I’ve been using December to get a lot of school work done. P.E. is done till February, Dance and Art are done and no one is inviting us to do things since we are all busy with Christmas and other family oriented activities. It has been nice to have no scheduled place to go. The kids have been spending more time at home and together. They have been playing and making up games and just enjoying life together.
Having said that, I still found plenty of things to do to keep us busy. We did our usual school and chores everyday, but we also did our annual family caroling. Scott spent the whole of one Sunday afternoon baking tea rings (really big cinnamon rolls). We then spent the whole of the next Monday night delivering them and singing songs. It was such a fun experience. I have to admit, I was not in it this year. I wanted to bail on the Christmas Caroling part but did not want to loose the tradition. I was hoping maybe the kids wouldn’t remember and be OK with not doing it. But Monday afternoon Jaime walks down the stairs and says, ‘I’m so excited about caroling tonight.’ I was committed. The first house seemed torturous to me as we pulled up and knocked on the door. What fun it was and I was once again sold on the caroling idea. We went to 10 different houses. We missed 2 people, too bad for them! :0) It was a lot of fun. The kids had fun thinking of the next song to sing and who would ring the door bell. They all took turns so nicely and there wasn’t any fighting. We did I Spying the whole time too and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It really is a fun family tradition that will continue in our family for years to come. I am excited for when we have older kids who can really sing out and learn the songs. We will be a traveling chorus for sure!
We took our annual family trip to the temple. We went in conjunction with a concert that the Bennett’s were part of. That was a fun night. We not only got to enjoy the temple lights and spirit, but we also got to enjoy the spirit and love of some very dear friends. We got to the concert about 10 minutes late but that didn’t detract from the wonderful spirit. The Bennett boys sat with us in the back and that was fun. After the first concert they still had a second one so the Bennett kids and grandparents and us went to the visitors center and enjoyed the things they had in there. One really exciting thing they had were some sculptures depicting the life of Christ. It was an amazing experience and the kids really enjoyed it too. There was one sculpture of Martha and Mary when Christ was in their home teaching them. The missionary giving us the tour asked all the kids in the group what the sculpture was depicting. Alix raised her hand and told the right story and was even able to point out which one was Mary and which one was Martha. It was a very humbling experience for all in attendance. After that we took the beautiful walk around the temple and saw the lights and the still manger scene (the live nativity was not running that night) and then we went up the stairs to the garden on top of the temple. It was a beautiful sight that night and we were able to see all the bridges and cities. The kids really enjoyed it. We closed the temple down that night! We didn’t leave till 9:30pm. But it was well worth it. It’s always a highlight to our Christmas season to spend an evening at the temple enjoying the beauty and spirit of the season. We are so blessed to live so close to a temple and be able to take advantage of those blessings.
I was able to attend our December Enrichment meeting. It was a nice gathering of wonderful sisters from our ward. We did a get to know you game. We had to tell our name and where we were born and our ancestral background. It was fun to get to know these sisters better. I’ve known most of them for 10 years and learned some very interesting things. My bishop’s wife was born in Hanford California. It was fun to joke with her about that small town out in the middle of nowhere California. We also played this VERY fun passing game that I’d love to do again. It was a wonderful night to enjoy the company of women that I admire and love very much. I am so blessed to be in this ward and feel very humbled by the people I get to associate with.
Hi SAMI,
We hope that you had a nice birthday and we hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for the Christmas card, what a great picture. We miss you guys!! Hope one day you will be able to come visit. We have had a terrible snow storm and we have been dealing with the snow. I can’t drive in the snow so, Tom has been taking me when I need to go somewhere. We are supposed to get some more snow tonight.
Katie got an extra week off of school because of the snow storm. How is your brother doing in Seattle? I hope that your mom and Sara are doing well. Please give our best to everyone.
Did I tell you that my parents have a house near us? They go back and forth to this house to the Fremont house. It’s great having them so close, they are so close that we walk when we can and there isn’t snow and ice everywhere.
Take care of youself. We wish you the very best.
Love,
Erinn