Christmas Newsletter 2021

Elisabeth (17, Senior): Student class officer, piano teacher, subway sandwich artist, AP and Concurrent class taker, late-night studier, tumbler who does back tucks and handsprings, fuzzy sock lover, dog-walking hater, scripture studier, sympathetic and diligent, laughs often.

Charles (15 Sophomore): lawn mower, school sweeper, driving permit learner, outdoor adventure enthusiast, dog lover, baseball player, Star Wars and superhero follower, minecraft builder, kind hearted, reliable, optimistic and fun loving(sometimes teasing) brother.  

Annabelle (13, 8th Grade): soccer player, babysitter, home organizer/cleaner, hard-working student, learning hymns on the piano, dog lover, compassionate, thoughtful, observer.

Jane (11, 6th Grade): piano player, Nora’s roommate, petite, gymnastics lover, tumbler who does handsprings, tucks, layouts, aerials, BYU gymnast aspirer, beam, vault and bars learner, homebody, soccer player, graphic novel reader, spirited, kind-hearted. 

Nora (9, 4th Grade): competitive soccer player, tumbler who does handsprings and aerials, piano player, Jane’s roommate, social butterfly, Charles’ mini-me (the Mexican/Italian genes are strong with these two), dog lover, kind and sympathetic. 

Elisa: Mom aka chauffeur, nurse, therapist, counselor, tutor, chef, nutritionist, event planner, vacation planner, secretary, hair stylist, gospel teacher and more. Marathon runner, writer, Grand Canyon hiker (3rd consecutive year), youth group counselor, elementary school aide, yoga lover, book club member (14 years), faithful, always striving for more patience and charity. 

Scott: Dad aka high school math and science tutor, chauffeur, soccer coach, chef, counselor, gospel teacher, dad-joke sharer and more. Cyclist, peloton follower, house project doer, youth group leader, civil engineer, non-fiction book reader, fix-it guy, thinker, compassionate, loyal, kind. 

Family Highlights: Family reunions, hiking Tetons, and any time spent with loved ones.  

May God fill your life with love, joy and peace this holiday season and throughout the New Year. 

 

Christmas Break, Snow, Sledding

 It's Christmas Break! Which means no work for me or school for the kids for the next 2 weeks! These are my coworkers. 

For our combined youth activity in December we went to the equestrian center and did Christmas in Color. It was pretty, but it's $35/vehicle and I don't know that I'd do that again. 

We got a decent dumping of snow. 10 inches in one night. But who needs a snow blower when you have a strong body (and strong bodied children) that can do the work. It's kinda fun. 

Jane, Nora and I went sledding one afternoon at the 'big hill'. It's probably not that big in comparison to some others, but to me it was huge and scary and it gets all the kids excited. Here's a garbage full of broken up sleds at the 'big hill' park. 

Gifts of Christmas

 

Silver Rush, Trail Running Fall, Family Room Lights, Gymnastics Recital

 During the month of December, the student council and others from our high school raise money for a charity. They are out doing odd jobs for money from 4pm-8pm every weekday in December so the parents of the kids in student council all sign up to bring dinner one night. I, of course, brought Mexican food. These kids over 3 weeks ended up earning $194,000! That's with odd jobs all sorts of other games and activities (drill/dance/cheer basketball game, gotcha game, 'jail', date auction, etc). So amazing! 

I'm still trail running with Penny about once a week. I took a hard fall early in December and landed on some rocks all over the front of my body. Luckily I just came away with some bruises and scratches, nothing seriously injured. 

The rocks cut a little hole in my pants which was a bummer and I had quite a few scratches on my knee. I was so grateful that, even though I got scratches all over my right elbow too, that it didn't cut a hole into my jacket. Because my jacket is a favorite and is more expensive than clothing I normally buy (I usually spend 10-20 bucks on pants and shirts, and this jacket, which I bought on sale was $70). I got it because it's a great running jacket. Super light weight(and can fold down teeny tiny if you want to take it off) and blocks wind and keeps you warm enough while running because it traps in your heat. It's called the Patagonia Hoodini. 

Scott started putting more lights in our family room. Our old neighbor and friend stopped by to pick up his daughter who was playing with Nora and he jumped in and helped Scott for a good 20 minutes which was nice of him. I especially appreciated it because it was our date night and this had taken a lot longer than he'd thought (though I'd figured it was going to take a lot longer than planned) and I was getting hungry :). Thanks Brian!

Jane had her first Gymnastics recital. And it may be her last because she's hoping to join team in the Spring and then she'll be doing competitions instead. She is sure loving gymnastics. 

She can do her back walkover on the beam. She was the only one in her class that could do that. 

Youth Group and 14 years of Book Club; books read in 2021

For one of our recent young women activities the girls helped us put together care packages for nurses and others working at the hospitals. Since the pandemic they've been short-staffed and overworked. We wanted to show our appreciation. 

We had our annual bookclub Christmas dinner a couple of weeks ago and I was having so much fun hosting that I forgot to take a picture! But pictured here is the Tres Leches I made for dessert (I also made enchiladas, refried beans, guacamole etc for dinner and the other members also brought some enchiladas, rice, salad, chips etc) and the books we've read over the years as bookclub. 

I wasn't always a reader, but bookclub turned me into one. I'm grateful for bookclub. I'm grateful for the friendships I've made over these past 13 years with the women who attend bookclub. I'm grateful for the diverse selection of books I've been able to read in bookclub, many of which I never would've picked up on my own, but later came to love. I'm grateful for the knowledge and new perspectives I've gained from reading these books. 

"I am a part of everything that I have read." - Theodore Roosevelt

 Here are a list of the books I read in 2021 (the asterick means they're book club books; there aren't 12 bookclub books because I had read some on my own in the past and didn't reread those)

1. Winter Fire by Rachel Ann Nunes
2. Friends and Foes by Sarah M Eden
3. The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen
4. The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen
5. The Omni Diet by Tana Amen
6. My Name Used to Be Muhammad by Tito Momen
7. A Fine Gentleman by Sarah M Eden
8. The Kidss of a Stranger by Sarah M Eden
9. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns *
10. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes *
11. The Zen of Listening by Rebecca Shafer
12. Make Your Bed by William McRaven*
13. The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck*
14. The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton*
15. Wrong for You by Jenny Proctor
16. P.S. I like You by Kasie West
17. Love At First Note by Jenny Proctor
18. The Choice by Edith Eger*
19. A Heart Like His by Virginia H Pearce*
20. The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate
21. A Better Way To Teach Kids About Sex by Padilla-walker, Leavitt, Busby and Caroll
22. A Royal Christmas Quandry by Samantha Hastings*

Thanksgiving in Idaho

 Tuesday night after Elisabeth and Jane finished tumbling/gymnastics at 8pm, we took off for Idaho to spend Thanksgiving break with my sister Becca and her family and my brother Fred and his family who came out from Oregon. We ended up getting to her house around 2am. I was grateful Scott drove and Elisabeth and Charles took turns sitting in the front to help keep him awake. 

We arrived first so before the Garnica's arrived the kids decided to go iceskating since their cousin Reese was in a cast. 

Here are Jane and Nora playing with Rain.

We blew up the air mattress for the younger girl cousins but it didn't stay inflated for long. So after the first night they slept on a gymnastics pad on the floor. Scott and I stayed in the guest room on the main floor and Fred and Robin stayed in Bella's room upstairs. All the cousin slept out in the living room and family room. 

The cousins loved all the time together. They did karaoke, hot tubbing, lots of time talking, playing games etc. 

We had a delicious Thanksgiving feast. This was my first time making yams with marshmallows on top. People seemed to enjoy it. I also had my normal crumble topping underneath the marshmallows which was yummy (It had oats, butter, brown sugar, and some chopped nuts).

Holiday quinoa salad

Robin made some delicious rolls

green bean casserole. Scott made a turkey covered in bacon and Robin also made shredded ham and mashed potatoes. 

Lots of desserts: pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie, chocolate pies, pecan pie, banana cream pies, apple crumble. We had leftovers for days. 

We had fun playing signs. The cousins also did a white elephant gift exchange. 

Becca made our families corn hole game boards for our Christmas present and gave them to us while we were there. We set them up and over a couple of days had a corn hold tournament bracket going. I think Shaun and Charles won, but it was pretty close. 

We drove to the Scentsy headquarters for their annual Christmas lights. It was beautiful. 

Robin printed out some family names on my dad's side (great grandparents!) and we were able to take those names to the temple and do the temple work for them. I loved going with all the family. 

The teens went shopping and got matching pjs.

Nora and Cora got matching pj tops. The girls spent most nights staying up late creating dances to Christmas songs. 

They also spent a lot of time hot tubbing. 

We love spending time with family! I only wish we lived closer. Maybe someday.