This and That in December 2024, Part 2!

Jacob and Lily turn 12!

Birthday dinner:

Birthday party with friends:

David continued working on the Advent puzzle

 the special way he organized it when putting it away last year...

...with the Baby Jesus being the last section!

Other families did the puzzle as well.

Kathryn had her first Christmas in the Domincan Republic!

Her parents love talking to her on Mondays!

Family Sunday dinner at John's and Sara's.

They are each playing with fidget toys!

Some in our family were able to donate at the Giving Machines!

Heidi and Elizabeth at the Kansas City temple:

Melanchuks: Sunday before Christmas in front of the Christmas tree!

(A tradition we had when kids were growing up)

Sarah completed this Lego Provo City Center temple she got for her birthday!

And she made these gift tags!

Camille made this very professional looking bow!

And she crocheted these snow globes for her friends and teachers!

There was lots of cookie decorating!

On December 23rd Amanda and her boys came for lunch and a visit.

They each performed some duets!

They also had fun with Magna Tiles and Planks

and we had fun playing the game, Quixx.

Michael designed and built this!

On December 31st the Perrys came for lunch and games.

We had fun playing Gimme That, No Thanks and Tenzi.

(Having too much fun to remember to take very many pictures!)

Meanwhile in Chico the Melanchuk boys

 were playing with an Expansion pack of the game, Azul.

And Amelia was decorationg cookies!

The McClellans attended the Alamo Bowl and watched BYU defeat Colorado 36-14!

It was a busy and fun month!

This and That in December 2024, Part 1!

Sarah celebrated her 18th birthday!

And we remembered Caleb too!

Joshua celebrated his 17th birthday!

Peter had some Senior pictures taken:

Peter submitted a Student Short Film, "On Tap," for a film festival.

His film was selected for the festival and will be shown January 18-19th!

(Link to the video upon request)

Caleb cuteness!

There were lots of Band concerts!

Jacob and Lily playing the trumpet in their concert.

Aubrey played the clarinet in her Jazz Band concert.

Nathaniel played the drums in his school concert.

And Joshua and David did a great job in their concert.

Fun picture of the two boys that MaryAnn posted.

And when you are the parent of a band student,

 you might get asked to bring a few cookies!

Decorations are a fun part of the Christmas season!

John got some lights to decorate his backyard trees

 and enjoys seeing them from different windows in the house.  

They are controlled by remote.

Sarah bought this wooden birdhouse

 and some puffy paint to make this "gingerbread house!"

I guess it is all the rage because Courtney who works at Michael's said they have been sold out of birdhouses and puffy paint for a while now but keeps getting calls for them.

Everyone knows I love snowman families.

  Imagine my delight when I saw this as we were

 going on a Light Ride through our area.

And then a couple of minutes later

 I saw another set arranged this way.

So fun!

Nathaniel is finishing his last year of Primary

 and was a shepherd in a Nativity

at the ward party.

We love going and getting these delicious mandarin oranges from local growers.

Christmas is often jigsaw puzzle time.

John and his family just finished this one in time to start some Christmas ones.

A fun reminder of their trip to Alaska!

David is working on the Nativity Advent jigsaw puzzle 

but he is doing it in a different order

 so that the Baby Jesus is the last thing in the puzzle. 

 Took a lot of smarts to figure it all out!

Christmas is also a great time for music!

Amanda took Amelia and Daniel to a Messiah performance

 at the Abbey of Clairvaux in Vina which is a little north of Chico.

And Christmas is a time for sharing treats with others.

Grandpa already delivered our treats to neighbors and ministering families:

It looks like Jacob is helping his family deliver treats!

Elizabeth arrived home from her mission!

They had some great signs at the airport:

Sarah did this one (and it's Georgia Peach, not Georgia Pea!🤣)

Camille made this one with the Yellow Brick Road

 taking Elizabeth from Georgia to home in Kansas!

And Heidi made this one as Elizabeth is a huge BYU sports fan!

Our first glimpse of Elizabeth on FaceTime:

She gave an awesome talk in Sacrament meeting!

(Link to the video upon request)

And finally, I added a new Nativity ornament to my Nativity Tree.

It's the only tree we put up this year and we love it!