A Quiet Week on the Home Front

It was a pretty quiet week around here, as things usually go... On Monday  I had a chance to facetime with Emily and got a tour of their new house.  Then Becca called me to invite be to meet her and the kids and Grandpa Carlo for lunch in Spanish.  Above we see Reagan and Grandpa sharing smiles.  Grandpa always seems to enjoy babies.

But toddlers not as much. ... Here is Titan waiting for lunch, later when we were outside getting everyone loaded Grandpa forgot Titan was with us, and kept telling him to go back into the store... Titan was a bit confused by that.

After lunch I did some Christmas shopping, including stopping at the Hobblecreek Barn Boutique, being held at the same defunct Food4Less that we used for the Reclaimologists  sale we had back in October. Fun stuff .... Of course I also stopped at DIs Boutique in Prove, while I was out.

When Dad got home we had dinner and watched a couple on Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel ... Still enjoying the flat screen our great kids got us last year.

Tuesday was a stay at home and putter day, I knew I needed to tidy up as I was hosting book club Thursday and wouldn't have another day to work on it.  Finished up the day with more movies.

Wednesday I worked, and when I made a call to the owner of Dear Lizzie to remind her to pick up the rest of the fountain she bought three months ago, she asked about a small couch.  I sent her pics of this one, with a note that Arlene, Aunt Shirley's sister, who had done work for her before, could probably reupholstered it.  Neither Laura or Arlene would answer their phones, so I was texting all day to make arrangements ..crazy, but with the hoped for outcome.

I worked again Thursday and wrote out a bunch of our Christmas cards ... Also got a picture of this lovely sunset, which I love. We don't get them in Payson, because west mountain is in the way, which makes them that much nicer!

I stopped off for refreshments at Macey's before getting homes just minutes before the book club ladies arrived.  As they were leaving we noticed this weird icecicle hanging from the extension chord that powers the Christmas lights in the fence.  Too funny.

On Friday morning I pulled this nice old barn wood manger out of the  van, I had bought from another dealer at the mall who makes them, and put it under the tree to fill with gifts, to suggest that since 'in as much as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me' all gifts we give each other, are, in that sense, a gift to our Savior.  It will also be fun to put our sweet 'baby Jesus' (McKenna) in for our Bethlehem Dinner next week.

The rest of Friday was primarily taken in picking up the little couch at the shop and driving to Salt Lake to do some junking before meeting Alene in a parking lot to trade off the couch!  

That night, because Dad and I have no life, we watched a few more Hallmark movies.

Saturday I had to work again, so dad headed north, gathering grandchildren along the way, to his work Christmas party at the Hollywood Connection.

Darby, Trevor and his family and Becca and her family joined them. (He had picked up Ashley and Andy's kids). 

Here's Zachary having fun.

Dad said he thought that everyone had fun .... Then he headed home with Trevor and Nell's kids too, dropping off the Halls in Orem, and taking Scott, Eva and  Lu home with him.  Brittney was making some sugar cookies, and drafted the troops to join her, I think they had a ball ... And I know they loved the cookies.  When I got home from work and grocery shopping, I made dinner, and after dinner we drove them home ... Arriving at the exact same time as Trevor and Nell fromTrevor's work party ...

Today was my second time to teach, and Dad thought it went much better, though it felt about the same as my first time to me.  When Dad got home from his second set of meetings, we had Spencer  and Brittney join us for dinner before the four of us headed to our stake choir Christmas sing.  Dad got to sing with two choirs, our ward and the one in which he serves as a high counselor.  Pretty funny eh?  We were sitting by the Ekins and Todd leaned over and called him a Two Timer ... We all laughed.

So that was our very sedate week, hope you had more excitement than we did.  Love you all!

Days of Celebration and Christmas Movies

Monday was spent setting up for the Festival of Trees, here I am with the my 'We Can' group. Then we all went to lunch.... Dad putting the tree together ahead of time made for our fastest set up time yet.  Thanks honey.

When I got home I worked on the tree in the parlor, before heading off with dad to our Family Home Evening group!!

On Tuesday I met my friend Arlene for lunch, the weather was awful... It took me an hour and a half to get to Salt Lake, it was maybe insane to go, and I kept feeling very good about those new tires that we hadn't really needed for the trip to Idaho.  

After our lunch I spent a couple of hours junking before meeting up with Darby at the close of her shift to do some Christmas shopping.  Dad and I finished off the day with a Christmas movie.

I worked on Wednesday and then went to Festival of Trees afterward with Dad, eating take out pizza on the waypoint, and catching some Maui Chill on the way home ... Then Thursday was another work day followed by another evening of sappy Christmas movies on Hallmark!

Then on Friday it was set up time for my book club Christmas luncheon ...

Our meal is always a planned potluck ...

Which I though turned out very nice ... Last of all we play a gift exchange game where we share and discuss favorite books.  It's one of my favorite events of the season.

After our book club luncheon, I cleaned it all up and then did it all over again with the sister missionaries, which was lovely, of course ... Feeding missionaries is truly one of my favorite things.  Then Dad and I finished off a perfect day with a couple of old Christmas movies, which I will mention by name because Briahnna's cares about such things; It Happened on Fifth Avenue, then Christmas in Conneticut.  

On Saturday we took it easy, doing some shopping before making a pot of soup and heading up to Highland in a blizzard ....

Where we swapped bowls of soup and , yep, we snuggled inane watched  a couple of romantic Christmas movies... On Halmark!!

On Sunday, it was off to church,  then tithing settlement .....before heading to Spanish where we had a nice visit with Grandpa Carlo.  

We got home in time to set up for our faux Hanukkah celebration, which turned  out to be more faux than usual, since we celebrated three days after it was over.  The super later Thanksgiving and super early Hanukkah, kind of threw us off.

Eleanor was pretty excited with her one big win in the dreidal game, doesn't she look smug?  In the end it was her mom that was winner take all!

So that was our party and Christmas movie kind of week!

Thanksgiving Week and The felling of Big Trees.

Thanksgiving week wouldn't be thanksgiving week without lots of Christmas prep which mainly comes in anticipation of Festival of Trees set up that happens the following Monday.   This week started out with picking up a few Christmas items that I had agreed to buy on line from a friend in American Fork.  That lead to some junking, of course, because that is how I roll.  

On Tuesday I did a bit of crafting for my blog post the next day. Dad came home from work, instead of going to the temple, as it is closed.  He then spent three hours mowing up leaves, until well after dark.

On Wednesday I worked, as usual. Dad came and got me after closing, and we headed to Maui Chill in Hlghland (Lehi) for our first vertical dogs ... Yum!

Of course Thursday was beyond  busy ... Dad was off early to run in the Turkey Trot in Orem, (picture at the end ofmthisnpost) where he met Ben and Trevor.  Dad came in fourth in his age group, and loved spending time with his sons.  I, meanwhile, was starting the turkey and setting tables, three of them.

Dad got home about eleven and helped with finishing details .... He is the perfect sous chef ... And I love working with him.  Thanks honey!

Brittney invited a fellow student at BYU, Mia and  her sister My (pronounced Me) from Vietnam, which was very cool.  They even brought a pie they had made, and it was yummy!  While  Brittney and Spencer were in Vietnam this past summer, they met Mia's family at home, wow what an amazing experience.

after dinner Nell took the opportunity for a mini family photo shoot ....

Then it was time for pie!!

... And baby snuggles...

... And while the adults were visiting and singing the family songs... The grands were

Finding their own snacks ....

And reinventing the pyramids ... art is by Ian!

Friday I spent the whole day working on Festival of trees ornaments and props.... Including painting dots on everything in site.  Dad spent the day hauling the remains of the catalpa tree off the front lawn to the side of the house, including a couple of huge logs that required Spencer's help... Thanks Spencer.  

We rewarded ourselves for a long day of labor by meeting up with these love birds for dinner and a romantic movie, what else?!

Saturday I did more Festival of Trees ... And Dad mowed up the leaves on the back lawns.  Then Ben came in the afternoon to make a mess of the front lawn again, thankfully...  

He brought down the trunk of the first tree, then very skillfully brought down the second tree, whole, and very carefully.  He has serious skills, and we are so grateful for him and his skills.

That night dad and I went to see the new bbc version of Great Expectations at the Spanish Fork Water gardens ... It made me laugh that the flying children sculptures there boasted holiday headwear.  Oh and we enjoyed the movie too.

Sunday morning I headed to church early and was able to be set apart as the Gospel Doctrine teacher, then I got to teach for the first time ... Which went ok, but I definitely have room for growth.

Spencer and Brittney also went early and finally received callings ... Spencer as the 15 - 18 year old Sunday School teacher, and Brittney as the Beehive Advisor ... Coincidentally the two callings Emily held at the time she left the ward last February.

When dad got back from his second set of meetings, we dragged Spencer and Brittney and headed out to see grandpa.

... And last of all here is a picture of my handsome men at the big race!!