Music, Parties, Family and Jesus' Birth. All The Best Things!

We had a super busy December, full of all our favorite things: family, parties, music and Jesus' birth!  We started out with attending Uncle Maurice's art show in Brigham City. 

Ryan had a Choir festival.  Beautiful music from the three high schools in the area!

Grant sang at the State Capital.  Very cool acoustics.

And a couple of days later he had his Choir concert.

We attended a concert up in Logan with Rod and his sisters, and we ran into Dustin's aunt, uncle and cousin while we were there!  Double fun!

I ordered some sweet glasses for our Young Women Christmas party.

We had an awesome Ward Christmas Party with some very authentic wisemen.

I had a colonoscopy (the least festive thing that happened this month, by far).  No pre-cancerous polyps this time, so I guess that is worth partying about!

Another choir concert for Ryan.  They sounded wonderful!

Ryan wouldn't even stick around after long enough for a picture and when we got home we saw why--he was playing his new gaming system that he and Grant bought.

I had a fun Christmas party with the Young Women of our ward (the reason for the cool glasses, as you will notice in the pictures).

We did lots of Christmas shopping.

Dustin and I attended the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert.  It was amazing!

And we ran into Lynnette's family in the foyer.

We found this cool house one night.

We passed out neighbor gifts for a few days.  It is fun to visit with our awesome neighbors!

Pepper was feeling festive in her Christmas sweater.  (And always loves to sleep in front of the blow dryer-a girl after my own heart).

Grant had a band concert and did great.  He recently switched from the trumpet to the bass clarinet and is enjoying band a lot more now.

Ryan asked someone to the Winter's Dance.

And got answered a few days ago.

On a whim, Lynnette had an extra ticket to the Broadway Mama Mia and so she invited me!

Preschool Christmas Pajama Pancake party!  I got all decked out this year.

Our youth handed out roses at Temple Square and then tried the "best hot chocolate in the world".

Maren came home for Christmas!! And we did lots of puzzles and played lots of games and ate lots of treats.  Oh, it was fun!

We went bowling on the 23rd this year because Christmas Eve was on a Sunday.  Both Grandpa Wiberg and Gramma Lana came with us and bowled like champs!

So. Many. Treats.

After a wonderful Sacrament service on Christmas Eve, we came home and ate an aebleskiver brunch.

That night was our Bethlehem Dinner.  We had a little delay when we got a phone call that a dear woman in our ward had passed away that day.  We went over to see the family and offer them a prayer and then came back home to our family's Christmas Eve.  It made for a little more somber Christmas Eve, but it was still fun.

Rod stayed over the weekend and it was fun to have him here!

Christmas morning the kids were up bright and early!

Lots of big candy bars this year!

Grant finally got a phone!

All the loot.

Dinner that night at Gramma Lana's and more gifts.

We got these cute little legos in our stockings.  The pieces were tiny and it was hard for some of our 40+ year old eyes, but we did it!

A couple of days after Christmas, Avery and her companions got to go to lunch with my brother Chad and his wife, Val!  I love that she has been able to see them on her mission!

We also got some family visitors: Nicole and Matt's family came into town for a few days and we had so much fun with all of our family!

We went to the Planetarium with the Craguns, Haggertys and Hanchetts.

And to the zoo.  The animals were liking the cooler weather because they were out and active!

That night we went to my cousin's wedding reception in Provo and they had a drum line at the end of it!  So cool!  (They also had covid, which infected my dad and Nicole, which wasn't so cool).

There was a ring around the moon one night.

Playing with cousins.

We had a Shurtz Christmas party and it was fun.  My parents were supposed to come, but got a call that morning that my 96 year old grandpa up in Idaho wasn't doing great.  They drove up to be with him in the hospital.  His gallbladder is infected and he isn't expected to live more than a few weeks.  He is doing surprisingly well, considering, but my parents are staying up there with him now.

Loving having little ones around!

We went to the Nicklecade.

On New Year's Eve, the Hanchett boys came to spend it with us, which was fun.  Gramma Lana also came over for a while.  We stayed up well past midnight having lego building contests (Maren won), playing games and eating food.

Nicole's family headed down to Matt's parent's house earlier in the day on New Year's Eve and Nicole started feeling sick from Covid, soon after that.  Somehow my family missed getting it, which I am grateful for!

On New Year's Day, we drove up to Idaho to see my grandpa.  He was very talkative and wasn't in pain and it was nice to see him still feeling good.  We were able to facetime Avery so she could say hi and he was happy to see her.  I love my heritage and am so thankful to have gotten to know my grandpa since I've been an adult.  He is a hard worker and a great story teller and an "endurer to the end".  I love him! 

We had a great Christmas season, with many opportunities to reflect on our Savior and His birth and life.  It was a really nice holiday!  We loved having Maren in town for a couple of weeks and being able to spend more time as a family.  We talked to Avery a number of times and she is doing well and on her last transfer of her mission.  As of the writing of this, she'll be home in 17 days!!  We can't wait!