It's Christmas Time in the City

 December came and went, and as usual, it flew by.  But we had a great month!  I was in charge of wrapping presents for my company party, so I busted that out early in the month, before I was tired of wrapping.  I was also in charge of figuring out the catering for the dinner, and I'm happy to report that it was delicious!

For one of my birthday presents, I wanted to go to a BYU basketball game and there was a relatively cheap one at the Delta Center, much closer to our house.  So, we grabbed some friends and went to the game and it was so fun!  This year they have a superstar player, AJ Dybantsa, and it was fun to see him play.

The next night Dustin and I were back at the Delta Center, this time with my sisters and their husbands, to see Nate Bargatze.  He was SO funny!  It was a great night and we laughed so much!  So nice to find clean comedy!

Grant had the Winter's Dance.

And a couple of days later, he got asked to the Sweetheart's Dance.

Because Grant is in the Madrigal's choir at the school, they spend many days in December singing at different locations.  I think they had around 20 performances throughout the month!  They got to sing at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Tabernacle on Temple Square, many different churches in our area, a few retirement centers and some Christmas parties.  Grant accompanied one of their songs, so he got to play the piano in the Tabernacle, which was cool.

We made a treat together.

We got to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.  It was so good!

Grant sang at our ward Christmas party with the Madrigals.  He also did awesome on his accompaniment.  He could have never done it without his page turner.  She was so talented at turning pages!  (It was me)

Beautiful Christmas sunsets.  We had the most warm, beautiful December that I can ever remember.  It was in the 50's almost every day.  And, although we would have loved to have a white Christmas, it was really nice to have it be warm outside!

The actual Christmas concert for Grant's choir.  He played the bells during one of the songs.

We kept working on our basement and we finally finished it, just before Christmas!  Dustin did the repair work and it turned out great!  (These pictures were taken right after we painted, so the paint is still wet, which is why it doesn't look like it matches...)  We also finally got a new couch for the space and it is so nice to watch a movie all together and not be sitting on bean bags on the floor.  

We had some fun Marshallese activities in December--a Relief Society dinner and making baskets for the elderly of the ward.

We looked at lights with Gramma Lana.

We went to a Christmas wedding!  Dustin's dad got married to Sandy the weekend before Christmas.  It was a lovely wedding, and we are so happy to add Sandy to our family!

Avery was home for two weeks and it was so fun to spend time with her!  She played in my wedding dress one night.

We spent an evening with my family, eating pizza and looking at the Ogden City lights.  And, the weather was beautiful!

And a couple of days later, it was Christmas Eve!  We got up and did breakfast early because Avery had to work that day until 2.  Aebleskivers for breakfast, finger foods for lunch/all day snacking, and bowling in the afternoon are our traditions and the kids love them!

Grant nearly beat Dustin in bowling!

I finished my Christmas advent puzzle, just in time to take it down for our Bethlehem Dinner.

We did it our Bethlehem Dinner in our new, big basement because we invited some of our Marshallese friends, plus Gramma Lana and our friend Amy, and the missionaries.  It was fun!

We got matching PJ's with Pepper's face on them!

And then it was Christmas morning! 

The kids slept in until I got up, around 7:30.  Any other year, that would have been glorious, but we had Maren and Ryan calling at 9, and so it was a little rushed to finish with presents in time to visit with them and watch them open their gifts from us.  Dustin had to be to the church at 10 for a Marshallese devotional, and I stayed behind to finish talking to our missionaries.  I made the mistake of calling Verizon at 11 about our new phones that weren't working, and that call didn't end until 2:00!  Lana had come over to open gifts, and so Dustin, Lana, Avery and Grant all went to the Marshallese Christmas party at 12:45, and I stayed back again, and dealt with bad phones.  It tainted my Christmas day a little bit, which was a bummer.  But, I finally made it to the Marshallese celebration, and it is always so fun to be with them, which helped my mood.  They dance, play loud music, throw candy, eat lots of yummy food, and spend many hours together.  It was a fun time!

We closed the party by holding hands in a circle, singing a song and saying a prayer together.  So sweet!  We love them!

The next day we went to Provo to get Avery moved out of her apartment, in preparation for moving to London for a study abroad!  So excited for her!

We stopped by my first apartment I ever lived in, also at Raintree.  Such good memories there!

Maren's high school best friends are starting to come home from their missions.  Yay!! That means Maren is getting close!

We had a Shurtz Christmas party!  Nicole and her family came into town and my parents hosted and we had a great time!  We ate, played games, did puzzles, had an awesome White Elephant gift exchange and enjoyed being together.  (And, I was able to give away most of that candy I got from the Marshallese Christmas party!)

My mom was the perfect one to receive my gift of the Scottish Kilt Calendar.  Haha!

Nicole got us matching pants.

The next night we got together again, this time for a birthday party for Addie and Olivia.  I talked to my kiddos on the way to the party.  I love being able to talk to Maren and Ryan each week!

We spent some time together at the Layton Aquarium and that was fun.

And we did an adult date night dinner!

On New Year's Eve, Grant and Avery were with friends, and Dustin and I first played games and ate treats with our friends, then we spent the last couple of hours of 2025 at the Marshallese New Year's party (they like to party!).  We played volleyball, ate, and surprise surprise, they threw candy when we hit midnight!  It was a fun way to bring in the New Year!

New Year's Day was nice and foggy!

On January 2nd, we met cousins at the Ogden Temple and did baptisms for the dead with everyone.  It was Addie and Edith's first time being able to go in the temple, and it was so fun to be there together!  We got dinner first and ice cream after, a nice reward for serving the Lord in the temple!

It was a really lovely end to 2025 and beginning of 2026!  We have been so blessed this year in so many ways!  We are so grateful for our beautiful family!  We feel grateful to live where we do, with great people and opportunities and we look forward to what this next year will bring!