Christmas and New Years!

 I find it hard to believe that Christmas came and went and to me, for some reason, it didn't feel too Christmasy. We did have a nice holiday and got to spend time with those we love.

My last time teaching my cute Primary class.  There were several missing but I love those kids and had such fun year getting to know them better.

Sam's wish list.

My mom's world revolves around ornaments so she made this cute one for Sam.

Abby's first trip to the temple so was fun.  I was able to go with her and that made it very special to me!  I love her faith and her sweet testimony.

I had asked the director of Heritage if we could "adopt" a resident for Christmas this year and she gave us Bea Murray's name.  We had fun shopping for her and bringing her gifts.  She was so sweet.

Christmas Eve Eve Eve dinner at Greg & Kattia's house.

 Christmas Eve dinner.  No cooking.  No dishes.  Feliz Navidad!

Christmas morning!  We enjoyed a quiet morning at home, opened fun gifts then headed up to the condo to celebrate with the rest of the family.

Sam got a Tom Bergeron Bobble Head!

Condo fun!

Thankfully, Todd shaved his Jew-fro off!  Angels sang hallelujah!

We were lucky enough to go spend post-Christmas week with G'ma & G'pa along with the Easterly's, Bressman's and Duguid's.  We enjoyed the sunshine, warm temps, swimming in the heated pool, dining out, dining in, playing Monopoly, hunting for shark's teeth, massages, bike rides and spending lots of time together.

We got to celebrate Julianna's 3rd birthday a little early!

New Year's Eve swim!

We enjoyed the holidays and are happy to enter a new year of fun adventures!

Festival of the Nativities

A couple of months ago I was asked to be on the committee for our ward's 

Festival of the Nativity

I declined but it didn't seem to matter.  I had no idea how big of a process this event was but quickly learned that it's HUGE!

We began the process on Monday, December 8th at 10am...tree day.  Those who had signed up to provide trees came and set up their trees (or the committee set them up).  All I know is that I set up, fluffled and lighted a lot of trees. 

Thanks to the seminary students, the tables were in place by Tuesday morning so we began to get tablecloths out, risers up and trees moved into place.

We then got the BIG nativity set up, fluff placed around it and got it lit.

 

Lamp delivery and placement started Wednesday.  I'm surprised we didn't blow up the place with all the cords and lamps we had running through the gym.

 

Thursday was a big day!  Members of the stake brought their nativities and set them up.  Last year there were 300 of them!

 

We also had many pictures of Christ displayed...just to make sure people here in the south knew we were Christians.

 

This is the total number of nativities!  It was a shock!

Louise, our fearless, classy, talented and crazy leader!

 

The committee:

 

At 9:05pm on Saturday, we commenced the take down of the event.  

 

Sunday night-even more take down

 

By Monday, the only thing left was to gather and distribute the many tablecloths that were on loan from other wards.  I brought home a bunch to wash.

It was a great community event.  We had over 1000 people walk through and enjoy the Christmas spirit.

Months of catch-up...

Again and as usual, I am behind in my posting.  Here's a recap from October through December:

Kids from CWA come to check out tree removal workers

Abby's new guitar teacher, Mr. Jason

Abby chose to participate in Music Day at Clayton State University.  She memorized two pieces and performed them for a piano instruction and was graded on that performance.

S=Superior (and I'll add super-de-duper, Stupendous, Stellar)

A little front sidewalk work

I emailed Ted Allen's assistant and asked for an autographed photo and they were kind enough to send one.

For Colonial Day at school Abby made apple butter and bread.

I enjoyed a girl's weekend with Teresa and Lazette at my in-laws condo in Buckhead.  On Friday, Lazette and I met at the temple and did some work there, hung out at the condo til Teresa joined us then we went to dinner at Prime.  We then ran to The Cheesecake Factory to pick up dessert.  We got into jammies, ate dessert and just talked til 1am!

On Saturday, we did some shopping then got lunch at JCT Kitchen at the Westside Provisions District.  It was such a fun area of town.  We got ice cream at Jeni's and wandered around Star Provisions.  We then went to Sublime Donuts since it was just right there and Lazette got 3 donuts.  It was her first time.  We did more shopping then back to Prime for dinner.  We got back to the condo and jammied up and talked some more.

Sunday was departure...so sad.  It was great to spend time together.

Sam's school put on a variety show.  Each child or group of children did either a skit, a poem, etc.  Sam chose to share some jokes.

We took the kids to the dog park and also took a little nature walk on the Boardwalk Trail.  

Baby  Beckett Snow!

Lunching during Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving at the Club...always a treat!

Work finally started on our backyard firepit.  It took 4+ days due to rainy weather but it's finished and so fun!

Toys for Tots and Captain Herb!

Dining and roughing it!

We got to celebrate Bob Barker's 90th birthday!  We had cake, sang happy birthday and watched the show.

Abby's Winter Concert

 

Our ward put on the Festival of the Nativities and it was great!

Abby and her Activity Days group singing at a local assisted living center

Christmas prep

This year's teacher gifts:  socks, scarves or gloves

 

Annual friend party at the Cortez's

 

Christmas Eve dinner (held on December 21st)

Christmas Day!

 

This year's winner of our Best Christmas Card Award went to Teresa Myers.  Look at the work she did on this fun card!

We celebrated New Years with Abby spending the night at Katrina's and we watched the ball drop...lame.  

So that's it, the last few months in one post!