Per Perkins Perhe: Life AE (After Emily) and Spencer and Brittney Return.

Twas the week before Christmas, and time for good bye ... as Emily and her children fly home to Texas.

I finished out the day doing some junking in Salt Lake, and then meeting Scott for dinner at Cafe Rio in Spanish.

He'd spent the day doing inventories.

Tuesday Dad worked his half day, more inventories, of course, before heading to the temple to do his shift.

I did some cleaning, visiting teaching and then snuggled in for an evening of reading.

On Wednesday I worked, but spent part of the day crossing good deed tasks off my good deed journal list ... about 40 things left to do, but one of the things was to put flowers on a monument of someone you admire ... a head stone is a monument right? and it meant that I had to finally find Hannah Ann's headstone, with some help from Trevor. Thanks!!

After dinner Dad and I went to one of the care center's Christmas dinner. This center is one of four in the branch in which Dad serves as a counselor, the Grand Vista is an assisted living place, which makes a Christmas party possible.

On Thursday I worked again, and was delighted when Spencer and Brittney stopped by to say hi. They'd come in the night before and spent the night at Brit's sister Angela's, as it was closer to the airport and it was very late. It was so great to see them, and helped me get out of my funk after having had Emily leave.

After work Dad stopped and got me and we went to see Krista. She'd gotten home from her mission the day before, and it was open house time. It was great to visit with lots of Moe fans, and to get hugs from the new and improved Krista. She is just as fun and outgoing as before but now has such amazing spiritual depth! She's an outstanding girl/woman.

We snuck over to Heuer's for a visit with them, and Robin shared her funky new 'nativity'. Its an idea that's been appearing on FB and pinterest. Love it!

On Friday I had an appointment to see the Christmas decor of one of our customers. I loved the homey feel of her place, though I don't really do primitives myself. To the right is a torn rag garland I made for a display at work a couple of years ago. She bought it and made it amazing. She hung it on a berry garland then made fun ornaments from blocks and beads to hang from it. So inventive, and so charming.

I giggled a little when I saw this sign she had on her wall. That night Dad and I met up with Moes at the Heuers' house for dinner and sappy Christmas movies on Hallmark, that at least the Perkins and Heuers love, and the Moes tolerate ... hey, isn't that what friends are for?

On Saturday it was Moe and Heuer time again, as we traveled to Salt Lake to witness the son of our mutual friends, the Masons, as he got married. Matthew is the same age as Spencer, Eric Moe and Daniel Heuer. After the wedding Dad headed north to work on Megan's bathroom some more, while I rode with the Moes and Heuers as far as the park and ride in Highland ... then I was off to do a bit of junking and grocery shopping for Bethlehem dinner the next day ... Bethlehem dinner number 2 that is!

Sunday morning I worked on my Relief Society lesson on the birth of Jesus Christ. Then after church at the nursing home, it was our church and teaching the lesson ... I was so tempted to add details unearthed in our day, but kept feeling I should stick with the lesson. In Sacrament meeting another gal gave the whole 'things we now know about the time of Jesus' birth', and I was so glad I'd stuck with the simple story. It turned out to be lovely.

Of course that evening we reenacted it all with our Bethlehem dinner ... here we see a shepherd getting to know a little angel.