2023- Week 51(Dec 18- Dec 24)

 It was our DUP Christmas Party this week. We had a lesson and then played a name that tune game with Christmas songs. We also played Left Right Center with quarters. I won on my table. We had a pot luck lunch and it was fun to be together.

We got our ornaments so late this year because of schedules that I was worried we wouldn't be able to find any good ones, but we did. We just went to Hobby Lobby.

This month we have been reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I think I was really the only one who wanted to read it, but it was the sweetest story. I want it to be a new tradition in our home. It is short- only a hundred pages and can be read fast. Dallas Jenkins the creator of The Chosen is making it into a movie and he got me interested in reading it. It was a story of what the Christmas story is really about. It brought me to tears and made me laugh out loud and I just love it so much. I ordered a set of used books that I plan to give out to a few people next year. 

A sweet new single sister in our ward named Vonni had to have a back surgery this week. I spent the week visiting her and helping her get moved to a rehab center. Tami Rich and I decorated her room and got her some gifts. I know she was hoping to get to go home but her house has a ton of stairs and her son was out of town so we were worried we wouldn't be able to care for her like she needed and her doctor felt the same. She is so so sweet and I have loved getting to know her better.

Malia's annual Christmas Eve Eve party was this week. We had a yummy chicken cordon bleu dinner with baked potato and sweet potatoes. We played the money game which Corban won and also did white elephants. This year our family based our gifts on popular Christmas movies. We did Elf, Home Alone, Polar Express, Lampoons Christmas Vacation and The Grinch. It's always so much fun!

Christmas Eve was on Sunday so we went to church and then made a special dinner, read the Christmas story, opened PJ's- Ashtyn's Taylor Swift sweatshirt didn't come in time and Whitney's sweatshirt said I Can't I'm Flying Planes on the back. Instead of watching National Lampoons like we usually do we watched the Little House on the Prairie Special. 

My sweet coworker Trent Keys was put on hospice a few weeks ago and he died on Christmas Eve, which was so fitting because he was our Santa at the park. He was also a train driver, master wood worker in the cabinet shop and made everyone so happy. They gave out these pictures of him. His children shared such tender stories of him. One thing he was really good at was making everyone feel like they were his favorite person. He took his kids on individual dates and had his grandkids over for pancake parties and he carved them all versions of Noah's arks that were unique to them. He truly was an angel on earth. I got to visit him one time in the care center and we had a good chat. He told me the most important thing to do in life is to be kind to each other and to 

find someone who loves you as much as you love them.

2023- Week 50(Dec 11- Dec 17)

Our neighborhood did a project for the refugees. Headed up by the Barney's we gathered supplies and took them to an apartment complex and passed them out. It was so fun. The Stevens, Barney's and Us all went but lots of the neighbors sent supplies. Melissa also made a light brunch that we enjoyed before we went.

The Relief Society gave out these beautiful pictures of Christ.

Visited Julia for Christmas.

Jeff and I went to the Bingham Candlelight Concert to support the kids in the ward.

2023- Week 49(Dec 4- Dec 10)

We went to dinner at Brio and to A Christmas Carol at Hale for Jeff's work party. It was so fun! The food was amazing and the play was even better.

We held a DUP board meeting. All of us have been serving for six years and that is the term limit for an office so we will have to elect a whole new board except for the two vice captains.

I was released from Activity Days which I had been doing for five years and called to be the Compassionate Service Coordinator. I feel so so much anxiety about it and feel so far out of my element but here we go. I had already planned our party for AD this week so I still went. We did a Christmas party with the following games:

1. We chose a nativity figure and told what we knew about that character

2. Scoop the Christmas Bows blindfolded

3. Hungry Hungry Reindeer- the boys wore cups on their hands and I dumped a pile of marshmallows in the table and they had to scoop up as many as they could.

4. M&M Minute to Win It- where you transfer an m&m with a straw from one plate to another.

5. Group Tic Tac Toe

6. Blow a card off a deck of cards till one is left- team version

7. Candy Cane Swoop where you had to drop a ping pong ball and swipe a candy cane under it as many times as you could without hitting the ball.

8. Ping Pong with balloons

9. Gift exchange with dice that told you when to trade. We just got gifts from the Five and Below. They loved this. Jaxen really loved the squishy dog and he actually participated quite a bit this time.

Some of these boys have been in my group since they turned 8- including Cole and I love them all so much. They are such good boys. Tara and I gave the boys turning 12 a pair of BOM socks to wear when they pass the sacrament. I am going to miss them!

It was our ward breakfast this week The theme was Picture A Christmas. They served waffles. I invited Claudia and her family to come.

Bryan Hall invited us to go to the Jazz game with him and his twins. He works for Larry H Miller and gets to use their private suite. The suite was amazing. The food was amazing. The view from six rows up was even more amazing. I definitely felt out of place. The CEO was there and it was so swanky. It was an amazing night. So much so that Logan fell asleep ha ha.

The girls were home so we decorated a gingerbread house. 

2023- Week 48(Nov 27- Dec 3)

We hosted the monthly Shaw Sunday dinner. I made my Uncle Bob's delicious pasta sauce- passed down to him from his Italian grandmother Vincenzina "Jenny" Vinnola. You have to cook it low and slow for several hours. It has just a few ingredients. Canned tomato's, tomato paste, basil, olive oil, garlic and Italian sausage. So I cooked it the night before and then again all day Sunday. It was so worth it. It tasted amazing!!

First peppermint shake of the season.

We had a company DUP meeting and the Riverton Madrigals came to sing. It was so fun.

Jeff and I went to the temple on Wednesday night and I love when they have the nativity set up. It's so beautiful.

I gave blood at the Stake Blood Drive. They had to have the manager come and find a vein on me. 

Saturday was the baptism for the cutest little girl named Alice in our ward. Jeff said she knew all the answers to the questions he asked in her interview. She had the biggest smile on her face the whole time. This is one of my favorite parts of him being Bishop is getting to attend these.