I had already made my potatah's so I made a tripple batch of my rolls. Jon got the ham going and I tossed a salad. I made all the sugar cookies the day before. Christmas eve dinner is so simple and so delicious. This year as the kids kept commenting that they couldn't wait for dinner made me glad I've kept the menu the same their whole life. It's tradition!
One great thing I did this year was put Jonny in charge of the program. Why have I not done this until now??? He did such a great job! He had us read scripture mixed with Christmas Hymns. Then he had all four Grandparents share their testimonies of our Savior. It was so special. I am so grateful the kids got to hear from them. I was thinking they don't hear their testimonies enough! It made it such a great night.
Then they opened the other gifts. Surprise, pajamas!
And now... my favorite part!
We propped the phone up so he could watch the chaos unfold. I tell you what- the kids send me their Christmas list, and I even make them send me exact links with colors and sizes etc. They are so particular. While I stick to that list, I always want to go rogue and surprise them a little bit. Why do I do that? Every single one of those rogue items was a hard "no". The surprise factor is not worth the money.
We arrived right at dinnertime. Cash and the Goulding's were already there, the Shafers would arrive the next day. We had a lovely Christmas dinner, chatting and puzzles. The house was amazing! There were so many levels and balconies. Adren called again and Jon and I chatted with him for a bit in the other room. I was happy and relieved to hear that he had been well taken care of for Christmas and fed many meals at different homes and was all cozy in his new jammies at home. He looked very happy which made me happy. And sad.
Then, everyone opened the final Christmas gift. A Nerf gun for everyone! Everyone only had minutes to load their guns and pockets with bullets and we turned out all the lights. We played several rounds with different random rules and teams. It was a real fun time!
The next day the Shafer's arrived right after we ate a big pancake breakfast. We all headed to the nearby bowling alley. We did a kid group and an adult group. A real downer was that Eli had to take off at this point :( He couldn't get work off, since he works with all college students that went home for the holidays. He had to work over the whole break. Soooo sad! Zeke wasn't feeling well and went home with him. It was a big bummer to see them go!
After bowling we headed over to Logan Rentals and all got fitted for boots, ski's and snowboards. We loaded up our cars with all of our gear and headed to an early pizza dinner. Back at the house the kids watched a movie in the downstairs theater and carried on with nerf wars, now that the Shafers had joined us.
The next morning we all got up an put on as many layers as we could, our winter gear, and hit Beaver Mountain Ski Resort! It was such a cute, quaint resort. It took us all sooo long to get our boots on, more layers etc. I was sweating by the time we trecked up to the lodge. I forgot how hard ski boots are to walk in! Jon was trying snowboarding for the first time. This was Paisley's first time skiing, so I told her today would be more frustrating than fun ;)
Trina and Dave Axford met us, along with Sariah and kids. We headed over to the bunny hill to get our bearings. It's been at least 27 years since I've skied! Living in Utah, I've always felt a little guilty that we haven't taken our kids and let them get into it. I did look into it when they were younger and was turned off by the money $$$ and time. Too bad! I felt a rush of excitement as I glided across the snow. I was trying to show Paisley how to kick off with one leg and then another, the pizza slice to stop, french fries to go yada yada. It is hard! Jon was really trying to get the hang of snowboarding- but it looked even harder to me! We goofed around for a bit. It gets scary when you get going too fast. Paisley kept knocking me down, so she went off with Ashely and the girls, Ash is a much better teacher than I am. I really don't know what I'm doing and have no business giving tips. I kept thinking how Eli would be loving this and was so sad he couldn't join us. At one point I was talking with Cade and Jon was heading towards me- quite fast! Too fast for me to get out of his way and he knocked me back. I fell backwards and my head whipped back so hard. I didn't necessarily hit my head hard- it was my neck! I felt so whoozy, like I was on a roller coaster. Cade helped me up and find my glasses and hat. I tried to brush it off, but felt like I needed to sit down for a minute. I went back to the lodge and closed my eyes in the warm sun outside on a bench and that felt a little better, but still so whoozy. Jonny came to check on me and I felt like I just needed to lay down and close my eyes for a bit so I went out to the Jeep and reclined my chair and fell right to sleep! That probably wasn't good to do, but I couldn't help it. I woke up an hour later! It was so weird. I made my way back to the lodge and found LT we sat and chatted. I did feel better, just had a dull headache. I knew I was done, I did not feel like skiing. Soon enough Jon and Paisley joined us and Scarlette. We decided since we were not going back out, we may as well go back to the house. We returned our gear and I ended up taking another nap a the house. I woke up and felt much better, though my neck was so stiff! We all got freshened up and headed to a Mexican dinner with everyone. Romney, Austin and sweet babies joined us. After dinner we all went back to the house and got in PJ's and chatted, more puzzles and passed around that sweet little baby boy. It was so great to catch up and laugh with everyone. Mieken and Derek came over with their sweet little Harvey. We chatted and laughed till we were bawling! They are a real good time! It was so good to be able to catch up with Mieken and hear all about sweet Harvey. Mieken and Derek had also taken turns skiing with us and the Axfords. Derek works part time and volunteers at Beaver so he was really helpful in getting us our gear and figuring everything out.
Thursday morning we all packed up and ran through the departure list. It was fun to all be together over Christmas! As fun as that was, I was so excited to get back to our cozy Christmas house and start a puzzle and do our thing. We got home to find the boys had tidied up most of the Christmas craziness, so that was sweet! They said they knew we'd want to walk in to order. So sweet. We spent the rest of the break hanging at the house together with movies on repeat. I love Christmas break!
It was time to get excited for the big Stake New Years Eve Bowling Activity! We reserved Fat Cats and Miracle Bowl and had the wards get their kids to their respective bowling alley by 10am. It is always a little hectic. We really need to find a 3rd location next year so the kids have a little more time to bowl. Fat Cats is always great to give the kids vouchers for free video games, so that entertains them while they wait. We counted 250 kids at each place! Such a great turnout.
After bowling, we headed back to the Stake Center for a quick fireside to kick off the new year and new theme for 2024. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. We had some youth speak and they did so great! We ordered 90 pizzas. It is incredible to see that many pizza's devoured in minutes. Every last slice was devoured, not a crumb to spare. Amazing.
I sure love working with the Stake Leaders. They are a fun group, which makes these things jolly and great. My presidency, the Stake YM President and his counselors, the high councilmen assigned to us- they are all so fun. After we had everything cleaned up we stood around and chatted and laughed for a bit before closing up the church on the last day of 2023.
Happy New Year! Happy 2024!!!