Christmas 2019

This year I didn't do 12 Days of Christmas like I have for the last ten years.  Since we didn't have children at home during the lead-up to Christmas, there wasn't a good reason to continue.  Perhaps in the future, I will figure out a new way to do it for our family.  Because it was just Matt and I, Christmas festivities were kept at a minimum.  Our good friend, Scott Eckern, who used to be Matt's bishopric counselor and who is currently the producer for many Church performances and General Conference, gave us two tickets to attend the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas program.  Neither one of us had ever been to this before.  It was so fun to see it and feel the Spirit of Christmas through the music, dance, and narration.  Before the performance, we had dinner at City Creek with hoards of people and were able to walk through Temple Square and enjoy the lights.  

I love beautiful winter mornings.  Look how serene the temple looks in this gorgeous light!  And here I am wearing the same shade of blue as the morning sky.

I made several kinds of cookies to freeze in preparation for Christmas.  I made "Dark Secrets" (dark chocolate hidden inside) from the Food Nanny cookbooks, as well as her gingerbread cookies and peanut butter Kisses cookies.

Matt put up the Christmas tree and while he was at work, I decorated it and the rest of the house.  It was a little bit lonely doing it all by myself, but I enjoyed putting out each decoration and ornament and thought about each memory that goes along with it.  

I almost didn't buy my annual Christmas book because no children would be around to enjoy it. But then I thought that I would enjoy it, so I am worth carrying on the tradition.  I decided that I needed another book for tiny hands, so I picked this board book that tells the Nativity story.  Piper will love it when she's around for Christmas in years to come and hopefully other little ones that come into the family in the future.  Our traditional ornament this year that I bought for each of us is a glittery nest with three golden eggs in it (found at Pottery Barn).  It's to help our children to remember that they are always welcome to visit our nest at any time.  And one of my other purchases this year are some vintage-inspired mugs also from Pottery Barn.  I couldn't resist the tiny Santa shot mugs.  How cute are those for tiny hands who just want a small sip of hot chocolate?!

Megan and Josh came on Christmas Eve afternoon, and we played a fun game of Ticket to Ride.  Megan won!  Snacks were eaten, and a movie was watched on our new tv in the basement while I enjoyed cooking our Christmas Eve dinner.  I made homemade Kamut breadsticks, broccoli cheese soup, and raspberry pretzel jello dessert.  I also prepped our HoneyBaked ham and hot wassail to drink.  Nobody but me drank it this year, so maybe I won't make as much next year.  

We did our annual sock hunt (we have gone back and forth between pajamas and socks but I think it will stay with socks because of sizing).  We loved sharing this tradition with Megan as she has never done this before.  I actually bought the girls' socks last January during an after Christmas sale.  Josh was dating Megan at the time, and I had a feeling they would get married and that I should buy her a pair too.  It worked out just as I thought!  The boys' socks were from Stance and the girls' socks were from Woven Pear.  I sent socks to London for Chelsea, Spencer, and Piper.  I was so happy they took a picture of their feet for me!

Matt and I decided to finally get our home videos digitized.  We paid LegacyBox to do it.  Super easy but not super cheap.  I did get a good discount, but it still cost $$.  Totally worth every penny!  When we got the thumb drive back, Matt put the video clips on his computer and edited out the garbage that was on some of the old VHS tapes.  He also figured out how to transfer other videos from our old computer to his laptop so he could add those on to the home movie.  We knew that Emma would appreciate it the most, and we were right.  She loved it.  A lot of it she had never seen before.  My siblings and I got the same LegacyBox deal for our parents for Christmas.  I wrote a poem for them and put in inside the empty box.  They loved this gift!  I need to now help my parents gather up all that they want digitized and send it off.  

Christmas morning was really nice.  I noticed, before even getting out of bed, that Chelsea and Spencer had sent us video and pics of their Christmas Eve and morning.  So the first thing we got to do was watch Piper open up some presents and then play with some of her new toys.  A perfect way to start my Christmas.  We got her a baby doll, a little toy car, a fuzzy llama sweater and some tights with a bear on the bum.  We met up with the kids downstairs, and we watched the new nativity movie that the Church made this year.  It brought the Spirit of Christ into our home as we were about to start opening the gifts we had for each other.  Chelsea FaceTimed with us and we got to wish them a merry Christmas.  After gifts, we made pancakes and sausage for breakfast.  We intended to take our annual family Christmas morning picture before Matt had to go to work at 10:00 am, but we forgot.  So when I remembered, the four of us remaining took a quick selfie in front of the tree.  Josh and Megan had to leave for Logan soon after so they could attend her family's Christmas meal at 1:00.  When Matt got home from work at 3:00, we went to our annual Christmas Day movie.  We saw Cats (Broadway musical turned movie).  We didn't like it.  Too weird.  Christmas 2019 was different because we were mostly empty nesters and a few traditions modified or went away.  But it was also the same because of keeping some traditions alive, having family home for even just a short time, and of course because of our Savior and His love we feel each and every year at this time.  

A Book A Month: 2018 and 2019

Two years ago, I set a goal to read one book a month for the year.  That might not seem like much to some voracious readers out there.  But I had to start somewhere!  I was successful in 2018, so I did it again in 2019.  Nailed it again.  Here are my lists:

2018 Books

January- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
February- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
March- Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demik
April- Alive in the Killing Fields by Nawuth Keat; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
May- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
June- Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
July- Grandmothering: The Secrets to Making a Difference While Having the Time of Your Life by Linda Eyre
August- Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
September- The Chronicles of Narnia books 1-5 by C.S. Lewis
October- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
November- America's First Daughter by Steph Dray
December- Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

2019 Books

January- My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
February- The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
March- The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
April- A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
May- Your Endowment by Mark A. Shields
June- The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
July- Focused: Keeping Your Life On Track by Noelle Pikus Pace
August- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
September- Empty Nest Parenting by Linda and Richard Eyre
October- The Continuous Atonement for Teens by Brad Wilcox
November- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
December- Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World by Scott Harrison

I really have enjoyed reading all of these books.  I like adding variety and not sticking to just one genre.  I'm going to keep it going every year.
2020 here I come!

My 48th Birthday

Matt took me to Hale Center Theater to see the play, A Christmas Carol, for my birthday.  The new theater is so beautiful.  Neither one of us had seen this or been to HCT before, so it was fun to experience it together.  We look forward to our next play there.

Curly Hair

I've been wearing my hair curly a lot these past few months.  I like the movement it gives me and the way it makes my highlights look.  Plus it is so easy to style in the morning.  

My Running/Walking/Early Morning Chatting Buddy

This is my friend Rebecca Steinmetz.  She was in my ward before it split this past May.  I didn't get to know her before October 2018 because I was still attending the YSA ward.  But I met up with her while cleaning the apartment of a lady who was moving out of the home ward.  We got to talking about running and how I used to be so diligent at it.  She got me out the very next morning, and from then, we started running together three times a week for the rest of the fall and all of winter.  She hurt her knee mid-Spring, and I decided to stop running and start power walking.  She started back with me when her knee was feeling better.  We walked and sweated all summer long.  I love having a girlfriend again to talk with about whatever.  We've had great conversations for over a year now, and I look forward to more wonderful walks in 2020! 

Thanksgiving 2019

I have so much to be thankful for each and every day.  How can my life get any better?  I have all I need.

It snowed off and on around Thanksgiving.  I don't think I've ever had a "White Thanksgiving" until this year.  I'm super grateful that Megan and Josh were able to make it down from Logan late morning without too many problems other than having to dig their car out of the deep snow.  Emma was home from BYU which was awesome.  But we missed our Chelsea and her little family far away in London.  They celebrated with a yummy roasted chicken the following day.

This year, we bought a 20 pound smoked turkey from R&R BBQ.  Matt picked it up at the designated time of noon.  It was so nice to not have to prep and cook a turkey at home and have it take up precious oven space.  Matt used our new electric knife which made it super easy to carve.  The turkey was beautiful and delicious!

I made a sausage stuffing this year using a combination of cubed French bread and cornbread that I had made using Kamut flour.  It was yummy, but we didn't eat much of it which makes me think that I might not go to the trouble of making it in the years to come.
I also made crescent rolls in the shape of little turkeys.  So fun and easy.

Emma helped with the perfect mashed potatoes, and Josh and Megan put together a traditional green bean casserole.  I made a small dish of sweet potatoes with a brown sugar coconut topping.  Yum.  Emma set a festive table for us all to enjoy our dinner at.

After Thanksgiving dinner, we drove up to my parent's house and ate pie with Kristen's, Erik's, and Heather's families.  I had never made pie crust using Kamut flour, so it turned out to be a learning experience getting it just right.  I wasted a bunch of precious flour and sticks of shortening and butter in the process. But in the end, I got it to work.  I made an apple and a pumpkin pie.

I love this picture of Emma and Bailey massaging Grandma's tired and sore feet after a long day of cooking and serving!  Sweet girls!

Basement Continued

The basement is coming right along.  At the start, we discussed having this project finished by Thanksgiving which is in nine days.  I don't think it'll all get done by then.  I should ask the guy tomorrow when he thinks it will be complete.  Today they were working on the built-in bookcase/entertainment center and closet shelving.  Yesterday they put up doors and trim work.  We are tired of the white dust coming upstairs and having our garage and extra bedrooms full of our things that belong in the basement.  It will be so wonderful to have it all finished and we can start putting things away and decorating the basement.  Matt and I are excited to sit on our new comfy couch to watch a good movie on the big tv we will have installed.  Here are some pictures that were taken over the last couple of weeks.  I haven't been able to take very many since there aren't any lights hooked up yet, and usually I can only go down in the evenings.

We're Finally Finishing Our Basement

This month we have started our big project of finishing our basement.  After getting three quotes from contractors, we chose Morley Construction.  Then began the huge task of going through all of the stuff we had stashed in the basement and deciding if it was worth keeping or if it needed to be donated.  We got rid of a bunch of things and probably made four or five trips to Deseret Industries.  We gave our ping pong table to Hebe's family.  That was a beast getting it up the stairs, out of the house, into his truck, and then into his basement.  Thankfully he has a walk-out basement which was super helpful.  We gave the giant LoveSac to Kristen's boys and sold our treadmill to her for a good low price.  That was a beast as well getting that out of the basement.  My brother Erik and his son Alex helped Matt.  Erik took it up to Kristen's house in his truck.  That was so kind of him.  It was sad for us to take down Matt's golf practicing area.  It was his happy place, his retreat from stress. He will rebuild in our garage next summer after the Calls take away their storage items.  For now, Matt will practice at the Golf Superstore.

After deciding what was being donated, we had to re-locate all that we're keeping to a different place in the house.  Most things were added to two bedrooms upstairs and some things went to the garage.  I went up and down so many stairs carrying boxes and things for a couple of days as I worked on clearing stuff out of the basement.  It was a good workout.  Matt and I were able to move food storage and the shelving units into the cold storage area which isn't having any work done to it.  I'm so glad we didn't have to carry those heavy items upstairs.  Here are the before pics right after we cleaned it all out and had it ready for the builder.

Parts of our home look like we are hoarders because our basement stuff has been added to Chelsea's household things that she is storing here while they live in London.  It'll be great when the basement is finished, and we can get organized and everything will have a place.

The basement should be done just before Thanksgiving.  We are super excited for that.  Framing, electrical, and plumbing have been completed.  Insulation should be installed tomorrow.  Then I think drywall comes after that.  We've picked out tile and a vanity for the bathroom, and we decided that we will buy the same carpet that we put in the rest of the house.  We need to go pick out light fixtures this coming week.  Matt and I bought a sectional couch and a cool leather swivel chair at West Elm last week.  It's gonna look so awesome and be super comfy.