The Christmas season was upon us. It was an exciting thing to find a Light the World Giving Machine. Sarah's family found one in Las Vegas.
Rebecca's family found one in Salt Lake City.
We also found one in Salt Lake City, but there was a line and Glen was eager to get home and watch ball games on TV. That's what I call the holiday spirit?!?!!
Not only were the Giving Machines fun to find, but it was a real treat when Rebecca's family and Ben's family randomly ran into each other on Temple Square. What a find!!
Glen and I got busy decorating the house and the tree for Christmas. I love all the different ornaments we hang on the tree. It's like a walk down memory lane when we pull out gems like this puzzle-framed photo of Sarah in her younger years.
We loved the missionary stockings one of our missionaries' mother had made for us our last year on the mission. They arrived late, so we didn't even get to enjoy them for long. It was fun to hang them on the fireplace this year.
I also brought the Christmas mantle decorations with us from the mission home. Along with buying the living room furniture from the mission home, we were able to bring with us a few things that we knew the mission would not use. I feared most of the furniture and household stuff would just go straight to a thrift store.
It is so nice for us to have a few reminders here of the things we enjoyed while we lived in that home.
The little boys wanted to know how their snowman was doing a few days after they had gone back home. He wasn't looking as perky as when they last saw it.
The next day the snowman looked even worse.
Sarah's way of getting into the Christmas spirit was to run another half marathon. Wearing a Santa suit. HO, HO, HO!!!
Every year for three years, as soon as December rolled around, Glen would start reminiscing over the knowledge Jan and Bill Evans were hosting their annual friends' Christmas prime rib dinner. And we were missing it. But we hoped to get an invitation once again when we got back home.
Sure enough, we were on the invitation list and the food was just as delicious as we had remembered!! And the table is always decorated beautifully as well. Loved it!!
Jan had hosted the Relief Society dinner part of the social a couple of nights earlier. She had given every sister a box of chocolates with the beautiful JOY decorating the front and a wonderful quote from our Prophet, President Nelson, on the back. I loved setting that out on display because it was so beautiful.
The Relief Society Presidency gave each of the sisters a Christmas tree ornament to remind us of the theme of the evening.
This photo of Jonah and Sarah's comment she posted on Instagram made me laugh. What a darling face.
We had a former missionary Jeffrey Taylor bring his fiance Sammy to meet us. It is a joy to get to meet the person each missionary has chosen to marry. We can't help but instantly love the new person.
We made three trips to the Salt Lake Temple as per requests from three people who wanted us to go there with them before the temple closes for renovation for four years.
Since we don't usually go to Temple Square at Christmas time because it is so bitter cold, it was nice to walk around and see the Christmas nativities that were set up all around.
We were blessed it wasn't snowing any of the times we were there. The first visit was with Glen's sisters, Barbara, Maurine and Ray.
Our second trip to the Salt Lake Temple was with Gwendolynn McCray who was newly returned from the mission. She had traveled here with her mother. They missed the session we were in, but hooked up with us after the session and we went to the Lion House for dinner with them.
Our third trip to the temple was with Heysell Cruz who had Darcie Povey with her. Heysell is the only member in her family and she was desirous to experience the Salt Lake Temple before it closes for a few years.
Yup! That's us at the Lion House once again. Glen loves that place and it is convenient and quick. Glen had an appointment that evening for work. It was wonderful to see these sisters once again.
A musician we know from the mission, Garth Smith, was in town putting on a concert three different nights. He was using local musical artists and we know three of them. We couldn't go the night the concert was at our very own church.
So, we planned a date night with Glen's sisters to have dinner in Logan at the Bluebird Restaurant and then walked across the street to attend the concert at the Tabernacle.
I was delighted to see the two large Christmas ornaments made from candy. It reminded me of the candy window displays Dallas and Rebecca worked on when Dallas's mother Kathryn had organized candy window displays in downtown Provo's store windows.
Kaytlin Porter, one of our missionaries, married Harley Bodacious Yazzie in the Bountiful Temple which made it easy for us to attend.
She reminds me so much of my friend, Chris. Her mannerisms, the way she talks, the way she laughs, even the look of her hands. It endears her to me even more.
It was a very wet, cold and snowy day. We opted out of standing in the group photo. Glen went to bring the car around to pick me up. In the meantime, I was enjoying the view from the back.
I gasped when I saw all the umbrellas go down. I thought about the poor bride and how wet she was getting and how she would have to dry her dress and restyle her hair for the rest of the day's events.
A beautiful moment was captured with the snow falling.
Madison came to visit us one day and practically the first thing out of her mouth was asking if we could eat lunch at Costa Vida. With a little face as sweet at this one, how could we resist?
Glen bought a bunch of tickets for the BYU basketball game at the Vivint Arena, so he invited his buddies and Ben, Haley, Kade and me to go with him.
It turned out to be a very fun evening for these two. They felt like they were on a date together.
Ben and Haley sat at the end of the row and Glen had Kade at the other end of our group of people.
Kade was so entertained by everything going on around him, he stayed happily with Glen through the entire game.
Ben and Haley came over one evening to play the game Ben has invented. He hopes to get it in production soon.
McKell Childs came for a visit and we took her to dinner at R&R BBQ. She was one of our missionaries who came to us from Nicaragua when that mission was closed and the missionaries were evacuated from that country.
Madison came to spend a morning with us while Rebecca helped out at school with a field trip. We made a stop at the grocery store together and that is when her eyes spied a make-your-own-gingerbread-house kit. She asked if we could buy it. I said yes. She was happy.
She was also determined to use every piece of candy on her gingerbread house.
Mission accomplished!!! Not a piece of candy was leftover. She was even determined to use up all the frosting so she started squirting it all over the roof and on the ground as snow. It was a masterpiece!
This is another masterpiece--created by Carson. He is amazing us with his attention to detail and his cute artistic style. Love this!! Sarah says it could be the front of a Christmas card and I have to agree with her.
It was evident Christmas was fast approaching when we spotted Santa Claus at the BYU game.
We invited Rebecca's and Ben's families over for Sunday dinner the Sunday before Christmas calling it our family Christmas dinner. The cousins love it when they can get together.
When Glen got home from his meeting, I recruited Haley to take a Christmas photo of Glen and me. This was Glen's idea of where we should stand by the Christmas tree.
I preferred more togetherness.
Dinner wasn't delayed too long, but I did delay it a couple of moments longer to get a family photo to commemorate our event.
Brooke insisted I get in the photo and so she took a selfie. I almost made it in the photo...
Ben had fine tuned his playing board before he brought it up for Dallas and Rebecca to have a turn playing his game.
Glen pulled out the popcorn and had a rapt audience in Kade who even started doing a wobbly jiggle as Glen was singing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" to him. He just had to move to the music!!
This was the photo Haley took that I liked the best.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!
