December Chatbook 2019

You know what this means people. I am officially cashing out last year. It is wrapped up like a nice little package and left under the tree to be found later in a blog book. It always fills me with much satisfaction to finish a month. And realistically, although I feel miles away from being caught up, it isn't even March yet. (Hahaha, thanks Leap Year.)

So let's jump right into these juicy tidbits left over from one of the craziest months of the year.

Pearl got into my pipe cleaners. (If craft stuff is there, it's going to be used and left out at some point.) I wasn't mad at finding them though because I was so impressed by what she made. Can you see what it is? It's a miniature sleigh and 3 1/2 tiny reindeer. So cool.

It was Daisy's turn to pick our ornament. She fell in love with a whale. He was a little broken, so I brought him home and fixed him. Hopefully, the love will hold. I do think he is quite adorable.

Robyn participated in a fundraiser for art tour. She wasn't very prepared with 'art' so she just made cookies. Her sign says "Buy a cookie! Support a dream" She did pretty well. I think she made about $40, which didn't pay for much of art tour, but that was $40 less dollars that I had to pay.

This picture doesn't need much explanation. Tyler's been growing his hair out and that means sometimes the morning hair is insanely epic.

Ivory was student of the day. Weirdly, they had her whole name listed. It is usually just the first initial, and the other two students that day only had the first initial of their name. Wonder why Ivory was so special?

You may remember Thomas from summer art, who was later given to Daisy for her birthday. My mom requested one, so I made it for Christmas. She wanted blue, so I present George, the blue manatee. Oddly, when he is next to Thomas, Thomas looks pink. I promise he is still grey.

Robyn is a little behind on the driving scene, but she took the test and now can officially drive with an adult in the car. Progress.

We had a funeral at our building at the end of the year. I didn't so much want to remember the funeral so much as how the seating was arranged. I really liked it. And it's my blog, so you get what interests me.

Daisy entered Reflections. I'm so proud of her since she is the only one who got a free theater ticket. (Which we are using soon to go see Matilda.) There was an awards night and she didn't move up at the council level, but I still love all the work she put into her dance. Click back HERE to find the post where it is.

I was at the library (which is actually pretty frequently) and they had a wall of designed snowmen. There were plenty cute ones done by kids, but some where amazing. So I took a picture of my favorites. The last one is unreal. People are so talented.

Tyler and I attended his work Christmas party. I was such a scrooge and I didn't want to stay for the entertainment. But it was going to be some kind of music and it gets too loud and you have to yell to hear each other...it didn't sound fun. But before that, the food and company were great. And the decorations were amazing. There was a huge net over the whole gym with balloons and snowflakes attached. Someone (many someones) spent a lot of time putting that up. Kudos.

I didn't take this picture. Tyler did. But it sure looks funny. The kids don't play Twister often, but they still have fun when they do.

The annual folding of the Christmas Newsletters. Tyler and I write it, but then the girls have to put in some labor too. It is a labor of love.

Robyn got in a mood to create and she made more princesses. Recognize these two? The one on the right may be tricky.

It is Rapunzel and Megaera. She has quite a collection now.

This sunset is amazing. You can get pretty skies all year round.

June took these when they went up to go to the temple. I really like them. It is foggy. We don't get much fog in Utah.

Daisy was asked to come to a different school to dance ballroom. One of their girls was sick and Daisy knew all the steps. I was busy that night, so June took her. I love when my girls support each other.

June said goodbye to Farr's in December. She decided to move to a non-food job. She now works at HOH, which has been terrible for all our wallets. A house full of girls will buy clothes. I don't think she misses scooping ice cream, but she does miss the great people she worked with. Spencer, a coworker left a selfie on her phone so she could remember him. How nice.

I only thought cats sat on warm cars...but apparently chickens do too.

I am way too lazy to go fix this picture and turn it the right way. So you get Sideways Lady in Red. Maybe someday she will be famous for being sideways. This is Robyn's art, by the way. I think you all know I can't draw like that.

Robyn caught this sunset. With the moon and planet, it reminds me of a Star Wars skyline.

Tyler and I celebrated 20 years married. We already celebrated in October of course, but we never turn down another chance to eat out without the children tagging along. (We are good parents.)

Let's wrap up the month with Virginia, or Ginny, as we like to call her. She retired in 2019, after countless years of working at her bank in Dalhart. Tyler always said he was going to come to her retirement party, and he did. He drove all the way to Texas to see Virginia and wish her happy trails in her future. He got some good Texas cooking, but I think all the smiles were for Ginny. We love you!!

And that is the best way to wrap up the year. Happy trails to all y'all!

Sleeping Under the Tree

I guess it would  be more accurate to say 'Sleeping Around the Tree'. No one is actually under the tree. This has become a tradition in our house. I'm not sure why, but all the kids ask about it. We usually do it a couple days before Christmas because you can't sleep under the tree on Christmas Eve.

This last year, Pearl was sick, so she was so nice to stay in her own bed with her fever and not share her germs. Although that is pretty sad. Daisy found a snuggle buddy, although Nova always sleeps in Mom and Dad's room. (We don't want the kids fighting over her.)

I have to admit these kids are adorable when they fall asleep. It makes me smile.

These two are not actually asleep. They staged this picture. Although I'm sure June does fall asleep with a book on her lap sometimes.

Don't worry, I caught them in the morning, when they were truly asleep. How they both slept on that couch, I don't know?

Robyn looks pretty content. Are you dreaming of sugar plums? Whatever those are.

Because Pearl missed, we let the kids sleep under the tree a second night, although I see that Ivory and June opted for separate arrangements. Wise, children. Sorry Pearl that I don't have a picture of you, but you were there on night two!

 I wonder how long this tradition will last? It's pretty cute, so I'll endorse it until they decide otherwise.

Cookies with Camille

Around Christmas time, it is hard to find time to do everything you want to do. Sometimes things get bumped down the priority list. We haven't made Christmas cookies for just that reason in quite a while. But when Camille invited us over to make cookies, it went right back up the list. (Having friends to do something with makes it much more important and enticing.)

We split the difference. She got cookie dough and frosting. We brought cutters and coloring. She was kind to host at her house. I think Tyler couldn't make it. I forgot where he was, but it was just the girls and I who went out to do cookies.

We didn't have any fancy frosting or piping bags. Just knives and cookies. I think we actually came up with some pretty good designs, all things considered. Check out some of our cool designs.

Bay is such a good crafter. She will spend a long time getting things just right. She is going to be artsy, I can tell. Look at these cuties.

Ivory came up with some pretty clever ideas. She didn't stick to the knives though. She overachieved and used a toothpick. (Well...she wasn't the only one.) Check out that ice cream cone.

It was really fun to sit, chat, and decorate cookies. That is what the holidays are for. Friends, food, and fun.

We didn't take them all home. We left plenty for Camille's family. We just took two plates with some of our favorites. Can you spot a confetti star and a snail?

Suddenly I really want a sugar cookie. I guess I'll have to make some for St. Patrick's day. Do Leprechauns like cookies as well as gold?

Las Posadas

This last year, we did a really fun event for our ward Christmas party. We had a Posada, which is a Latin American tradition. In their culture, they travel from house to house and are turned away like Joseph and Mary were at the inns. They sing songs and all travel together picking up more people as they go. Eventually, they are allowed to enter a house and more songs are sung. And then there is celebrating? I think. With pinatas and food. That sounds about right.

We weren't able to recreate that experience exactly. We had the whole party in our church building. Different families were located in different rooms. They talked about their heritage and there were crafts and treats. In one room they gave little bags with pinata treats inside. (We couldn't have a real pinata since we were trying to have a more spiritual event.) Eventually, the Posada began and people traveled from room to room singing and gathering more people.

We had a very cute couple play Joseph and Mary and they sang traditional songs and Joseph even played the guitar. (It seems like something Joseph would have done.)

Everyone was welcomed into the gym, which was decorated very nicely.

There was still a large pinata, although it had nothing inside. June helped make a poster about the meaning of the Pinata. I thought it was very interesting. I learned things I never knew, like the pinata symbolizing sins and temptations and we beat them down with a stick, eventually to receive the heavenly rewards inside. I like it.

You can kind of see the pinata in the background of this picture. Cool picture compliments of Tyler.

Then there was a feast of course. We had delicious Mexican food, including tacos, tamales, churros, and homemade salsa. In fact, there was a salsa contest and I ended up winning a prize. My salsa was mild and I think Aric won in the spicy division.

It was a wonderful evening that ended with dancing. Those who wanted to stay, could. Tyler was feeling terrible. (I think that was the day he gave plasma and they didn't give any blood back to him. He felt so awful. Go figure. He was partially exsanguinated.) So I stayed to help clean up and I danced with some of the girls. We learned some simple Mexican dances. It was a wonderful evening and great to experience pieces of another culture.

Pizza Meet 2019

Pearl is currently on Emerald Team and doing her first competition season. Her first meet was not an official one. It was in December and it was an in-house competition. This meant no medals or other teams. Instead, they divided the whole gym up onto two teams. They competed against each other to see who would serve the other dinner. Here are all the kids getting ready. Pearl is finding her zen spot or lining up her chakra. The kids all have matching leos, but these aren't their competition leos. They didn't have those yet.

This was the first 'competition' of 5. Because I'm a mom, I'm going to blog about all five. Just get used to it. But know, they will be pretty much the same thing every time. So I might as well give you a run down of Pearl's three events. And yes, this is much like her other mini meets before. It doesn't vary much.

She does TRAMPOLINE. Pearl is level four and that means her routines are not too difficult yet. She does a flip here and there on tramp and she does a straddle and pike jump. I think she has the routine down pretty well. Can you see her flipping out there? Like a little bundle dropped from heaven.

Pearl also does TUMBLING. These passes can be quite intense if you watch the older kids, but Pearl doesn't have anything too hard in level four. She does two passes. One is a double back handspring from a standing position. The second is a double back handspring from a running start. Pearl does a good job, but she needs to keep her feet together. But I can't even do one back handspring, so I'm still impressed. I love that everyone was lined up on the side cheering each other on.

The third event is DOUBLE MINI. This event also has two passes. One is quite simple with a basic jump off the tramp and the other she gets to do a flip off of it. That is way more exciting. I think Pearl likes the double mini the most. And she is pretty good at it.

Are you looking at me??

Pearl did a great job and it was good practice for her real competitions coming up. Pearl's team won. They were called the Christmas Trees. (I don't even remember the name of the other side.) Pearl's teammate Harrison, who was on the losing half, was kind enough to get Pearl her pizza. What a gentleman.

Next up is the real deal. We'll see exactly how well Pearl is doing when she has to compete with other kids on her same level.