December 2014

December Fun!  We love December and we love our family traditions!  

We made gingerbread houses one evening.  Lots of candy and lots of fun!

We also enjoyed making cookies for our neighbors and meeting some of them.  We put a pass along card "He is the Gift" on each plate.

I was involved in the Tucson Interfaith Choir and in the Messiah.  I had hours of rehearsals, which was hard during this already busy season.  The kids and Denver went to my concert.  What a story that was.  Here goes:  Denver was sitting with the kids, obviously.  Deacon was talking loudly.  A man in the next pew over 'shh'ed him pretty loudly.   Then we started singing.  Our first song was "ding dong merrily on high" and was a fun song.  Deacon kept saying, "That fun!"  and was just tickled with the music and loving it.  The man moved over from his pew to the farthest one away.   Later during the performance, when Deacon was quiet, the man walked across the building to the side where Denver was sitting and proceeded to loudly tell him to take his son and leave and let other's listen.  Denver was shocked because Deacon was quiet now.  The fun song was over.  I was watching the whole thing from the front.  I could hear the man, he was so loud.  Denver was very calm and told the man he wasn't going to leave because his family was here to listen to their mom's concert.  He held it together awesomely!  After the concert, multiple, including choir members and soloists, told him how impressed they were with his reaction and to keep coming to the concerts and bring the kids to all of them.  This was, after all, a free family event.  I know it was hard for him, but he did great!

We had a work party where we ate chipotle and did a white elephant gift exchange.  It was during lunch at the office one day.  It was quick, but a nice gathering.

Before we left for our vacation, we decided to open our secret santa gifts from each other.

Denver had Deacon's name...

And got him a basketball hoop for the door.  Deacon loved it.

Deacon had Colson's name...

and got him a scorpion race track.

Very sad story...I only post this for journal purposes. Garrett had Sterling's name.  He wanted to go beyond the $10 limit so he had to use his own money for the extra cost.  I think Garrett talked a lot about what it might be and made it sound like an amazing gift.  Anyway, when Sterling opened it, he said "this is all?"  in a very ungrateful tone so...gone went the gift (a sweet, big nerf gun).  We gave it to someone who's house had burned down and lost their Christmas presents (we didn't know them, but a friend of ours works with the dad and told us about it).

He was sad.  He sad he really did like it,   We wanted him to learn a lesson about showing gratitude.  He was overly grateful for all the rest of his presents on Christmas day ;).

Maelie drew Garrett's name.

She got him a paint by number.

I had Maelie's name.

I gave her jewelry. Necklaces, to be more specific.

Colson had my name and he got me puzzles!

Sterling had Dad's name and he got him a hot cocoa set.  (with an awesome electric stirrer.)

After opening the presents, we headed to Mesa for Denver's family's Christmas party.

After eating dinner, we watched as the kids acted out the Nativity in costumes.  Maelie was Mary, Garrett-a wise man, Sterling colson and deacon were shepherds.

More of the kids in costume.  Cousins!

Deacon didn't want to stand still- he wanted to ride his 'horse'

After the Nativity we had a white elephant gift exchange.

When the party was over, we drove to Wickenberg and stayed the night in a room there.  Then the next day (Tuesday), we drove the rest of the way to Brigham City, UT.   We were able to spend 3 days there with my parents for Christmas.  My dad's 80th Christmas!!!

Christmas eve the kids opened their PJs.

Lori and fam and Sandy and fam came to do the nativity with us on Christmas eve.

Cousin Ryan playing with the kids.

After the nativity and pjs, we went to Willard Bay to look at the lights there.  Then off to bed for the kids so Santa could come!

Christmas morning came with snow!!!  We haven't had a white Christmas for 3 years.  It was nice to see.

Christmas morning!

Later that day we went sledding.  Jenn and her family came up to sled with us.  Erin's family was sick so we didn't get to see her that trip :(.

I love sledding. That is the ONLY thing I miss about the snow.  The ONLY thing.

The day after Christmas is our anniversary.  This year was our 13th!  My favorite number.With my mom and dad, we went to the temple to do sealings.  It was really nice and the best way to start our anniversary.  My parents watched our kids while we went up to Logan to dinner and Anniversary Inn.  We have wanted to go to Anniversary Inn since we lived in Utah.  We never could, though.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse in Logan, went to a few stores (Utah stores like Seagull Book and Downeast).  We then went to our Inn.  We initially booked the lowest priced room, but they were having maintenance problems in that room so they upgraded us to a diamond suite, which is the most expensive room at no extra cost.  We chose 'Arabian Nights'.  It was a great choice!  Walking up the steps to the room.

We used our timer on our camera to take some anniversay photos.

Our room.  It had 2 wine glasses filled with kisses, sparkling cider.  Later we got a popcorn kit and choco. covered strawberries.  And for breakfast, we had cinnamon rolls and danishes with juice and cocoa.  We were definitely spoiled this year!

Pictures of our room.

New Years eve, Kristen and Gary came to play games with us.  We played Rook and Spades, the whole time!  It was fun.  They left at around 11pm.  When they were leaving, we saw that it had snowed and was still snowing!  Crazy.  We threw a few snowballs and then they left.

Snow in the desert!

On New Year's day, we ran (Denver, me, Garrett and Sterling) the Oro Valley Hot cocoa 5K.  I had a time 25:10.  Denver ran in 20 minutes.  Garrett was 26 and Sterling 28 (his first one.  He didn't really like it and he was sore after :) ).  It was cold, but pretty as we had a snow-covered mountain view during the run.  It was a great way to invite the New Year.  Here's to a great 2015!

Also, Denver bought his half of the practice on the 1st!