Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Beautiful wonderful Christmas. 

The traditions of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have really solidified over the past few years and we find a great deal of joy in the things that we do.

Breakfast with the Bucherts for Christmas Eve is the way to start. I'm grateful they are always willing to host us. 

(Okay just a note since I'm writing this somewhat from the future....looking at these pictures is making me amazed that I had no idea what was coming down the pipe beginning in just a couple of days. You'll see. But for now, I'm just focusing on the loveliness of Christmas. I miss it, and not only because that was back when life was normal.)

So yes, thank you to Becca for making delicious breakfast casserole and sweet rolls. We ate more than we should have and loved every bite. We love listening to the Choir at King's College over the radio and watching the kids be such good friends together. How I love those Buchert kids.

And I love their tree. I also miss that.

After breakfast and lounging on the floor for a while, we packed up our stuff and took off for Crystal Hot Springs with the Preslar cousins. As always that deliciously warm water soaked into our bones and we had a great time with our cousins.

That night we watched another of our favorite Christmas movies, A Muppet Christmas Carol. Dad joined us and laughed as we all sang along to the well-known songs. Then it was off to bed for everyone and Troy and I got to have our usual snuggle by the fire in the glow of the tree lights.

It wouldn't be Christmas morning without lining the kids up and walking them blindly into the living room. Even with our oldest being 17 and practically done with childhood he still loves Christmas morning and walking in there with his sisters. So cute.

 It's one of the only days that they are willing to sit together and smile and be in a picture together. Willingly. It's almost the best part of Christmas.

Best gifts of the year -

In the evening we had dinner at my house and were happy to have my sister Margaret there with us as well as two of her daughters. My dad also joined us and was happy and laughed a lot as we made him watch Elf, pretty much my favorite Christmas movie. Besides ALL of the Christmas Carols. We had him watch it once before some other year and he didn't love it so much, but this time he chuckled and found it much more entertaining. After that we sat around looking through all my scrapbooks and finding pictures of the girls as little kids. That was really fun.

My dad seemed extra wobbly as he was heading home, and I felt more concerned for him. Margaret and I agreed that we really needed to encourage him to look into an independent living situation. We worried for him. Little did we know what the next few days would bring.

In the meantime, we had a beautiful Christmas together.

The More the Better: The Joys of December

As always, as always. I just try to shovel as much Christmas into December as I can possibly stand and it is still just never enough!!

I definitely started in with the Christmas music long before December 1st. I think I have fully TEN different playlists of Christmas music on Spotify. (Got to cover the many moods of the season, right?) When my sister found that out she was bewildered and said, "I have only ONE. It's called, 'Christmas music I can STAND.'" Troy and I have laughed about that a lot. I'm thinking my true spirit animal might be Buddy the Elf. More movies! More music! More lights! More snowflakes! More entire rolls of tollhouse cookie dough!

Let's see... how did we fill up our month?

It always starts with a Christmas Date with my friend Becca. We love to go to the German Christmas Market up at This is the Place Park, followed by hot cocoa (the GOOD kind from Hatch Family Chocolates), a village-viewing trip to Modern Display (where I bought Troy a surprise gift of a Clark Griswold figurine to add to our village), and then a movie and Christmas Crafts. It's the best way to kick off the season.

We also spent the whole month enjoying the new Disney+ show, The Mandelorian. Our family loved watching it together. Here's our favorite meme about the show:

Here's my work buddy Ellie and me freezing our bahooties off at recess one day....

And here is my Emma sacked out after a day of...something. I can't remember what.

Here is me being very brave. I was asked to accompany the elementary school choir of 5th and 6th graders to two different bank locations down town. The kids sang to the employees and customers and decorated trees at the same time with ornaments made by all of the kids at our school. It was actually pretty fun despite having to be subjected to the special situation we call the school bus. Haven't had to do that for quite some time. They smell the same way I remember.

Other fabulous events from the month:

Decorating Gingerbread Houses with the Mayfields - as fun as ever, especially now that the teenagers are loving being together and are much less awkward than they used to be. I think they are all still texting quite a bit with each other. This makes Troy and me very happy. We love those kids.

The Ward Christmas Party -

Choir concerts galore - Poor Romney's concert was still at her old junior high even though she has moved on to high school. She'll never escape! I guess while her choir teacher teaches at both schools that will continue to be true. They did a very cute job though.

All in one day we had Emma's winter music concert at school, a Relief Society craft night at the home of our dear Eugene who hosts wonderful crafts like ugly dolls, paper wreaths and ribbon flowers. Then after all that Emma and I were able to get downtown just in time to see this year's Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. We had great seats on the main level and enjoyed the lovely setting and music very much. The guest was a woman who sings opera...I can't remember her name. It was a beautiful concert and a great evening out with Emma.

A favorite holiday tradition is our staff luncheon at our school. Well, normally we hold the party at someone's house. We were supposed to go to this 6th grade teacher's house, but her husband fell ill and ended up in surgery I believe so we suddenly moved the lunch to our faculty room. Not the most festive of atmospheres but everyone did a great job bringing in lamps to change the lighting away from ceiling florescent bulbs and the tables were all set. It was great. The best part was that we always do a white-elephant party and I felt like I had the best present this year!! I wrapped up all five of my Twilight DVDs (It's okay, I have them memorized already so I don't need them anymore) and some chocolate and some cooking wine from Smith's. I thought it was a super funny present. But sadly we were moving through the gifts really really quickly and most people didn't even really get to see what the gifts were so only a couple people got to appreciate my brilliant gift. They laughed.

Of course one of the greatest evenings of the Christmas Season is getting lucky enough to get tickets to the Carol Service at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. I was able to get four tickets - perfect, since Troy and the girls love going and Chase had no interest at all. Words can't really describe what it's like to sit in that vaulting space and hear the almost haunting and holy voices of children singing ancient music. Well, some ancient and some that sounds ancient. It's absolutely incredible. We love it.

Not a great photo, but since it's the only one we have...I'm using it

More choir performances, this time from Chase - and we got to bring home some giant poinsettias that his choir was selling for a fundraiser. We gave one to our new neighbors and I tried to give one to my dad but he said no thanks. So we ended up with two. They made me so happy! I will definitely get poinsettias in future years - they're so cheerful and bright!

We also got to see the new Star Wars, Episode 9, on opening night. With the Moores. I loved it! I totally loved it and found it to be a fantastic conclusion to the series. Sadly, almost no one in our group agreed with me. They did not love it. That was a bummer for me. I did eventually find other friends who really enjoyed it so I felt a little vindicated. I hate being the only one who likes a movie - it makes me feel simple and too easy to please. Probably I am. So I was glad when I found other fans of the show.

Ok the funnest was going to Christmas in Color with our Sam cousins. So, we did this last year with Peter. You pay like $25 per car to go out to the equestrian park and drive through a mile long switch-back path that is just absolutely doused in Christmas lights. You turn on your radio to their station and they play songs and all the lights are animated to match the songs. It's loud. It's obnoxious. It's a little hideous. I love it. After the drive through light display we headed to Sam's house for a fabulous hot cocoa bar and more Mandelorian. What a fun night!

As we neared the big day, the activities slowed down a little, but were topped off with the traditional night of soup and singing at the Buchert's house. It was a small group but very satisfying to sing with. We've been singing these songs for so many years that some of them are beginning to be more familiar to me. I still get frustrated with the songs that are very soprano-oriented, but many of them are more comfortable than they used to be.

Also, I love their tree.

Last off all, the Friday before Christmas Eve, Becca and I had one more chance to visit the amazing Cathedral of the Madeleine. We so love Benjamin Britton's Ceremony of Carols. It's so short - only 20 minutes or so, but so absolutely worth finding the parking and getting inside to find a seat and listen. 

Apparently, this was a month of selfies for me. 

It was an absolutely wonderful December. I'm so grateful that my husband loves Christmas as much as I do. He may not want to watch four versions of A Christmas Carol like I do, but then again, he's sane. I think we drove our children a little bit nuts with our insistence that all music be Christmas Music...even Emma was begging for a break. Too bad, kiddos! Daddy and I are in charge, so deal with it! 

Here's Romney, hiding in the best spot in the house. Under the tree, next to the heating vent. She's like a little kitty cat that way. It's a good place for some respite, away from her Christmas-crazed parents.

University Ward Forever

Before I leap into all the activity of December, I have to give one special day its own post. 

Long live the University Ward!

Troy and I had been married for one year when we moved from our apartment into our first (and so far,  only) home. We immediately began attending the University Ward - a very special building, built in the 1920's and filled with very interesting and unique architectural details.

Here are some fantastic photos taken by our good friend Martin:

 

We have absolutely loved being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and attending this very special building. Of course the building is not the reason we have loved being members of this ward for the past 21 years. It's really the people. Right away we began putting down roots and have developed the strongest and most loving relationships and friendships of our lives. Most of our family members live somewhat far away from us and so we have made our neighborhood our family, and have turned to them time and time again. There's a lot of change in our neighborhood - we live so close to a university that student families are constantly moving in and out, sometimes staying for 5 years and some for only 5 months. Even after 20 years in the neighborhood it still can hurt our feelings  little bit when people move away from us. The good side of that is the fact the planet is filled with people who once lived in our neighborhood and we know them and love them. 

Well, our dear building is very old. It's a long long story, but the main point is that our building is too expensive to keep. It is being sold. And our church group now feels a little like the wandering peoples of Moses. We have been sharing a building with another ward for almost 2 years now, and next that building is going to get a remodel, so we are being moved again. It's been sad. I mean, we have to count our blessings and remember how many people don't have any place at all to worship, or have to travel for hours to get to one. I know we are very very lucky. Still, it stings to move away from that building. It's truly a special place. 

At the beginning of December, after it had been decided for sure that we weren't going to be able to move back in to the building at all (for a while we thought the move was just temporary), we were given a chance to have one last meeting there. It was so wonderful to be there and yet so bittersweet - what a great chance to go be in that beautiful space with so many people we love - hoards of former ward members came for this special meeting - and it was super sad as well. 

Troy was asked to come early to the meeting and take some photos of current and former bishoprics. We love these people so very much and they have all served the people of our neighborhood so willingly and lovingly. They continue to do so. Just....in a different place.

I'm realizing that I'm having trouble truly expressing what this day was like, what a beautiful chance it was to go to a building that felt so much like home. I don't think I can adequately do it.

It took place on an extremely busy weekend - the night before was our ward party at a different building, and following this extra special meeting we met with the Catholic Parish next door for our annual Christmas service, lunch following at the University Ward.  A lot of work for a lot of people. And yet, having the chance to be in that space together one last time as a ward family was really a treasure.