Per Perkins Perhe: The Carriage House is Done and 10,000 Pictures of Bethlehem Dinner.

It was a full and interesting week. I met lots of interesting people, so I have gathered pictures of those I met at work, to start off a week of friends and family.

I'll start with a Treasures customer who came in dressed in detailed 1940's clothing. Then she shared this picture of herself on a trip to Ireland to celebrate her love of the movie, The Quiet Man with Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne. Here she is in clothing of the period of the movie, and this is a picture of her peeking around an iconic fence from the movie.

This is Maureen O'Hara in a similar pose.

Here I am with the customer.

The cutest thing is when her daughter wanted to show me a picture of her dressing up too. How cute is this?

Meet Cindy Lou Who and Cindy Lou too. Cindy Gabbitas is a long-time customer, but I did not know her nickname was Cindy Lou Who as a child, until she bought this Cindy Lou Who from me, along with a Grinch.

A fun visit from Santa as he shops the mall for his most discriminating customers.

Alicia, a high school friend of Emily's came in too, on Thursday. She and Emily went to Russia after High School.

her family.

Dad went to Rickey Lamb's funeral while I painted the second carriage door. We were a little short of time to prepare for our party the next day.

When he got home from the funeral, we went to SLC to see Van's school program.

On Tuesday as we prepared for our Mosida Missionary Twelve Days of Christmas party, Dad replaced the flimsy and too open grate that came with the fireplace, with this antique one, which I've been meaning to get to the mall for, I am embarrassed to say, literally years. Well, they do say there is always a reason for everything that happens ... and the grate is perfect for our needs.

And here Dad gets a sushi lunch break as he works on the carriage house. (Yes that is the last piece of petrified pumpkin pie from thanksgiving, with icecream.)

Then there is the table setting.

With my 12 days books as centerpieces.

I had picked up these chairs off market place on Monday, and thought they were perfect, though I may reupholster them in a plaid for our Scottish Lodge theme Carriage House, someday.

Dad decided we wanted to use a 6 foot banquet table in the serving alcove, as the bigger dining table we used for Thanksgiving stuck out too far and got in the way of the traffic flow.

And here they are ... I used an Indian Saree for the table cloth. It was perfect for the narrower table, and was 23 feet long. There were 19 of us in all. It was still a bit chilly, but Elder Newman shown far right, brought over his shop propane heater, and that helped a lot. So, we see me, the Hardmans, Sisters Smith's daughter Heather, and Sister Smith, the Marvins, the Crumps and Sister Pittman, then the Lathrops, the Brimhalls, Gurrs and Newmans.

Mean while, 3 of my girls are relaxing in Texas on a girls' trip. Shown here getting pedicures.

and going to the gym

and a replay of a picture from their last girls' trip 5 years ago.

Lovin on Johnny.

On Wednesday while I was at work, Dad was at Brother Peterson's funeral.

A little face timing with Emily, telling me about having her sisters visit.

After work on Thursday, I met Dad at Eli and Adi's school program. I told you about the funny skit last week, in the preprogram we saw about the carolers' who won't leave without a bribe. This week Adi plays the part of the Mom.

Both sets of grandparents were there to support them. I didn't get pics of Eli's skit, because the program started at 6, and I didn't get done at work until 6:30 ... dang.

But I loved this grandparent's personal Christmas decor, with the tiny ornaments in his beard.

I spent a fair bit of time working of finishing up my mushroom to take into the Grove later.

On Friday I went to the grand opening of the new location of The Farmhouse Peddler. This cute elf's last name is Socking. I remembered her name from meeting her while she selling books from her garage last spring. She is now a dealer at this new mall in Orem.

I also met this old friend there.

On our way to Salt Lake I dropped off the mushroom ornaments at the Grove.

Then we meet up with Clark and Kimberly Sevy in Draper for some catching up and Mexican food.

That night Charley had a violin recital, which we are sure was fun.

Saturday morning I was off to Salt Lake to help with Darby's niece and nephew cookie decorating party. Here Reagan shows off a loaf of bread she made for her aunt Darby.

Serious concentration needed when measuring the vanilla.

Van wanted to make Pokémon cookies, but without cutters, we were at a loss, until I decided to use the ornament cutter, to make poke balls ... see, my training as a Pokémon hunter back in 2016 paid off.

Spencer working on his Spanish with Davin, who served his mission in Bolivia.

Adi and Daddy.

Daddy-daughter smooching.

working with the black frosting for the pokeball, was messy.

But a great out come for everyone.

right Cam?

After the cookie decorating party I took off to meet friends at Robin's Roost, the store where we bought the carriage doors. Here I am with Denise, Christy, Keith and Robin. Fun as always. I was supposed to go to another shop and then lunch with Kieth, and Mary (taking the picture), but I got a call from Dad saying that a neighbor had given us tickets to the Tabernacle Choir Concert. That meant I no longer had time to go with them. But Dad and I were both thrilled to have gotten tickets, and I had things that had to be done that day before we left.

At the concert that night, we met this couple who is serving a senior mission at church head quarters, answering letters from prison inmates seeking all kinds of help. It was interesting to note that this is their third mission. Their first two were to Japan. Her husband joined the church in his 30's, but as a young man had decided to learn Japanese. So fun. She said they had considered going to India, but her husband is 80, and they were concerned about health care in the event if a health incident. We expect to have them come down to dinner after the first of the year.

On Sunday I finally got my polkadot ball added to the mistle toe.

Things Dad finished up this week. Getting the rock on the fireplace grouted, putting in the last of the windows in the carriage doors, adding baseboards and trim around the windows (Not shown) and perfecting the carriage door roller system.

Dad lights candles in preparation for Bethlehem Dinner.

The table is set for 23

Then we have carolerss ...

and meal prep.

cute helpers

cheese and bread ...

Time to dress up, Adi and Trevor.

Darby works on more meal prep.

Eva is on the work crew too.

more cheese and olives and condiments, as well as the 'new wine'.

Another shot of the main food table. Trevor smoked some 'fatted calf', as well as some veggies, yum.

and here we are at table ... Nell is demonstrating the temperature.

another pic of the right side of the table with everyone looking.

Davin went outside and rubbed dirt on his face to perfect his Bedowin image.

Time to rely on those candles.

We had to move a candle to the food table.

Time to serve yourself.

Mary (Madi) gets ready to dig in.

Sorry, I know its blurry, but I love it anyway.

Cam and Mac seemed to form a special bond.

Look how protective he is, as Dad reads the Christmas Story from Luke.

The she grabbed his hand and said, "Let's dance!" I took about 40 pictures trying to capture the fun and emotion of their dancing.

I am sure Abish, on the right, was a bit overwhelmed by the crush once we came into the house for the Christmas story and gift exchange. Oh and Spencer got in some good practicing by talking to her, as she is from Bolivia. (You may recall that his language for his diplomatic service in India is Spanish, to prepare him for future assignments, since they pretty much speak English in India.)

cute interlocking of fingers.

dancing

Cam loved her stuffed animal that she was gifted in the exchange. I thought it was super cool that Becca had her kids wrap their gifts to their cousins, what a great mom. Of course, all the moms are also amazing.

You can't tell what the purple thing is, but its a cow, and Cam was enchanted with it. She said it was her favorite.

Spencer got a record by a favorite band.

Then Emily was facetimed to watch me open a combined gift from her and Becca and Britt. They had gone antiqueing together to gather goodies they thought I would like. It was so fun, a sort of antiques road show meets family fun as I told them the age and value of each item. Davin loved the uranium glass, and bought it from me on the spot.

Who knew my boys also carries a black light on his person.

The rest of the pictures were taken by Trevor, and I thought they were so lovely, I am adding them here. (He also did the uranium glass picture) Thanks Trevor.