The Twelve Days of Christmas

This year we were the recipients of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Someone (we never found out who) left us something on our doorstep each night starting December 13 through Christmas Eve. It was so fun and clever and all of us were so anxious to see what would be left each night. All of the items had a clever note to go with it. Here is what they brought us:

On the First day of Christmas, we got "1 box of chocolates to chew"

On the Second day of Christmas, 2 cups of Turtle Dove ice cream (This was a 2 cup container of Dove ice cream, caramel/chocolate/pecan flavored)

On the Third day of Christmas, three cans of chicken noodle soup from the three French hens.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, they brought us telephone message pads to record all those calls from the four calling birds.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, we got a book of lifesavers (at least 5 gold rings in there).

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, we got eggnog from the six geese a-laying.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, we got seven swan cookies (okay, they sort of looked like ducks, but hey, it was still cute) for the seven swans a swimming.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, we got milk duds from the eight maids a-milking.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas, we got nine ladyfingers from the nine ladies dancing.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, we got ten lords a-leaping cookies (that looked a lot like gingerbread men).

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas we got a box of "piping hot" cocoa mix from the eleven pipers piping.

And on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, we got a plate of 12 Christmas treats (although we were thinking a box of drumsticks would have been a good idea) from the 12 drummers drumming.

Thanks secret friends! You gave us a wonderful Christmas!

Kate's Ballet Performance

Kate's been taking a very cute ballet class this fall. They had their performance last week. Actually, they performed four times: two at nursing homes, then a performance for all the family and friends, and finally as a entertainment for our church Christmas party (yes, it was a busy week!).

Kate loved getting dressed up and getting her hair curled and make-up on. All the girls looked so cute in their matching Santa dresses and headbands.

Kate has never performed in front of a large group before (however, she does lots of mini performances of all kinds for us here at home), so I was interested to see if she would get stage fright. But it turns out she LOVES performing. In fact, after they were done with their first performance, which was in a nursing home in their dining room area, I asked her how she liked it. Kate answered, "It was fun, but I thought we were going to be on a stage. I want to dance on a STAGE, Mama." She was excited when her final performance at the ward Christmas party was in fact, on a stage (no pictures of that performance as I helped backstage).

I love it that she loves it. I have a feeling I'll be watching many more performances in years to come. Not sure if they will all be ballet--I think this girl just likes to perform!

Blessing Day

William was blessed on December 6.



It was a bittersweet day.




I was missing my dad, and wishing he could have been here with us. But I was so grateful my mom was able to come.


I was also missing the rest of my family...


and David's family...


and all our friends.



It is times like these that are hard for me--moving to a new place and not having family and friends close by to share special days.



People have been wonderful to us here, but we are still getting established,
and starting to make friends.



Thankfully,




we have some old friends nearby.







Thanks so much to Karin and Adam for completely rearranging their day so they could be here for William's blessing.



It meant so much to me.

So thankful for old friends.



Love this little man.

So behind on blogging.

So much going on.

Had a super fun Thanksgiving with Mary and Gerald and Macy and Grandma.

Ate lots of good food.

Forgot to put the salt in my beautiful rolls. Good thing Mary brought some too.

************

William turned three months.

He finally got blessed.

Sad because my Dad wasn't there to help bless him.

Miss him.

Happy because our friends Karin and Adam totally rearranged their busy Sunday schedule to be there for the baby blessing.

Grandma came too. We love having her close by.

*************

Blew out lots of candles on a carrot cake. Another year older.

*************

Got called to be the primary president in our ward.

Totally overwhelmed.

Already have way too much going on.

Praying for blessings.