Christmas 2023

We had a wonderful Christmas! Nathaniel and Audrey were in Utah, but we were able to spend time with them in Disney World after Christmas. 

On Friday, December 15, I took the boys to lunch at IHOP to celebrate the end of the semester.

They were very glad to have a break!

Papa and Emily arrived on Saturday, December 16, just in time for the company party at Jake's Unlimited.

Sunday, December 17 

This picture was taken after church. Michael stayed after for a little while and the rest of us went home to make pancakes and eggs and real bacon. I wanted to teach the kids how to make actual bacon and not just the kind we heat up in the microwave so that was fun. Then we had a zoom call with Nathaniel and Audrey. Then I made the last two batches of poppyseed bread. While it was baking, everybody helped me assemble the Christmas cards. They stuffed them and licked them and put on the address labels and stamps. Then I finished up the poppyseed bread and got it all assembled and organized for them to deliver. They split up into three groups of two each, one driver and one runner, and everybody took care of delivering things while I stayed home to clean up and get dinner finished. We had beef stroganoff. 

Monday, December 18

On Monday I spent most of the day doing laundry and chores. Dad played backgammon with the kids. Jonny got sick on Sunday night in the middle of the night. He seemed OK in the morning but he mostly rested for the day. Of course, we couldn't take him to Feed My Starving Children. We were going to go to lunch at Joe's BBQ but since Jonny wasn't feeling well and he wanted Panda Express that's what we got and we ate that at home with him. We left at 3 PM. First, we went to the post office so I could mail all the Christmas cards. Then we went to the Giving Machines. I tried the trick where you type 777 to select one of each but that was almost $3000 so we didn't do that. 

Then we went to Feed My Starving Children for our 4:30 PM session. Michael had to work and couldn't join us this time. Andrew did warehouse, Dad was the sealer, Emily and I did the bags but we were on opposite sides of the table, and Daniel did the rice and soy. We got some pictures and I made a donation and then we left. 

Emily wasn't feeling well so we went to Canes which was right there on the corner by the mall. Or what used to be the mall. We were going to go to the Mesa Temple lights but the boys didn't want to and Emily wasn't feeling well and Dad didn't seem to care so instead we drove through Christmas on Comstock and then went home. I've always wanted to go there. It was pretty cute and I'm glad I got to see it. Emily and Dad watched Home Alone 2 while I got some work done on the computer. 

Tuesday, December 19

We didn't have any scheduled appointments today. I went to Home Depot to rent a fan to dry out the wood from the leak. In the morning, I made the cookie dough and put it in the fridge for a few hours. Dad and Emily baked the cookies while I did chores. Andrew worked from 9 AM to 4 PM. After Michael got home and Andrew was home, we read scriptures. Then Andrew had his interview with Bishop Naylor about his mission. The mission portal is open already. I made the icing and once Andrew got home, we all sat around and decorated Christmas cookies. Then we watched Name That Tune and went to bed. 

Wednesday, December 20

Today we went to Game Show Battle Rooms. Michael had some important meetings today and couldn't come with us. We got there right at 11 AM. Emily, Dad, and Jonny called themselves Santa’s Elves and  Daniel, Andrew, and I were the Holly Jollies. That was Daniel’s idea. I called myself Elastigirl, Andrew was Maverick, Daniel was Frosty, Dad was Me, Emily was Taylor Swift, and Jonny was Johnny Depp. It was a lot of fun. Our host, Liz, helped us a lot on the Family Feud portion and gave us a lot of hints. There was one puzzle that was “Do you wanna build a snowman?” and there were only a few letters up there but Emily got it. I got quite a few, as well, especially in the lightning round. I got Christina Aguilera Genie in a Bottle when there were only about four letters up there so I was pretty proud of myself for that one. Daniel figured out Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer when there were no letters up there at all. He went up to spin and he could choose two letters so he did the R and knew it was right and solved it. We did the price matching game and rolled the dice and put the number in the right column for the price and after all that we were winning. Then we did the Plinko game and we pretty much crushed them. It was so fun! 

We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch and then the boys headed home. Papa and Emily and I went shopping at JC Penney. We came home and I did a few chores and Emily and Dad took a nap and I tried to but I couldn't fall asleep. Daniel went to his friend Cole's house to hang out with his swim friends and came back around 8 PM. Everybody ate leftovers for dinner. We were having a hard time choosing a movie and finally I realized we should watch Top Gun Maverick because Dad hadn't seen it and everybody loved that idea so that's what we did.

Thursday, December 21

Dad helped me wrap presents like always, and I am so grateful!

Papa had to leave on Friday, December 22, but we will see him soon when we go to Disney World.

On Saturday, December 23, we met the Akers for lunch at Golden Corral. Normally, we have them over to our house but with all I have going on and preparing for our trip, this was easier and it worked out great!

Christmas Eve with Erin and Rich

We had our traditional steak dinner with them and opened gifts. Michael grilled and it was awesome. I made sides and the kids helped with setting the table and helped me with the food. Erin and Rich came over at about 2 PM. We ate and we played a game and we had dessert. We opened gifts and took a picture. It was kind of funny because Erin gave Michael the same book that I gave Rich and she gave me a pretty Nativity that lights up. 

Christmas Day!

We had so much fun opening presents and having our traditional brunch of aebleskivers.

Merry Christmas!

Jonny's Piano Recital

It's hard to believe, but this is the last piano recital for our kids. Jonny is so talented at playing the piano, but with track season coming up he has decided to stop taking piano lessons. We enjoyed his last recital, though! He did a wonderful job!

Feed My Starving Children Packing Session for Wisdom Natural Brands

We had fun tonight at our work packing session at Feed My Starving Children! Daniel had another volunteer event and Andrew already had other plans so we took Jonny. It's always a wonderful time doing service for those in need!

Christine's Birthday

I had a good birthday today! I got a manicure and pedicure. I dropped off some donations at House of Refuge. I went to Ross and bought a couple of dresses and decor and a new carry-on suitcase. I also got some wall hangings for the office. I went to Joe's Farm Grill to get my "free" birthday dinner. They actually took $15 off the bill, which was very nice. This evening, I opened my presents and we had the cookie cake so that was nice.  I watched Dancing with the Stars and by then it was time for bed.

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice week. Emily flew in on Tuesday night. She and I had fun watching the Taylor Swift Dancing with the Stars night. The boys had early release on Wednesday. I was pretty proud of myself for getting the sweet potatoes done on Tuesday. I had Jonny help me make the cranberry sauce when he got home that day. Andrew helped me with the crab dip on Wednesday. When everybody got home from school on Wednesday, we went to lunch at Costa Vida, but first we went to Sam's Club and chose two children from the Angel tree. Then we went home and finished getting ready and went to see the movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I really enjoyed it. I had just finished reading the book. It was pretty true to the book but quite a few details have been changed. 

Thanksgiving Day was long but it was nice. The only thing that went wrong with the meal is that I tried to boil the yellow potatoes whole and they turned into a big gummy mess. I was trying a different way to peel them and it definitely didn't work. Oh well. I'll know better for next year. The turkey and ribs that Betsy and Geoff brought were amazing. They were all cooked in the pit and the turkey was so moist. I made a double batch of stuffing but that was way too much. And hardly anybody ate my sweet potatoes this year. I had everybody say what they were grateful for as we went around the table. Rich was very nice and glad to be there to meet all of us. It was a nice meal. Afterwards, we cleaned up and had a picture. 

Then we had dessert and played a few games. We played Herd Mentality and then Taboo. Steve won the first round of Herd Mentality and then Michael won the second. It was funny because on the second round of Herd Mentality Michael and I were tied and they had that we have a question again about who is the best dressed and this time I said Steve but Michael said me and that ended up being the majority answer so he won and everybody had a good laugh about it. For Taboo, Emily and I were on the same team so we were pretty much unbeatable. We also had Daniel and Rich and Geoff against everybody else. Even little Aaron joined in for a little while. Cody and Andrew didn't play. They went out to the park to play some football. After the games, the Akers and Steve all left. We played a couple games of Jackbox. Emily and I wanted to watch some of our TV shows and Erin and Rich watched with us for a little while and then left. 

On Friday we started at about 11 AM to set up for Christmas and it took us a little over an hour. Michael and Andrew handled everything outside and the rest of us worked inside and got the tree up. Emily did the railing. Johnny did the little tinsel trees and Daniel helped put up some other things.  I'm always so relieved when we get that done. Emily spent the afternoon with Kayla. That night, Andrew went to the game. 

On Saturday, we read the Come, Follow Me lesson and then I gave the kids a finance lesson on budgeting, banking, and insurance. Michael had a lot to say and I hadn't planned on that so I ended up taking quite a while but it was nice to have his input. We had to quickly get ready to make it to my reservation for lunch at Hash Kitchen. As soon as we drove up we could tell we wouldn't want to stay there because the music was so loud. I put in our name for Texas Roadhouse so we went there instead and we didn't have to wait very long at all. It was nice because we were done with our lunch pretty quickly and made it home in time for the football game at 1:30 PM. Michael and Andrew were happy about that. Emily worked on some homework and I did some chores on the computer while the boys played on their media.  

Emily's flight was this morning at 11:10 AM. Apparently it was delayed by about 45 minutes but she made it to Provo and Nathaniel picked her up and they went over to the Eldredge's.  We had a good day at church. 

It was a wonderful week! Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekend Trip to Provo for Dancesport and BYU vs. Iowa State football game

We sure know how to pack a lot into a short weekend! We flew up to Provo to see Emily dance, tour BYU campus, and go to the BYU vs. Iowa State game. 

First, we had a fun lunch at Brick Oven. Audrey couldn't join us because of work, unfortunately.

Then we went to BYU for a campus tour in a golf cart with Emily and the boys. It was very informative and Andrew is excited about the prospect of going to school here.

That evening, we tried axe throwing. It turns out, I'm terrible at it. However, the kids had a great time!

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to watch Emily's samba at the BYU Dancesport competition.

She was called back twice and ended up winning 7th place!

We went to Tucanos for lunch and it was delicious! It's a Brazilian steakhouse and they keep bringing you more and more meat. We were stuffed and we laughed when Jonny was the only one who wanted to see the dessert options.

In the afternoon, Emily danced the tango.

Michael, Andrew, Audrey, and Nathaniel all went to the football game against Iowa State.

Emily, Daniel, Jonny, and I went to visit my brother Joe, his lovely wife Brandie, and their two adorable girls, Delilah and Veronica. 

It was a packed schedule like usual, but it was wonderful and I am so glad we were able to go!