MERRY CHRISTMAS

Just so you know I got clear to the 22nd and somehow deleted my entire blog.  That's not hard for me to do.  This is what I remember::

snowy morning

The first few days of December we got some of our decorations for Christmas up.  It certainly takes longer than it used to.

The 3rd was a frightening day.  Shanelle called crying and informed us that Pleasant Grove HS, where Erik teaches was in a lock down.  They were locked or 3 hours with us not knowing if there was a gun on campus or not.

While that was happening, Tiffani called to say that she was watching 3 men rob her neighbor while she was waiting for 911 to reply.  Finally after 90 minutes the police arrived, after the robbers had left.  She was so upset.  The best thing that happened in all that was that the 12 year old daughter was so sick that she was going to stay home from school that day.  Her mother got such a strong impression from the Spirit that her daughter should go to school.  After an argument, and the Spirit strong, she decided to follow her mother’s inspiration and went to school.  She would have been home alone when the robbers broke in her home.  No telling what they may have done to her.  The robbers got away with $4,000 but that is all.  How blessed we are when we follow the Spirit and allow blessings to come our way.  It is so important that we live worthy of the constant gift of the Holy Ghost.

At the end of the day and after tears, all turned out well.  A student made up the bomb threat and is now in juvenile hall fined all the expenses of the bomb squad and police and all students are safe.  Many tender mercies given.

At 4:00 we left for Kamas to watch Riley pin both of the boys he wrestled.  South Summit won 95-12.

waiting

coaching from dad

PIN

When we got home, very late, I paid the bills and balanced the books.  So grateful for our answered prayers today.

Friday, after Dad finished in the temple, we headed for Blanding and Aunt Maidie’s funeral.  Dad and I go to the temple every Tuesday; Dad serves Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.  He loves it and the people he serves with and sees while he is there.  Aunt Maide died at the age of 91.  We were tired so we stayed in Moab for the night and headed on to Blanding the next morning.  The funeral and viewing were nice in that we were able to see so much family.  After the luncheon we all went to Dennis and Cathy’s for a fun, fun visit.  Dennis has stage 4 cancer but no pain for which we are all grateful.   Every one of Dad’s brothers and sisters were there to give Dennis our support.  He has been given a short time to live and we will all be there to support him.

Mark and Kay

us and Mikki

Eric and Sharon

Lyman and Jean

Julie and Bill

Mike and Dennis

Siblings

Dennis and Cathy

The ride home was very long and late so we sang Christmas carols and ate nuts and candy all the way to keep Dad awake.

We always love seeing the horse's head o the Blue Mt.

Sundays are always good days.  That evening Erik’s family came over and brought us a plate of very delicious brownies shaped like Christmas trees and decorated.

 At 6:00 we watched the First Presidency Christmas message.  It is the perfect way to bring Christ as the most important person as the reason for the season.  It is always such a great, spiritual time. 

Dec. 9^th we went to PG Jr. High for Parker’s performances in two plays.  He is such a ham and captures his part to the best.  He kissed 2 girls which was a shocker but at that age he just puts his thumb between the lips and no one know what really happened. 

Better luck in a few years.  We love going to anything the boys are involved in.

Dec. 10^th I kidnapped Parker and Kolton and took them to Kamas to watch Riley and Molly in their school’s Christmas choir concert.  They were so good and fun to watch.  Molly was the prettiest and Riley the most handsome one.  We love bringing in Christmas with live music.  It snowed on the way home so I was a little nervous.  Dad was still sick so I was the driver with Parker and Kolton pushing all the buttons on my new car and Parker singing all the way home.  What fun they are. 

The next evening was Ava dancing at half time at a basketball game.  She did a great job and was so graceful as well as beautiful.

The following day she had a Christmas dance concert.  Dad was still not feeling well so I went alone.  It was the first time I had seen her tap.  I love tapping and she knew her part well. 

As soon as it was over I decided to go to Heber to watch Riley wrestle in a tournament.  He won 4 of his matches.  He is only a sophomore so he really did well.  It was a high school meet.  It was fun to sit with Clark and listen to all his very good coaching for the wrestlers.  Kamas was the only 2-A school there.  I was very proud of Riley.

On the 15^th we picked up Nixon and went to Camden’s school to see him be Scrooge in Dicken’s Christmas Carol.  He did an incredible job and played his part well.  He’s only in 5^th grade but knew every line.  We love that play at Christmas.

Thursday we watched Asher and Camden sing Christmas songs with their school.  We always love that program.
A mother and daughter in our ward brought us a balloon Rudolph.  They are always doing fun things with balloons for people in our ward.

Dad gave me this beautiful poinsettia for the first day of Christmas.

Dec. 18^th we went to Las Vegas to visit Tiffani and go to the BYU-Utah bowl game. 

The first 10 minutes of the game we gave Utah 5 touchdowns.  They never made another one and we scored 4.  Utah never scored again but we couldn’t make up the difference.  After the game we went to Lucille’s for dinner.  They have the best ribs ever.

 The girls had stayed home with a sitter for 8 hours.  They were very tired.

Clara and Tiff loved the hot towels after dinner.

Sunday was such a special day.  Sacrament meeting was so filled with the Spirit.  A group of violinist played Christmas carols for the prelude music;  Clara was among them and played so beautifully.  The program was filled with beautiful music and such inspired speakers.  The choir only had 23 voices but it sounded like many more. The closing hymn was “O, Come all ye Faithful”.  When the second verse started the violins played magnificently with the accompaniment.  It was so stirring; the tears flowed.  Cameron did a wonderful job passing the sacrament and then sat with his dad on the stand. (Dave is the bishop.)  Tiffani is the Gospel Doctrine teacher and she always gives such a good lesson.  This was no exception; again with tears.  Relief Society followed the pattern and we left the building being so filled with the true Christmas Spirit.

Sunday evening we enjoyed each other.  We all watched "The Return of the Jedi", even Flappy.

Cameron and I worked on a puzzle but I really had a hard time.  Cameron had to finish it.

Monday morning Tiffani threw a Polar Express party for the girls and their friends.  She is amazing.  They are completely remodeling their home and to do that among all the carpentry was such a good thing to do.  We were smart and left when the crowd gathered.  The girls had so much fun.  

It's getting so close to Christmas and we are so excited.  What a fun time of the year.  Our Christmas CD's are playing constantly.  We love it.  It snowed which we really love.

Our gifts for this Christmas were a new computer for me and a large screen for George’s ibook.  Both were so needed.  Dad has of course done the 12 days of Christmas with a gift every day for me.  What a man!  I’ve only guessed 2 of 10 poems for clues.  Dad worked very hard doing a 3-D puzzle.

finished

Christmas Eve was so wonderful. Milt came and brought me a painting he had done because I love Monet.

Erik and Shanelle invited us and Clint and Deb’s family, to dinner served at 2:30.  I spent the morning cooking rolls, two homemade banana pies and a good ole NC blueberry yum yum.  We also took some shrimp and sauce for hors d’oeuvres.  Erik and Shanelle had fixed a huge ham, (we provided) our garden potatoes, (which Erik mashes and puts garlic, butter and yum in) sweet potatoes that were thinly sliced and topped with a butter and brown sugar sauce, green beans with  an I don’t know what sauce that had nuts in it; so good, and a jello salad. Erik mad a fresh apple pie and a South African banopi.   Clint and Deb brought a beautiful and tasty spinach salad and cheese cake with 4 different flavors.  We ate ‘till we couldn’t eat any more. 

desserts

Clint’s family had to leave and we stayed to play games.  Shanelle is a champ at finding fun games.  We played marshmallow toss,

a nylon and balloon game

and Pictionary.  We ended the time with Christmas carols and acting out the nativity while Granddad read from the Bible. 

It was just such a peaceful evening filled with a great feeling of love for our family and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve.  We are so grateful for eternal families and the plan of salvation.  We pray that our family will have strong faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and live the doctrine of Christ.  Our Savior has paid the price so that we can all have this.

Christmas was such a wonderful day.  We got up, not too early and had prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for all He has given us and especially our family and extended families.  We opened the presents we had under the tree and just had a peaceful time.

love our Precious Moments Nativities (Washington is not crooked)

 Little Christmas train

We always go to Scott’ s first, ‘cause he’s the closest.  They had a wonderful Christmas and the kids were still so excited.  They loved everything and were so excited for us to open our presents.  We had a fun treat of cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk.  Yum!

I neglected to get a family foto.  This is Ava and her American doll

Next was off to Erik’s.  They were just sitting down to a breakfast of baked eggs, ham and cheese, and apple juice with caramel and whipped cream; again yummy! 

The boys showed us their fun gifts and were so excited about everything.  They are such good boys and we enjoy being with them.

Then off to Kamas.  Because of the 8 inches of snow we received Christmas Eve, we were worried about the roads.   They were bare and the scenery was beautiful.  

When we got to their home all we could hear was ukuleles.  They each got one for Christmas and put on quite a concert. 

It was a blast.  Jonny and Tyler spent the time playing with electric cars and hover boards.  Of course we ate again. 

We ate all day long.  We were so tired when we got home that we actually took a nap.  It was just a great day to be with family.  We skyped with Kristin’s and Tiff’s families later that evening so we got to visit with all our family. 

Tiffy's girls decided to do a live nativity for the neighborhood.

Nothing can be finer than having family and the Savior in our lives.

Monday we headed to St George for the wedding of Kelsey Bryant.  She is the daughter of one of our favorite families from our mission.  She met a boy from Utah and they fell in love and decided to marry in Utah.  We were so excited to be able to be with them on that special day.  It was a beautiful sealing and he showed up when they came out of the temple in his Marine dress uniform. 

 It was so stunning.  If course I cried that she had found someone who loved this country and our Savior.
This wonderful 2015 has come to a close.  We spent the days watching football-shocker.
We end the year with our testimonies of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is so true.  Nothing else matters; it is true.  Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to return to live with Him and our families.  Joseph Smith definitely saw God and Jesus Christ in the sacred grove.  He was instrumental in this beautiful restoration and the coming of the Book of Mormon.  We love that book and invite all to read it daily, alone, and with your family.  It is true and will make a difference in your lives.  President Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet in our day and guides us to follow the Doctrine of Christ and eternal exaltation.
We love our family with all our hearts and pray we may live worthy to live you for all eternity; not one lost.