Christmas 2022!

 Christmas turned out a little bit different than usual this year...it was wonderful, with a bit of trouble thrown in at the last minute.  It was a little different, good different, than usual because it fell on a Sunday.  Going to church on Christmas is actually so perfect!  We had a simple, short, wonderful sacrament meeting.  The sacrament was sung/passed and the Christmas story was narrated from the scriptures and interspersed with the celebratory carols of Christmas that we never get to sing enough of.  And afterwards the bishop gave a short talk/testimony and we closed with another carol/prayer.  It was wonderful.  But that's not the first thing we did.  Our church wasn't until 11 am, so we had already eaten and visited two places before church to get all of our regular visits in.  

First we got up and had a little bit different Christmas breakfast than usual.  We didn't have extra time to spend making something really fancy, but we did try a new recipe - a very yummy baked frittata.  We had non-fancy stocking food to go with it (pop tarts, pineapple juice in little cans, fruit cups).  After that we opened our presents at the house with just Bean, Paul and me.  It was fun and we  loved our gifts. 

Christmas light looking at the Desert Garden and Town Square and Christmas Eve dinner.  

Then we went down to Season's Health and Rehab to visit Grandma and open presents with her.  She  had the bit of trouble that started on Friday, December 16th.  It started out as a pretty good day with me getting my end of first year after cancer treatment PET scan.  (We later found out that it was clean!  Yippee!)  But then we ended up at the ER when Anna Lou fell down and used her beeper to get Paul to come and take her there.  I had just spoken with her a few minutes before she tripped over new slippers she was wearing.  Paul got her to the ER.  Ross and Lerlyn were in route to visit her to watch the BYU football game the next day.  They arrived shortly after Paul took Anna Lou to the ER.  I traded Paul at the ER so he could visit/entertain Ross and Lerlyn and make the yummy dinner we had planned to share with them and Anna Lou that evening.  Then we waited and waited and finally late in the evening the verdict was reached - Anna Lou had broken her upper right arm in the fall.  All they can really do is put it in a sling and "let it heal".  No cast, surgery or pin.  Pretty hard thing to do without your right arm and also so very painful.  She ended up staying in the hospital until Monday afternoon when they moved her to Season's Health and Rehab Center which is about a half mile from our house.  That makes things so much easier.  She's had a tough go, but is starting to move forward, but is very depressed and anxious a lot of the time.  She gets more company and calls that anyone there I think.  But, that's how we ended up there on Christmas morning for a little while with her.  She wasn't in any shape to go out visiting with us as we usually do, which was too bad.  But lots of people did call her to wish her a Merry Christmas.  

After we had finished there, we hurried over to Supe and Beacher's to visit and bring gifts.  Jem was so excited about his new grocery store play set and train!  And Auri was excited about her dog cookie!  Kaia just chilled on our laps while we visited and they opened presents from us.  It was fun to see them and especially to see Kaia again.  They've been keeping her close to home so she doesn't get all the childhood diseases going around right now.  

After that we went to Sacrament meeting.  Then we came home, ate lunch, and went over to visit the Smiths.  It's always fun to go there.  The dog cookies were a hit there too. And it was good to see everyone and open gifts there again!  It was Derek's new wife's Kelli's first family Christmas since they got married.  We love her.  She's always so sweet and full of fun.  We hope they are happy.  I know the kids are appreciating having her help them as a mother does.  

Then we went to Ferf's.  She had all of the kids there right then, so it was nice to see Kennis, Tavin and Brynnli all home from school and they were all having a really nice time being together for Christmas!  They've had some hard times the last year with all of the divorce angst, but things are close to settled finally and they were just relaxing and enjoying each other.  Kennis and Tavin had played a beautiful violin/cello/piano trio at church that morning.  They were able to play the violin/piano part for us which was wonderful!  Then more fun times opening presents happened.  And the dogs liked their cookies at this house too.  

Then we went on to Moss and Christie's house and had fun visiting with them and opening their presents and our presents from some of the kids.  We got a gift cert to Tuacahn for some good plays that will be there this summer/fall and some dinner gift cards to Outback and Wood, Ash, Rye (we've never afforded to go there before) and some dessert certs to Larsens Custard!  Yummy!  Fun stuff from some very generous people.  

Next we came home and loaded up the stuff to take to the Cedar/Enoch crew and took a short nap before heading up that way.  Thankfully it was a beautiful, clear day for traveling this  year.  On the way up we talked to Jay, Brynn and girls.  It wasn't as nice as it could have been to actually see them, but it was what we could do.  We had taken up their gifts on an earlier visit so that wasn't a problem.  Everyone got a beautiful stone welcome signs for their homes this year.  We got one from Ross a few years ago and decided it would be great to give some like it to our kids.  Ross was kind enough to bring them over to us just before Thanksgiving.  Everyone seemed to like them.  Men got cool socks this year and women and girls got headbands from this unique little place and littler women got kits to make scrunchies from the same place.  Except Jem and Kaia who got something a little better for their ages. 

At Juge and Lance's we ate yummy treats/nuts and played a couple of rounds of Telestrations, which was a lot of fun, after we opened their presents.  Then we opened our gift from them and Jay and Brynn.  They are quite cool gifts.  It's a gift to Storyworth.  Each week they send Paul and me a question about our life and we write up a story to answer it and submit it.  At the end of the year we should have 52 stories about our lives which will then be printed into a hardbound book.  We can have more printed for the other kids if we want to.  Paul is off to a good start, but I decided to put mine on hold until June when I will retire and hopefully Anna Lou will be all fixed up and I won't be so very busy looking after all my stuff, working and helping taking care of her.

After the Weaver's we joined the Randall Christmas feast as per usual.  It was fun to eat and visit with them and see what they got.  And then it was fun to see them open our gifts.  We stayed until it was time to head back down the hill to our beds at the end of another wonderful Christmas with the family! Merry Christmas 2022!  We love you each and every one!  Thanks to all again for being so generous with us.  (Everyone put in for a 12 days of Christmas for Ferf and family this year headed up by Moss and Christie.  It was a nice touch to their Christmas I'm sure.)

We are so thankful at this wonderful time of celebration to remember the birth of our Savior.  We know that He is the real gift of Christmas to each and every one all of God's children.  How grateful we are for his infinite atoning sacrifice.  We are truly bought by his gift and saved through his grace.  We love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and feel their love so much at this time of year as we remember this gift.  It has been sweet to see little Kaia and think of Mary and Joseph and all that they went through to bring Jesus into the world with so many difficult circumstances to deal with as part of being his mother and adoptive father.  

Here are a few other activities we did over the holidays while I was off school!  We just took it easy here and there and enjoyed ourselves when we weren't doing the regular things that need to get done for everyday life to happen and getting Anna Lou settled in and visiting her pretty much every day and sometimes more than once a day.  

Those women and girls who could got together at Ferf's invitation for a Girl's Night.  It was just an easy, fun bring some food to share get together and games and visiting evening.  Just the kind I like.  No one had to go to a whole lot of trouble to make it happen kind of last minute.  

Paul and I went shopping on the Monday after New Year's and Costco had a great deal on a small Traeger smoker.  We decided it was a good thing to get with some of his first retirement check from Social Security.  He made us the best steaks on it for New Year's Day dinner!!!

During the holiday break Paul and I and Moss and Christie went to the little Italian restaurant that everyone went to for Paul's birthday after Thanksgiving when he had Covid and couldn't go. Moss and Christie missed it too because Brenden had a soccer tournament game that night.  It was a delicious and fun evening!  Happy #70 at last!

Paul and I ran a lot of errands just spending New Year's Eve day together.  We used a coupon and went to breakfast at Great Harvest.  Then we did other errands and ate lunch at Street Eats and also went to see this beautiful work he is doing on a job right now.  It was a fun, relaxed day for us.   

Paul, Bean and me having our quiet, New Year's Eve feast of finger foods!  The next day was our new 9 am church schedule, so there was no staying up late and celebrating done this year! Well, that's it...the end of good old 2022!

Here are some good year's end report Christmas cards we received from these peoples!