out? And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the gate-keeper was standing there, next to his truck. We followed him down to the gate and he let us out. What's funny is that there were two or three car loads of people wanting in so they could get to the hot pots. So the gate-keeper decided to let people in and just lock up the next day. 

(He said he normally locks the gates for the winter a lot earlier but the weather has been so nice and there has been no snow, so people still want to hike.)

I'm sure all those people (college kids) made it to the hot pots and had a good time. The hot pots we will have to wait to see until late spring because now the gates are locked!

Wheadon Family Farm Nativity

We were invited to attend a live nativity at the Wheadon Family Farm. You can see the nativity from Redwood road, out in their fields.And then tune to a specific radio station and you can listen to the nativity. 

But on this night, they invited us and others over for a scone and chili dinner. Then we walked into the field and sat on hay bales. They handed out a script to everyone and began the story of the birth of baby Jesus, interspersed with quotes and Christmas songs we all sang together. 

It was really a beautiful experience, from beginning to end.  

This was Hash about half way through. He zonked out. 

Sterling wasn't able to be there. He was in Washington D.C. on work. But there were a couple of other farm bureau people there, including our favorite, Susan!
Ken Ivory, a Utah legislator, was also there. He and Sterling have a strong mutual admiration for each other. The kids thought I was saying something like K'Nivery instead of Ken Ivory. We joked about it for a long time afterwards and told Sterling all about it on the phone when he called that night to say good night.

Santa Visit

Santa found us at the Dewey family Christmas party this year. 

He was definitely a jolly old soul. 

Thanks Mom!

All the children took a turn sitting on his lap and they each received a present.

Even some of the adults got in on the Santa action. 

I can't remember why mom is pointing here. Hopefully she is pointing out children on the good list and not the naughty list.

And here is a video of Santa, with his jolly laugh and his very corny jokes. And also, Sydney's Christmas wish 2017.

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And who can resist Uncle Geoff with Milo. They are both just the sweetest creature on the earth. 

Also, lets all take a moment to recognize the beauty of this red cake. Especially the frosting. It is no small feat. In fact, it is a source of great concentration and stress. But it turned out and I am very proud of it.

Next year I need to get some holly berries and ivy to decorate.

This cake is always better served as breakfast. And considering how many people were at the family dinner, I may have to start making two!!!