Merry Christmas to You

I liked that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. Besides getting Friday and Monday off from work, plus Saturday and Sunday, but then we all dressed up and went to Church. I hit the Spanish ward with mom and dad and got to model a few of my new Christmas things. Including the new earrings Amanda Felix gave me for Christmas.

Jason's in town and he stopped by twice today. The first time to chat and catch up, and the second to play Tetris with us that night. Cody has started to like Tetris more so we got to play several times over the holidays. Yes!

Matthew got new binkies for Christmas.
He used one and gave me the other.



Christmas Eve!

Jon had a Christmas party at his house on Friday. I went as mom's support for a little bit. Beau stayed by me the whole time I was there and even took pictures.

Mom had promised me that I could have my bedroom over Christmas. When I got to the house, she said, 'I lied.' Even though I'd had a conversation with Lisa about it when I visited her place in Idaho, she took over my room anyway. That meant Kevin who said he'd wanted to stay over Christmas had to find somewhere else to stay, I had to sleep in another room, and Jodie had to sleep on the floor. For our Christmas!!! It made the holiday a little bittersweet, but we made the best of the situation.

One of our fairly new traditions is to have a recital before dinner and the evening program. I brought my cello down and played with two of the boys. Jeremy and Nate are so talented! Jeremy plays the saxophone, clarinet, and piano. Nathan plays the trumpet, violin, guitar, and piano. Love it! I also played the piano during the nativity scene. We had some cute participants!

Early Out Day

Today was a work day, but I scheduled two of my appointments for the day so I could leave work early. I saw Dr. Francis first and got the final check of my teeth. Then I had a laser appointment. I hurried there so I could meet up with mom and grandma. We went to grandma's eye doctor appointment because there were worries she has degenerative eye disease. Turns out she doesn't have the wet kind, only dry which is better. Still not great, but not a fast progression. After, we went to eat at Mimi's Cafe. Mom called Kevin unexpectedly and he met us there to eat too. Grandma had a cancer spot burned off her ear and it looks charred and crispy!



New Friendships

Karen Allred said she's missed me since our trip to England. So, when her family came to Salt Lake to go to a Voice Mail concert and to see the lights, they stopped at my place afterward. I made hot chocolate and cookies and we all sat there and chatted for an hour an a half. Karen's whole family came, plus her mom, so there were ten in total counting me. So much fun!

Christmas Caroling

We got together as a family to go Christmas caroling. There was a little drama at first as someone ran late and it caused a few problems, but we eventually got into the groove of things. We visited Brother Oliphant who lost his wife this year and sang to Aunt Barbara. We tried going to our old regular, Elwood Foote, but he is now living in a retirement home.

When I got back to my apartment, my neighbors the Fusek's had left a plate of Christmas treats for me. It was an awesome combination of fruit, nuts, and snack bar.

Performance Day

I had some super cute boys come and wake me up in the morning. They like to climb in bed for a little while before going out for breakfast. I certainly don't mind!

For this Sunday, I played two songs on the cello in two different sacrament meetings. The first was the Spanish ward and I practiced beforehand with the eight kids who would be playing the violin (all from the Spanish ward except Nathan and Mike). Jenny played the piano for it. I think it went pretty well. After, we went to the Zabel's ward to see Jeremy get the priesthood. He's really growing up on us! Then, we played two more songs in that ward's sacrament meeting. There wasn't time beforehand to do any practice with this group. There were about four times as many people at this ward and since we didn't practice, I was really nervous. Do you know how hard it is to play a stringed instrument when your hands are shaking?!! I didn't feel like this one went as well as the first meeting, but we made it through!

We ate dinner afterwards at Jenny's and Matthew was so cute! He insisted I have a place at the table...the children's miniature picnic table that is. I couldn't pass it up though with how cute he was. He also liked trying on some sunglasses.

P-P-Practice

I'm going to do a performance with my cello tomorrow, so I went to Heber to practice with Jenny. We had dinner and I played with the boys. Jer had a basketball game that night in Sandy so he and Brett left to go to that, we banished the remaining boys out of the room and Jenny and I turned on a movie and wrapped presents.