The weather outside WASN'T frightful one day. The temperature was in the 50s and I decided I was going to go for a walk. When I jokingly asked Glen if he wanted to join me, I was very surprised he said he would go.
We drove up to Bountiful Boulevard and chose a very level few blocks for him to make his maiden voyage on a walk outside (since his surgery many months ago on May 21st) without wearing his surgical boot. It was a red-letter day!!
He will still continue to wear his boot for protection through the winter months. A slip on the ice or a twist of the ankle would NOT be good as he is still in his year-long recovery period!!!
Glen has been teaching a zoom Sunday School lesson to half the ward members every other week. He loves teaching.
Zoom presents a lot of difficulty getting class participation, especially when so many of the class members are represented by black squares. But he's been plugging away at it and I always feel the Spirit and go away feeling uplifted by his teaching and from what the class members share.
I am happy to report I accomplished my scrapbooking goal.. All the things I chose to keep fit in one binder. I feel so much more organized now!!
I enjoyed receiving Christmas cards from friends and family. I kept the cards and photos of our children and their families out on the cabinet so I could enjoy looking at each one of their precious faces over and over again.
We would have gone on trips this past year to visit the three children and their families who live out of state. Who knows when we will finally be able to travel once again. Until then, I will just keep looking at their photos.
When I saw these suggestions for Christmas treats, it brought a smile to my face as both the bright green wreaths and the cinnamon rolls reminded me of my mother. I loved when she would make the green-colored-cereal marshmallow treats at Christmas time. They are so festive looking.
Some years I would make them to put on my treat plate to give to neighbors and they always got commented about because they are unique.
The cinnamon rolls remind me of when Dad and the boys would go hunting and Mom would make lots of cinnamon rolls to send with them on the hunt while I was enjoying the few she saved for those of us left behind. YUM!!!!
Something out of the ordinary was happening on Dad and Mom's 65th wedding anniversary.
We drove up to Bountiful Boulevard to get a clear view of the valley and the night sky, but never could see the phenomenon. I had to enjoy the Christmas Star from this photo taken by the Boise State University Planetarium.
It looks just like how it is depicted in photos.
It was fun to see what the pre-Christmas activities were that were going on in the various households. Sarah's family made sugar cookies.
Rebecca's children made gingerbread houses--or a castle as in Brooke's case.
We had a fun family Instagram activity going on during the few days leading up to Christmas. Rebecca started it off by reading Luke 2:1 from the Bible. When she was finished, she tagged Caroline and lowered the Bible out of the screen.
Caroline's video started with her arms up and then she lowered the Bible to read verse 2. She then tagged Madison. The Bible was lowered and then Madison grabbed it from over her head and read verse 3.
Madison tagged Luke and then lowered the Bible out of screen shot. Whereupon Luke took hold of the Bible from above to read the next verse and then tagged Newland.
There was a bit of a lag for Newland to respond because he had gone on a trip with Abe and Klarissa to California to sell their car to an eager buyer--Jeff.
Jeff had taken Eli and Carson on a flight to San Francisco, the three cousins got to play together for a few hours, and then Jeff and the boys drove the car home to Las Vegas.
Newland tagged Carson who then tagged Eli who then tagged Spencer.
Spencer tagged Glen who then tagged Natalie.
Natalie tagged Ben and Kade, who then tagged Lincoln, who then tagged Claire.
Claire tagged Wynne, who then tagged "Grandma Thomas"
I tagged Brooke, who then tagged Logan, who then tagged Emma.
Emma tagged Jonah and then Jonah tagged Magnus who gave the last verse of our Christmas story scripture chain.
Abe's family went to Disney World and the beach in the few days before Christmas.
Newland and Wynne sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as they were standing on the beach. So cute to hear their sweet voices singing a Christmas message.
Cache Valley Electric continues to give Dad a honey baked ham every Christmas. Mom would serve it at the family Christmas Eve dinner party.
Since that traditional activity was not happening this year, Dad and Mom dropped off a portion of the delicious ham to each of their children. YUMMY!!
I don't really love ham--especially not the way Glen LOVES ham. But--the real, true, trademark, honey baked ham I think is absolutely delicious!! I appreciated them sharing with us.
We debated back and forth about whether to get together with Rebecca's and Ben's families on Christmas Eve. Rebecca is very nervous about making us sick. She said she would have the wrath of the family on her if they gave us the coronavirus.
Ben's family had been sick, but they were pretty sure it was just colds. Haley got a Covid test just to make sure and it was negative, so we decided to get together for a face-masked party.
We set up spaced out tables for individual households. We used the real china, fancy goblets and the nice silverware. We hadn't thrown a party all year, so I decided to make this one extra special.
After eating our turkey dinner, Kade got out all the popcorn-making supplies and insisted Glen make his popcorn wishes comes true.
That turned out to be the treat during our program. Levi was awake at the beginning, but by the end he had fallen into a deep sleep.
Glen read The Mansion to the family. It has a good moral to the story. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt...But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven..For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:12-21).
I read You Are Special with another good moral about how everyone is special even though we are all different and we shouldn't let what others think of us affect how we think of ourselves.
Spencer got himself settled all comfortable for the stories using the Christmas rug as his blanket.
Caroline shared with the family the talk she had given in church.
Dallas showed all the family's Luke 2 videos which he had put together into one beautiful video, complete with background music. That was super fun for us all to watch.
We closed our program with a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells" with the children ringing their bells.
Despite the fact Madison was begging to have a sleepover at our house, they all went home to their own beds in anticipation of Santa Claus making a visit.
Jacob's family had their "stockings hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."
Christmas morning the Goldens waited patiently (or so it seems to me) behind the wrapping paper barrier until they were given the okay to go into the living room.
It looks like they enjoyed the opening of presents.
We saw a video of Kade walking down the stairs on Christmas morning. He didn't even give his new basketball stand a glance. He immediately went in the kitchen wanting some breakfast.
He eventually got around to noticing his Christmas presents.
Later in the day he wanted cookies and decided to get them himself.
He has been practicing his climbing skills by climbing onto a car bed at a store.
And climbing on the playground climbing wall.
Baby Levi's first Christmas.
Newland, Wynne and Magnus were excited about their new toys.
This is what Christmas morning looked like at Jeff and Sarah's home with their four boys.
We FaceTimed with Jacob's family later in the morning and got a report from each child about their Christmas. It was evident all our grandchildren had a fabulous Christmas.
Sarah proudly posted this photo of Jeff who had cooked their Christmas turkey to perfection. Nice job, Jeff!!
What did Glen and I do Christmas Day? Pretty much the same thing we have done most days for the past 9+ months. We stayed home by ourselves.
We appreciated our children sharing their Christmas experiences with us. We watched over and over again the Luke 2 video the family had made. We gave thanks for the reason for the season--the birth of our Savior.
It was a beautiful day!!
