Other February Events

There was one really big event in February, which will be the subject of my next post. (HSM 20yrs!) (If that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, translation coming.) Before I get to that, here are some other lovely things about the month of February to get on the record books, in no particular order.

My DND-obsessed kids. Here is a delightful photo of my children, Romney's boyfriend, and their dear friends Anna and Cami, playing DnD with the nursery kids at Cami's church. How hilarious is that? These kids are 18-36 months old. Little babies. But Cami, the dungeon master of all dungeon masters, figured out a way to play a little campaign with them. Romney and Chase and Nicholas joined in and had a ball. I don't know how it worked, but I love these photos.

Speaking of dear friends, two of mine, Becca and Elyse, both have February birthdays. Early in the month is Elyse's - she has a rather massive group of friends and sweetly Troy and I have been included in her annual invitation to gather at some lovely restaurant to celebrate with everyone. This year was Slackwater Pizza, which everyone loves. I love the food but find it to be the loudest restaurant on the planet. Another sign of my old-agedness. 

Becca's birthday is in the middle of the month. This was a special year where she was turning a special number, which I really shouldn't say aloud. I'll just give you a little hint that it starts with a 5 and ends with a 0. Becca had thrown a very sweet party for me the year that I turned that number, and I wanted to do the same for her. I asked if I could plan a celebration, and she was excited to accept. However, I have to say that the party experienced some significant party-creep, much more than I expected, because her dear husband and kids love her so much and wanted to be part of the planning fun and had much bigger ideas than I did. In the best way. At first I tried to keep up with them and be part of the big plan but then I gave up, handed it all off to them, and I stuck to what I do best, which is the menu. Becca's family truly put together an amazing party - they held the soiree at Martin's sister's home, and used Becca's amazing quilts as the decoration, hanging them all over the walls. They collected a delightful assortment of china plates and drinking glasses and forks and napkins so as not to use anything disposable. I was pretty proud of the menu I put together - lots of delicious dips and baked savory things and fruit and all the good stuff. And about 1,000 people came. I was just where I wanted to be - staying behind the scenes and keeping the food platters filled. I call it a huge success. Had I been working alone it would have been on the meager side.

Peter and Sheri very kindly came to town to see HSM and stopped at the party before heading home. That made my day.

We had a nicer Valentines Day than we do most years. Most years I don't care that much. I often think of little cute things that would be fun to do for the kids and then I never do them and I'm too tired anyway. But I did start the day by decorating the table with a little love-note for the kids. Just flowers and chocolate, nothing too exciting but it felt fun.

Then in the evening Troy and I were invited to join the Tates and Mayfields for dinner at a Mexican place. The food was fine enough but what was really special to us was being with these wonderful people. We had an especially heartfelt conversation led by Dave and we all felt closer together afterwards. It didn't hurt that the chips, salsa, and guacamole were flowing freely. I love Troy's highschool friends and feel closer to most of them than I do to my own highschool connections.

Observe now my new sometimes-office-mate Holly who recently moved to our hospital from one in Alaska, though she hails from Maine. She is delightful in every way. Especially since she fashioned my very own name plate for my book cupboard. I adore this friend.

Here are other much-loved work friends, all of whom are young enough to be my child. My phone was seized by Erika who insisted on a group selfie before returning my device.

It is now time to end this post and begin the new one, the shining star of Feburary, the great 20-year anniversary performance of High School Musical, performed in the same high school where the original film takes place. It was quite the event.

My Bestie is a Granny

It is no longer an uncommon occurrence for me to get asked if I'm a grandmother, or how many grandkids I have, or if such and such a person is my grandchild. The first time it happened it made me giggle quite a bit, and actually I found it rather flattering because when I was asked that it was while I was playing with a little kiddo at church and it felt kind of like a compliment, which I think it actually was.

But now that these question or comment is coming up more often, I have to confess that it's no longer this surprising thing that I could actually be a grandmother. Tons of people my age (and quite a bit younger!) are. I'm grandma age! It has happened! Do I think I'll be a grandmother anytime soon? No, no I don't. But not because I'm too young to be a grandmother. 

Last fall The Becky called me with the big news that her daughter was expecting a baby. We were both excited and nervous (obviously she much more than I, but still) and had trouble imagining what this change in her family would be like. In February, I was invited to a baby shower in honor of Becky's daughter. Becky's daughter-in-law put the shower together, and I'll tell you, that shower taught me what it looks like to truly go above and beyond. It was so cute it was kind of alarming. Becky just sat back and watched her DIL exhaust herself putting this party together, and the result was amazing. I was very helpful. I brought a salad. 

 

Just a few weeks later Becky let me know that wee little Alice had been born. I was very excited to meet her and what a treat to see Becky get to hold her little grandbaby. This baby adores Becky.

 

 

Gosh, who would have thought, all those years ago as Becky and I were cruising boys' houses and singing to the radio and watching Star Wars movies all night long that someday we'd be old (and getting older) together, and taking pictures of each other's grandchildren? It's making me smile just thinking about it. It's such an honor being her friend.

Happy New Year!.....in almost April

It took me pretty much three months to finish making entries about the last of 2025, and since I back-dated all of them, no one will ever just how far behind I was. But I'm not back-dating this. So now you know. It's the end of March, bizarrely and unseasonably warm, and it feels like summer will be here in approximately 30 - 35 minutes. I hope not. What I'm hoping for is a very wet April. If not, this summer is going to be punishing. 

But I digress. Like I was saying...happy new year! What on earth has been happening?

Well, right off the bat, I kind of got myself into trouble. In my usual way. I threw a bridal shower for a wonderful woman in my neighborhood. She was just a cute little girl when we moved in more than 25 years ago, and I've always been very fond of her and her family. Her mom has had some health problems and when the announcement was made that Shelbie was getting married, she and I had a lovely conversation that led to me throwing a shower. Showers are fun. But somehow I always think things are going to be easier than they actually are. I am a huge victim of my own mental imagery, and end up with a serious case of project creep everytime. And still, the end result is far from being pinterest-worthy. I believe I just added a term to this paragraph that will be incomprehensible to generations ahead. Being pinterest-worthy is definitely a thing in 2026 but for how much longer, I have no idea. 

Boy, I'm rambling, aren't I. In any case, putting together the shower was fun and also it kind of wiped me out! I don't even have many photos of the event, including one of the bride. That's going to be a major theme of these next few posts - I didn't take many photos! New goal for the year.

Ok that's incredibly lame that I only have those two photos and they don't even look that great. What was I so tired about??

Also I must include a little update on my current church calling of being the young women's president of our ward. It's been an incredibly humbling calling, trying to connect with and support the teenaged girls in my neighborhood. They can really be a puzzle. I really do love them. Here is a photo of us going to the Utah Food Bank to volunteer - we had such a fun night:

Romney's dear DEAR friend Cambria wrote a play. She's a UofU student and is a very gifted writer. She had the chance to produce the play, which was kind of a pirate-themed show complete with lots of sea-shanties. She needed a few extra bodies and got Romney to join in. Romney got to sing and play cello and wear a very convincing pirate wench costume. We were very impressed with the show!

We also held our annual bleak week celebration. Activities included getting desserts from Gourmandise, getting a ton of sushi from Smith's - it's no Hamachi but substantially cheaper - having a Pixar Shorts watch-a-thon, having a music show-and-tell which ended in a giant lip synching fest for the kids, and having Peter over for the weekend. I also had lunch with The Becky. We definitely felt cheered up. Still hated putting away Christmas though.

Yep, that was the beginning of our year. Off to a steady start, and I hereby now commit to taking more photos and thinking of more interesting things to blog about.

We Made It. Merry Christmas.

Wow we did not take a lot of photos on actual Christmas Eve or actual Christmas day. Maybe that's a good thing? We were busy enjoying our time together? And in any case, much of what we did was the same sweet stuff we do every year, and not that interesting to read about again and again. Treasures to us, though.

Our Christmas Eve breakfast with the Bucherts happened early in the day, followed by a drive up to Crystal Hot Springs to soak in the mineral waters with Sam and Kathleen. Only this year we didn't have great communication with them and ended up in the pools for two hours before they arrived. Although we were sorry to miss time with them, there was something nice about our little gang of five ("the Troys") just circling up and enjoying not just the hot water but the time and conversation together. We did get an hour or so with "the Sams," and then headed off home to make our waffles, pick up grandma Carol, and watch our beloved Muppet Christmas Carol.

After we took her safely back home, it was once again just the Troys, and we did something lovely. For the past few years we have lit the candles on this lovely wreath, one candle each night. Each candle represents one of the various names of Jesus Christ that He is called by in the scriptures. The Light. The Life. Only Begotten. And on and on. It's a kind of advent calendar. We didn't get to it on all the evenings leading up to Christmas Eve, so instead we lit them all on Christmas Eve as we read over the verses. Then once they were all lit, each of us shared one of the names of Jesus that had meant a lot to us that year and why. It was incredibly peaceful and filled with love and with the spirit. Gosh I love my family so much, beyond what any words could say. I'm grateful my children are willing to participate in moments like these. 

And of course, Christmas morning. Biscuits and gravy, the eyes-closed walk into the living room, the cheering at the sight of the lit-up tree, all the wonderful little moments that I know are not going to last forever. Oh gosh, I kind of want to cry.

Here is a sign that I'm selfish. The only gift I have a photo of is the one I got. A pair of much-longed-for Duckfeet boots. I am in LOVE with these boots. 

Gifts I was excited for the kids to get:

Chase - a puffy vest, funny jurassic park/godzilla t-shirt, very cool Japanese action figures, and a very nice book about the mythology of a video game, which I didn't understand at all.

Romney - Kizix boots, crocs, a lovely sweater, a weighted blanket, and a hooked rug in the shape of an axolotyl.

Emma - really nice headphones, green converse high tops, a box filled with fun socks, a build-it-yourself book nook that is adorable, and some lovely leather boots for working at This is the Place next summer.

Troy - printed copies of two years of our blog, a new saw, a part for his cruiser, and this great t-shirt that is somehow a combo of The Empire Strikes Back and Japanese Samurai art.

Me? Just the boots. Oh yeah - the kids also gifted Troy and me with a foot massager. We have used that thing for many hours.

Amazingly, no lego sets. It was a little weird, to be honest!

For our Christmas dinner, I decided to pay homage to Troy's mission in Sweden. I have a friend at work who has a Swedish dinner every Christmas and she pointed me to all of these wonderful recipes. It was actually so fun - we had smoked salmon with capers, butter, and mustard sauce. We had these crazy delicious potatoes, and a new family favorite, saffron buns. We all loved it. I think that will happen again!

And of course we watched A Christmas Story with grandma before taking her home and getting started on our annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings. We will NEVER get sick of that.

Here are cute Chase and Emma working on her book nook, while Troy and I watched the last of the season's football. No idea when this was. Maybe new years day?

So much to celebrate. I love Christmastime. 

Jingle All the Way

Ah December. So fun. So crazy. So exhausting. It's too much and not enough all at once.

Troy captured this gem of a photo of me - I think it says a lot about how I was doing by the end of December. But in the meantime, we had a joyous month.

Some of the delightful things were the following, in no particular order....

1) Going to This is the Place Heritage Park to see our girl Emma in action. She worked there last summer as part of the performing arts team, and was able to return for a couple of days right before Christmas. She spent the time in the school house, teaching folks how to dance. Troy and I wanted to peek in on her, so met up with the Moores for a nice evening of walking around. When we tried to spy on her, we were ushered into the dance hall where Emma proceeded to whip us into shape in true school-marm fashion. I took a bit of a tongue-lashing if I'm being honest. Apparently I was too chatty and kept stepping out of line. But it was fun to dance with her, then get some donuts (a must), and take in the seasonal sights. 

I'll mention here that not only was my longing for a white Christmas not in the cards at all, it turned out to be the warmest December in history. I think it was in the 60s on Christmas Day. That had downsides for sure, but we didn't have a problem spending the evening outside. And no one was interested in hot chocolate either. 

2) The beautiful block of Michigan Avenue, where I lived in 6th grade, has become a serious tourist destination. I don't want to think about how much it costs to light up the huge sycamore trees that line the block. They are truly amazing. And everyone knows it. We Preslars went and picked up Nick and his mom, and tried to make our way to the festive scene. We had to park many blocks away. The glorious sight was truly worth it though. Another year we need to go earlier in the season and earlier in the day. Still fun to get to see it though. Our coats were just for show, by the way. 

3) The Christmas knitting continues - I don't know if I said before but I like to call it my "Kneighborly Knitting." I've always wanted to do a snowflake. They're pretty simple to do, so I was able to make a lot of them. Not as cute or intricate as some years. I do love snowflakes though. And yes, I'm already thinking about what to do for Christmas 2026. 

4) Troy's annual company party is always a fun affair - usually it's at a pretty high-falutin' restaurant. Troy's boss Mitch switched it up for 2025 and hosted the event at his own house. I have been to a Halloween party there before and Troy and I both dropped our jaws back then at the sight of the extremely thorough decoration. As it turns out, Christmas was just the same. I have never seen so much decoration in my life. It was really quite fun. Delicious food, tons of games and silly prizes, and festive hats for everyone.

5) Relief Society Dinner - just a nice evening with my ward sisters. Cozy, lots of soup, lots of chatting. Just what you'd expect. What lovely neighbors I'm blessed with.

6) A Christmas Pedicure. Do I need to say more?

7) Work shenanigans - trying to find the reindeer stuffies amid the piles of teddy bears, a visit from Santa's reindeer, December is pretty nutty at the hospital.

8) As has been the case ever since Chase was a freshman in highschool, our December is always brimming with choir concerts. This one was at the tabernacle downtown. It was one of many! Will I miss these in a couple of years? Probably.

9) Not pictured - we took the girls to see A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater. Emma scored some free tickets through her driver's ed program. Always a treat except for the part where I selected two of the tickets for the wrong time. Troy and I had to wait in the lobby to find out if there were extra seats, which, happily, there ended up being. In the front row, hilariously. Sometimes I make myself nuts, and drag poor Troy along with me.

Is that enough festivity for now? It's always a lot and too much and still not enough!