G and K and What They Say

The Excell family had a gingerbread house-making activity which was fun to observe.

I enjoyed seeing the Christmas activities going on at Ben and Haley's home.

What a cute photo of Monty with Santa Claus.

One day Sarah was gone and when Carson got hungry, he took matters into his own hands cooking up a pot of macaroni and cheese which he shared with his brothers.

All the paperwork for the sale of Jeff and Sarah's Las Vegas house and for the purchase of their new home in Utah went through.

With that news, the decision was made for them to move all their belongings out of our garage and into their new home two days before Christmas.

Another U-haul was rented, family members were rounded up, and this time Glen was feeling healthy and strong. It was a great day for a move.

We were grateful it was not snowing, but the temperature was sure COLD for all of them to be working out in that weather.

Thankfully, the move went smoothly and they were finished in just a few hours. (Easy for me to say since I wasn't out in the freezing coldness.)

Jonah and Lincoln were patiently waiting for the truck and all the inside stuff to get all packed up.

The boys were excited to see their new home.

It's always a relief after a piano gets moved in. Two neighbors dropped by to welcome them to the neighborhood--both of the women were named Sarah.

First meal in the Excells' new home.

Time to get organized!!

See the contented look on Jeff and Sarah's faces knowing they were all moved into their beautiful new home.

As soon as everyone had left to unload at Sarah's house, I got busy cleaning the house and preparing food for our Ward Family Christmas Eve Dinner Party scheduled for the next evening.

It was a lovely party and we were so thankful the weather cooperated.

The next day was CHRISTMAS!!

Sarah's family had already been going to church in their new ward. It sounds like their older, established ward (aka old people) will love having new families moving in.

Jeff and Sarah are hopeful there will be some children their boys' ages moving into the new homes that are being built in their neighborhood.

This is what Christmas morning looked like in the Excell household.

After her flight getting cancelled twice, Natalie finally made it home to Omaha for Christmas. She put her cosmetology education to use by coloring Emma's hair.

Logan and Claire got busy with their new Christmas gifts.

It did my heart proud to see Ben was carrying on in the family tradition he grew up with by having little cereals Christmas morning.

Then I looked closer and saw it was not cereal, but puzzles. Cute!!

Here's what Christmas looked like in the Golden family.

On Christmas Day, Glen and I spent the morning at the prison as usual, bringing some holiday cheer to the inmates.

Once back home, we got busy preparing Christmas dinner. Rebecca, Sarah and Ben's families joined us.

When the family started arriving, we were noticing how Sarah, Glen and Rebecca were all matching.

Then we needed a pose of Ben and Haley matching in green and Dallas and me matching wearing red.

Caroline was excited for us to open the Christmas gift she gave us. Haley has taught her to crochet and her latest project has been making yarn snails. So cute!!

The following week, Dad and Mom were eager to join us for a prime rib New Year's Day dinner. Nani was also invited, but she politely declined. She shares the same sentiment as me about prime rib. Not our favorite!

I can't believe Glen had been so excited about this meal and I didn't even get a photo of him and his prime rib!!

Of course there had to be some game playing before the day was done. With Sarah now living close, she has become part of the gamers.

I got talked into playing some Minute to Win It games. They were a lot of fun.

Kade insisted on trying everything we were doing. He is following in his parents' footsteps and loves to play games. Caroline likes to play games, too. The rest of the grandchildren were playing in the basement.