Utah visit

 We left on Boxing Day to visit our Utah family. The kids had gotten bears from our neighbor Shannon and they planned on taking them with them to take pictures wherever we went, Flat Stanley style, but forgot about that plan after the first picture in Page where we stopped for lunch.

Megan was most excited to see the babies. Sarah took right to her, spending lots of time playing peek a boo with Megan, and by the end of our time there, Megan was the first one she would seek out when they came to Grandma's house to visit.

Everyone loved seeing Aften, of course. She's a smiley, fun baby, and got passed around a lot.

Saturday morning everyone gathered for Christmas 2.0. Andrew had gotten little gifts of toys or candy for everyone and everyone enjoyed opening more presents.

After the presents, we headed to the Provo Rec center where the kids got some swimming in. 

So much peek-a-boo.

The cousins enjoyed playing Jackbox games together. 

We stopped by Von and Patty's for a short visit, then headed to lunch. The kids' favorite lunch up in Utah is Tucano's for the Brazilian grill experience. After lunch we headed to the Bean Museum and met up with Savannah and her mom and Jared, since they were in Utah hanging with her mom while Savannah's sister who lives with her took her family on vacation. It was fun to spend a little time with them.

We had a fun time at the BYU bowling lanes. Some did better than others (and some a lot worse). 

The best thing about Provo is all the cousin time. 

The other tradition that Jacob loves is Red Robin. Rachel and I got wiser this time and split a burger since she always fills up on the bottomless fries and never has room for much of her burger. Everyone had a good time, and it was a good way to wrap up our time in Provo.

We had planned to leave on New Year's Day, but there was some weather coming in, so we decided it would be wiser to drive home on New Year's Eve and miss the rain/snow. The kids were disappointed to miss NYE with cousins, and to leave a day earlier than planned. Megan was especially disappointed to miss out on more time with Sarah and Aften, but Annette's cousin had passed away that Sunday, and her funeral was going to be in Phoenix the following week, when Rachel had to go up for her all-state jazz audition anyway, so we planned to meet up so Megan could see them again, and that brought her a little comfort. The drive home was uneventful, and our NYE was pretty low key and a little lame, but I liked going to bed early. :) 

Christmas

 With the Knight cousins in Washington, our Christmas Eve tradition of acting out the nativity story still had to go forward, so we did it via Google Meet. Our house was the stable with Mary and Joseph, and the Knights were in the field with the shepherds and angels. It worked out perfectly.

Pajama pants for Christmas Eve, then they turned on whatever is the "traditional" movie to watch on Christmas Eve--I think it was The Christmas Chronicles.

Santa came and brought exciting things like a concertina for Megan, a They Might Be Giants record for Rachel, stacking cups for Ryan, and clothes for Annie. And other stuff I'm sure everyone enjoyed.

We had a nice Christmas, enjoyed Christmas dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, and at some point got things somewhat cleaned up and packed for our trip to Utah since we were leaving the next day.

December and Christmas prep

Once the Knights left, we got to work on getting ready for Christmas. Jacob and I went on a date to celebrate our anniversary and while we were gone the kids (mostly, if not only, Annie if we're being honest) started putting up Christmas decorations. Then Sunday we decorated the trees. The one in the family room had all of the kids' ornaments that they've acquired over the years, while the one in the loft had the family ornaments. We sure have a lot of ornaments. 

We also went to the Giving Machine as a good way to kick off the Christmas season. We bought a pig, some clothing for foster kids, food for the food bank, and a few other items, including Rachel paying from her work money to help refugees. It was a good Sunday activity.

Grandma and I had our traditional candy making day. So much sugar to make so much deliciousness. Caramels, fudge, candied pecans, dipped pretzels. 

Since Annie is doing a choir club this year, we got to go to the choir Christmas concert, which was actually a great way to ring in the season. The music was beautiful (Annie's group's song, and the other groups, too!).

I volunteered at the Giving Machines on their last day, and my mom and dad came with me. Since we were the morning shift, it was SUPER slow and we really weren't needed much. We talked to maybe 10 people in the 3 hours we were there. But it was still a good way to spend a few hours.

After Megan's last primary activity, the young women came and kidnapped them to give them a preview of what Young Women would be like when they started in January. I was there as a substitute helper for the group, so I got to witness their kidnapping. A fun time was had by all, though Megan did report that they are weird. :D 

At our ward Christmas party Rachel and her friends were invited to play as a brass trio for the third year in a row. They did a great job. Megan stole the Bury's baby for a while during the dinner, too. Her love of babies and kids makes her loved by many in our ward. 

With the PTO we did a Christmas treat exchange for a teacher appreciation event and I made these super cute reindeer cookies just by dipping oreos and adding the toppings. The teachers loved all the treats.

Annie continues to do well in her voice lessons and sang beautifully at the Christmas recital. Since Sister Steffan cut back on students after she had her baby, Annie is her only voice student, and she's doing a great job.

December also means the end of the semester and quarter. Rachel and Annie had finals that last week, though Rachel mostly had hers done before the last week. Annie's drama final was performing the skit they wrote and directed. It was great.

With the end of the quarter Megan and Ryan were both recognized at their awards assemblies (which Ryan skipped) for their straight As. Megan also was recognized as an outstanding student in both band and PE. Middle school looks good on her.

Megan's friend, Rebekah, moved back to New Mexico over Christmas break, so we had her over before they left. Somehow Megan and friends all gravitate towards people that look just like them: skinny, blond girls with straight, long hair. 

At the food bank's Christmas party, I won one of the Bingo games and the prize was a super cute cookie jar that looks like a gingerbread house, and cookie cutters for 3-D cookies. We had to try them out, and they actually worked pretty well. Most of the kids were lame, though, and wouldn't decorate them with me. We had enough junk food in our house, so we took them and delivered them to a few families in the ward. 

Thanksgiving

 The Knights came from Seattle to hang with us for Thanksgiving week! It was fun (as always) to have them visiting! I was signed up to help at the food bank with the special Holiday distribution and noticed that there weren't many signed up, so I asked if any of them wanted to come and everyone said yes, so we got Annie out of school early (Ryan and Megan skipped school while they were here), and we all pitched in and had fun doing it. 

Grandma took the boys on a bike ride to Jerry Bob's for breakfast one morning. The girls were too lazy to work for their breakfast. ;) 

We had our traditional ugly sweater contest, but since it was Thanksgiving time, not all were Christmas themed. We got a turkey massacre, a goat head, a muscle shirt, and some other weird ones. Of course Grandpa came and judged as always.

Rachel's muscle shirt paired disturbingly well with B's goat head.

Eloise's ... masterpiece? The turkey massacre.

So many Rolos and so much frosting. 

We brought the cookies to the finish line of the Turkey Trot to eat as the prize. Grandma made shirts that said Huffin' for our Stuffin'. 

We made it back and enjoyed our turkey dinner and some Donald Duck (the kids sure love tradition).

This year we decided to try a White Elephant gift exchange (or a White Turkey, since it was Thanksgiving?). There were some really funny gifts, including a fidget/glitter intestine, a tortilla blanket, and more.

On Black Friday we went out shopping for a while in the morning, but didn't find too much. Later Savannah took some of the kids to the temple for a quick trip.

As always, we love when they come, and hate when they leave, and miss them when they're gone. We're glad they could come visit.