DECEMBER seems so far away at this point!
Perhaps because it is all a blur of activity.
We started it off with a get together with some of our dear Mission President friends who all live in Utah. A few could not make it, but we sure enjoyed having the ones over that could come!
We enjoyed going up to the annual DESERET MANAGEMENT dinner in SLC at the Joseph Smith Building there. The decorations are always spectacular.
We also enjoyed using the cool DONATION MACHINES that the Church placed encouraging GIVING instead of GETTING as a Christmas tradition.
Cute Gingerbread house lights that Carolyn brought over for us this year! THANKS CAROLYN!
December was sad for us too with the loss of sweet old Addie. This was Dec 10, the night before she passed away. You can tell she is old and not well.
The day she passed away, we had several mini miracles that contributed to it being a sweet event.
Scott's train did not show up (sorry other passengers) so he decided to come home for the day to work.
This meant he was home with Addie while I was at the gym and doctor appointment and this is when she passed away. He was there to hold her as she passed.
And he was there to console me when I got home.
Braden had prayed for her to pass peacefully and this is what happened...we had planned to have her euthanized on Wednesday, which would NOT have been peaceful.
Then, we really wanted to bury her in Breanna's flower garden where she loved to roam. If we had to euthanize her, we would not have been able to do this with the chemicals in her. So, Heavenly Father took care of all the details for us to have it work out for the best for all of us! THANK YOU!
We spent the day researching old photos of Addie for sweet remembrances.
Here was the little furball when we got her from the Shelter. She was sick at the time, and not so much to look at, but with antibiotics, perked up into an adorable pet.
An unforgettable photo of her curious about Braden in the tub!
And Breanna holding her on Christmas morning.
She was our Christmas kitty 2001.
One of my students made me the most adorable card when they found out about Addie...it is all sorts of kitties and it said MEOWY CHRISTMAS!
These are the calico colored lilies I got to plant above her grave.
We tried to have some great family time this month and had so much fun!
This was our GRINCH NIGHT with UGLY SWEATER COOKIE decorating...
We did pretty good too!!
And a pretty good spread of food for the night!
Including GRINCH KABOBS and Grinch heart Rice Krispie Treats.
We took the kids to the THANKSGIVING POINT LUMINARIA one night along with Lori and it was lovely! Freezing cold, but lovely! Would we do it again? Yes! It was really stunning and just fun to be together!
I looked forward to taking up the Christmas Stockings that the Taylor/James family made for Breanna's class for December 22. I dressed up as an elf and went to visit!
THANK YOU FAMILY FOR PARTICIPATING!!! SO WORTH IT!!!
We had a TAYLOR FAMILY PARTY before Christmas over at Lori's and played a fun white elephant gift game with Carole winning the BYU jersey that Aaron eventually stole from her. Lots of fun!
And the light-up beanie that McKenna REALLY WANTED...got taken by someone else, so on the way home we chanced a stop back at Smiths to see if they had any more and...VOILA, instant light-up-hat-happiness!!!
And not to leave Breanna out, we stopped at another Smiths to get the MEOWY CHRISTMAS SWEATER we told her she might just need for her school ugly sweater day! Yup!
We celebrated our James family Christmas up at Dad's house and somehow I do not have a photo...BOO! It was a traditional Christmas Eve story and carol singing and good food and family gift exchange and just so much fun!
Afterwards, we had our kids over for our own Christmas Eve held early!
We even got Breanna and Elliot to spend the night with us and take us to the airport EARLY the next morning! THANK YOU AGAIN!
It was fun having them spend the evening and to open gifts early with them.
The next morning found us up very early and on a flight to Seattle which was ON TIME and our rental car was ready and we made it to Austin's neck of the woods.
This is the frosted trees along the road to their home in Duvall. Beautiful!
Keep in mind that Austin had no idea we were stopping by...Laura kept a secret. As a matter of fact, she was quite sick and unable to even go to Church with a bad allergic reaction to something unknown. We got there just in time to help Austin take the kiddos to Church.
After Church, we came back and Austin made his delicious PIZZA for lunch and we opened some gifts with them before heading back to the airport for SURPRISE NUMBER 2.
Tyrel picked us up early AM Christmas Day. We were in the family room behind the couches when the kids came to open stockings...you can see, they didn't know what to do so they just went for the gifts anyways! Yup, Ty called it!
Speaking of excited...we got some exciting news from Jenna that day! They gave this little gift to the boys!
Baby Jensen #4 is due August 4-10. More news when we find out gender. But poor Jenna was pretty sick the whole time we were there. In other words, baby was doing fine!
Silly Christmas mustaches...
...Scott happy with a very cool Colorado shirt!!
THANKS KIDS!!
We decided to do a NYC DAY before temperatures plummeted even lower than the 19 degrees it was when we went.
We took the Staten Island Ferry because parking was cheaper next to it and the ferry is free.
Plus, the boys LOVED being on a boat!
In the city, we fought CROWDS of people to look at window displays and to go see the big trees and such at Rockefeller Center.
We went through MACYS department store just for fun too.
Cook light display just along a street there.
Don't be fooled, we were freezing!!
Here is looking back at the Rockefeller Center Tree from the fountains. Beautiful!
And they had a light display on one of the buildings nearby that played music with lights about every 30 minutes. Very cool!
I would say a highlight of the day was finding DUNKIN DONUTS to get HOT COCOA and some pretty Christmas Donuts!!
We had so much fun exploring all over the ferry coming and going. The view going back at night was stunning as well!
Another day we took the boys to the LIBERTY SCIENCE CENTER, a nice benefit to our Thanksgiving Point Membership reciprocal pass.
Klay loved the huge bins of flour and baby oil to play with. We were there a LONG TIME!
The boys loved getting to hunt in a huge area of white play balls to find the fuzzy creatures you see them holding...Tribbles or something.
Bennett making a huge bubble.
Carter holding a deflated ball over a air pump.
Super CREATIVE boys here! We read the book NOT A BOX again and Carter disappeared into the basement and came up with the first box creation, a ROCKET! Then Bennett got involved too and they made an airplane and helicopter as well for Klay to play with !
I brought the book ALL MY FRIENDS ARE PLANETS a story about Pluto and the boys drew their own planets afterwards too!
Carter drew Draco, a planet unhappy to be so far away from the sun...
...and Bennett drew Strikey, a planet with super powers to bounce off of asteroids and go super fast!
We got snow the last day we were there so Klay got his first sledding experience.
And the big boys were so happy to throw snow at me!
Klay was just so happy to be outside!!
We got home about 2 AM Sunday morning the 31st and had to be at the MTC by 7-8 AM...that was tough, but fun for me to be joined by SUSAN AND LEANN!! They braved the early morning Sacrament Meeting to be with me so I could see Susan who had been there all week while I was gone!
I got to take them on a tour of the new buildings and some of the great art.
Awesome to have them there with us!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
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