25 DAYS TO CHRISTMAS!!
December brings the traditional Hershey Countdowns that I have been making for the family for...who knows how many years?
Pre-K for December was SO BUSY! I taught 3 days a week to make up for the 3 days I missed in November so it was never a dull moment for me prepping.
This is our Native American Day that was really a lot of fun!
I have one student, Kasette, whose Mom gets me matching shirts sometimes so we can be "matchy" at school!
Notice my clear front mask. It is a "deaf mask" so the kids can see me forming the letter and word sounds. It looks so strange, but works for me as a teacher.
Here are the adorable 2020 Masked Gingerbread Ornaments that I made for the grandkids and a few family members this year. They represent a lot of my spring and summer, sewing masks for frontline workers and for family members.
Austin suggested that we do a FAMILY HOT COCOA NIGHT each Sunday night for like 10 weeks. We started with a basic hot homemade chocolate hot cocoa and have a schedule for a new flavor each week.
This week was GINGERBREAD. We each choose our own recipes and then report on them to the rest of the family.
Ours was sort of a spicy recipe but really rich and tasty!
Another week we had PUMPKIN hot cocoa. I chose a recipe with a white chocolate base and lots of actual pumpkin puree in it. It was surprisingly tasty!
My dear friend Cynde Hernandez passed away this month just 3 weeks after her husband David passed. They both had health complications for as long as I have known them. David had diabetes very bad and ultimately it took him.
Cynde passed literally from a broken heart. She had a pacemaker and heart problems since I knew her back in the 80's and 90's. But when David died, her heart could take no more.
This photo is of Ashley, Angie, Shelly and Karen Baum, me, Madison and Jasmine. I have one with Digger too if you want to see it. It was so good to visit with all these dear people!
Scott and I have been exploring winter walks. This is out by Utah lake with the ice getting pushed up onto itself with the water movements before it froze more solid. So beautiful in the sun like crystal!
Alright, this is a really poor photo, but the bird flapping its wings is a "Neotropical Cormorant" apparently quite rare in Utah.
But, we found it and got a picture so there! All the other birds around it are common Coots.
We have been watching a lovely Mute Swan that hasapparently been in Spanish Fork for a year now. Hoping it survives the winter again.
2 more newer birds for us...Northern Shoveler up front and American Wigeon in the back.
Last year we just said "There are some ducks!"
(I still say that a lot)
Here is a straggler that stayed where it is really cold. This is a Great Egret...really huge bird we found out at a nearby slough.
And, I discovered the SNOW MAN!
If you wonder who makes those random snow angels you see when you are out walking...look no further than our own Scotters!
He also makes random snowmen for people to find!
(This is the same man that created a lizard out of rocks by placing a rock each time we walked in AZ until there was a complete lizard by the side of the sidewalk.)
Christmas Eve we had a wonderful ZOOM CALL with Grandpa James and Carolyn!
It was wonderful to get everyone together to chat and the kids had some really good questions!
This made our Christmas Eve so much better!
Then we went to sing carols outside at Dad and Carolyns and that made things seem a little more "normal."
Really a special time!
Christmas Day, we did our traditional walk outside with Santa Hats.
We ended up at Utah Lake and about the first thing we saw was this "duck" that did not fly away when we got closer...we then realized she could not...she was caught in fishing line.
Braden was ready to do the "Polar Plunge" and just go in after her...but Scott kept them working with a long branch he hunted for and with the 2 of them, they finally got it under her to scoop her towards shore...
(mind you, they were both on thin ice at the edge of the river here and it was pretty scary)
...where they grabbed her and did surgery to remove line wrapped around her wing and then her neck like 3-4 times!
Poor little thing! She was a female Common Goldeneye and was so scared and so tired!
Here are the 2 rescuers with the sweet little Goldeneye. She was shaking so bad and had swallowed a lot of water, we hope she survived!
December Aidan and Alex chose to be baptized up in Cody by Jimmy. They are really sweet boys!
We were invited to go up for their temple sealing early January so we made plans to go spend New Years with them beforehand.
Scott and I flew up to Billings December 29 and were surprised that Amanda and the kids met us at the airport that evening. Aidan had a dental appointment there that afternoon so they just stayed there to wait for us.
The kids all hugged us and helped us with our luggage and it was a party!
We took them to Cafe Rio for dinner and just had the best time being together!
Can you see how much they love having a Grandpa figure in their lives?
Seriously, they are so loving and accepting!
Scott and I stayed in Billings one day to do some hiking and birding.
We lucked out and ended up in a State-owned property that was just stunning on the buttes near Billings. We hiked there several hours and it was a "Red-breasted Nuthatch" party!
Saw a ton of these adorable little birds!
A new bird for us was the "Red Crossbill."
As we can see, this one is not red...
...and this one is not red either!
They turn red at some point in their lives, but not these two at this point.
However, the crossed bill is very interesting.
NEW YEARS EVE we had so much fun! We ate WONDERFUL Asian food planned by Amanda and we did lots of poppers, had some fireworks and did some karaoke with the kids and then sent them to bed.
And then the adults stayed up and played a fun game and talked til midnight.
The friends from Utah are Jared and Mackenzie and you see Elijah here who woke up. Malachi is the older of their adopted children in the upper photo. It was a noisy houseful of kids but SO FUN!! So grateful we could be there to end the year with family!
