25 Days of Christ

Jonathan's work, BioFire, is having a Christmas gala in a few days, and I FINALLY found the fabric I've been looking for for a couple weeks.  A gorgeous red taffeta with black cross threads.  I am SO excited to make my skirt, and I found the PERFECT top to go with it!  Not only am I making my skirt for the evening, but also a matching bowtie for Jonathan!  It's going to be such a fun evening.

Snowbell came onto the scene this year a day early.  She brought to the girls a kit to make ornaments for a special 25 days of Christ advent.  There are ornaments that go with each day that represent something about the life of Christ.  Each day has a quote from a prophet or apostle, and a video or picture to go along with the symbol or idea.  It starts on December 1.

She brought these a day early because some assembly is required!

Most of the ornaments are wood, which needed to be painted. 

The girls worked hard this afternoon getting the ornaments ready to begin using them tomorrow. 

 

They are honestly thrilled whenever the paint comes out! 

Today we also wrestled the tree out of its box in the garage, only to find that it is one, tilting, and two, half the lights are not working.  I simply didn't have the energy to do anything about it today, so it stayed up, tilted, and undecorated beyond that!

Return!

The girls are back!  They arrived back from Costa Rica safe and sound, and I am so happy to have them home.  I missed them, but it sounds like they had a great time with many adventures.

This one with Leiden is blurry, which is too bad because it's a cute picture!!

We are so happy to be together again! 

Thanksgiving Part 2!

Today we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner planned with Jonathan's family.  We were super excited to eat smoked turkey on his sister's Traeger.  Jon was in charge of making sure it had enough wood chips.

I put my calligraphy skills to use again to make place cards similar to what Jon's mom used to make when they were growing up.

We cracked walnuts and filled them with wax to make little tiny pilgrim boats with the names on the sails.

They actually turned out really beautiful, and it was a nice homage for him and his siblings. 

We were thrilled to have another Thanksgiving dinner to consume! 

We were in charge of quite a few of the dishes...we took care of the stuffing, the green bean casserole, the rolls, and the sweet potatoes. 

It was super delicious and it was fun to spend some holiday time with his family.

Now on to Christmas time!

Painting

We had the idea to paint today, so we braved the black Friday crowds and headed to Michaels to pick up supplies.  We needed all of it...brushes, canvases, and paints!

I have never undertaken any kind of art project like this, so I was super out of my element even just figuring out what I wanted to paint!  I finally found this beautiful pine bough impressed into a glass plate that looked similar to this.  So I decided I would try that. 

Jon went super colorful with his, and changed his mind several times, just painting over what was already there.  Our final products were very fun!!  They were hung on Jon's apartment wall for the season. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving!  This morning was pie making early at Jonathan's house.  We made what looks like a DELICIOUS lemon meringue, and a pumpkin I took a pic of later.

I also made my favorite cranberry salsa on cream cheese to take to Jonathan's brother's place for games.  I seriously love this stuff.  I wish cranberries were sold in stores more often than just at the holidays.

His brother has a tarantula for a pet, and it was lively today so they got it out of his cage and we all held it.  Strange little thing.

They have tiny pincers on the ends of their legs that grip your skin as they walk.  It's uncomfortable but it doesn't hurt.

The spider really liked me, it kept crawling up my arm and it tickled.

I really was just super concerned that it would crawl up into my hair!

But he was super cute, if grossly large!

Later this evening we headed up to Grandmere's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  She had laid out her table with my calligraphed name tags.  They looked really good with her other décor.

I wanted pictures of the whole family at the table, so I spent a considerable amount of time figuring out placement of my tripod, then discovering that neither of my lenses would get the whole table.  Luckily Uncle Mark has a wider angle lens and it worked great.

Thanks to my remote shutter, we were able to get a semi decent set of pics, although neither actually has everyone shown AND looking at the camera!  Where's Uncle Mark?  And we can only see the top of Uncle John's head!

Now not posed, but I'm not in it!  I guess you win some and lose some.

The evening was lovely, and we finished out the celebration with delicious pie!  Pumpkin isn't my favorite, but the lemon was SOOO good.

Later in the evening I was able to talk to the girls on Facebook from Costa Rica, which was nice.  I guess all of them were very tired, and poor sweet Mimi burst into tears as soon as she saw me on the phone screen.  I felt awful I couldn't give her a hug, and I hope they will have an enjoyable time.

Thankful Tree

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and the girls left for Costa Rica with their dad, so our Thankful tree is at an end for another year.

I really enjoy this tradition.  We don't remember every night, and some nights are rushed and frustrating, but I think it's good practice to have the girls consider things they are thankful for on a regular basis.

Leiden's leaves included birds, science, leaves, diamonds, brushes, sour patch kids, colors, shots, happy faces, Dude, Angel, Safari, food (including hot dogs and hamburgers!), Christmas trees, and mermaids.

Mimi's leaves included angels, pens, pumpkins, juice, kings, cloaks, jack-o-lanterns, family, plants, pieners (pioneers), corn, food, sunscreen, boots, milk, bats, pigs, books, and YouTube!

Mac's leaves included milk, trees, Penelope, American Girl Dolls, sunscreen, pots, the sun, fishies, medicine, hamburgers, fire, water, hairspray, and cookies.

As I said, this year was a bit chaotic, and I didn't get as many leaves on the tree as I should have.  Mine included our cozy house, cold rainy days, the Miriamest, Miss Mac, Sweet Leiden, Jonathan, and chocolate.

Thanksgiving Calligraphy

Mom asked me to calligraphy leaf place cards for her Thanksgiving table, and I got those done today.  They are beautiful, and will only add to her already beautiful table.  I appreciate my mom supporting me in all that I do.  She looks for ways to encourage me, and be helpful.

Primary Program!

This was the only picture snapped today, which I regret, but I was busy and nervous, so that's how it goes!  The program went great, with each of the three girls doing a wonderful job on their speaking parts, and no mishaps on my end as chorister!  I was so proud of them.  Jonathan, Grandmere, and Bapa all came to support the girls and the spirit was felt.

The girls' talks went as follows:

Mimi...

We are blessed to live here on Earth.  We came here to get a body, to learn, and to grow.  We know we lived with Heavenly Father before we came here, and we want to live with him again because we love Him.  The best way I can do that is to learn about Jesus, obey the commandments, and learn about the plan Heavenly Father has for me.  I can learn about the plan he has for me by praying and listening to the Holy Ghost.  I can pray to know what is true.  When I have a choice to make, I can pray to make the right one.  When we pray, Heavenly Father will answer us.  If I listen to what the Spirit tells me, I can move closer to my Heavenly Father every day.   I know Heavenly Father will help me know the things I should do if I pray, listen carefully, and obey.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Machara...

I know that if I follow the Prophet and his words, I will be safe and protected.  Every day we have to make a lot of choices.  Some are easy and some are hard.  We are blessed to have our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, who teaches us important things that Heavenly Father wants us to know.  When we listen and obey the teachings of the prophet, we can be safe and protected from sin, making bad choices, and some bad things happening to us.  The Prophet has taught us rules that Heavenly Father wants us to follow.  Sometimes it’s hard to follow them.  Sometimes I’m the only one following them.  But when I follow the Prophet and his words, I am able to keep the Holy Ghost with me all the time.  The Holy Ghost can warn me of danger, give me strength to make good choices, help me when I am sad, and help me feel warm and happy when I make good choices.  I know that if I follow the Prophet, I can be safe and protected.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

and Leiden...

From the very beginning, Heavenly Father’s plan for us included our Savior Jesus Christ coming to earth, providing a perfect example, atoning for our sins, dying for us on the cross, and rising in his glorious resurrected body.  Prophets have known about and looked forward to the time when the Savior would come since the world began, beginning with Adam, who was taught by the Lord himself that the Only Begotten Son of the Father would be born on the earth and sacrifice for each of us.  Mankind has been taught to repent and prepare for the Lord’s coming, both his birth, and his Second Coming from every single prophet of the Lord.  Adam, Enoch, Moses, Isaiah, Nephi, Jacob, Abinadi, Alma…all have taught of the joy of a baby born of Mary, come to save the world.  This perfectly simple story that gives such meaning to our lives, and which we will soon celebrate at Christmas.  Jesus Christ was born a baby, grew to do his Father’s work, and gave himself as a sacrifice that we might change and be better every day.  I am so grateful Jesus Christ came to this earth and gave that great gift to me and to each of us.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Singing Time and the Park

This morning we had our final practice before the big Primary Program tomorrow.  I had seen this really cute idea to help the kids be motivated to sing, and prepared it for last week.  Each ice cream topping is associated with one of the program songs, and how high the topping reaches on its column is determined by how well the kids sing that particular song.  Whatever is earned will be available for the kids to make sundaes with tomorrow after the program.  By the time our practice was over this morning, they had earned all the toppings!  I am nervous about the program, but hopeful it will go well.  It's my first one, and I kind of stepped in after the kids had had little leadership and were kind of behind.  I think I've brought them up to speed pretty well, though!

This afternoon was lovely, and Jonathan brought his slack line over and we took it to the park.  Mac really liked it this time, and spent the most time trying to walk on it. 

After they tired of that, we went exploring for aquarium rocks in the stream bed.  THIS was fun, and kept the girls occupied for some time.  Of course Jonathan found a bunch of BIG rocks and even more little ones to haul out! 

We went all up and down a large section of the stream, keeping a weather eye out for cool rocks. 

It was a fun day spent outside in the beautiful weather.  There was still a little snow on the ground, which of course ended up as snowballs thrown at each other!  The girls got a kick out of trying to peg Jonathan!