I love December. It is my favorite time of year, all leading up to my favorite day of the year: Christmas Eve. Christmas day is good and fun, but I really love Christmas Eve! And everything leading up to it. I just love this time of year!
We started out the season making and delivering Christmas baskets for the widows of our ward with the youth.
We had date night with some of our friends, the Coleman's and the Loose's. We ate dinner in a (somewhat heated) outdoor greenhouse and then attempted to go to the Christmas Festival at This is The Place Park. When we got there, we couldn't tell if it was over, or where to go, until it was too late and we were driving right through the closed up shops... We had a good laugh and we didn't get in trouble, so it was a win!
We had our ward Christmas party. We have a Marshallese Group within our ward and it has been so fun to see them accept and embrace the Gospel. They are working on forming a branch, but in the meantime, they are part of our ward (they can live anywhere in Southern Davis County), Dustin is their bishop and we are loving learning about their culture. It has definitely added effort to Dustin's bishop duties, but it has been such a blessing to have them in our ward. We will miss them when the Marshallese Branch is formed and they break off on their own. At our Christmas party, they sang and danced for everyone.
Speaking of the Marshallese, here are some beautiful gifts that they gave us. They are hand made.
We have had some amazing sunrises and sunsets this month! I always tell my kids that this is Heavenly Father telling us He loves us. I feel His love through a colorful sunset!
The kids all had band concerts this month, which was fun.
We finally got snow!
We drove to Logan one snowy night for dinner at Fredrico's Pizza and a Christmas concert at USU with Dustin's dad. He recently moved to Logan from Denver and this was the first we had been up to visit. It was a beautiful concert.
One Sunday afternoon the kids (mostly Maren) made Dustin a cake because they could tell he was feeling a little overwhelmed with all of his duties. Sweet kids.
We have had so many deer in our yard this year! This one surprised me, or maybe I surprised him as he walked across my back yard. I think he was sick because he didn't even seemed scared of me. We just stared at each other for about a minute and then he slowly walked away. Poor guy.
We made Gingerbread Temples one night with the Coleman's for Family Home Evening. They turned out pretty awesome.
The week of Christmas, my parents came up to spend Christmas at my sister, Jen's house, and they spent a couple of days with us earlier in the week. We went on lots of walks, painted ornaments, went on a drive to check out a potential house for them to move to (!), they took my kids ice skating while Dustin and I went to a wedding, we went to Temple Square and enjoyed the lights, and had a great few days with them!
The kids slept under the tree one night.
Our advent calendar hijinks.
The day before Christmas Eve, Dustin's dad came to stay with us for a few days. We've never had him here for Christmas and it was a lot of fun to have him around! We had ableskeevers for breakfast on Christmas Eve, went bowling, and had our Bethlehem Dinner that night. Then the kids opened their new pj's and we played games and worked on a puzzle until bedtime. Our Bethlehem dinner is a favorite of all of ours. We act out the Nativity story and eat delicious, almost authentic Bethlehem food (haha). We take the opportunity to bear our testimonies to our kids of the Savior and our love for Him. I love it.
Grandma Lana also came for the evening.
And then Christmas was finally here!
Ryan got a phone!! A long awaited day.
Homemade sibling gifts: Maren made Ryan a deck of cards, Ryan made Maren a candle, Grant made Avery a new rice bag and Avery made Grant the game Kubb.
This Lego Thanos glove was skilled at 18 + and had almost 600 pieces and he finished it way too fast.
Maren got lots of new stuff for her bedroom.
We got a ping pong table!
They worked tirelessly on this hard puzzle we got at Disneyworld earlier this year. It had 1,000 tiny pieces!
We went to a Marshallese Christmas party that afternoon and watched them dance and Dustin helped with their devotional.
And then we headed to Grandma Lana's for dinner and games that night. It was a wonderful Christmas!
The day after Christmas, Nicole and Matt and their family came into town. We had the Shurtz family Christmas party and spent the week having fun with little cousins.
We continue to get snow, so we took the kids sledding at the golf course.
We had fun with the younger cousins staying at our house!
We spent an afternoon at the Nickle Arcade. Maren won the top 3 high scores on Mappy! Dustin raised this girl right! He was proud.
Seaquest Aquarium on New Year's Eve day!
We spent New Year's Eve at Jen and Jeff's house, celebrating Addie's 7th birthday, watching movies and playing Fugitive in the freezing weather. It was a fun and happy end to 2021!
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