PJ's

I was really excited about the pajamas this year.  I found some that all matched!!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Amy and Todd "conga lined" mom back to her chair after dinner!

I don't remember how this tradition started, but it's alive and well!!

All wrapped and ready for the morning!

The Nativity

Probably my favorite advent activity every year is the nativity pageant.  This year was no exception.  It started with the boys bursting out in song!  Not Joy to the World, but Tell Me Why!!  They decided that their name should be "The Wise Men and Wyatt"!  I love that while they were singing, Emma came running in, sat down, and proceeded to swing her arms to the music.

I love that Todd takes his job as narrator seriously, trying to get some kind of a rehearsal in before the actual show. I love Kathy as the donkey.   I love that baby Jesus is my doll, Susie.  I love that the manger is Todd's stood, up-side-down.  I love that these teenagers are willing to dress up and take a part.I love this tradition.

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

Santa

Swing pictures, kinda

We weren't all together for our annual swing pictures, so we ad libed.  The Mortensen's on their porch swing after church...

...and the Johnson's here the next day.

The Rise of Skywalker

I laughed!  I cried!!  I cheered!! It had Hans Solo!!  It had Ewoks!!  It was perfect!!!

A Dickens Christmas

We wanted to try something new this year, so Amy found a Dickens Christmas dinner and show at Riley's Farm.  It was absolutely fabulous.

The dinner was delicious. We had corn chowder, salad, potatoes, ham, roast beef, and homemade bread.  It was all wonderful, but my favorite was the soup.  I actually asked for the recipe and they gave it to me.  It made 72 servings;  4 C butter, 6 quarts water, 16 C potatoes, and 16 C corn to name some of the ingredients!!  

 Before dinner, we went on a hayride.  The stars were so bright and beautiful!

The play was delightful and we even had a country dance afterwards where I hooked Wyatt up with an older, beautiful partner!  You're welcome, Wyatt!.  All in all, a perfect evening.

Snowman pancakes

We picked Carson up after finals, so we stayed for this fun dinner.

Owen

It seems fitting to end these posts with the "baby", my last grandchild, Owen.  He was so wanted and he seemed to just complete the family.  He was such a happy, easy going baby, and with a four year age gap between him and the twins, he had built in playmates and babysitters.

Owen was just a toddler when I retired, so I had the blessing of babysitting him every Monday.  The first year, I had three of them at home, but very soon, it was just Owen and me.  One of my favorite things to do with him was to read stories.
We went through the entire series "If You Give a Moose a Muffin"
series.  and of course, with every book came a cooking experience.  We made donuts, pancakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, lot and lots of muffins!







Owen has mad skills at being able to fall asleep anywhere.  Whether it was his toddler bed that her outgrew too soon, his many rides in his stroller, or even on the back of Todd's bike during a ride on Castaway Key on our cruise.  If he was tired, he'd snuggle down and out he went!!

Monday's Memory--Santa

One of the few memories that mom still has is about the Santa hanging on the wall.  Several times this year she has mentioned that she remembers putting him under her coat and walking out of the bank! 
Let's see if I can get the story straight!  We aren't sure of the year, but sometime between  1948-1952, mom was working graveyard at the bank.  This Santa was part of the office decorations.  On Christmas Eve, she figured they weren't going to need him any more, so she hid him under her coat and out she went!
He had a prominent place over the fireplace when we lived on Juniette Street in Culver City.  Mel looks about 3 months old in this picture, so that make this Christmas, 1954.

He has aged better than most of us, still looking good at 65 year old!!

We'll Dress the House

The Stake Fireside was fabulous.  It's a lot of work...and worry to pull this off, but it went very well.  Amy and Todd came this year, and brought mom, so it was really nice to have them in the audience.  This was the 6th Christmas Fireside that I have been over, and they just seem to get better.  No thanks to me, but the Lord always responds and guides me when I ask.  

Holiday Inn

Mom and I went to the Carpenter Theater to see Holiday Inn.  They did a great job with a classic.  I don't know where they found all of the tap dancers!!